quick bench questions

[terrazine]

1. When do increments reduce from 5 lbs to 2.5 lbs? I've seen some people make the switch at 135, some at 185, some at 165, etc. I'm a 19 year old male, so I wanted to know when to expect it to slow down.

2. Around what weight does the novice progression end for most males around my age?

[shaddix]

I had to switch at 90lbs lol.

[LimieJosh]

Neither questions can be answered with any reasonable degree of confidence or accuracy.

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

WHen you can't make 5 lb jumps anymore

[oldannyboy]

I'm 22 and am going to deload and work up again by 2.5lbs (I failed 165lbs 3x after increasing from 160lbs by 5lbs from one workout to the next). My friend, on the other hand, who is around the same weight as me (I'm about 177lbs now) was able to get to 195lbs in his bench going up by 5lbs every bench workout. All my other lifts have not stalled (even the press, strangely enough, which is at 115lbs - I had switched to 2.5lbs increments in this earlier on though), so I don't think it's a recovery issue. However, it is possible it is a technique issue, but I think if I had switched to 2.5lbs earlier, then I would not have stalled.

[Les Hahn]

I based my jumps more off bar speed. If I could keep good bar speed and continue 5lb jumps, I did. When the reps started to slow down, then I went to 2.5lbs. If you are slowly grinding reps out, you waste a lot more energy. It becomes harder to recover as well, which makes it a little better if you have the 1.25lb plates handy.

I will have to check my log, but I did the 5lb jumps up to around 285lbs. I am not doing SS btw, so that was not with 3 sets of 5. I am now microloading my way up to 315, which is my first goal I am trying to hit. So as others have said, there is no real exact number. If you are quickly moving the bar, things are going well. If you aren't, you need microloading, and you will most likely stall within a few weeks of grinding reps. When you do, deload a little and come back stronger.

As for when the linear progression will end, that is hard to say as well. When I was around your age, I was 6'5" @235-240. I was pretty lean and was lifting like a retard. I think I randomly made my way up to around a 320 bench. I was doing something like 10,8,6,4,2or1,6,8. I did some other variations of that as well. It was linear progression, but looking back I did too many sets. I also did other bench stuff afterwards, like dumbells or incline press, again just probably adding too much volume. As a youger guy, I was probably able to handle all this overtraining somehow. If I had a more sensible program back then (I am 32 now), I could have done much more.

Best of luck to you!