I am on a mission to increase my bench. I am going to be working with the 3x3, 5x2 and 5,4,3,2,1 schemes to help achieve an increase in my 3RM, 2RM and 1RM. I typically bench on Mondays and Thursdays and feel recovered on each of those days for this exercise. I do workout M-F every week and allow for complete recovery on Sat and Sun. So the question is could I do a 5,4,3,2,1 scheme on Mondays and 5x2 or 3x3 on Thursdays? Is two times a week ok or is that overkill for a natural lifter?
Appreciate the advice from all the experienced lifters. Thanks for the help!
I would bench heavy on Mondays doing your 3x3, 5by5s 5x2, 531 whatever scheme you want to follow however I would follow either 5by5s or 531. Before you heavy bench should should be doing light shoulder work to warm up for bench. On Thursdays you do heavy shoulder press and light bench/assisted work for bench. Could be some bands/chain work and other aux exercise for the bench. For example tricep and chest movements. Know that working your shoulders is important to improving your bench. Shoulder strength correlates to your bench. Also need to be hitting legs at least once a week if your trying to increase bench. Good luck!
Not enough info. What sort of weights are you doing for those sets(% and absolute)? My bench was best benching very low volume and heavy every other day.
Right now I’m getting back up there with 2 regular bench and 2 close grip bench sessions a week.
Thanks! Yeah I take at least 10 minutes to warm up before any workout. I work on my incline bench often also. I do military presses once a week and I have seen a good correlation with improving my not only strength but form in benching. So I 100% agree with you on that.
I should note that I’m not a young buck but not a oldie (well that depends on who you ask lol) either. I turn 40 in a couple months. Took up weight lifting last year. One lift that I loved was dead lifting but I can’t even attempt that anymore. With a herniated disc (since I was 30) at my S1 its not worth the risk after I have already screwed up twice over the last year leaving me unable to walk for weeks at time.
I find it interesting to see if I can gain strength at 40. So far I have at 39 I just busted a 5 month plateau on bench last week. Congrats to me
On the 3x3 I would do 90-92% of my 1rm. On the 5x2 I’d do the same 90%-92% depending if I was feeling awesome or just ok. On the 5,4,3,2,1 I would do 80% for 5, 82% for 4, 85% for 3, 90% for 2 and 95% for a single.
I did the 5,4,3,2,1 today with a 5x2 @ 90% on incline bench, 5x5 @ 80% on close grip bench following with tricep rope pull downs and incline dumbbell flies.
I was thinking of doing some heavy dumbbell work on Thursdays but I cant without a good spotter. So until I find myself a good workout partner I will have to do everything in a full cage.
Gain size. Shoulders, chest, triceps. Gain weight. Work hard on proper technique every rep. Better to do more singles at 80% and up to work that technique and throw lots of force into each rep. Find a variation to do your rep work like incline and dumbbell work. Stay away from those heavy doubles and triples. All they do is tear your shoulders up faster and you get very little out of it. Being that I’m 42 I have a little experience with that.
Build muscle and get bigger. Most guys (not all) who bench big are big.
I just busted a 5 month plateau on bench last week. Congrats to me 