Keep Adding Weight To Benchpress?

[jpad1208]

I see at the gym guys start with 135 then continuously add more weight when bench pressing. Is this effective? They end up doing ~3 reps of really heavy weights at the end. I think they add weight about 4 times for 4 sets.

Has anybody tried this?

[nofxsi210]

If you mean they have guys to slide weight on mid-set (like after every few reps, the opposite of a drop set), no I haven't seen that and I hope to God I never do.

Otherwise they're probably just doing some sort of pyramid lifting program instead of working with straight sets. It's also possible that those first few sets are just warmups before they get to their worksets. I'm not really sure what it is you're describing.

[illriginalized]

Uh.. lol are you talking about sets?

1 set is warm up (sometimes people will do multiple warm up sets)

Then every set after that are called, 'working sets" and for most people.. you gradually up the weight, in increments..

[speedjason]

its called a pyramid set and yes I've done it.
you start a lighter weight where you can do 10 reps and add weight each set till you can only do 3-5.

[sharpieblet]

There was a great thread this summer that discussed the importance of properly warming up before doing your working sets of any big lift, search for it. I warm up usually with a fee sets now, then do 3-4 working sets and typically a final all out set from 1-3 reps. You'd be surprised how your max lift potential goes up simply from proper warming up instead of just trying to rush into your working sets.

[jpad1208]

There was a great thread this summer that discussed the importance of properly warming up before doing your working sets of any big lift, search for it. I warm up usually with a fee sets now, then do 3-4 working sets and typically a final all out set from 1-3 reps. You'd be surprised how your max lift potential goes up simply from proper warming up instead of just trying to rush into your working sets.

Do you do the pyramid sets? Or do you stick to just one weight for the 3-4 sets after warmup?

[TBU720]

Those aren't pyramids unless they start to take weight off and go back down. What they are doing is called "warming up"

Don't do pyramids. Nobody in serious bodybuilding or strength training does pyramids.

[sharpieblet]

Do you do the pyramid sets? Or do you stick to just one weight for the 3-4 sets after warmup?

I typically pyramid up in weight, sometimes on every set, sometimes I only ramp up twice. A lot of just going by feel. Biggest thing is putting up more weight or reps within a couple weeks.

[koolskool]

I call it ramping up.
Might do something like ---
115x10 warmup
135x10
155x10
165x10
175x7
I'm trying to get to 175x10 as that top set of 10.
When I do I might ramp up the 3,4 and 5th sets with 5 extra pounds.

[yettiatcpg]

I usually do a ramp up and then down again on the smith machine. I start at 135 as a 10 rep warm up and then jump up to 225. if I feel tired I only go up to 185. then do 10 reps twice. then back down to 135. I do 30 reps at full extension. if I feel like one more set I use close in hands so it just comes in by my sides.

[Smelly bull]

I call it ramping up.
Might do something like ---
115x10 warmup
135x10
155x10
165x10
175x7
I'm trying to get to 175x10 as that top set of 10.
When I do I might ramp up the 3,4 and 5th sets with 5 extra pounds.

You are correct, this is called ramping up. Pretty good explanation from stronglifts..

"This is basically increasing your weight set to set like warming up. If your top set of 5 is 315, you might go 135, 185, 225, 275, and then 315 all for 5 reps. There are several reasons for this, you are warming up, getting a lot of practice and really groove the coordination of the lifts, and contributing to workload without raising it so high that fatigue overcomes you and you overtrain. If you do 315 for all 5 sets, workload is a lot higher and doing that a couple of times a week ensures that you won't last long on this program.

Typically jumps can be somewhere between 10-15% per set based on your top set (or 12.5% and round up or down). An easy way to figure this is to find out what 10% and 15% are for your top set and then track backwards into the other sets using the variance to round or help it make sense. "

Rest of the article is here....http://stronglifts.com/madcow/5x5_Pr...ping%20Weights