Starting heavy and going light on bench

[mbm87]

I usually do the old start out light and increase weight each set as most people do. What do ya'll think about doing a warm up set of course and then going right to the heaviest amount of weight I would use and then decrease every set? I tried this on monday and I'm not sure how I feel about this only doing it once, but I have seen other guys doing it. Let me know what ya'll think.

 

[brownstown89]

^ Thats what works for me on squats, i work up to a heavy rep.. then drop back down and do 2 working sets it works amazing. I had good look with this on bench too.. google reverse pyramid workout, should give u some results.

 

[mjswss57]

I met my new training partner at my gym when he was half way thru 8 weeks of this type of training. I joined him for a little ofer the last 4 weeks and had incredible results. This type of workout really confused my body and mixed it up from the normal day to day at the gym. If done properly it can be pretty sucessful for all body parts.

 

[jherman08]

Wow this would be something i'd love to try

 

[atjnutrition2]

I've done this a good bit with all my lifts. I like it because it allows me to get more reps at the higher weight than I would if I worked my way heavier. I use this as more of "go to failure" type w/o.

 

[brownstown89]

i had a routine in high schoolcalled buckeye blast you did 8,6,4,3,2,1 rep scheme when i stalled on that i started doing the heaviest rep first and work up and it worked great... do yourself a favor try it out!

 

[SemiBulimic]

the 5/3/1 training schedule takes advantage if this, where you hit your heaviest weight while reasonably fresh, after a few warm up sets. makes sense to lift your heaviest weight with the most energy and also reduces the chance of an injury

 

[MongoSS]

Reverse pryamid. Not a bad approach you will no doubt lift higher peak weights.

 

[mbm87]

Thanks for the input...I was thinking along the same lines as everything you all have said. It made sense to me, I was just seeing if it made any sense to anybody else. If it works out well with my benching I will most likely use it on all of my other exercises.

 

[youngandfree]

I had a competitive powerlifter tell me to do basically this. Do a couple light warmups. Then do a test set as he called it. Not quite a max out attempt but the heaviest 1 rep you could do on a bad day. Then strip 20lbs and do a full set then drop 10 and do another set. Each week try to add 5lbs tp the test set and watch strength soar.

 

[sub001]

I need to try this. I feel like crap my first few sets. Say for bench, I warm up with 135, then do 185 and it feels like 500. I do 185 again and it feels easy, then move to 205, 225, and up. Maybe I just need a better warm up. What kind of reps is everyone doing with this? I've been doing 5x5 on bench for a little to get strength up, increasing the weight every time.

 

[omni]

In the early 90's people advised against this approach. The reason is that muscle has memory and remembers the light lift. I'm on the fence. When i'm working on increasing my bench i use a workout that i made up years ago and works for me. I stretch, then warm up with 225x5, 245x4, 275x3, 295x2, 315x1, after doing 315, i drop to 225 and, without resting, rep as many as i can. At one time my goal was to bench 405. When i did 225 20 times immediately after 315x1, i knew i could hit it.
My next goal was 515. I did the same thing, but when I hit 315, instead of doing 1 rep,I did 5 and started over 315x5, 335x4, etc., until 405x1, then back to 315 as many as i could. When i hit 315x20 I was able to hit 515x2. I took two weeks off from the gym because i was sore as hell afterwards.

 

[brownstown89]

In the early 90's people advised against this approach. The reason is that muscle has memory and remembers the light lift. I'm on the fence. When i'm working on increasing my bench i use a workout that i made up years ago and works for me. I stretch, then warm up with 225x5, 245x4, 275x3, 295x2, 315x1, after doing 315, i drop to 225 and, without resting, rep as many as i can. At one time my goal was to bench 405. When i did 225 20 times immediately after 315x1, i knew i could hit it.
My next goal was 515. I did the same thing, but when I hit 315, instead of doing 1 rep,I did 5 and started over 315x5, 335x4, etc., until 405x1, then back to 315 as many as i could. When i hit 315x20 I was able to hit 515x2. I took two weeks off from the gym because i was sore as hell afterwards.

wow........ ur #s are amazing thats all.