DF member Bostrom has written an instructive article about how to improve your bench press performance. Todd Bostrom works at a major university in the strength and conditioning department and has been a DF member since December 2002. Grab a pencil and take notes.

Week 1 1. 1360lbs 2. 1480lbs 3. 1600lbs 4. 1720lbs 5. 1840lbs 8000lbs total volume Ideally we would like to reduce the volume of our workouts from the first workout all the way to our last. You’d probably like to know how to do this, right? Ok, here you go. Let’s say that our example of weight and reps is out first workout. We figured out that we had a total volume of 8000lbs. We would like our second workout to have a lower volume AND a higher intensity. Let’s not forget about intensity

Week 2 1. 8x180 Volume:1440lbs Intensity:65% 2. 8x195 Volume:1560lbs Intensity:70% 3. 8x210 Volume:1680lbs Intensity:76% 4. 7x225 Volume:1575lbs Intensity:78% Approx. 5. 7x240 Volume:1680lbs Intensity:84% Approx. Total volume is 7935lbs and the maximum intensity is 84% Just so we are understanding all this, we'll go though week 3 and week 4 just so you'll have everything in order.

Week 3 1. 8x190 Volume:1520lbs Intensity:69% 2. 7x205 Volume:1435lbs Intensity:72% Approx. 3. 7x220 Volume:1540lbs Intensity:77% Approx. 4. 7x235 Volume:1645lbs Intensity:82% Approx. 5. 7x250 Volume:1750lbs Intensity:87% Approx. Total volume is 7890lbs and the maximum intensity is 87%.

Week 4 1. 7x200 Volume:1400lbs Intensity:70% Approx. 2. 7x215 Volume:1505lbs Intensity:75% Approx. 3. 7x230 Volume:1610lbs Intensity:80% Approx. 4. 7x245 Volume:1715lbs Intensity:85% Approx. 5. 6x260 Volume:1560lbs Intensity:88% Approx. Total volume is 7790lbs and the maximum intensity is 88%. Here is the summary of the first 4 weeks of the example training cycle.

Week Total Volume Intensity Week 1 - 8000lbs 83% Week 2 - 7935lbs 84% Week 3 - 7890lbs 87% Week 4 - 7790lbs 88% The average decrease in volume per week is 70lbs. The average increase in intensity per week: 1.67% . Now you see how easy that is. It can be done. By dropping reps and adding weight every week you can exchange volume for intensity. More importantly, you will get stronger!!!! I don't care if you start your training cycle with 5 sets of 5 reps or 8 sets of 8 reps. If you exchange volume for intensity and keep your cycle within a 9 to16 week period, you will make awesome gains.

About the Author Todd Bostrom works at a major university in the strength and conditioning department. You can contact Todd at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Please Note

The %'s, sets, reps, and weight are examples of how you can adjust volume and intensity. They are not necessarily the ideal numbers to use.