What to do for my bench + press?

[Kregna]

6'2
220lbs

squats: 342lbs x 5
bench: 195lbs x 5
press: 134lbs x 5
deadlifts: 375lbs x 5

cool story right? anyway, I've been doing the TM on squats and deadlift for like 2 months and it's going well (barring these past 2 weeks where I've fucked up my eating), but started benching/pressing on TM like 3 weeks ago. Hit 1kg PR on press first week and failed next 2 weeks because of the poor recovery I just mentioned.

Anyway, I'm obviously sorting the eating out, plan on going up to 230lbs (then maybe higher, idk yet) but it seems to really suck that if I mess up a week I have to wait 2 weeks to re-attempt the same weight on my bench/press. Even if I don't mess up, bench and press are only increasing once every 2 weeks, and life's too short for fortnightly 1kg PRs!!

So, my question: what can I do for my bench/press? I've only ever had microplates that let me load like this: 50kg, 51kg, 52.5kg, 53.5kg, 55kg, etc. but is it worth buying more microplates so I can do 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55 etc? Bearing in mind my gym's plates are different levels of wear, with the rubber on most plates being worn away to different degrees, which makes me worry the variance between plates will counter microloading to this degree. Also, when I was making progress on these lifts I noticed I failed as much on the 1kg jumps as I did 1.5kg, so I don't know if lower jumps will help?

Does it look like I can make any more LP on these lifts? If not, is there some faster way of increasing them than bi-weekly on the TM?

Cheers...

[D.W.]

You can either do a certain rep max and increase it weekly. For example 1x5. Microloading it when necessary. Or you can rotate different rep maxes, for example 3RM, 2RM, 1RM. The more RMs you rotate, the slower the progress (for more advanced trainees). And if you want to go really crazy you can microload them too.
So you already know both options.
Andy Baker mentioned somewhere that you can see Intensity day as a max out day. So for example take a heavy weight and do as many reps as you can with it, do more weight the next week and rep it out.
How are your volume days going?

[Kregna]

Thanks for the reply.

That first option is basically the TM right ? I tried the cycling rep ranges for a while and actually had some success with that, going from 60kg 3x5 to 65kg 3x3 pretty quickly, so maybe that's worth going into again.

The 3 VDs I had for presses and benching were pretty easy. I'm pretty sure I could progress on the TM, it was just real lazy eating these past 2 weeks, making me fail squats also. It's just biweekly progress seems unbelievably slow

[D.W.]

My experience is, that attempts to have faster progress usually result in no progress at all. I am the master of fucking around with a program, which consumed immense time i could have used to progress in really small amounts of weight.

By cycling reps i meant doing this: (the weights are just fantasy weights)
First week: 1x3 90kg
Second week: 1x2 95kg
Third week: 1x1 100kg
Fourth week: 1x3 92,5kg
Fifth week: 1x2 97,5kg

That's a variation that is mentioned in Practical Programming. But it is relatively slow. If you don't have to hit certain weights at a certain date, i would give it a try.

[exter]

2.5KG per mont h?
You add 2.5KG per week on Madcow.
Heck , even on a westside template you can add more at this level.

[250orBust]

at your size and weight you shouldnt have to microload like that. Id add volume. probably lots of dips if you dont do them already.

[Kregna]

2.5KG per mont h?
You add 2.5KG per week on Madcow.
Heck , even on a westside template you can add more at this level.

You do but you only press once a week on the programme. I did it for a few months in the past (before re-doing SS) and my bench was making progress but presses weren't.

at your size and weight you shouldnt have to microload like that. Id add volume. probably lots of dips if you dont do them already.

Thanks for the advice, more volume I'll definitely try and maybe some dips if it agrees with my elbows. How exactly do you think I should go about trying to increase them? Linear progression with more volume or something like that?

My experience is, that attempts to have faster progress usually result in no progress at all. I am the master of fucking around with a program, which consumed immense time i could have used to progress in really small amounts of weight.

By cycling reps i meant doing this: (the weights are just fantasy weights)
First week: 1x3 90kg
Second week: 1x2 95kg
Third week: 1x1 100kg
Fourth week: 1x3 92,5kg
Fifth week: 1x2 97,5kg

That's a variation that is mentioned in Practical Programming. But it is relatively slow. If you don't have to hit certain weights at a certain date, i would give it a try.

That looks pretty fun my only beef is it's still the same rate of progress as TM

[250orBust]

I would add 2-3 sets of BW dips at the end of your workouts twice a week. When that gets easy then start weighting them for 10's. assistance work like this isnt an exact science so just do whatever you feel like. In addition to this you could always do some backoff sets around 70-80% of your main press on intensity day to add more volume.

[Kregna]

Cheers, I'll give it a whirl!
So you think I could manage 5lb jumps every 2 weeks on the bench?

[Oldster]

So, my question: what can I do for my bench/press?

Pretty simple in this case. Volume.

You need at least 10 top working sets per week in at least the bench, at least 5 in the press.