Bench Press frequency(Advanced Novice/Intermediate) and assistance

[PDC]

Now that I have a lot of time, I'm looking to put it to good use and increase my strength(particularly my bench press, being my weakest lift) as quickly as humanly possible. It's very obvious to me that the Texas Method is a program designed for overall strength improvement and it occurs to me that benching once or twice a week without much assistance other than pressing and chin-ups may not result in the adaptation that I would like.

Essentially, I would like to know with a bench press 1RM of between 215 and 225, how many times per week can I bench press and which assistance exercises are the most useful for increasing my bench press as quickly as humanly possible? I'm not afraid to eat, condition, and put in a lot of hours at the gym. Given my current squat/bench/deadlift numbers, I want to give the bench press the most attention at least for a while.

I will literally spend 6 days a week in the gym if it will benefit me and not get in the way of work. If I have a solid plan and am confident in it, I'll get up at 5am every morning, take all my supplements, eat a big meal(35% of today's carbohydrates) and drive to the gym. I'll watch videos, I'll listen to audiobooks, I'll read books..I'll do everything I reasonably can to get my bench closer to my ultimate goal of 300.

Actually, I'd also like to know how often I can REALLY get away with training all of the exercises. I'm working between 27 and 35 hours a week and I'm off from school, so I have a lot of free time to make improvements. I would deadlift 3x a week if someone convinced me it would work...and I would squat 6x a week if I thought THAT would work(and I wasn't currently more interested in the deadlift and my upper body, given my current ratios).

[hamburgerfan]

When I was in a similar situation, I made great progress lifting 6 days per week, alternating between upper and lower body, and moving through slightly different rep ranges each workout. It got me squatting 465x11 and 497x7 in just a belt, and I was benching 325 for multiple triples before I strained a pec. Don't feel like typing everything up, but if you're interested, read what I did starting here. hamburgerfan's log chapter 2: histories of gluttony and diligence

Keep in mind that if I did it again today, I would be more conservative with the weekly progression, and include more assistance work for the upper body to keep balanced and healthy.

[Gerhard]

Now that I have a lot of time, I'm looking to put it to good use and increase my strength(particularly my bench press, being my weakest lift) as quickly as humanly possible. It's very obvious to me that the Texas Method is a program designed for overall strength improvement and it occurs to me that benching once or twice a week without much assistance other than pressing and chin-ups may not result in the adaptation that I would like.

It depends man, TM can and does work well for some people, it works horrendously for others. There is also the time investment component. TM falls into the school of thought of "achievement by doing the least amount of work needed to achieve it" - which is the efficient way to look at it. But... Those who can do more, achieve more. The only limiting factor is what they can recover from.

I'll watch videos, I'll listen to audiobooks, I'll read books..I'll do everything I reasonably can to get my bench closer to my ultimate goal of 300.

I would highly recommend starting here man. I realise the author is something of a controversy around here (but fuck that shit, because being ignorant because of perception is educationally limiting and education is life. Even Hitler's contribution to literature has provided people with valuable knowledge to this day...), but this article has been invaluable to myself and others I know who needed to get specific on what was a key limiting factor in Bench Press - namely, optimising bar path.

Actually, I'd also like to know how often I can REALLY get away with training all of the exercises. I'm working between 27 and 35 hours a week and I'm off from school, so I have a lot of free time to make improvements. I would deadlift 3x a week if someone convinced me it would work...and I would squat 6x a week if I thought THAT would work(and I wasn't currently more interested in the deadlift and my upper body, given my current ratios).

As often as is required to make the rate of progress you are looking to make, within what resources you have available to you, along with any constraints you have. Hamburger's suggestion looks interesting! If you're not taken by it, I'd take stock of what you currently do now and slowly add more (benching 2x a week? Bench 3x a week, not doing tricep and chest work? Add in tricep and chest work), get an idea of how you are responding with those additions and take it from there.

[PDC]

When I was in a similar situation, I made great progress lifting 6 days per week, alternating between upper and lower body, and moving through slightly different rep ranges each workout. It got me squatting 465x11 and 497x7 in just a belt, and I was benching 325 for multiple triples before I strained a pec. Don't feel like typing everything up, but if you're interested, read what I did starting here. hamburgerfan's log chapter 2: histories of gluttony and diligence

Keep in mind that if I did it again today, I would be more conservative with the weekly progression, and include more assistance work for the upper body to keep balanced and healthy.

Thank you, I'm reading it now. Big question - when did you incorporate presses(I don't see them)?? Also, given that you were designing your weeks like lower body, upper body, lower body, upper body, lower body, upper body, rest day...how much did you rest between exercises? You're going from one heavy compound exercise to the next and you're using the same muscle groups..that's very different from either SS or TM. Instead of SQ>BP/P>DL/PC/Back Extensions your workouts look like SQ>DL or BP>Close Grip BP>Chins with no lower body in-between.

