benching twice a week

[SAGAT]

as of late i'm getting really disappointed with my bench growth. i'm currently on the 5x5 routine, split looks like this;

day 1 tris/bis
day 2 legs/calves
day 3 off
day 4 back/traps
day 5 chest/delts
day 6+7 off

i'm thinking about benching twice a week to increase my bench more. the most logical extra bench day to me, would be day 2. so then it would look like this;

day 1 tris/bis
day 2 legs/calves/bench
day 3 off
day 4 back/traps
day 5 chest/delts
day 6+7 off

any suggestions/remarks? any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Backlash]

I would find it hard to bench the day after I do tris. Not sure where you could fit it in though...

 

[SAGAT]

i know...that's kind of the problem i'm facing...i'm kind of leaning towards day 3...do you ppl think it's possible for me to recover in time for day 5?

 

[Backlash]

Well, were you planning to do the same chest routine both days? Where are you failing on your bench anyways? Just doing more sets of full ROM bench won't necessarily help.

 

[Smurfy]

Well, were you planning to do the same chest routine both days? Where are you failing on your bench anyways? Just doing more sets of full ROM bench won't necessarily help.

exactly.

 

[Buddy_Christ]

don't know about recovery time, and i'm glad you brought this up. i was doing a split like this

Day 1 - Chest/calves
Day 2 - Back
Day 3 - Off
Day 4 - Arms
Day 5 - Legs
Day 6 & 7 - Off


i've been disappointed with leg strength and chest growth, so i decided to change it up a little bit. now i'm doing

Day 1 - Chest/Legs
Day 2 - Back/shoulders
Day 3 - Off
Day 4 - Arms
Day 5 - Legs/Chest
Day 6 & 7 - Off

what i did to change up i don't think is overkill. i added Box Squats and leg curls to day 1. for Day 5 i added Incline 5x5, flat db bench, standing cable flies.

my arms and back are getting tremendous amounts of work, or at least i feel they are. i'm starting to feel like my chest and legs are going to fall behind if i don't give them more work. i ran this modified split this week and i feel ok, but this was only the first week.

i'd love some input on this as well. thanks.

 

[supersizeme]

what does your tricep routine look like? how about back?

 

[Buddy_Christ]

arms day for me is:

close grip bench 5x5
BB Curl 5x5
dips 2x10
Incline curl 10, 8, 5-6
Skull Crushers 10, 8, 5-6
Preacher curl 10, 8, 5-6

Back day:
Seated OHP 5x5
Side Laterals (cable) 12, 10, 8, 5-6
Deads 5x5
Pullups 2x10
Shrugs 10, 8, 5-6
Rows 10, 8, 5-6

dunno if you were asking for mine or sagat's, but now you got mine.

 

[sigweed]

in used to be doing a very similar routine... but i just wasnt seeing good results from back and shoulders on the same day
my suggestion would be to almost make another day where you do a light chest workout, focusing on reps rather than weight

 

[crew9]

what does your tricep routine look like? how about back?

what does your tricep routine look like? how about back?

what does your tricep routine look like? how about back?

You want a stronger bench find your weakness and work those.

 

[bigstve12]

maybe flip your day 1 and day 2..that should allow for enough time to recover. definitly make one of those bench days a lighter one though..dont do 5X5 twice

 

[SAGAT]

thanks for the replies and suggestions everyone. my tri and back strength are pretty much up to par with the rest, though i think my shoulders are the weak link in my bench, i tend to fail at the bottom and i definitely have the most power at the top portion of the movement. i was planning on doing just flat bench on the extra day, not my usual chest routine which consists of flats, inclines and flyes.
i'm thinking about making the extra day a speed day...i'm gonna run a search on that right now.

 

[Griz1]

I have been on 5x5 for quite some time now and also was a bit dissapointed in my chest growth (IMO not a factor of 5x5, but more genetics). I started doing chest twice a week with some better results. However, I DID have to drop the routine down a bit on day 2, and also could not keep it up for more than a month at a time (just too much to cram into a week. It catches up to you).

I alway work my chest/tris/bis on Fridays so:

Regular Schedule:
Mon: shoulders/back
Wed: legs/abs
Fri: chest/tris/bis

with 2nd chest day:
Mon: shoulders/back
Teus: 3 heavy sets of 4-8 reps. (that's it!). Despite going heavy here they were "quick" heavy sets not meant so much for a full workout but almost to "remind" my muscle to grow to accomadate heavy loads. As soon as I felt any fatigue setting in, I quit. Friday was coming up!
Wed: legs/abs
Fri: chest/tris/bis

I also tried doing the teus with lighter 3-4 sets of 8-10 reps. It also seemed to help but not as much as the heavy stuff. Obviously I was able to keep up the extra day alot longer with the lighter stuff.

My chest did seem to grow more than previous.



Keep in mind that on Teus, Thurs, and Sun I was doing HIT cardio for 20-25 min as well.

 

[Dorian'sDisciple]

Mon: bench/tris
Tues:back/bis
Wedsff
Thurs:legs
Fri:bench/delts
Sat off
Sun off

good split rest wise for x2 benching

 

[Scotsman]

as of late i'm getting really disappointed with my bench growth. i'm currently on the 5x5 routine, split looks like this;

day 1 tris/bis
day 2 legs/calves
day 3 off
day 4 back/traps
day 5 chest/delts
day 6+7 off

i'm thinking about benching twice a week to increase my bench more. the most logical extra bench day to me, would be day 2. so then it would look like this;

day 1 tris/bis
day 2 legs/calves/bench
day 3 off
day 4 back/traps
day 5 chest/delts
day 6+7 off

any suggestions/remarks? any help will be greatly appreciated.

One problem is you are doing tris and back before you bench during the week. Lats and Tris are very important to benching and if they are already fatigued you are having to wait for the chest to build up strength without the other compound members of the press along for the ride. I would switch day one and day five. Otherwise it looks good to me.

Cheers,
Scotsman

 

[SAGAT]

i hadn't thought of that scotsman...but it actually makes a lot of sense to me. i will switch day five and one and stick with that for a while. if that fails i'll do some serious research about benching twice a week. thanks for the help!

 

[Benz]

make chest day 1.......i gaurentee your results will increase. After 4 days of lifting your body will be pretty tired....by hitting chest on day 1 you will be fresh.

 

[Fantômas]

I did a 4 day split on a 2 week cycle that works back and chest twice a week, every other week essentially. Worked really well for me. Looked a little something like this:

Sun: chest/tri/abs
Mon: Legs
Tue: off
Wed: Back/Bi
Thu: off
Fri: Chest/tri/shoulders
Sat: off

Sun: Back/Bi/Abs
Mon: legs
Tue: off
Wed: chest/tri
Thu: off
Fri: Back/bi/shoulders
Sat: off