315-405 Bench Training Thread

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

This thread is for myself, Phatshady912, and Dreaded to chronicle our training to reach a 405 bench, all for the prize of two tubs of Surge (one from each other contestant.)

Proof in the form of a video will be required. This thread is for us to record what works for us, what sucked, how difficult it is to get a 405, try ideas from other t-nationites, inspire some newbies, provide feedback to the community, and ultimately lead to the creation of a 405-495 training thread.

As I am also pursuing some additional strength/size goals, my current Bench-related split looks like this.

Tuesday: Bodybuilding chest day
Thursday: Bodybuilding/speed Triceps
Sunday: Heavy Bench and shoulder health work

Admittedly, it’s not the ideal plan for upping your bench, but it’s been working so far, and until it fails to produce results for me, I see no reason to deviate from it.

So, Tuesday
would be;

DB bench: 4x(10,8,6,6)x90 partial reps and static hold on the first and last set.
Cable crossovers: 3x12x70
Incline Bench: 6x4x225

Thrusday;

Speed Bench: 2x10x225
Close-grip BP: 2x8225
Superset OH extensions and V-bar pressdowns: 3x10 x 100, 180
Skull Crushers: 4x8x90

Sunday;

Heavy BP: 5X5 or 1RM
Face Pulls, pushups, and shrugs. Rotator cuff work.

For heavy days I have had good results before by alternating between 5x5 and a 1rm attempt every couple of months.

My problems are my left shoulder and a couple inches off my chest. When I was a kid I separated my shoulder and have had problems with it ever since. I am also positioned at my weakest when I immediately come off my chest. The fact that I’m 6’ 3" with long-ass arms helps too.

That’s it about me. I hope to put up my 405 by June of 2008. Phatshady912 and Dreaded should be putting up some blurbs about themselves soon. My next post will be on Tuesday.

2

I’ll post up my workout after monday, since sometimes I wing it. I always ME bench on monday, and I throw in some DE bench before my shoulder day on Thursday. My split looks like this for the time being.

Monday: Chest
Tuesday: Back
Wednsday: Off (or w/e my friends are doing if I’m bored)
Thursday: Shoulders
Friday: Legs
Sat: Arms (or I’ll get lazy and take off)
Sunday: Off

I would love to know how the hell you can speed bench 225 for 10 reps… My DE bench is usually 60% (~185) for 9 sets of 3, I got that from reading elitefts articles, though “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”

Sometimes on chest day I just come in and bench a moderately heavy weight for however many sets it takes to reach 100 reps (most recently 245) and that will be my whole workout, though my joints always remind me for the next few days to use that method sparingly.

So I’ll post how my chest day goes monday night, right now I just want to die after my leg workout… so tired.

Ohh yea also, props for hitting 315 at 6’3" a friend of mine that I sometimes train with is 6’3" and his arms go on for miles, I would be amazed to see him bench 2 plates let alone 3. Seems like I have the advantage here being 6’ unless the 3rd guys is 5’5" lol

3

Brant,

I injured my knee when i was younger like you and your shoulder and it’s always given my problems since. I’ve gone to see my Physical Therapist and he has me on a rehab routine on select off days, serves well for strengthening the weakness and active recovery, i recommend it.

4

If there is a prize wont you need video proof of the 315 when it was done and the 405 obviously? Also long arms arnt too much difficulty(I’m also tall I have more problem with olympic lifting) most worlds strongest men are tall and can bench huge numbers though short people do have somewhat advantage.

I think the contest will come down to who has the better diet though, maybe you could post that also.

5

Dreaded here,

My goal is also 405 by my next birthday which is june 17,2008. Not sure if that’s going to be enough time but i’m going to give it my all. Comes out to be 10 pounds a month increase for 9 months.

I’m going to start a sheiko program (29) once i hit a plateu (spelling). Heard that was awsome for building strength.

Friday my bench day looked like this:

Heavy BP Day
135x8 warm up

205x8 (didnt feel all that well up to this point, felt kinda weak)

245x3 (almost quit for the day and was going to bench saturday becuase i felt weak and didnt seem to be in it today)

275x3 (forced myself to focuse and pumped myself up some and after this set i felt better )

295x2 (was going to do like 4 sets of 1 rep with this weight right here but it went up really really easy so i decided to move up some)

305x1 (Almost went for 2, felt easy)( Well since 305 went up easier than expected i figured i would try a new PR)

315x1 (Well i got it BARELY)

315x1 (figured i’d try for another and nailed it again just barely)

Went with incline DB’s this week
90x8
95x8
100x6 Failed to get my 7th

Pec Dec this week

235x8
250x8
265x6
Overall i’m very pleased hwo i did becuase i felt so weak at the begining but was able to focuse and get it done. I’m going to give more complete logs at some point soon and will prob start my own training log thread. I’ll prob just post info and what seems to be working and stuff like that.

