How often should you bench press?

hiimnotcool

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I'm 6'0 and weigh 160 and recently began working out. I've actually only been lifting for a little over a month now. Me and a buddy started at repping only 135 and my max was only about 155. Over the past month I've increased my max to 205 and now can rep 170. My question was how often should I be doing this? Me and him have been doing it like 3 days a week and since it has gave such good results it seems like that is pretty good. My other question would be is that initial huge increase pretty common and then it begins to become much harder to improve? Because at this rate I'm expecting to be benching 250 within another month and I don't really want to discourage myself. Well, thanks for any feedback that anyone can offer!
 

dietcola

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it's normal to make quick advancements at the start.

should only be doing each muscle group once or twice a week.
 

CCS

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beginners usually start at 3x per week, and advanced people do 1x per week. beginners respond to almost anything, even 3 sets of 10. That is easy to recover from, so they can do it 3x per week to get gaines fast, taking advantage of their beginner status. Eventually, 3 sets of 10 no longer does it for them, and they need lower reps or more sets to get more results. That is when they have to do fewer workouts per week, like 2x.

If you only do 3 sets of 10 reps and don't do half reps or assisted reps, and do that 3x per week, you probably will not overtrain. You just may hit a plateu. But if you do 6 reps or half reps or assisted reps, you will need more than a day to recover, probably.

Some guys do lots of sets and do them 3x per week, but they are do high rep stuff, like 20 reps or so.
 

hellohello

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As long as your not sure (no microtears) then it's fine to keep going.
 

Rintintin

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I'm pretty inconsistent, i just go until i think if i did anotehr rep it might cause some damage. Just take it slow and steady thats how you'll get the best results and up your weight or # of reps as you think you can handle it.
 

hiimnotcool

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Would it be better for one day to do 3 sets of 10 reps of say 155 then on the next workout only do 3 reps but put the weight up to 180-190? I heard lower right makes the muscles cut and then high weight increases size. Mostly I'm concerned about being cut but some size would also be nice.
 

Harie

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Any lifting will increase your muscle size. It's all about total work done. You can do the same amt of work by lifting 200lbs 3 times as you can doing 50lbs 12 times.

High reps increase your endurance, while low reps increase your strength. You need both.
 

CCS

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There is a lot of debate on what the best method is, and people are different too, as are lifting stages. As long as you do 5-20 reps, and work up some sweat, and tire your muscles out in 30-75 minutes, and take a rest day for each muscle group, and recover properly, you should build muscle eventually. There is a long list of stuff for proper recovery, though.
 

CCS

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Today I did a medium bench workout. I started with 115 pounds and did 25 reps, then waited 60 seconds and did 7 reps, then 60 seconds and did 3 reps. That was going until I had to roll it off my belly. So at 115 pounds, I'm mostly using fast twitch, which has little endurance. I Then dropped to 95 pounds and probably took more than a minute changing everything, and did two more max sets. I was able to do 18 and 12 with the 95 pounds, so that must be where my slow twitch kicked in.
 

CCS

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I've been talking to more people, and it seems like working the same muscle group 3x a week is just too often, unless a guy has mostly slow twitch muscles. Plenty are also saying not to go to failure, except on the last set.

I still don't want to do a workout only once a week, though. I read that is best for people with mostly fast twitch muscles. Anyway, I'm now going to try working each muscle group every 4 days:
day 1: chest/tri's, some shoulder, abs
day 2: leg workout, some cardio
day 3: bicepts/back, forearms, abs
day 4: 25 minutes of cardio

my light 4 day cycle will be 8 compound sets of 13 reps, and my heavier 4 day cycle will be 5 sets of 8 reps.

I'm acutally supposed to do 3 days and 5 days for light and heavy, but I want 4 and 4 because I want to have a day rest between opposing muscles, especially dips and lat pull downs.

