how fast does bench press strength increase for beginners?

[CCS]

I know everyone is different, but what are the typical sustainable gains? I don't mean initial creatine gains. If someone uses creatine, then I mean the gains they continue getting a month later. I also don't mean gains from straining harder or doing assisted reps.

I mean in the second month of beginner lifting, how many pounds does someone's 10 rep max go up from the beginning of the month to the end of the month? I'm guessing some's 10 rep max weight is what they'd use do to 6, 6, 6.


I'm just asking this because I was adding 5 pounds every other day for 5 workouts, and then hit a wall, and I wonder if my recovery is wrong or if that was just an unsustainable increase.

 

[Maxpwr]

I'm just asking this because I was adding 5 pounds every other day for 5 workouts, and then hit a wall, and I wonder if my recovery is wrong or if that was just an unsustainable increase.

Yeah, that probably is a bit quick to be adding poundage... I don't know if there's a recommended amount or typical pace for it - I've always done it by feel. Too many times I have added weight onto an exercise and struggled with it for the next 4 or 5 workouts before taking it back to what it was.

A good technique for this is: say you bench 180 x 4 sets and you have done this for a fair while... it's within your means and you can do 8-10 reps every set, going to failure on the last one or two. You really want to do 190, but each time you do you struggle with it and can't do more than 4-6 reps with it... Next chest day you have, start with a set of 170 for a set and do two with 180 or 185 if you have the right weights to do it. Then for your last set either put 190 or 195 on and do your final set to failure with that. The next time after that, start with 175, then 185, then 200 for the last two, to failure (even if you only get 4 reps in). This may seem like overkill at the time, but do this for another few weeks and you should eventually be able to put 190 straight on the bar and do 8-10 reps for every set.

It's a bit of a hassle changing weights every set or two sets, but if you hit a plateau and can't seem to move past there for ages, it's a very effective way to trick your body into more poundage, which ultimately leads to more strength. This is also an advanced technique, not to be used by beginners just wanting to put on more weight, but more if you are hitting a point you can't seem to get past.

 

[CCS]

I think 10 pounds is too big of an increment. If you want the fast twitch muscles to grow, you need to up weight, not reps, but the weight must be upped gradually in small increments. I think the stronger you get, the smaller the increments must be. And if you lift too much, you get set backs. You have a speed limit that your body won't grow faster than unless you improve your recovery somehow, like with roids or something. I just wanted to know if 5 pounds every other day is a believable speed limit even for a beginner, or if I was just fooling myself. I you said that sounds a bit fast. Anyway, I'm going to cut that in half or 1/3, and use smaller increments.

When people don't have smaller increments, using more weight on just one set is a nice way to get by. Sometimes workouts have to be repeated at the same weight. I don't know if your pyramid actually tricks the body or if it is just the incrementing going on. But if you thew 195 in there, it might have been a trick factor. I prefer to say at 6 reps all the time though.

25% of your fibers are fast twitch and only respond to increased weight. 50% are intermediate twitch and respond to extra reps or extra weight. And when they are maxed out on weight for a while, I'm sure those intermediates are eager to add some reps at a slightly lower weight, just light they were eager to add weight when the lifter first started lifting.

 

[Harie]

I'm just asking this because I was adding 5 pounds every other day for 5 workouts, and then hit a wall, and I wonder if my recovery is wrong or if that was just an unsustainable increase.

Since you said every other day...You're benching 3x/week? If so, no wonder you've hit a wall.

When I ran Starting Strength, my linear progression on bench never stalled till I hit 220lbs. I consistently added 5lbs/week to bench 4 months in a row. I started out about 20lbs under what I thought my 5RM was, but still added 85lbs to by 5RM bench in 4 months.

I don't know why you do all these crazy programs that you dream up when kick *** programs that have been proven to work are already written out for you.

Add 5lbs/week to bench if you can, but no more than that. When you can't add 5lbs/week anymore, buy micro plates and add 2.5lbs/week. When you can't do that anymore, you need to reset and make another run at it. If you're benching more than 2x/week, STOP!

