Bench pressing how many sets

Using moderate to higher repetition ranges, with emphasis on deep muscle stretches and contractions, high amounts of muscle damage can be done that will increase muscle growth. For non-strength based sections of the workout, it is recommended to train these movements in the moderate or higher rep range to near failure see section below about training to failure. How Does It Work? Most lifters do not need to train in the repetition range if their goal is overall muscle growth and general strength.

With that said, if you choose to train with very heavy loads repetitions , you should understand proper technique and do this with compound movements like the ones listed above.

Failure to subject your chest muscles to heavy loads in this case rep ranges of can limit overall chest development in all individuals. It is recommended that lifters train their chest in a variety of rep ranges for optimal growth and performance see sample 2-day program below. Get 3 free workouts by using the link above. While adding variety to a training program is key, it is also important to remember that too much variety can limit your ability to perform quality reptions and work sets to maximize muscle fatigue.

In other words, performing more exercise for the sake of variety will leave you doing too much volume, not enough quality work sets of a given movement, and limit overall chest growth…not to mention having you spending all day running around the gym. Be sure to keep your weekly training volume the total of your working sets for chest between total reps.

If you find out you are performing more than 20 sets per week, there is a very good chance you are doing TOO much and are actually diminishing your bodies ability to build new muscle mass. Instead, stay within those ranges and work to perform quality repetitions with a hyper-focus mindset of feeling the chest muscles stretch throughout the full range of motion. Should You Train to Muscle Fatigue? While training to failure is sometimes acceptable, most of the time you should be training to NEAR failure.

When performing movements, it is best to think about how many QUALITY repetitions you have left in the tank before you either 1 fail a repetition or 2 are able to complete a repetition but at the cost of proper form. The less clear your goals are the sooner someone will be able to confuse you or for you to confuse yourself.

One of the questions that might pop to mind is how many sets you should do when you go to the gym. How to decide on how you want to split the repetitions and how many sets you actually are going to do when there are no reference points whatsoever? This all depends on your fitness level and your goals. From there you can determine what the gap is to reach your them.

The bench press is usually one of the more advanced and specific exercises. Most of the individual goals are:. Depending on your goal it will be easier to decide which rep scheme helps you best and whether the bench press is an exercise you can and should do. So before reading any further I would challenge you do take a day to decide what you really desire and whether the bench press will help you obtain it. If not, it is just a distraction.

Do something else. If a good physique or a big bench press gives you satisfaction in life, pursue it. Protect it. I like training as it is something that I can control and gives me pleasure as I, unfortunately, have been let down by people in my life and I let them down vice versa.

That yields a training volume of 9—18 sets per muscle group per week, which is right about perfect for building muscle. You can do that with 2—3 full-body workouts per week or with body-part splits. Thank you Shane for your response! Going to continue for another three weeks. Started working out since January Also, reading and researching on your articles, so going to follow other routines after that. Funny that this is published. Since Saturday been training 20 reps with my mate who is To be fair, my shoulders are killing me since Tues..

Probably done over reps in total. Including burn out sets. Done shoulder press 30kg for 3 x 20 reps. Usually would do 60kg for 3 x 4. So it was good for a change. Were see. Good to train slightly differently. Hopefully I can get some new gains from training this way. Good to mix it up and to be fair, my form seems better. Different methods work best for different people. Good to have such a wide rep range we can use to build muscle. I searched for what is the ideal rep and set to stick with to build from and you mention a plethora of different studies and my head now is so confused.

So what is the general idea or rule of thumb to go off of? I understand it has to be tweaked but for someone who is just trying to build muscle and size, what do you recommend?

That way all the work is done for you, and you can learn what a good workout program looks and feels like. Otherwise, yeah, it can get a bit tricky. Your limit strength is your base. Increasing your 1RM will help with lifting more weight in the higher rep ranges. The different intensities help you gain more strength and size in the long run.