I know i prob need to make some changes but i’m kinda new still ! Feel free to give any input

Dreaded

6

[quote]shizen wrote:
If there is a prize wont you need video proof of the 315 when it was done and the 405 obviously? Also long arms arnt too much difficulty(I’m also tall I have more problem with olympic lifting) most worlds strongest men are tall and can bench huge numbers though short people do have somewhat advantage.

I think the contest will come down to who has the better diet though, maybe you could post that also. [/quote]

Not really sure why proof of 315 is needed, you get no prize at 315, only 405. It wouldn’t be my prob if you lie and only have a 275 bench and you say you have a 315. My bigger concern is someone having a 350 bench and saying there only at 315 and them smoking us to 405:( Thats why maybe we should keep this just among us as for the tubs.

7

Best of luck guys.

Have a look at this thread.

http://www.T-Nation.com/tmagnum/readTopic.do?id=1621684

I posted a few of my workouts which you may find useful.

8

[quote]Dreaded wrote:
shizen wrote:
If there is a prize wont you need video proof of the 315 when it was done and the 405 obviously? Also long arms arnt too much difficulty(I’m also tall I have more problem with olympic lifting) most worlds strongest men are tall and can bench huge numbers though short people do have somewhat advantage.

I think the contest will come down to who has the better diet though, maybe you could post that also.

Not really sure why proof of 315 is needed, you get no prize at 315, only 405. It wouldn’t be my prob if you lie and only have a 275 bench and you say you have a 315. My bigger concern is someone having a 350 bench and saying there only at 315 and them smoking us to 405:( Thats why maybe we should keep this just among us as for the tubs. [/quote]

The 2nd reason is why someone could have said they just did 315 but really could do a lot more.

9

[quote]shizen wrote:
Dreaded wrote:
shizen wrote:
If there is a prize wont you need video proof of the 315 when it was done and the 405 obviously? Also long arms arnt too much difficulty(I’m also tall I have more problem with olympic lifting) most worlds strongest men are tall and can bench huge numbers though short people do have somewhat advantage.

I think the contest will come down to who has the better diet though, maybe you could post that also.

Not really sure why proof of 315 is needed, you get no prize at 315, only 405. It wouldn’t be my prob if you lie and only have a 275 bench and you say you have a 315. My bigger concern is someone having a 350 bench and saying there only at 315 and them smoking us to 405:( Thats why maybe we should keep this just among us as for the tubs.

The 2nd reason is why someone could have said they just did 315 but really could do a lot more. [/quote]

In that case they win some Surge, we all ooh and ahh, but they have to live with being an asshole.

This isn’t something that warrants that kind of paranoia, just some friendly competition. I plan to focus my energy on getting my numbers up, not worrying about how someone could cheat in a minor internet bet.

10

[quote]scotty144 wrote:
Best of luck guys.

Have a look at this thread.

http://www.T-Nation.com/tmagnum/readTopic.do?id=1621684

I posted a few of my workouts which you may find useful.[/quote]

Thanks, Scott. That was a good read, and I did glean some ideas from your experience.

11

Ok, workout number 1 on the road to 405.

DB bench: 4x(12,10,10,7)x90 partial reps and static hold on the first and last set.

This is better than last week, but the DB’s in my gym only go up to 90 lbs. Might have to do something about that soon.

T-bar rows: 10x135, 8x205, 6x205, 8x205, 8x205

I love doing these.

Cable crossovers: 2x(10,8)x70

I’m not a big fan of this exercise. Might drop it soon.

Neutral-grip pulldown: 3x10x155

I suck at all pull-up/chin-up type exercises. Oh well, that’s why I’m doing them.

Incline Bench: 3x135, 3x185, 4x225, 4x225, 15x135.

Most I’ve gotten before was 3x225, so this was good day.

DB rows: 4x10x90

I need to go heavier with these.

All in all, good day. Weight or reps have all gone up on the pressing and rowing exercises since last week. I was only going to log chest/tri workouts, but since this thread is bench related, I’ll be listing back stuff as well.

