Question about Benching sets of five...

DB21

DB21

New member
If I'm doing 3x5 for bench for strength, Do I add more weight as I go set wise.

Say I do 165 for the first
170 for the second
175 for the third.

Is that right, like the right way to gain strength?
 
doing that will work....make sure you are warmed up prior to doing this as well...I recently went through a 7 week, 5x5, 5x5, 4x5, 3x5, 3x5, 3x5, 3x5 and went up on my overall weight and gained a little bit of size too.
 
Yea I sometimes spend 6-7 sets on flat bench. It's my weakest exercise. A month ago I was repping 205 about 4 times. I stayed on that same weight for 3 weeks until I could rep it 7 times. Once I was able to rep 205 about 7 times I knew my strength had gone up and ready to increase the weight by 10 pounds. I'm in the first week of repping 215 2 times lol. Once I'm able to rep that a solid 7 times is when I will increase the weights.
 
chocolatemilk said:
Yea I sometimes spend 6-7 sets on flat bench. It's my weakest exercise. A month ago I was repping 205 about 4 times. I stayed on that same weight for 3 weeks until I could rep it 7 times. Once I was able to rep 205 about 7 times I knew my strength had gone up and ready to increase the weight by 10 pounds. I'm in the first week of repping 215 2 times lol. Once I'm able to rep that a solid 7 times is when I will increase the weights.
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Really? At 185 and looking at your avatar, I would think you would be repping a lot more than that......I am not being a smart ass at all......you just look a lot stronger than that. Hope I didn't piss u off........meant no offense
 
triton185 said:
Really? At 185 and looking at your avatar, I would think you would be repping a lot more than that......I am not being a smart ass at all......you just look a lot stronger than that. Hope I didn't piss u off........meant no offense
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I'm spitting the truth. That's why I said my bench is the weakest. Trust me other departments I rip through mad weights but I'm stuck on benching for some reason...but I'm not disappointed at all with the looks of my chest, just the strength. No offense taken man. I feel like a peice of s*** at the gym I look good n all but people see me benching weak s*** I hate it lol.
 
DB21 said:
If I'm doing 3x5 for bench for strength, Do I add more weight as I go set wise.

Say I do 165 for the first
170 for the second
175 for the third.

Is that right, like the right way to gain strength?
Click to expand...

I know its probably implied but just ensure your not just reaching 5 and racking. I would use a weight i can only get like 4 on my own and need a little spot on the 5th.

Overloading muscles creates more strength.
 
LOL......I would much rather look like I could bench 300 and not than bench 300 and not look it! Keep it up bro......I know a lot guys who bench a lot but look like they dont even work out.....
 
triton185 said:
LOL......I would much rather look like I could bench 300 and not than bench 300 and not look it! Keep it up bro......I know a lot guys who bench a lot but look like they dont even work out.....
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powerlifters??

lol i keed i keed

but i know what you mean there's a lot of "sleepers" at my gym. I worked out with one and got my ass kicked!!:chairfall:
 
What I think is funny is that when you lean out and actually lose muscle mass along the way, people start saying "man, you gettin' big"............and I'm like I'm 10 lbs lighter!
 
triton185 said:
What I think is funny is that when you lean out and actually lose muscle mass along the way, people start saying "man, you gettin' big"............and I'm like I'm 10 lbs lighter!
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Or when they're like "Man you're losin some weight!" and youre in the middle of a bulk.................:lol:
 
The way I do it and I think most people is to use a weight that you can do 3x5 with and fail on the 3rd set, so the 1st is just to get the blood flowing, 2nd your reaching failure and the 3rd you hit failure. 3x5 is nice for strength but adding in a dropset afterwards is even better, gives you more strength and makes it more size orientated.
 
im a little guy at 165 lbs and i maxed on bench about 2 weeks ago and got 185. i surprised myself cuz bench has never been my strong point. i've been working out with 145 trying to do 3x8. i get to 7 on my first set and the last 2 sets i can do 5 and then i got nothin. im sure not bein able to do 3 full sets of 8 isnt good but my friends wont let me go any lighter than 145 its frustrating not bein able to do full sets.
 
bench is a killer for me too. Don't know how that ends up working out lol, I was doing weighted dips today with 55lbs but I swear if I was go to and try and bench 225 I would be lucky if I got it for 1 :(
 
Powerlifters usually go like 95, 135, 185, 225, 265 or so all for 5 reps. Alternatively, I've seen just 5 sets of 5 reps of 185 for every set. I did this workout (link below) and I thought it was pretty good; and the best thing is that it definitively gives you the weight, not an ambiguous template. I've been lifting for a while, and I still cant just guess the most efficient weight progression off the top of my head, I like to use precise 12% increases.


