Best way to increase strength?

[Juicetin]

Hey guys,

I am going to be aiming for strength gains on my next bulk..

The thing that concerns me most is my bench press. Currently I can only bench 55KG for 9 reps, this is very bad and I feel bad for having such a low bench...

What weight should I train with for strength based on my current ability to rep 55kg 9 times? I'm thinking of using 62.5KG and aiming for around 4 reps on the first set... and then aiming for 2 reps on another 3 sets... how does that sound?

Any advice for a noob?

Figured I would ask on this forum, as you guys are the masters of lifting heavy :P

Thaks guys. pls help

[Juicetin]

inb4 read the stickies.

I am reading the stickies, but I prefer getting opinions off people that I can actually Q&A

[arian11]

But you should read the sticky first and then ask knowledgeable questions based on what you learned. But you should do Starting Strength during your bulk, it'll be good for strength and size.

[InspecktaDeck]

You can get huge lifting heavy, but its not "optimal". You young guys that wana look shredded nead to realise weight isnt important, just like the guys in this section dont care about "abs". Gotta prioritize my man.

[Juicetin]

But you should read the sticky first and then ask knowledgeable questions based on what you learned. But you should do Starting Strength during your bulk, it'll be good for strength and size.

Okay, I will do this.

I had a read of a few stickies! 7 sets on the bench press seems like a lot? I'm keen for it, but wow lol.

[Juicetin]

You can get huge lifting heavy, but its not "optimal". You young guys that wana look shredded nead to realise weight isnt important, just like the guys in this section dont care about "abs". Gotta prioritize my man.

Thanks for the advice brah, I don't care about abs currently. I just want to get really strong on my next bulk! I did mostly hypo-trophy training for the past 6 months... made some good size gains, but lifts are still crappy and I would preffer to be strong > look strong. nomsayin?

[arian11]

Okay, I will do this.

I had a read of a few stickies! 7 sets on the bench press seems like a lot? I'm keen for it, but wow lol.

No, 7 sets of bench press is not alot if you aren't doing 50 sets afterwards of various chest and triceps isolation exercises at various angles. And if you want less sets than take a look at Starting Strength or Bill Starr's 5x5. Very basic programs revolving around the main lifts guaranteed to make you big and strong.

[CurltonBench]

low reps high set

/thread

[baxtej44]

hypo-trophy

¿lol qué?

[Juicetin]

¿lol qué?

the auto-correct in my browser did that.

not sure why though..

@other guy, yup will be doing high weight low reps :-) thanks mate

[ViolentDefiance]

Cutting at 176 seems a little soon. That may be just my way of thinking, but I'd say you could probably stand to bulk on another 15-20lbs before your cut.
Strength training consists more of high weight, low rep and lower set. Just gotta do the research. If you look at the way Arnold and those classic BBs used to train, they used... relatively light weight. In relativity to their size, that is. They'd do like, anywhere from 12 to 15 sets of 20+ reps. Depending on what the exercise was, of course. If putting on size is your all-around goal, you'll probably have a relatively easy time of it since your on the shorter side. Not sure what your build is, but both of those things have alot to do with it, which I'm sure you know.
For my bench... I increased 100lbs in about 5 1/2 months. I injured my entire left arm and was out of commission for a while, when I got back into it, I started benching at about... 1/3th of what I using as repetition weight before and increased by 5lbs every week until I got back up to a weight that I had trouble keeping good form on. Then from there, I spend as much time as I need to on that current weight until I get the form nearly perfect on each rep and so far, my bench hasn't stopped increasing. I have no idea if that was helpful at all... my brain wanders, so, hopefully I didn't get too far off topic.

[baxtej44]

Cutting at 176 seems a little soon. That may be just my way of thinking, but I'd say you could probably stand to bulk on another 15-20lbs before your cut.
Strength training consists more of high weight, low rep and lower set. Just gotta do the research. If you look at the way Arnold and those classic BBs used to train, they used... relatively light weight. In relativity to their size, that is. They'd do like, anywhere from 12 to 15 sets of 20+ reps. Depending on what the exercise was, of course. If putting on size is your all-around goal, you'll probably have a relatively easy time of it since your on the shorter side. Not sure what your build is, but both of those things have alot to do with it, which I'm sure you know.
For my bench... I increased 100lbs in about 5 1/2 months. I injured my entire left arm and was out of commission for a while, when I got back into it, I started benching at about... 1/3th of what I using as repetition weight before and increased by 5lbs every week until I got back up to a weight that I had trouble keeping good form on. Then from there, I spend as much time as I need to on that current weight until I get the form nearly perfect on each rep and so far, my bench hasn't stopped increasing. I have no idea if that was helpful at all... my brain wanders, so, hopefully I didn't get too far off topic.

strong first post

[ViolentDefiance]

Hahaha Yeah, like I said, my mind wanders and I tend to blabber.

[anthonygibson]

How's your form? Might be difficult for you to answer but I'd argue that changing your workout structure won't have any effect if your form is flawed.


Anthony