Simple Bench program

[miked96]

Heres a simple way to program your bench. I have used it and had a few training partners make great gains with it.

Back off your best triple and pick a weight that you can use for 5x3. Use that weight on week one and add five pounds a week. If you miss a set (weights too heavy not a bad day) then you need to go up five pounds a week the next week but drop that set. Keep going adding five pounds a week until you finish with a big pr. Then you have a new triple to use for a new training cycle.

The number one goal is to keep adding those five pounds without dropping a set. If you miss and the next week you think you can get the extra set, then go for it. If you make it then chalk the miss off to a bad day and keep the set. Its simple and effective for the patient lifter.


Example: best triple is 355
week one:340 5x3
week two:345 5x3
week three:350 4x3 (missed fifth set)
week four: 355 5x3 (got it this week, bad day last week)
week five: 360 4x3 (missed fifth, too heavy)
week six: 365 4x3

Keep going to 1x3, then start over.

[BendtheBar]

Excellent.

[HIThopper]

That setup worked well for a long time for me, going to finish a couple runs of what I got going on now and return back to that.

I think I ended up doing 5x3 with 10lbs over my old 3rm.

[BendtheBar]

Bump for love.