[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
Exactly my point. If you have literally NEVER done them, how good did you think you were going to be at them? Try training just the dumbbells for 2 years, then going back to the regular bench. Even though your stabilizer muscles will be in top notch form, the lift will feel like shit.
If you are going to do sets with 85lb DB’s I would do it like so:
20’s x 10 for a few sets (this is basically your “warm up” - NOT taxing at all, just getting the muscles ready, warm, full of blood)
30’s x 6
40’s x 4
50’s x 1-2 (fast and explosive from here on out… Now we are getting ready to lift the heavy ones)
60’s x 1-2
70’s x 1-2
OR
You could do an “over warm up” where you do something like this (Credit to Paul Carter of Lift-Run-Bang):
60’s x 5
70’s x 4
80’s x 3
90’s x 2
100’s x 1
Then drop back down the 85’s and rep out. Many people find that by “warming up” to a heavier single than they will be using to workout with (NOT a 1RM, this should be about 85-93% of your 1RM) the work set (in this case the 85’s) feel lighter than had they warmed up from below that weight.
Try them both out and see which one you like.
The goal of the sets leading up to the 85’s is NOT to “work out” the muscles. It is to “get ready” to lift the 85’s. You are basically priming your body to lift the heavier weight. Some workout systems call these “Weight Acclimation Sets” instead of warm up sets because you are just getting used to heavier loads. ANY reps you do that decrease your ability to do the 85’s are inefficient and taking away from the workout.
Here is what I would consider a BAD warm up:
20’s x 10
40’s x 10-12
60’s x 10 (tough set but doable with no problem. Rep 10 was “easy” but a challenge)
70’s x 10 (hard set, 2 more and you would have failed)
You are wasting tons of energy on the sets that dont matter here, and potentially losing reps with the 85’s with this kind of set up.[/quote]
I almost always agree with what you write on here Lonnie, but for this I’m actually going to disagree. In this case, for DB press, especially that ‘over warm up’ example I think would be pretty awful. DB press specifically, the first rep is much harder than the next few, due to having to get the dumbbells into position. If his 6-8RM is the 85’s, I doubt he could even get the 100’s into position and do them once, and he’d be wasting a ton of energy doing so (energy expended while not having the benefit of working his chest).
Your example of a “bad” warmup, or something similar to that, I think would actually be quite beneficial for the OP, except on the set of 70’s I’d probably recommend stopping around 6. While it’s true that he’d be spending a lot of energy on those sets, I think it would be a good use of his energy, and would be beneficial to both his chest development, and to him getting better at the movement, as it is “new” to him and he is still learning it. Yes, he may get one or two reps less on the 85’s set because of it, but I think the benefit from the added work in the earlier sets would more than offset this.
Now, if it was something like working up to a top set of Bench press or squats, IF his main goals were the increase of those lifts, and not increasing muscle mass, then I would definitely agree with your first example of a warmup.