Bench Pressing

Jman,

First: You are too young to be doing 1-rep max's. If you wanna know your 1-rep max use a simple calculation that you can find on the web.

B: Do not try to do fewer than 6 reps. Mass workouts will tear down your tendons along with muscles and your's are still growing.

and 3: Stick with a simple 3 sets (plus a warm-up set of 35% of your CALCULATED 1-rep max) of 8-12 reps.

If you wanna change it up sometimes, try adding chains (5 lbs each side should be good for now) to the bar as this won't over-burden your tendons, since they maximize strength as your arms are straightened out in front of you.

I would stick with large muscle groups only because of your age. Doing smaller groups won't come until you are 18 or 19. Here are the groups you could/should target: chest, shoulders (be careful and don't go to heavy on your shoulders) upper back(lats and traps), glutes, quads, hams, calves, and core (abs and lower back will be key, just go light on them at first). If you plan to play football don't neglect your neck... Exercise your neck with simple side-to-side and front-to-back movements using your hands as resistance.

You will also want to work your endurance and burst speed with running/sprinting. Look-up fartlek (snicker) on the web and open your eyes to a new world.

Good-luck,
Rip
 
Rip, I usually agree with you but on this case, an occasional 1RM test won't hurt. Football season will be starting again soon and the coaches will have them maxing out as it is.

Tendon strengthening occurs in both heavy loads, high rep training, and with speed movements. Chains (and bands) are not necessary at this point but speed training isn't a bad idea. If we look at our oly lifters who lift heavy loads at young ages, their tendon and ligament strength is fantastic but they've worked on quite a bit of conditioning to get to this point.

The other thing is coaches (specially football) put a big emphasis on power clean, squat, and bench strength...along with 40 yard time and vert leap.

Just food for thought.
 
benching

Thanks for the tips you all :) , this really does help. I do a 1rep-max like once every month. I never used to do warmup sets until Rip told me about that. And the 8-12 sets really do sound alot better then 1-5 reps. So this should definetely help alot.
Another thing I am concerned with is my diet. My body fat percentage right now is 19% which is average. I'm hoping I could get it to athletic. I also learend that some of this is going to take a while, I never realized that. So how does this sound.

For 4 weeks, every 3 days I'll do 4 sets
set 1- warmup 35 pounds (20 reps)
set 2- 70 pounds (8-12) reps
set 3- 80 pounds (1-5 ) reps
set 4- 70 pounds (8-12 reps).

And then after 2 monthes, I will calculate my max and adjust the sets. How does this routine sound?
-Thank you
 
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Then stick with 240 until you hit 5X5. I'd sometimes bump it up if I could get all my sets but the last rep of the last set.
 
my best gains were when i was doing 4 sets of 8-10 reps. increasing weight on every set and using set #1 as a warm-up. If you have a person that goes with you, use them as a spotter. this way when you get to rep #8 on the last set and you can't go any farther they can help you on the positive and you can still reap the benefits from the negative protion of the rep
 
Bench Press

I added about 50 lbs. to my bench using Power to the People methods by Pavel. This is well worth picking up if you don't have it already. I used linear wave cycles. Also, Westside barbell techniques mentioned above are reputable. Good luck.

Mike
 
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My new 1 rep max bench

Wow you all were a really good help. I started this thread back in February with a 1 rep max of 100. Today I maxed and I managed to max 115 pounds. I have learned alot about benching and weight lifting in general. This is the first time I have ever seen a gain weight training (I started in January). Thank You all for helping :)
 
i started around like 3x8 of 75. I had no problem adding 5lb a week. Pretty soon it was 95, then 115, then 135 now im up to 165 and starting to switch stuff up more, but i still do 3x8 most the time and am making good progress with it. so that would be my reccomendation from my experience and good luck on gaining more.
 
If you've been lifting since january you should be seeing a lot of improvement in the endurance of you're muscles. It sounds like you're emphasizing the pecs, so I would suggest supplementing your bench press with some other excercises. you could throw in a few sets of incline/decline press to get some new muscle fiber recruitment. Flies are also good for pectoral isolation. I would also strongly suggest dumbbell presses, because they will stimlate growth in the stabalizer muscles that control the form of your bench press.

Enjoy this stage of training bro, the first year is a blast. you will rarely platue, and should therefor enjoy pretty consistent progress. Just remember, muscles grow because they are ADAPTING to the strain you put on them. If you throw different kinds of strain at your muscles they will have to adapt faster! good luck bro
 
Thank You, I actually haven't tried adding incline/decline bench and dumbell flies. I think I will start doing that my next chest workout.
 
ok your gonna wanna hit these muscle's and hard. chest,tricep,delt, and lats yes your lats.

i got my bench from 95 lbs 1RM to 155RM in like 3 weeks doing this routein.

flat bench press 4x10 (for you i guess a weight like 60lbs would be good)
incline dumbbel press 4x10 (about 25 lbs)
bent over rows 4x10 (about 60lbs)
pull ups 4x5
skull crushers 4x10 (say about 30 lbs)
military press 4x10 (go with 50 lbs)
lateral raises 4x10 (and go with like 15 lb dumbbels)

hope this helps. it sure helped me out alot and from what you told us i just guessed the weight for you but if its too much or to little fix make it your own. eat right and it should all fall into place. happy lifting my friedd.
 
robert13 said:
ok your gonna wanna hit these muscle's and hard. chest,tricep,delt, and lats yes your lats.

i got my bench from 95 lbs 1RM to 155RM in like 3 weeks doing this routein.

flat bench press 4x10 (for you i guess a weight like 60lbs would be good)
incline dumbbel press 4x10 (about 25 lbs)
bent over rows 4x10 (about 60lbs)
pull ups 4x5
skull crushers 4x10 (say about 30 lbs)
military press 4x10 (go with 50 lbs)
lateral raises 4x10 (and go with like 15 lb dumbbels)

hope this helps. it sure helped me out alot and from what you told us i just guessed the weight for you but if its too much or to little fix make it your own. eat right and it should all fall into place. happy lifting my friedd.
Click to expand...

HOLY CRAP 95- 155 !!!

O and I looked at the 5X5 routine a couple weeks ago, I wasn't very enthusiastic with it.
 
I did the flat bench, incline, decline, dumbell flies, skull crushers, some extensions, lateral raises (little), military press, and bent over row all on Sunday. 2 days later my triceps are still killing me and my chest is pretty weak (like you can feel the strain when you stretch).

EDIT: When you all bench do you count the weight of the bar also, I weighed my barbell and its 20 pounds so I add it to the plates.
 
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