T Nation

Getting Back to a 405 Bench

strength
#1

Hi,

Looking some pointers, I recently recovered from a MCL injury from Krav Maga, and since I couldn’t do much I ended up benching a lot and hurt my shoulder from maxing with bad form and left me out of the gym for almost 8 months (rotator cuff), anyway I have been back in it about 3-4 months, all my strength is gone and would like to get back to 405 for reps, ultimately I don’t want to lift super heavy but would like to be at least able to hit 405 for reps. I have been lifting for about 5 years and in my recovery learned a lot of things from power-lifting and lifters.

Currently I workout a lot 6 days a week and have gotten some strength back but have halted the past couple of months,

Sunday is Chest (sets,reps)
Flat bench - 5x3 315-330lb (Tried going heavier for singles and just can’t)
Flat bench - 5x5 275-295lb
Incline bench - 5x6 245-265lb
Flat bench with Slingshot - 5x5 315-330lb
Flat dumbbell press - 5x6-8 90-100lb (New gym doesn’t have anything heavier)
Incline dumbbell press - 5x6-8 75-95lb
Cable flys - 4x15 (don’t know what weight
(rest time for most of this workout is 3 minutes on the dot)

Monday is Arms
Weighted dips 5x5
Close grip bench with pause and explosive upward
Skull crushers 5x5 120lb and superset with Barbell curls 5x5 100-120lb
Skull crushers 5x8 90lb and Barbell curls 5x8 80-100lb
Overhead triceps extension - 5x8 100lb and superset with Barbell hammer curls 5x5 35-45lblb
Reverse grip curls - 5x8 75-85lb
Triceps cable push down - 5x8

Then I hit chest again on Thursday high reps
Speed bench - 5x5 225-275lb (not really high reps)
floor press - 5x8 225-275
Reverse grip bench press - 4x8 200-225lb
Flat Dumbbells - 4x12 80-100lb
Incline Dumbbells - 4x12 70-85lb
peck deck
push ups 10x10 20 seconds rest
(rest time for most of this workout is 1.5 minutes on the dot)

Anyway Tuesday is back and Wednesday is shoulders I can post those if needed but would appreciate any pointers.

#2

dude. this program looks like it’s going to fucking destroy your joints. that’s a shit load of benching. I would never, ever do this.

#3

What, you wouldn’t be doing 30 sets of bench / dumbbell variations in a single workout?

See, that’s why you’ll never get anywhere in this sport, flip!

#4

Flat Bench 3x5
Incline 5x6-8
Dips 4x8-12
Flys 4x15

CGBP if you must, but damn dude, you literally said “I benched a lot and hurt my shoulder”, and then your routine is literally 30 sets of shoulder heavy exercises one day, 10 more sets of shoulder work the next day, then a back day which, like all back days, should involve lots of shoulders, and THEN shoulder day, aaaaaaand then another 32 sets of presses the next day. That’s 5 consecutive days of upper body workouts that will just destroy your shoulders. Let’s get some legs in here, my man.

#5

#6

Thanks for the advice legs are on Saturday front squats leg press and lunges then I get into machines I start my workout week (technically end it) on Saturday seeing as Friday is my only rest day.

I used to do chest and triceps together but I’ve noticed if I do them the best day I can do 2+ plates with strict parallel dips focusing on triceps and don’t feel it all all in my chest, but I see your point too much stress on the shoulders… I should mention I don’t juice and never have so maybe taking CT Fletcher and Mike Rashids advice about over training might be a little excessive…

#7

Also like I said I’m looking for advice and appreciate the
constructive criticism, weirdly enough my strong man buddy says I’m weird do to the fact I can do a sub heavy weight for so many reps and not do 405 anymore, I can push 225 25-30 with no bouncing, full range, don’t know if that helps l.

#8

Like others have said or implied you’re gonna succeed by being patient and not doing dumb shit training wise / staying injury free.

Given your injury history and what you wrote up in the original post I really think you should not be programming for yourself or at least not without guidance. Luckily here we are and hopefully we can help you out a little.

There’s plenty of bench specialization programs around and you could do plenty well just doing the bench press part of a full body / three lift program. What you’ve written up is probably not gonna work out well for you. Basically its too much. More work is only better if one is able to recover from it to drive adaption. Beyond that point you’re just setting yourself up with a ticket via the over-training train to snap city.

Whatever program you pick you’re probably gonna have to gain some weight (lots of muscle too hopefully lel). Having your diet on point is crucial to both maximising recovery and muscle gain.

Hasn’t been mentioned yet so I’m gonna suggest you put some time into getting your technique as sexy as possible. Pretty much instant ez gains. Little bit more efficient lifting and decreasing injury risk sounds like it’d be more worth your time than getting in a few more light reps to get a bigger pump (you’ll have plenty of fucking pump after all the shit you’re planning to do). Post a video from a few different angles and we can go from there.

Given your injury history I’d recommend including lots of prehab cos prevention is better than rehab and all that jazz. Stuff like external rotation biased movements, band pull aparts etc. etc.

#9

Just wondering what you was doing before hand…since you are mentioning doing 405 for reps.

Yeah because hitting 405 for reps is being a border line pussy… someones been watching too much U tube

Either you have damn good genetics or your trolling IMO