Hey Guys. I am brand new to strength training, but can tell I am already hooked. I began lifting in May and have raised my BP 1RM from 180-200. I am 21 years old and weigh 177. What should my goal for BP by Christmas be? I am asking because my dad hurt himself by moving up too quickly (tendon problems). Thanks for the help!
Steve
Go for 475 by christmas, you should have no problem
I would aim for a max bench that is at least 75-100lbs less then your max squat and deadlift.
In all reality no one can tell you what you will be able to do… expecially as a beginner. i would set more short term goals of say 2-3 months.
To avoid injury NEVER increase weight at the cost of form, and make sure your program is balanced and your not one of those bench/bicep only guys.
[quote]JNeves wrote:
To avoid injury NEVER increase weight at the cost of form, and make sure your program is balanced and your not one of those bench/bicep only guys.
[/quote]
Definitly. Since you’re probably going to bench alot since you want to increase your bench, that means youre going to have to row just as often/much if not more.
Yup all the above is great advice. I will add the main thing you will want to do is cycle the reps after some time LOW and heavy going fo new PR’s do some time at higher reps 8-12 to bring the tendon strength up.
something like this works pretty good. start with say 80% of your 1 rm, next week use 90%, next use 70%(unload), then last week New PR. then readjust and use the new PR for the next training cycle start @ 70%, then 80, then 90, then 70, then new PR.
so for you being 200lb bencher it would look like week 1 160lbs, week 2 180lbs, week 3 140lbs, week 4 new pr well say 220. you would then do 155 70%, week 2 175, week 3 200, week 4 155, week 5 new PR. risne and repeat.
This will give a nice mix of reps and loads and being still young in training age you set to have HUGE increases.
what ever you do just be sure to keep going back to the higher reps with the new higer loads to allow the tendons time to catch up.
oh blanket guess on how much by christmas being 7 months away. man really depends on you eating etc if your eating to GAIN or waht not but ill go average for someone in your situation and say 50lb increase, meaning if you slack off and dont eat or try to stay at a lower weight due to goals etc then could be less. If you eat like a horse and train hard and smart could be more even a LOT more.
Best of luck,
Phill