Bench Press weight + rep chart.

[Simon60]

Hey guys!

I'm new here so I hope I'm posting in the right section. Short story long I've been a couch potato for the last two years and I want to start working out. I have a bench press at home however I'm having some trouble with finding a proper workout. In high school our weight training room had a huge chart with work outs for specific maxes.

So lets say my max was 130, the chart would show a specific weight I had to do 10 times, and then another I had to do 9 times, and another I had to do 8 times, etc. Basically the weight increased as the reps decreased. Is there any place I can find such a chart? I've been googling for the last two hours with no luck.

btw my current max is 135 lbs. Thanks in advance!

[drsmiles]

Welcome Simon

[ahelix]

I'm a fan of the 5 sets of 5 reps system along with ramping the weight up (google madcow 5x5 for the whole thing). It will take a while (took me like roughly a week) for you to find what weight works best for you but the basic idea is (using easy numbers):

Set 1 = 60lb (40% less than set 5)
Set 2 = 70lb (30% less than set 5)
Set 3 = 80lb (20% less than set 5)
Set 4 = 90lb (10% less than set 5)
Set 5 = 100lb

Ideally you should be pushing almost to your limit (not needing a spotter with proper form) on that last set.

I've never really used a chart like you mentioned where "if you want x-max then do x-workout". I try to check my 1-rep max every once in a while but I'm currently long overdue but I don't mind.

[Beachman]

Don't worry about exact percentages put weight on the bar that you can lift 5-15 times depending on your goals and continue to do that until you've met your goal or progress stalls.

Don't over think it.

good luck

[joshp62]

Here is a link to a one rep max calculator which is similar to the graphs you are referring to. Just type in the amount of weight used and the number of times and it will give you an approximate one rep max for that exercise.

http://www.musclenet.com/1repmaxcalculator.htm

[Simon60]

Thanks for all the replies guys!

I checked out Madcow 5x5 and I've gotta say... it's exactly what I was looking for! I just put in all my maxes and starting tomorrow I'm going to begin my weekly work out.