benching twice a week

[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