Shawn Phillips "Increase your Bench by 50 lbs in 50 days"

[ericdmb]

I hope this is OK to post. I've been logging this program for the past 3 weeks and it seems to be working quite well. I just thought some people might like to see it and may find it beneficial. It was originally published in 1997 as a supplement to an issue of MM2K and it has been floating around the internet ever since.
Eric

[SuicideGripMe]

If it works. Keep it up! I saved it and Ill check it out later when I have more time.

[ice4me]

I know I need to warm up a little more before I work out because I hardly ever even warm up at all. But doing all of this seems like a work out. Are you suppose to do all of those sets to warm up?


Here's how to determine your 1RM:
1. Warm up with a light weight for four to five reps. (Doing too many warm-up reps might generate too much lactic acid and screw up your 1 1RM.) Repeat twice.
2. Rest two minutes after your final warm-up set.
3. Increase the weight to one you can handle for eight reps.
4. Rest three minutes.
5. Increase the weight to one you can handle for three to four reps.
6. Rest three minutes.
7. Add weight, and attempt to lift the weight once.
8. If you failed, rest three minutes, reduce the weight, and try again. If you succeeded in lifting the weight, rest three minutes, add some weight, and try again. Repeat steps six and seven until you fail at lifting the weight.

[sculli]

That is a great program. I did it when it first came out. Actually there were two versions of it, the second being slightly better than the first. When I did it, I didn't quite get 50 lbs on it but got at least 35 which was good enough for me. I got up to benching 420 lbs with it. Of course that was almost 10 years ago and I'm down about 100 pounds on the bench since then. But it's a good program. Only, don't try doing it more than the 8 weeks it prescribes without taking a break and going to something else for a while. I did end up trying to do two 8 week cycles of it back to back which was a mistake and I ended up tearing a pec.

[ice4me]

Great program but you didnt answer my question. Any one can answer it?

[Liquidtensi0n]

Great program but you didnt answer my question. Any one can answer it?

What's your question? How to do warm-ups? Here's the best warm-up guide you're ever going to find: http://www.ironaddicts.com/Warm-ups.html

[Liquidtensi0n]

Overall looks like a pretty solid program. One thing that is unclear is he says: always do the last set to failure... but he lists a specific number of reps for that set. Does he mean do those, and do more if you can until you hit failure or what? Kind of ambiguous. I actually kind of want to do this program with a few tweaks (lol @ squatting once a week). I will probably give it a go at some point in the future.

Also, he reffers to some table for the supplementary exercises but that table wasn't attached by the OP. Do you have that somewhere?

[Liquidtensi0n]

I'm doing this program now. Will post results when I'm done. So far I'm liking it... a lot.

[bigphishy56]

I know I need to warm up a little more before I work out because I hardly ever even warm up at all. But doing all of this seems like a work out. Are you suppose to do all of those sets to warm up?

supposed*

[themayor]

any updates for guys that have tried it?

[gollybegully]

thanks for posting this it seems pretty interesting...i might try it down the road.

[Liquidtensi0n]

YES! I tried and had sick progress. It broke me through like a 6 month plateau I was on. Check out the details in my journal: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...9#post13427449

I must say that I did things differently than the article's proposed split. The core M and F workouts were done as written but everything else was my own. Anyway, you can see in my journal what worked for me.

EDIT: I also will be running it again, back to back. So we will see how long this can keep working. This workout is varied enough in loading for me to have confidence in it working another time. The stuff you do in the early weeks is quite higher volume than the later weeks so that should be enough to spark some more progress right away.

[daYDreAmErX]

Any good program for a girl like me ? My bench is really weak in comparison with my deadlift and squat that I can't compete without upping the weight on it.

Anything realistic similar to this program maybe ? I'm currently 5'6", 140 lbs, deadlift 240 lbs, squat 165 lbs but my bench is only 105 lbs.

[Liquidtensi0n]

I'd say this is an intermediate program so you have to judge for yourself if you are at the point where it will be useful or not. If you are still making linear gains then perhaps something like Rippetoe or some of the workouts ironaddict has on his site will work better. And your bench seems pretty proportioned to your squat so I think you are doing well.

[daYDreAmErX]

I'd say this is an intermediate program so you have to judge for yourself if you are at the point where it will be useful or not. If you are still making linear gains then perhaps something like Rippetoe or some of the workouts ironaddict has on his site will work better. And your bench seems pretty proportioned to your squat so I think you are doing well.

I'm on Westside and I started to bench in August... I went from the bar x8 to 105x3 by myself.

Thanks !! I think I'll stay like that until I reach a plateau. Might be psychological but if you say it's ok with my other lifts, I'm good to go

[Salieri]

"Chest
Bench Press (Workouts #1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13)
Dumbbell Bench-Press 3 sets of 8 reps"

Well, how many sets should I do on Bench Press? Look at the Dumbbell Bench-Press exercise, he said how many. Does anybody have any idea?