Invalid Link Removed
 
Thank you all for reading and giving advice, I really appreciate it.

I hope to shoot up my bench.

Right now I weigh 150 and I max 210.
I'm doing 165, 170, and 175 in 3x5.

I hope to be maxing around 225 by the end of summer.
 
Last summer I did 5x5 religiously... I would start with a warm up of 185 times... and then jump to my weight lets say...


275 1x5
280 1x5
285 1x5
290 1x5 (this is where i stopped the previous week and actually only got 3-4 reps
295 1x5 (only get 2-4 reps... usually wouldn't get all of them.)

Thats how I did it last summer and my bench went up 50 lbs over about 2 1/2 months...
(about 5lbs a week)
 
chocolatemilk said:
I'm spitting the truth. That's why I said my bench is the weakest. Trust me other departments I rip through mad weights but I'm stuck on benching for some reason...but I'm not disappointed at all with the looks of my chest, just the strength. No offense taken man. I feel like a peice of s*** at the gym I look good n all but people see me benching weak s*** I hate it lol.
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Man I've helped strong guys like this that stunk it up in bench completely turn it around when we worked on their form. Shoulder blades pinched, arched lower back, feet flat on the ground, and push feet through the ground. Push bar towards your belly button, in reality this will really be pushing bar straight up, rather than back towards spotter & working delts more than chest. Grip & wrist straight, or perpendicular with bar, no limp wrist crap with bar on it. I work tri's after chest(usually) to really blast and strengthen secondary muscles for this lift.
 
i'll be jumping on the 5x5 wagon soon. but it's summer so most of my buddies are gone including my workout padna. you guys think i'd be ok getting a random dude to spot me on the last 2 or so lifts when i'm going heavy heavy? or should i wait for my lifting buddy to come back?
 
I jumped on doing 5x5 and about a month ago was finally able to do 225 5 reps for 5 sets after doing a warmup of 135 for 2 sets of 10 reps. Now, I'm trying to figure out how to move past this. Do I try for 225 for 5 sets of 7 reps? I tried 235 5x5 and it whupped me. Or, do I need to change up my bench routine completely?

Usually I do chest and biceps on the same day... and I work standing dumbell curls in while I'm resting between bench sets which is probably not the way to go if I'm trying to move up on bench.

I'm 6'3, about 200lbs. Oh, and I don't have a workout partner... I go it solo so it's hard to really push myself to muscle failure on bench.
 
Andy G said:
Man I've helped strong guys like this that stunk it up in bench completely turn it around when we worked on their form. Shoulder blades pinched, arched lower back, feet flat on the ground, and push feet through the ground. Push bar towards your belly button, in reality this will really be pushing bar straight up, rather than back towards spotter & working delts more than chest. Grip & wrist straight, or perpendicular with bar, no limp wrist crap with bar on it. I work tri's after chest(usually) to really blast and strengthen secondary muscles for this lift.
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I'm def gonna try this out. I don't do half of that stuff.

buuzer0 said:
I jumped on doing 5x5 and about a month ago was finally able to do 225 5 reps for 5 sets after doing a warmup of 135 for 2 sets of 10 reps. Now, I'm trying to figure out how to move past this. Do I try for 225 for 5 sets of 7 reps? I tried 235 5x5 and it whupped me. Or, do I need to change up my bench routine completely?

Usually I do chest and biceps on the same day... and I work standing dumbell curls in while I'm resting between bench sets which is probably not the way to go if I'm trying to move up on bench.

I'm 6'3, about 200lbs. Oh, and I don't have a workout partner... I go it solo so it's hard to really push myself to muscle failure on bench.
Click to expand...

I'd go for the 7 reps, I've had more success in gauging my strength gains by the extra reps I muster out of workouts and less success by switching weights back and forth and not knowing where mybstrength is trully increasing or decreasing. When my reps are up, THEN I increase the weights.
 
That depends on your body. If you are comfortable with that system then stick with it until you hit a wall. I do 5 sets of 3 reps myself and that has worked for me.
 
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