How much can you bench now? Secret is just keeping on....3 weeks ago I could only lift 270....now I'm up to 300 lbs. Eat right, do a heck of a lot more than just the bench press, VERY IMPORTANT....and you'll make it.
Azure Good luck on this mate.... ill be keeping a eye on this thread...350 is some heavy lift...im at 1x180 and if my target is 225 in 9 months.
Wow...nice lift, that's quick from 270-300...I just got 270 myself a couple of days ago. 350 is a nice goal, and I think I could probably get to 300 pretty quickly if I focused on it (although 3 weeks would definitely be pushing it, thats pretty impressive!!), but I'm more focused on my squat and deadlift right now, which aren't nearly where I'd like them to be..
I switched things around for this week, doing max reps with about 140 lbs. I did get to 100, eventually, but I had to go back to the bench press after every other workout. I also started doing a lot more core exercises lately, and I firmly think it helped my fast gain.
I'll take that challenge, but only because I pushed 325 for a single today and am starting a PH cycle this week, heheh. My biggest ever was 350 years ago and I'd like to see it again. Oh, BW is 210.
Completed my week of doing high rep - low weight type lifts. Found out that I should do the bench press first after warmup, and not last before stretching and going home. But man was it hard to not put on 250 lbs and lift it. I literally had to force myself to stick at 150 lbs and be done with it. Geez.
Leg day today. For some reason I wanted to do a 6 day, full body workout each day, and get away with gaining muscle. Of course that never worked, as I left absolutely no recovery time. So after the initial urge to gain muscle in a week, I've finally gone to the 6 day, split routine. And it does allow me to do more specific exercises with my legs, and incorporate lots of plymetric type exercises into the leg day. I have limited equipment, so things like squats are done with dumbbells.
been away for the longest time i know.... still working on this though....up to lifting 280 lbs every second day now, so I assume I can max out at higher than 300 lbs which was my previous best.
By "every second day", does that mean you are benching heavy every other day? If so, that is too much and you'll hit a brick wall fast.....
Tuesday and Thursday. Plus I play hockey(when I'm home)....Monday, Friday and Saturday. I've been hitting the weights hard for 4 weeks now.....not maxing out by any means, but very heavy each session. Haven't noticed any problem yet. I take a week off every 4 weeks too.
Yeah, I see a couple of problems. First, 3 times per week is way too much...especially once you start getting into heavier weights (which, it sounds like you are). Even two heavy training sessions per week is too much. If you don't get injured, you'll end up plateauing in a hurry due to overtraining....which is not what you want. Trust me, when it comes to this stuff...less is more. I've learned that from experience. I wouldn't do more than one heavy session per week. If you want to bench twice per week, make the second day a dynamic speed day with much lighter weights. Second major problem is that you are focusing more on push than pull. Make sure that you are doing at least as much horizontal pulling (e.g. rows) as you are pushing (e.g. all forms of benching) -- Otherwise, you'll set up a muscular imbalance which can lead to shoulder injury....Also, if your push strength is much greater than your pull strength, your body will inhibit further push strength gains to prevent injury (and hence, your bench will stall). I'd also throw in some external rotator cuff exercises..... You can definitely hit 350, but you'll be more successful with a few changes to your program....
What he said. A lot. And I would like to see you have one leg day a week which is heavy, and I would like to see a rest day after the heavy upper day and a rest day after the heavy leg day. The other three days in the week you can do lighter, more dynamic stuff. Rest is as important as lifting.