Same for:
"Back
Narrow-Grip Pulldown
Barbell Row
Biceps
Barbell Curl"

Thanks guys.

[rvt1443]

I've been cycling through this program for years now. Took my bench from 335# to 405# 1RM max.

[awwzzz]

Any good program for a girl like me ? My bench is really weak in comparison with my deadlift and squat that I can't compete without upping the weight on it.

Anything realistic similar to this program maybe ? I'm currently 5'6", 140 lbs, deadlift 240 lbs, squat 165 lbs but my bench is only 105 lbs.

Thank you original poster for posting Shawn's workout routine for the bench press. I've never gotten better than 105 lbs myself daydreamer.. but I have had a lot of immune system issues keeping me out of the gym. I LOVE this program and found out about this website because I was at the gym and needed values for my bench workout that day! I've been using Shawn's workout routine now for a number of years. I saw it first in the muscle Media magazine. I started seeing real progress in muscle mass after using it. This summer though I'm dropping weight and the sore muscles from working out really taxes my already taxed immune system (from losing fat cells and dealing with the poisons released from fat cells). Anyhow.. just wanted to comment. I love the program and modified it to some degree.

[chris2034]

I have been doing this routine for about 5 weeks and it's working amazing. After HS sports I stopped working out and just started up again with this routine after a couple years off. I don't know what gains I should expect considering I use to workout( I maxed out at 285 about 3 years ago), but I've gone from 205 to 245 and I just finished workout 9. Does anyone who has finished this workout routine have any feedback or advice on how it went a second time around and what you did in between or how much time you took? It says 3 weeks but I've also read up to 7 weeks. Thanks

[willporp]

What does neg mean on the table?

[Mdenatale]

What does neg mean on the table?

You are doing a negative only.

[BioSmith91]

At least the program actually works off a % of your 1RM, which is more then I can say for the vast majority of "add X weight to your bench" programs. But me personally, I don't like any program that relies AMRAP as the backbone of the entire training regime. To me at least, AMRAP sets should be measurements of progress, not the entire basis of the program.

To each their own I suppose.

[safreek]

I have been doing this routine for about 5 weeks and it's working amazing. After HS sports I stopped working out and just started up again with this routine after a couple years off. I don't know what gains I should expect considering I use to workout( I maxed out at 285 about 3 years ago), but I've gone from 205 to 245 and I just finished workout 9. Does anyone who has finished this workout routine have any feedback or advice on how it went a second time around and what you did in between or how much time you took? It says 3 weeks but I've also read up to 7 weeks. Thanks

bit of a gravedig but I have just joined this site after finding an old copy of shawn phillips 50 pound increase workout, by goodness it works. I started out with a pathetic 135lbs (61kg) and have been on the workout for only 5 workouts and have already increased my bench by 39lbs (18kg) to 175 lbs. very impressed and would advise anyone with a bit of fitness to have a crack at it should do so. will let you know as I progress further

[Farley1324]

bit of a gravedig but I have just joined this site after finding an old copy of shawn phillips 50 pound increase workout, by goodness it works. I started out with a pathetic 135lbs (61kg) and have been on the workout for only 5 workouts and have already increased my bench by 39lbs (18kg) to 175 lbs. very impressed and would advise anyone with a bit of fitness to have a crack at it should do so. will let you know as I progress further

Progress comes quickly to weak noobs, pretty much anything works. Keep this in mind.

[VicMackey123]

I hope this is OK to post. I've been logging this program for the past 3 weeks and it seems to be working quite well. I just thought some people might like to see it and may find it beneficial. It was originally published in 1997 as a supplement to an issue of MM2K and it has been floating around the internet ever since.
Eric

This bench program absolutely worked. I did this back in the late 90's. I remember following the concept you need to have already achieved a 1RM of 300lbs. I ended up adding 75lbs in 50 days. Insane....I couldn't even believe it. No 'roids either. Just did everything right...eating...creatine...multi-vitamin...sleeping...water.

[oldguyyoungmind]

I did this routine in 1997 when I was 27 years old. It took my bench from 270 to 330 the first time I used it. I gave it a few months then tried it again, and I got another 30 pounds out of it, to 360. 26 years later I am starting this routine again, because I haven't found anything that compares to it, except that now I'm 52 years old and my 1RM is 250. Not bad for an old guy, but I want to see if I can get back into the 330-350 range again. It's just a personal goal. It is important to know exactly what your 1RM max is in order to be successful on this program. Not, "I'm pretty sure I can get 265 if I wanted to, I just had a bad night." There is room built into the tables to adjust your workouts to a heavier or lighter 1RM if needed, but if you want to get the most out of it, know your max.

[TAWS6]

Ahhh 2006. What a great year..

[Farley1324]

Ahhh 2006. What a great year..

Right?

I missed it by a bit what, yeah

[SuicideGripMe]

If it works. Keep it up! I saved it and Ill check it out later when I have more time.

Ahhh 2006. What a great year..

Still haven't gotten around to reading it...