Upper body catch up program

[ChrisInCambo]

I'm new to lifting, and have been going about six months. What I figured out pretty quickly is that my lower body is much more developed than my upper body, which I guess is a result of playing a lot of soccer in my youth.

My squat and deadlift are at novice level, but my bench and overhead press are still at beginner. What I would like to do is put together a twelve week program to try and even this out a little. So focus on making gains on my bench and overhead whilst maintaining my current levels on the squat and deadlift.

Here are my numbers:

Body weight: 91 kg (200 lbs)
Height: 192 cm (6'2")

Squat: 110 kg (245 lbs)
Deadlift: 129 kg (285 lbs)
Bench: 64 kg (125 lbs)
Overhead: 47 kg (105 lbs)
Chin ups: 8x3 reps (body weight)

My goal is to get my bench up to 84 kg, my overhead up to 55 kg and be able to do 12 good chin ups at body weight, whilst maintaining my current squat and deadlift level. I'm currently following the Texas Method, not because I think I'm intermediate, I just find the variation much more enjoyable and seem to make much more consistent gains when I'm enjoying it.

If any of you more experienced guys could give me some ideas and tips on how best to get my upper body to catch up with my lower body, it would be much appreciated!

[marcf]

Seems to me that you haven't read any of the books. If those numbers you posted were your 1RMs, then you're still a novice and you should do the SS novice linear progression. You should not be doing Texas Method right now.

Do the program exactly like the book says, and gain another 20 pounds (this will help your bench press tremendously).

[chrisd]

So, you're looking at adding over 25% to your bench and about 16% to your OHP in twelve weeks ?

Put it another way, you want to add 1.67 kg to your bench and 0.4kg to your press per week. If you were still in the first flush of novice gains then, yes it's practical. If you're at the end of easy gains, then maybe not.

You don't give your age or the actual version of TM that you are running. How often are you benching and pressing ? If you continue with consistent gains then just dial in the 1.67kg and 0.4 kg and there you are. If you can't make those gains then forget it.

You could of course run Smolov junior. You'll give up in the third week, because everybody does

[CrouchingWayne]

For chins, I found doing 2 sets at the end of every workout helped get from sets of 8 to around 12-15.

The rest of the program - you could run SS as written. Any imbalances (if such a thing exists) will work themselves out over the next few months as weight increases get harder on squats/DL so naturally slow down/hit advanced novice.