hey guys,im a small guy, and i
and thanks, this site really does own
Although there’s reason to believe you could bench 3x week I’ve never seen a powerlifter approach it that way. So if you strength is your main concern then I would take a page out of their book. It’s been awhile since I worked out at a gym with those that competed, but I think their strategy was Monday/squats , Thursday/deads and Saturday bench. I know you said there’s not enough room for squats.
You can try 2x week but I think 3 times a week will lead to over training chest and under training everything else. Your bench is mostly chest, but shoulders and arms also come in to play. When I started my weight/strength wasn’t much different from yours.
You didn’t give us much info on what you’re doing now. That would be a good start, but here’s a few parameters I think are important.
1) Keep the umber of sets roughly 10-15, for me 12-13 works, more than that I over train.
2) Mix up the reps, the best range I think is 5-12. Singles and doubles are way too much strain on the tendons. 10 is supposed to be best for hypertrophy. I’ve heard of the 5x5 before, it seems to work. I haven’t maxed in years, I don’t care to, it doesn’t do anything for my strength.
3) If you’re after strength, don’t rush through your flat bench’s. A 3 to 5 minute rest between sets is reasonable. Save the bodybuilding for other movements.
4) Not every set has to be to failure, especially when you’re working up to your heaviest set.
5) If your total workout exceeds much more than 1 hr then you risk low test and high cortisol. At the least keep it under 1.5 hrs.
6) Make sure you eat well within a half hour of your wo. A protein shake right afterward would be best.
7) ONLY BENCH HEAVY ONCE A WEEK. you won't recover from it. So the other day(s) keep the reps high, no less than 8.
This is what I do, it’s not the only way to do it and you can probably find better, but it’s a pretty common approach. Just change the numbers to suit you:
An example:
1) Barbell bench : 135x10, 230x11, 270x7, 310x4, 310x4, 270x7
2) Incline bench:205x12, 225x10, 225x8, 205x10
3) Machine flies 170x12x3
4) Machine Pullovers 1x15x140 (some times I skip this)
There's really a lot that goes into a strong bench or strong anything. I think if you look around this board you'll get an idea of how to split up your body parts. Each one has it's plus' and minus'. You can start with 2x a week but as you get stronger you'll find that you won't recover as fast between wo's so 1x for each bodypart is what most people wind up with.
I gotta go. Hopefully, I don't have any typo's.
good luck