Thread: bench press increases

If you can add it, its not overtraining. When you are training for strength, if you overtrain the CNS you will lose strength.

It sounds like you are training UNDER your strength, which really serves no purpose other than what you listed, practicing form, or warming up... If you are not challenging the body, you wont make much in the way of gains. So if I can bench 200 pounds, but only work with 100 to avoid overtraining, I am mostly wasting my time.

Kind of like, I'd like to ride my bike, but its dangerous, so I will only ride with training wheels and never go over 5 MPH.

thaks for the response

so i should be increasing every week?? and does 10% sound like a decent figure??

with the 140 i made my 3rd set of 10 but couldn`t do 12..
so should i stick with this weight till i can get the 3rd set of 12 out???
and then move up a weight??

Different people like different rep schemes, but 10 is about the most reps for a bench that I would ever do. If I can hit 10 its too light, for my preference.

Its hard to look at it as a percentage, because if you were benching 500, 10% is 50 pounds. So I just go by a given weight. Plus or minus 50 pounds for anyone, is a big jump.

You can try the below chart, it reads from left to right. For example, if it says 145 on the far LEFT, that is 145x1. 145 for ten reps would be an estimated max of 189. So if I could do 145 for 10 and wanted to do a set of only 8 reps, it looks like I could only add 5 pounds putting me around 150x8. If you look at the MaxCalc link in my sig and plan your workouts ahead you can make some guesses/attempts ahead of time on the weights you hope to lift for your workout. I have a copy of the below chart printed out in my training log that I take with me to the gym. I dont go by percentages much because that always changes.

That chart only goes up to 591lbs mudge what good is that to me???

thanks mudge

so i`ll do a max of 8 reps... and adjust my weight according to my max rep
each week..increasing by 5-10 lbs depending how i`m feeling..
just a quick question... if i was working out my maxrep on that calc would i put in 3x10 at 140 pounds which would be 266
or just one set 10 at 140 which would be 182???

Originally Posted by the_leprechaun

thanks mudge

so i`ll do a max of 8 reps... and adjust my weight according to my max rep
each week..increasing by 5-10 lbs depending how i`m feeling..
just a quick question... if i was working out my maxrep on that calc would i put in 3x10 at 140 pounds which would be 266
or just one set 10 at 140 which would be 182???

182