[hamburgerfan]

I wasn't doing presses at the time. If I had included them, it would have been after bench presses (where I put close grips and inclines). I didn't rest very long between exercises. Doing multiple exercises for the same muscle group without rest in between is very different from SS or TM, but it's not at all unheard of in other training methods.

[PDC]

I wasn't doing presses at the time. If I had included them, it would have been after bench presses (where I put close grips and inclines). I didn't rest very long between exercises. Doing multiple exercises for the same muscle group without rest in between is very different from SS or TM, but it's not at all unheard of in other training methods.

I gotcha...given my current bench/press ratio(190x5x3:145x5x5), I think my bench needs more attention..but I don't want to let my press fall behind either. Overall my upper body needs a lot of work compared to my lower body. Practical programming seems like a great place to start..maybe I can press once or twice a week to make room for things like close-grip/incline bench presses, dips, and other upper body assistance work for my chest and back.

[Gerhard]

I gotcha...given my current bench/press ratio(190x5x3:145x5x5), I think my bench needs more attention..but I don't want to let my press fall behind either. Overall my upper body needs a lot of work compared to my lower body. Practical programming seems like a great place to start..maybe I can press once or twice a week to make room for things like close-grip/incline bench presses, dips, and other upper body assistance work for my chest and back.

Remind yourself of your goal - namely, that 300 bench. Outside of LP where progress session to session is all very good and everything moves uniform. That time where focus has to shift to making one, or maybe two lifts a priority is upon you. If Benching 300 is your goal, you need to prioritise that. The Press is unlikely to fall behind, given there is a level of crossover between the two (although Press is found by a lot of people to be a crap developer of the Bench Press itself, whereas Benching actually seems to develop the Press fairly respectively for a lot of people). So Pressing for maintenence once or twice a week, sounds like a plan, provided it isn't having an adverse affect on your goal of Benching 300.

I guess what I'm trying to get at, is you can't expect everything to go well, all at once if you opt to prioritise. But saying that, you're only limited by how much work you put into the other lifts when you are prioritising. Prototypical gym bros? Great Benchers, terrible at Squats, why? Because many of them don't actually Squat, they could quite easily, but they avoid it because it's more "work". Provided they did Squat however, even including Squatting heavy once or twice a week (heavy+lighter, or rep work), they would probably have a pretty reasonable Squat, especially given the emphasis quite a few of them place on good form on all the upper body work they do! :P

[Nate7out]

In this forum there is a "High Frequency Intermediate Bench Program" thread you should check out ... page 2.

It sounds like you're currently running advanced novice. If you are still progressing on that template, I would switch to HLM with inclines or close grip on M day or run TM with bench emphasis every week. On HLM I would run 5 x 5 on all pressing lifts and stay with 3x5/1x5 for SQ/DL. This would be to add bench emphasis without completely changing everything and stalling progress on other lifts.

If you're off school and only working part time, no need to get up at 5 am. Get your sleep. I say this as a father of an 1-1/2 year old and a newborn. Get your sleep. I will sleep vicariously through you.

Also, the cliche advice of gaining weight applies, the bench is a lift that responds well to weight gain. If you are wanting to devote this time of your life to training, paying close attention to diet would be good as well. Look at the to be a beast article. Planvia macros to gain 0.5-1 lb (I don't know how heavy you are) per week for 12 weeks and then maintain for a bit. No need to go crazy. Also, be patient, to go from 225 to 300 is 33% increase. That is a large increase.

[Gerhard]

Also, the cliche advice of gaining weight applies, the bench is a lift that responds well to weight gain.

I'm still trying to figure out how Jennifer Thompson did it.

[PDC]

In this forum there is a "High Frequency Intermediate Bench Program" thread you should check out ... page 2.

It sounds like you're currently running advanced novice. If you are still progressing on that template, I would switch to HLM with inclines or close grip on M day or run TM with bench emphasis every week. On HLM I would run 5 x 5 on all pressing lifts and stay with 3x5/1x5 for SQ/DL. This would be to add bench emphasis without completely changing everything and stalling progress on other lifts.

If you're off school and only working part time, no need to get up at 5 am. Get your sleep. I say this as a father of an 1-1/2 year old and a newborn. Get your sleep. I will sleep vicariously through you.

Also, the cliche advice of gaining weight applies, the bench is a lift that responds well to weight gain. If you are wanting to devote this time of your life to training, paying close attention to diet would be good as well. Look at the to be a beast article. Planvia macros to gain 0.5-1 lb (I don't know how heavy you are) per week for 12 weeks and then maintain for a bit. No need to go crazy. Also, be patient, to go from 225 to 300 is 33% increase. That is a large increase.

Being 5' 7"- 5' 8" at ~188lbs body weight and ~18-22% body fat, I'd say weight GAIN isn't really necessary. If I can gain muscle FAST, I'd say I'd like to maintain and bring my body fat into an athletic range. Otherwise, I want to lose weight very slowly because I don't think there's really any reason to be above 17% as an intermediate.

The only way I'll gain weight over the summer is if I can stay below 17%.