Bench 2x per Week with 4-Day split?

[OFocke17]

Hey guys, so recently i've been pondering on wether or not to train my chest twice a week as opposed to once a week for the best gains. My chest is my weakest point (tall, long arms, broad-shoulders...not gonna complain tho!) so I need to find some way to force it to get bigger.

When I first tried benching 2x per week i could never recover fast enough in order to put up the name numbers on the bench press. I would give 3 days rest. My stats are 205 x 8 squat, 235 x 8 deadlift, 135 x 8 bench.

My split:
Monday: Chest/biceps
Tuesday: Legs
wednesday: Rest/abs
thursday: back/triceps (possibly chest?)
friday: shoulders
saturday:rest
sunday:rest

So I want to incororate another chest day into my routine, possibly on thursday, but don't know how to make it fit just right. Possibly do one day heavy(monday) and one day light(thursday)? Barbell one day and dumbbells the other day?

And how can i avoid benching 2x without having my triceps still sore from the previous day?

Any help would be greatly apprecieated from you guys!

P.S. Been lifting for about 7 months. When i started benching i could barely put up 85 x 6, so i've come a long way, yet can't seem to make as great gains are before. Nutrition is great, 4-5k calories per day, 200g protein, been putting on weight, but limited gains in chest.

[orca23554]

After some tweaking around, I settled down on the below routine. Not suggesting you do the same, but find something that works for you given your constraints. As long as your routine is balanced with enough compounds, has a clear cut progression scheme with enough recovery thrown in - you should be fine hitting each muscle group 2X a week

Day 1 - Chest (5 sets)/Back (3 sets)/Biceps (3 sets)
Day 2 - Off
Day 3 - Legs (6 sets)/Shoulders (3 sets)/Triceps (3 sets) + Hang Cleans (3 sets)
Day 4 - Off/Sprint if I feel like it
Day 5 - Chest (3 Sets)/Back (6 sets)/Biceps (3 sets)
Day 6 - Off/Sprint if I feel like it
Day 7 - Legs (6 sets)/Shoulders (5 Sets)/Triceps (3 sets)

Majority are barbell based (Flat/Incline Bench, OHP, Front/Back squats, Walking Lunges, Pendlay Rows, Skull crushers)

Constraints I have -

Do not want to work out for > 4 days a week
No comfortable doing Bench & OHP same day (hence not keen on the simple P/P/L or U/L templates)
Need 3-4 days before I hit the same muscle group again

Can handle hitting Triceps 4X a week directly/indirectly, when it gets too taxing I'll tweak the layout a bit and swap Triceps/Biceps

[OFocke17]

Thanks Orca, Repped

Any additional feedback anyone?

[KingOfLimbs]

Day 1: heavy weight low rep chest, 3 exercises - high rep low weight bi + tri, 2 exercises each

Day 3: high rep low weight chest, 2 exercises - heavy weight low rep bi+tri, 3 exercises each

[Apollo21]

Ive been recommended this and i'm gonna try it when i can get back to the gym

www .joeskopec.com/edcoanbench.html

[strengthgainr]

Training the area you want to focus on twice a week is a great idea so don't doubt yourself on that.

I'd suggest adding your second chest day to your shoulder work out and pushing it to saturday so you're not sore from your tricep work out.

Alternatively, I'd suggest doing chest and triceps on Thursday (so you're not working out two major muscle groups on the same day) and add your back work out to Friday. Setting aside a whole day for shoulders was one weak area in your plan I picked up on but it gives us some good room to work with.

[sharpieblet]

I personally think 2-3x a week muscle targeting is optimal for the majority of non advanced lifters. It takes maybe a week our so to get the body used to it then it's all smooth. If your recovery sucked last time you tried it, I'm willing to bet your diet, volume approach, our rest were not in sync with the frequency.

Biggest factors will be food intake and progressing in weight lifted, as far a optimal gains go.

[OFocke17]

Thanks For all the advice guys, it really helped me plan my routine!