Bench Press Article from Fall Newsletter

[MTG35]

So I read the article and decided to give it a try. Although, it goes against what I have been doing for the last few years. Basically I have been doing 2 -3 hard work sets. When I can do 6 reps on the first set I up the weight. Because the first set is to failure, or as close as I can come since I workout mostly alone and don't use a spotter, I can't do as many in the following sets. I was going by the principle that sets not performed to near failure are wasted sets and therefore just wasted time in the gym.

I don't really know then why I am trying this but it surely is not to prove it wrong. I guess lately I have been really ready for a change. So today I did...

185 X 5
195 X 5
205 X 5
215 X 5
225 X 3 couldn't get the last 2 without risk (that no spotter thing)

Then I did the rest of my workout as normal.

So I'll try to update this and let you know how I am doing with this and if I think it is working. I may try the same routine for overhead presses.

So tell me why do you think this will work over what I was doing? What do you think about the thought of some of the sets being "wasted sets"?

BTW my goal first and foremost is strength.

Looking forward to reading about your experiment.

[.V.]

Personally, I don't think there are wasted sets. Each lighter set is getting your body ready for the next, heavier one. Besides, your light "wasted ones" are bigger than my heavy sets. The ramped sets does sound somewhat like what some serious strength coaches have reccomended in the past. If it worked then...I'm sure it will work now.

Keep us updated on your progress.

[MTG35]

Originally Posted by a_welch503

Personally, I don't think there are wasted sets. Each lighter set is getting your body ready for the next, heavier one.

I usually view that as warm up sets.

So we have a starting point I'll post what I had been doing and then after 8 weeks I'll do my old workout and compare where I am verse where I was.

My last "regular" workout was...

225 X 5
225 X 4
225 X 3

So for me personally the goal will be to beat those numbers significantly after the 8 weeks. According to my old schedule after 8 weeks I should have added about 5 pounds onto that. So it would be...

230 X 5
230 X 4
230 X 3

I'll be curious to see how much over that I can get.

[MTG35]

Here is what the 8 weeks look like...

Week 1
185 x 5 Total Volume 4675
195 x 5
205 x 5
215 x 5
225 x 3

Week 2
190 x 5 Total Volume 4570
200 x 5
210 x 5
220 x 4
230 x 3

Week 3
195 x 5 Total Volume 4465
205 x 5
215 x 4
225 x 4
235 x 3

Week 4
200 x 5 Total Volume 4360
210 x 4
220 x 4
230 x 4
240 x 3

Week 5
205 x 4 Total Volume 4010
215 x 4
225 x 4
235 x 4
245 x 2

Week 6
210 x 4 Total Volume 3860
220 x 4
230 x 4
240 x 3
250 x 2

Week 7
215 x 4 Total Volume 3710
225 x 4
235 x 3
245 x 3
255 x 2

Week 8
220 x 4 Total Volume 3560
230 x 3
240 x 3
250 x 3
260 x 2




Should be pretty effective if I can keep up with the weight increases.

Why don't you join us in the online journal forum, an excellent place to chronicle your experiment, and for others to see how the rest of your workout looks.

Originally Posted by MTG35

So tell me why do you think this will work over what I was doing? What do you think about the thought of some of the sets being "wasted sets"?

The author is a member here......why don't you send a PM with a link to this thread so you can create some dialog with him on this program?

[MTG35]

Week 2 went as planned...

Week 2
190 x 5 Total Volume 4570
200 x 5
210 x 5
220 x 4
230 x 3

I was surprised that it actually seemed a little easier than week 1. I thought I was in big trouble since I stayed up too late and had too many beers last night watching the Pats game. Its not unusual for me to stay up too late but I'm usually not a big drinker, although for me 4 beers over 4 hours is big drinking and that might not be much by other standards. I'm usually in the mode of 1-2 in a week if any.

So week 2 is in the books and on to week 3.

[MTG35]

Week 3 was harder than week 2. I had to "cheat" a little with the last 2 reps of the final set.

Week 3
195 x 5 Total Volume 4465
205 x 5
215 x 4
225 x 4
235 x 3


I don't know if the 90 mile bike ride I did on Sunday has anything to do with it being harder. I did give myself an extra day to recover knowing that I might be worn down from the biking.

So we'll see how week 4 goes and then decide if it was the biking or if it was just me.

[MTG35]

Week 4...FAILURE!!

I couldn't get the last 2 reps of the last set so it only ended up being 240 X 1 instead of 240 X 3.

I feel like I may have started too close to my 1RM. I may need to back the weight down and regroup. I'm going to give it another week though before I make a decision.

[MTG35]

Another week of failure. This time I got 2 at 235 and should have done 4 and 1 at 245 were I should have done 2.

I believe my mistake was that I started with a little too high a weight. I think I may stick with this for a few more weeks even though I'm not reaching the planned number of reps and see just how close I can come. Although going into the workout knowing your not going to do what you set out to do does kinda effect my additude. And a negative additude can really kill the whole workout. So I've got to work my way around that part of this.

Question: where do you think you would be with your bench press stats if you continued training as you were before giving this a shot?

[MTG35]

Well, thats a good question. Normally I would warm up and then jump right into the work sets. I'd say if I had to guess that I might be hitting 230 for about 4 or 5 for the 1st set then 3 or 4 for the second and maybe 2 for the last.

Although with this experiment I also made it a point to make improvements in my form and range of motion. This way of training I believe helped a great deal with that. So lets say that today, even if I am still only at 230 for 4 or 5 reps I am confident that they are 4 or 5 better reps that if I had never done this. Hope that makes sense.