Yeah, I did not make any progress on my last rutine, so I'll update you guys on this one.
 

hair today gone tomorrow

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collegechemistrystudent said:
Today I did a medium bench workout. I started with 115 pounds and did 25 reps, then waited 60 seconds and did 7 reps, then 60 seconds and did 3 reps. That was going until I had to roll it off my belly. So at 115 pounds, I'm mostly using fast twitch, which has little endurance. I Then dropped to 95 pounds and probably took more than a minute changing everything, and did two more max sets. I was able to do 18 and 12 with the 95 pounds, so that must be where my slow twitch kicked in.

115...that is pathetic man...not gonna lie...my brother who is 15 can bench 115 for 10 reps..lol...I thought i was weak doing 205...HAHA.
 

CCS

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are you saying you max 205? And how much do you weigh?
 

roki

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hair today gone tomorrow said:
collegechemistrystudent said:
Today I did a medium bench workout. I started with 115 pounds and did 25 reps, then waited 60 seconds and did 7 reps, then 60 seconds and did 3 reps. That was going until I had to roll it off my belly. So at 115 pounds, I'm mostly using fast twitch, which has little endurance. I Then dropped to 95 pounds and probably took more than a minute changing everything, and did two more max sets. I was able to do 18 and 12 with the 95 pounds, so that must be where my slow twitch kicked in.

115...that is pathetic man...not gonna lie...my brother who is 15 can bench 115 for 10 reps..lol...I thought i was weak doing 205...HAHA.
that's bullshit, some people are not as strong, my brother is 16 but hes a big guy, he hasent trained a day in his life and he's alot stronger then me
ive been trainning for 4 months and i can still only bench 120 pounds
it depends on the way your body is built.
even though he's alot stronger then me my body looks alot better and my muscles are much more defined and that is what matter's, who cares how much i can lift im just doing it to look good
 

s.a.f

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hair today gone tomorrow said:
115...that is pathetic man...not gonna lie...my brother who is 15 can bench 115 for 10 reps..lol...I thought i was weak doing 205...HAHA.

Big deal we could all come on here and bullshit that we can bench 400 pounds. At least CCS is honest and he never claimed he was strong or anything anyway. Why do you even care what he can lift? :-x
 

person

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Depends how old you are. Are you a teenager?
 

hair today gone tomorrow

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collegechemistrystudent said:
are you saying you max 205? And how much do you weigh?

Im 23 and no...that isnt my max...i dont really max out...theres no point to it besides taxing your CNS...

I usually do 205 for my last set for 4 or so reps.

im 5ft8-5ft9 160lbs.
 

hair today gone tomorrow

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even though he's alot stronger then me my body looks alot better and my muscles are much more defined and that is what matter's, who cares how much i can lift im just doing it to look good

you cant have muscles and bench 120 lbs.....honestly dude...i know girls that bench that...you need to start eating.[/quote]
 

CCS

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like I said, I did 25 reps of 115. that was a good day though. Usually it is closer to 15, if I go to failure. But when I was 17, I did 10 reps of 95, but after a cross country run when my blood was going, I could do 10 reps of 115. So I was not much weaker at 17 than your bro is at 16. Yeah, I know at 27 I should be a lot stronger.

I'm 5'9", 153 pounds, 32 inch waist, which I can suck in to 31 inches.
 

CCS

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my max is or was somewhere around 175. I doubt I could do that right now. my joints have been hurting. I used to lift with my palms flat. But I guess I have to keep my writs straight up, with all the weight on the thumb webbing, to guarantee I don't hurt them. I'm just going to start out slow and easy:
8x13x95 and four days later 5x8x115, alternating. Well, that is not slow for a start, that is actually my prefered program. but the weight is low,and I'll stop if I feel any joint pain.
 

roki

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hair today gone tomorrow said:
even though he's alot stronger then me my body looks alot better and my muscles are much more defined and that is what matter's, who cares how much i can lift im just doing it to look good

you cant have muscles and bench 120 lbs.....honestly dude...i know girls that bench that...you need to start eating.
[/quote]
your an idiot ,and you have no idea what your talking about
as i said it depends on the body build
 
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