How often did you increase weight with the bench press?

[Anonymous]

So I do chest workouts 2.5 times a week (one week it's twice the next week it's 3 times) and I really only increase weight by 5lb (so 2 2.5lb plates on each side) after I do a workout with a certain weight 2-3 times. I've been doing the bench press for about 2 months but am only at 150lb but plan on doing 155lb the next time. I'm just wondering how quickly did those of you that workout progress with the bench press?

[redeyemindtricks]

You should plan workouts around a certain number of reps, and then do that number of reps. Don't stress on 1RM's or 5RM's or xRM's, because frankly those are not important beyond bragging rights.

More importantly, THINK LONG TERM.
Right now you're increasing your weight by 5 pounds a week! (every 2-3 times, with 2-3 workouts a week)
That might not sound like much, until you think about it longer term. If you could keep that up for a month, it'd be 20-25 lbs. For a year it'd be 260 lbs!
You see my point.

You'll make fantastic gains at first. Which is cool, because that's what will hook you on the sport.

(I'm a fitness/figure model)

[Asker]

Thank you for the positivity. I've been doing 4 sets of 8 reps so I haven't been focusing on that 1 Rep max thing.

[redeyemindtricks]

You're welcome.

Try not to stick to the same set/rep scheme for more than a few weeks.

If you ever get too cocky -- or want to spot potential injury sites ahead of time -- try 30-second reps.
Not a typo.
You'll be astonished at how heavy little sissy weights will feel. And if there are any lagging points in the movement (= waiting to become injuries)... yeah, they'll say hi.
Helps build muscle too.
Three sets of 3-5 reps, for any particular movement, will destroy you.
Bring a timer of some sort, because this tempo (15 sec up / 15 sec down) is so slow that it's basically impossible to maintain without one.

[BertMacklinFBI]

if i have a spotter i increase it by 15-25.

by myself, 10.

[Asker]

How often do you increase it by that much?

[BertMacklinFBI]

every week. so Mondays are my bench press days, for 3 weeks I increase it, then go back down and increase reps on the 4th week.

[Asker]

Jeez, each week? You increase almost 100lb in 2.5 months I only increased like 25lb in that same amount of time.

[BertMacklinFBI]

that wolverine program fucked my ass up. i went from 185 to 285 like nothing though.