For your strength to really ramp up quickly, just stick to BB flat bench. You don't really need cable cross-overs, decline bench, flyes etc. The more exercises per body part you do, the more cumulative fatigue you build up, which means longer recovery periods. For the most part, any program that has you lifting a body part more than 1x/week uses low reps and only does 1 exercise per body part (except for legs). Yes, there are exceptions *cough* Flex Magazine *cough*

 

[CCS]

Add 5lbs/week to bench if you can, but no more than that. When you can't add 5lbs/week anymore, buy micro plates and add 2.5lbs/week. When you can't do that anymore, you need to reset and make another run at it. If you're benching more than 2x/week, STOP!

Thanks, that is what I needed to know. I knew about progression, and I knew it would slow down later. I just did not know what was a normal starting rate. 5 pounds per week. Got it. And I'll change to doing upper body every 3 days instead of every 2 days. If Harie the mega calorie eater and squater can't add more than 5 pounds per week in the beginning, then I should not try either.

I'm still sticking to 3 sets of flat dumbbell flyes, because my wrists don't like the barbell grip. I need a bar whose angle will will conform to my hands, not my hands conforming to the bar. But I only do that one exercise for my chest. Nothing else but those three sets of flat dumbbell flyes.

The problem with progression is I can add 5 pounds before I'm supposed to, and think I'm doing OK, even though I'm just pushing harder than I should. It takes 30 pounds before I hit a wall, and realize I'm 15-20 pounds too heavy. It would have taken me a while to find that 5 pound per week bench speed limit.

 

[CCS]

Add 5lbs/week to bench if you can, but no more than that. When you can't add 5lbs/week anymore, buy micro plates and add 2.5lbs/week. When you can't do that anymore, you need to reset and make another run at it.

For maximum growth speed, you should try 4 pounds per week, not 2.5, once you can't gain at 5 pounds anymore. I bet if you maintained 5 pounds per week for 4 months, you probably could have done 6 pounds per week the first month.

For the most part, any program that has you lifting a body part more than 1x/week uses low reps and only does 1 exercise per body part (except for legs).

So if I do dumbbell flyes, 3 sets of 6 reps, hitting failure on the 3rd set, does that count as just one exercise?

 

[Harie]

So if I do dumbbell flyes, 3 sets of 6 reps, hitting failure on the 3rd set, does that count as just one exercise?

I wouldn't do DB flyes. There's no way you can add 5lbs/week to that exercise for more than a few weeks. Stick to compound lifts like BB Bench. Nothing will ramp up your pectoral strength quicker than BB bench. Flyes are just assistance exercises to complement the main exercise.

If you don't like BB Bench, you can substitute flat DB bench, but it's nearly impossible to keep ramping for more than a month or two using DB's. Plus, you'd need super tiny micro plates and some way to attach 1.25lbs (or less) to a dumbbell.

 

[CCS]

attaching microweights to dumbbells is easy. Why can't you build muscle as fast with flies as with compound lifts?

 

[bustabucket]

attaching microweights to dumbbells is easy. Why can't you build muscle as fast with flies as with compound lifts?

Because they don't use as much muscles as a compound exercise. Hence the word compound. Not to say they're bad, just concentrate more on bench.

 

[CCS]

attaching microweights to dumbbells is easy. Why can't you build muscle as fast with flies as with compound lifts?

Because they don't use as much muscles as a compound exercise. Hence the word compound. Not to say they're bad, just concentrate more on bench.

how does using more muscles increase strength faster? If I do dumbbell flies followed by tricept flies, I work the same muscles just as hard, but in twice the time. Why is the bench press better?

 

[Ray777]

ccs when i first started benching i was only repping 120 and after 2 months of every other day benching i was hitting 240 max. I think it all depends how you work out and how much rest you get. Another big thing would be to make sure you are using proper form