Hey everyone, my name is Omar, and new to this site. I am 20 years old and looking to get into powerlifting once i get a 1400 raw total. Right now im looking to increase my bench since it is stuck @ a pathetic 370lb. Im looking to increase this to 405lb by July-august. A friend of mine recommended Kevin Levrone’s 4x4.If anyone is not familiar with it, its a low rep routine kevin levrone used to increase his bench from something like 375 to 405 for 3 reps in 4 weeks. I know kevin is a genetic freak, and has muscle memory on his side but im looking to do this in 12 weeks, i will not increase the weight until i get all 4sets of 4 with a specific weight.
Here is the setup I will be using
Day1 Push
4X4 flat bench start @ 315lb
close grip bench press 3x8
behind the neck press 2x6
Rear delt raises 3x12
Day2 Legs, back(low volume)
bent over row 4x8
Pullup 4x8
Squats 4x8
RDL 3x8
Day3 Rest
Day4 Rest
Day 5 Repeat
I am looking for any input on how to improve this split.So far Ive done day 1 with 315lb and managed all 4 sets of 4. Looking forward to day2
I am originally from Turkey, just a university student here in auckland. When I say 370 is pathetic, I mean its pathetic that Ive been stuck there for 7 months. Im looking for any feedback I can get, even negative.
It certainly isn’t a program that has any popularity with PL’ers; it is “just” one individual’s program and in a case where any genuinely good training was going to give great results.
There’s nothing wrong with the basic plan however, at least not as Levrone did it. 16 reps total at the work weight (he also when, for example, doing 315x4x4 also did 225x4 and 275x4 to ramp up, after warming up) is perfectly reasonable.
Where your plan has a problem and his does not is that he was staying at this moderately-high percent 1RM for four weeks, which is fine.
You’re planning to stay at the same percent 1RM, approximately anyway, for 12 weeks straight.
However, at 20 years old that may not be much of an issue for you. It still might not be the best for gains to have very little variation in percent 1RM over that period of time, but so far as minimizing physical problems goes, at your age you’re more likely to be resilient enough for it.
Thanks for the input Bill, Ill try it out and see where it takes me. As far as shoulder health goes, Im very cautious with it. I warm up very carefully with external rotations, light rear delt and lateral raises, and do 3 warmup sets before the first workset.I also rest 3-4 minutes between each set. I include behind the neck press which for me has always given me stability in my shoulders during bench press. I reduced the volume of back, legs, and arms to help me recover as fast as possible. The reason i decided to do this routine is because in the gym where i train at there are a couple of people who tried it out and it gave them great results, again, everyone is different and i have no idea where this will take me. Do you have any critique on the programming? Any exercises to add/remove?
Basically the one thing I mentioned was all that was standing out to me. It seems a good bench specialization program that has enough for the rest of the body but not so much as to interfere with your main goal but rather to support it.
