benching 1 rep sets

[web]

I am a small guy with a small ass chest.
I've had a ***** of a time getting it to grow.

my new bench routing goes like:
warmup - about 20 reps or so - very light weight
1 rep of my absolute max weight I can put up
1 rep of my absolute weight minus 5 lbs
2 reps minus another 5 lbs
5 reps minus another 10 lbs
8 reps minues another 10 lbs


I do this about every 4-5 days


results: every week for the last 3 weeks I've started with an additional 10 lbs. I always feel a bit sore the next two days after this routine.



i've tried the 4X6 5X5 etc but the above seems to really be doing the trick for me.


- thought I'd share this with the gang.

...only Stiff Deads in a thong will help that <img src="http://www.massmonsters.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="Big Grin" width="15" height="15"><!--graemlin:-->

Any program that works for you is a good one, that said, I think you might be selling yourself short by guessing on that 1Rep heavy set.
20 Rep warmup is prolly taking a lot of your endurance & strength away prematurely.

Try 2 warmups e.g: 133x8 185x8 then work up in 3rep sets till you can't go any higher. Let's say you stop at 3x245, start the drop sets at 5-10lbs more than that and you'd have a better estimate of your 1RM for that day. As opposed to guessing or going of of last weeks numbers without a progressive warmup.

I think your shoulders/elbows will thank you when your 40.

If it ain't broke you don't gotta fix it, but this might help

Bigger...Stronger...Faster...Polish...bronc

[duckbutter]

singles rock, if and when i bench i only do singles. 5x1 thats it, i do it (bench) maybe once a month. i'd get rid of your warm up and do singles for all the sets. start light to find your grove and just keep adding wt. last single i would make about ten lbs less than your absoulte max.

and no that isnt a typo i only bench maybe once a month for my ego, other than that it doesnt help my sport so it's worthless to me.

[web]

you know... I tried the higher weights at less reps and it really hurt my max weight. I couldn't get much weight up after the warmups.
I warm up now with about 70lbs is all. My shoulders tend to crack and pop when I bench so it seems to help my shoulders a bit if I use less weight and ge the grip as wide as the bar lets me.


anyhow, I'm gonna stick to what I am doing now for a while.. if progress changes, I'll change it up and of course take bronc's advise as all people should <img src="http://www.massmonsters.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif" alt="Wink" width="15" height="15"><!--graemlin:-->

[jaws14]

the best gains i ever got from bench was from a routine like this:
warm up, then i did five sets of 4 reps at as heavy as i could....usually around 350....these five (power sets) did wonders for me...no pyramids or weight changes at all....read the routine in some magazine a few years ago....woked great till my body caught on, then i had to switch it up like anything else...

i try to stay away from the 1 rep lift to avoid injury with such heavy weights...
just some food for thought...
jaws

[superX]

The reverse pyramid has been a great sucess for me - something along the order of what you're doing. I start with my 1 rep max then drop about 30 lbs and do 4-5 reps then drop 20lbs each set and do 10-12 reps each.

I thought I invented this system but I recently read in a newer Muscle&Fitness that recommended this program.

I also did chest mon&fri and my chest got so big that my arms are out of proportion for my size. So go for it bro, push that 1RM hard and get extra protein.

s u p e r X