Bench Press

[RexImperator]

Anything I can do besides eat more to push up my BP? Mine stinks and today I actually had to dump weights halfway into a second set as I got stuck under the bar... First time that ever happened. Luckily no one was around to see me do that. On the other hand no one was able to help me either.

 

[Hades]

I think I posted already but here's some OK advice. It's been moving my deadlift up like crazy and not nearly as much soreness as most lifting programs.

You can do one rep of 175# right? Load up 165# on the bar and just do singles, do as many singles as you can with something like 45-60 seconds of rest in between each single. First time you might get five or six. Keep at it. Do some regular pushups for assistance if you want, but not at the expense of your bench press.

Just bench four days per week (or more if you want to really attack it with volume), using this singles routine, until you can do thirty reps of singles inside of a half hour. This might take a while.

Then move up to however many sets of doubles you can do at that weight. Ten-fifteen sets, however.

Then triples. Ten sets. Your workouts should be getting progressively shorter.

Once 165# feels like a feather in your hand and you can do ten sets of triples without a problem, test out your one rep max again and restart the process. This might take you a couple months but your bench should have grown a lot.

This sort of rep scheme/routine is awesome because you can just concentrate on one specific lift - no need deloads or any of that. Milk all the benefits you can from 165# and it will treat you well.

Lots of people out there want to increase their bench by 40 pounds in 4 weeks but you ask them how much their bench has moved in the last year and they hang their heads in shame (I think Wendler came up with this one). Just be patient with this low rep routine and you can probably keep the ball rolling well into the 315# region, given a few years, some assistance work (dips, military press, much shoulder mobility) and lots of protein.

 

[Kieran]

^ Doug Hepburn's singles program worked pretty well for me. I used it with triples too. Basically you start with a weight you can do 5 singles with, and add an extra set each week until you are doing 10 x 1. Then you increase the weight and go back to 5 x 1.

With triples I think I worked from 8 x 2 up to 8 x 3, by adding a rep to one set each week. When you get to 8 x 3 you increase the weight.

It's been years since I used it though, so I might have the details wrong. The power and pump routines are okay too.

 

[Hades]

^ Doug Hepburn's singles program worked pretty well for me. I used it with triples too. Basically you start with a weight you can do 5 singles with, and add an extra set each week until you are doing 10 x 1. Then you increase the weight and go back to 5 x 1.

With triples I think I worked from 8 x 2 up to 8 x 3, by adding a rep to one set each week. When you get to 8 x 3 you increase the weight.

It's been years since I used it though, so I might have the details wrong. The power and pump routines are okay too.

Doug Hepburn popularized a singles program? Very interesting, that guy had a monstrous bench press and I think he was the first guy in history to clear 500# raw.

It's impressive that it's possible to increase strength (as you have outlined a singles program involving five to ten reps) on such little volume. Do you do five to ten singles every day for Doug Hepburn's singles program?

I like to work singles until like 15 to 30 reps, these workouts can get fairly sweaty and intense, they definitely burn tons of fat and can condition pretty well. It's a great way to lift with a training partner too - just play a game of "hand-off" and keep doing reps (1, 2, or 3) until somebody wins.

 

[Kieran]

Yeah, he had a singles program. There's lots of different programs of his around the internet (a google search will bring some up). I just took his rep scheme for singles and triples and used it on Squats, Deads, and Bench, with some high volume rowing thrown in.

It was enough volume for me at the time, but I was only training for some basic strength for my sport. I made good, but slow, gains, and also managed to keep my bodyweight down for my sport. If it's not enough volume for you, then you can just add a pump section at the end (some of his earlier programs were divided into power and pump sections, similar concept to the boring but big variation of 531).

It definitely works though, only drawback is that it's boring.

 

[RexImperator]

What do you think about the idea of doing BP every workout (which for me is 3x/week, every other day)? I started eating more, so DL and SQ are going up again but I do seem kind of stuck on the bench press. I was thinking of adding in higher volume BP at a slightly lower weight every other workout. I could do that after OHP. Then on the other days go back to regular 3 sets of 5.

 

[The Beast1]

Disclaimer, I am a workout hobbyist. I initially had a trainer develop a workout routine for me. I ate a metric shitton of food, but I eventually reached a plateau I couldn't break.

I took some time off and did some research. I came back and started doing this workout routine here:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/wotw46.htm

The first workout routine is what I've been using. Pleasantly, I haven't been hitting the same plateaus in the same amount of time. Also, i've been thrilled with the gradual gains i've been seeing. They're slow, but definitely steady. The spread seems to be doing wonders for me.

I'd take the advice of a trainer over me anyday, but i've had results with this and I am happy. My bench is slowly climbing to 115 (shamefully, I am 180 lbs).

 

[samsamsam]

Not trying to boast just curious and looking to improve. Please see below.

Question: So today I got my one time rep back to 275. But when I was looking around the gym, there were a lot bigger buffer looking guys that were struggling with 175. But I look tiny or not as strong - does anyone else experience this? Not really trying to brag - lots of guys here can kick my ass, just trying to get the most out of my effort.

I am not saying I want to go buy a whole new wardrobe, just wished I looked a bit bigger.

Thanks.

 

[XYZ]

if you're going for mass why even talk about your 1 rep max. Keep upping the weight for your 8 to 10 rep (or however many reps you think pushes you to hypertrophy)