How to Increase Your Bench Press Weight and Strength Quickly
Posted by Chris on Jun 28, 2009 in Workout Info | 0 comments
Everyone enjoys the idea of being able to put up heavy weights in any exercise, but many people give up on working out before ever realizing their full potential. The bench press has long been considered one of the staples of strength exercises in weight lifting. The bench press technique has already been explained in my other article, that you can find here. So this article will not be about benching technique so much as it will be about a specific approach to performing the bench press. These things sound similar, so lets start before I confuse you and myself more;
5×5 is the Name of the Game
I covered 5×5 workouts a little bit in one of the first articles, which you can find here. The 5×5 workout has been in use for a long time, it is a very popular work out plan for many power-lifters and strength builders. The 5×5 method is a well proven approach to increasing your strength in all circuits of weight lifting, but we are solely focusing on the bench press. The full 5×5 workout involves a lot more use of compound exercises, exhausting workouts, and great increases in overall strength. I would definitely recommend 5×5 to anyone looking to put on some serious muscle and strength in a short amount of time.
5×5 is named after exactly what it is; When performing your workouts you follow a 5 sets of 5 rep pattern instead of the most common 3×10 method. Now one thing you may notice right away is that the 3×10 method = 30 total reps, while 5×5 is only a total of 25 reps. 5 less reps, but much more variety in amount of weight you are using. The only difficult part of doing 5×5 is remembering to do it and adjusting your weights correctly. To find the correct weight for each of your 5 critical sets we need to find out your 5RM (5 rep max). So lets say your bench press 5RM is 225lbs. with that information we can figure out how much our other weights need to be. So we take our 5RM and we are doing 5 sets, so we can subtract 50 from our 5RM (10lbs [added per set] x 5 sets = 50lbs.) So we start our lift with 175lbs. and increase by 5lbs. on each side of the bar for each set. By the last set we will be doing our 5RM (if you can’t finish your 5RM as the last set, drop the weight down further and work towards being able to finish the full 5×5).
Progression
As you continue the 5×5 workout, be sure to increase your weight by ~5lbs./side. By continuing the 5×5 bench routine, you will be smashing through plateaus and setting new 1RM’s every single week you hit the gym. The progress is very addictive, especially when you know that you are coming to the gym and are ready to slam a new weight through the roof. One of the key things to remember is to keep your self motivated and focused on your goals. If you set goals, you will achieve them. The other great thing about this workout is that you can motivate yourself just be doing the bench press, seeing yourself reach new weights is a huge endorphin rush that will leave you feeling great. The progress you will see in your chest over a few weeks will be great, but your arms (mainly triceps) will also reap serious benefits from this workout, not to mention your frontal delts.
Why Just 5×5 Bench?
The reason I chose to only focus on 5×5 benching is simple, I have done this at 2 different phases in my weight lifting career with amazing results. So why don’t I switch to a full 5×5 workout? The main reason is that I love doing isolation exercises instead of just compound exercises. The best way to approach a 5×5 workout is to do full body workouts 3 times a week, within a one hour workout. I have been thinking about setting up a spreadsheet that will outline an excellent 5×5 workout however, I love my traditional 3×10 workouts. Also, bench is the only exercise that disappoints me in terms of how much weight I could do, so I started working just bench with 5×5 for the second time. Original when me and my buddy tried this, we would workout 4-5 days, and start every workout, no matter what we were doing that day, with 5×5 bench. Both of our bench 1RM went through the roof, but it was damn exhausting. I will write up an article in the future with information on an entire 5×5 exercise.
This information should be able to help anyone looking to increase their maximum bench press weight, and increase their strength. This is by far one of the fastest ways I have seen to add lean chest muscle, and increase chest strength in the shortest amount of time. Remember that patience is a virtue and focusing on the goals that you set is the best way to keep yourself motivated. You can reach any goal you set if you tell yourself you can reach that goal.
Feel free to leave comments on your experiences with 5×5, or even suggestions that I may not have thought of. Also feel free to take the discussion to the forum.
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