12

[quote]Dreaded wrote:
shizen wrote:
If there is a prize wont you need video proof of the 315 when it was done and the 405 obviously? Also long arms arnt too much difficulty(I’m also tall I have more problem with olympic lifting) most worlds strongest men are tall and can bench huge numbers though short people do have somewhat advantage.

I think the contest will come down to who has the better diet though, maybe you could post that also.

Not really sure why proof of 315 is needed, you get no prize at 315, only 405. It wouldn’t be my prob if you lie and only have a 275 bench and you say you have a 315. My bigger concern is someone having a 350 bench and saying there only at 315 and them smoking us to 405:( Thats why maybe we should keep this just among us as for the tubs. [/quote]

ya, but someone who can do 405 now can cheat and win

13

I killed it today, I should just PM you guys my address now (Gotta motivate you with a bit of shit talking :P)

Flat BB Bench:

45x10
135x8
185x5
225x3
275x2
295x1
320x1!

What was supposed to be rack lockouts:

315x2 (wtf I did 355x3x5 2 weeks ago… ohh shit I’m 1 pin lower, screw it this is around my sticking point)
285x3x6 benching from the bottom up, 5-10 seconds between reps in each set. (I’m seeing stars and my sharingan activated, I win at life for referencing Naruto in a training forum)

Incline BB bench:

185x12
195x10,8

DB flys:

40x5 didn’t feel right for my shoulder, I tried to do slow negatives and get a deep stretch, so I decided to do the pec deck.

Pec Deck/Pushup superset:
The rack (295?)x8,7,9 (Yea… makes no sense to me either)
Pushups x 6,8,7 (same)

Then I did some extreme stretching which I took from DC training, I held a 50lb db in each hand in a position somewhere between a fly and a press and let the DBs stretch my chest for 60 seconds (very painfull) Hopefully this does something besides make me want to cry.

In other news I found a way to gain 11 lbs in a week, there is no way in hell that I ate 4500 calories over maintenance every day for the past week, infact there is no way in hell I ate 4500 calories a day for the past week, someone explain this shit to me… I am now 287. Well I sort of have an explaination… I did legs the past 2 weeks for the 1st time in 4 months, but cmon 11 lbs of leg muscle in a week? I call bullshit.

14

Hey guys good luck to all of you. Im really looking forward to following this thread.

15

How much do all of yall weigh? I just recently got up 315 for the first time and it was awesome but I’m at 195 pounds and pretty new to the whole “Go heavy” mentality, and I’ve had to completely rethink my mechanics on a lot of lifts (shitty high school coaches)

16

Can I also join this contest?

Current max: 350 at 200 BW.

Personal goal: 405 RAW!
Here’s the kicker, I don’t want to gain additional weight.

Deadline: Dec 31, 2007, my first baby is due in Jan 2008.

Condition: Keep your tubs of Surge, I offer Pride and Honour.

Cheers, TKO

17

Sure, everyone is invited to join for pride and honor!

Today’s workout (minus bicep work)

Close-grip BP: 4x(10,10,8,9)x225

Something is funky when I do these; I feel it in my chest much more than triceps. Maybe that means my chest is my weakest point?

Superset OH extensions and V-bar pressdowns: 3x10 x 100, 180

I love these.

Rope-grip pushdowns: 2x50x40

I got a call that made me cut my workout short, so I just did some quick high-rep sets to finish.

18

Began by working up to a 315x1 . . . and missed it. Strike 1.

2x(3,2)x275, then went down to 255 for 3x5.

Had to take a shit. Strike 2.

Decline DB press: 2x20x50

Shoulder work.

I-Pod died. Strike 3.

Went home.

19

I’m a long armed bencher, and it took me a little over a year to go from 315 to 405. I followed a west-side based template. Just got my first 3 sets of 2 with 405 last week. That took another 3 months. Good Luck, eat a lot, and be smart. Everyone can get it.

20

[quote]Wordwreckin wrote:
How much do all of yall weigh? I just recently got up 315 for the first time and it was awesome but I’m at 195 pounds and pretty new to the whole “Go heavy” mentality, and I’ve had to completely rethink my mechanics on a lot of lifts (shitty high school coaches)[/quote]

I weigh 199 right now. My goal is to try and stay 190-198! I need to start logging my work outs here but i just seem to be so busy, just got to make it a habit !