Doing reps from 1 to 20 for example. So powerlifting training is very beneficial for hypertrophy if incorporating higher reps also, as it will make you able to do 20 reps with much higher weights.

I know some people who squat kg x 20 reps. Comparing that do 20 reps with 80kg, big difference. To get the most out of the muscle mass we already have, training in a given rep range is likely the best way to improve our strength in that rep range. So if we want to get stronger at doing 3-rep sets, then 3-rep sets are a great way to gain that strength. But if we want to get stronger at rep sets, then rep sets are a better way to do that.

But if the goal is to improve your strength in moderate rep ranges, then training in moderate rep ranges is perfect for that. Thing is, we can also increase our strength by gaining more muscle mass, and doing at least 5—6 reps per set is better for that. Perhaps using a variety of rep ranges is indeed better for building muscle. Or maybe gaining strength in lower rep ranges has useful carryover to our strength in higher rep ranges.

But we also have research showing that sticking with 8—12 reps seems to work just as well as varying your rep ranges. Hi I have found this fascinating, thank you! My question is, if I can go heavier but have to drop reps say from 10 to 8 for 3 sets is that better than increasing the number of sets at the same weight?

The simplest answer is that 3 sets is a great number of sets per exercise per workout—no need to increase. And going from 10 reps to 8 reps is perfectly fine—both are in the middle of the hypertrophy rep range. If you increase from 3 sets to 4 sets, the difference may be minimal, but it may still help. And going from 4 to 5, there may be no difference at all.

Shane, thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me! I really really appreciate it. I came across your site as I was looking specifically at how to gain muscle mass in a situation where the ability to increase weight each time is limited. But I could increase reps? Add weight or reps AND as sets as needed. Hey Shane, I briefly read through each part of this article and it explained a lot, so thank you! I have a small problem with my bench. I have been doing pyramid type training, like you mentioned in another comment, where I increase the weight with warm up sets then 1 working set as close as possible to failure.

Since I started doing this one set to failure with as much as weight as possible for around reps with perfect form and full range of motion, the weight I am using on the barbell for my squats and bent over rows is going up and I am seeing results! As for my bench though not so much. My bench has been at about pounds for reps for the longest time. So what I used to do is 4 sets of of just pounds.

So I thought that since I had done this for so long it was time to increase it by 5 pounds. So i tried the warm up sets and 1 working set to failure for my bench so it would like this Set 1: 95 pounds 12 reps Set 2: pounds reps Set 3: pounds reps Set 4: pounds reps Set 5: pounds Working Set : reps.

So as you can see when I increase the weight my reps are going lower and my form gets somewhat sloppy. Should I just go back to the 4 sets of for pounds? A good default way of increasing the weight is setting a rep target say 10 reps and then increasing the weight whenever you achieve that target on your final set. Then work back up to 12 reps on the final set, increase the weight again.

Are you eating enough calories to gain weight on the scale each week? Are you eating a gram of protein per pound bodyweight per day? Are you getting enough good sleep every night? Then we can consider, are your bench press workouts too hard or too easy? And are you using a smart mix of assistance lifts, such as some push-ups and skullcrushers, to give your muscles a bit of extra work? And how are those lifts progressing? Starting with a well-programmed workout routine is a good place to start, but there will always be some trial and error.

Everyone is a little bit different. Hey I really appreciate the reply! I will reconsider what I am doing for my bench and start increasing the weight whenever I am able to get 12 reps. Would you say I should do sets of the same weight? Not sure if that makes sense, haha. I am naturally a big guy who can gain fat fairly easily.

I was at about pounds a couple years ago and now I have cut down to and noticed I have gained some muscle while staying in a deficit. I still have quite a bit of fat holding in my midsection so I believe if I stay in a deficit it will go away over time.

If you want to change the weight between sets, check out Reverse Pyramid Training , as explained in this article. The ultimate goal of a personal trainer is to help you grow and become independent so you can feel confident on your own. It can be as short-term or long-term as a commitment as you prefer. Skip to content. Connect with CA.

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