120kg (or 265lbs) Still a fairly athletic 14st. a little bulkier maybe, but i blame too much cardio. still impressed with my strength gains overall tho, all other lifts coming along nicely too.
thats very impressive almost twice as much as me i can only bench 70kg via 5x5 although im over the moon as one month ago that was my highest ever 1 rep max with a smith machine i'd done . although my tendons arent increasing as fast as my muscles as now my left wrist hurts a little if i twist it inwards and then try to point my knuckles down im sure they will get stronger in now time though . how long has it taken you to acheive that bench?
120!! effort!! Is that 1RM? You're lighter than me and stronger!! I hate but admire you!!! nice one mate.
Cheers mate. try wrist straps when you bench. Its taken about a year.. this time last year i was still boxing (training mostly, but like 5 or 6 times per week) and only benching around 60kg as i was just messing around and not using a routine as such. when i started getting into weights more i quickly took my bench max up to like 80kg but was chasing 90kg for a while. then changed the way i train and its gone through the roof! i started using wendlers 5/3/1 to work on form mostly and took my numbers up nicely. in 3 months my bench went from 90kg to 105/ deads from 120-165kg/squat from 80 ish- to 145kg and overheads from about 50kg to 85kg (strict form) Thats 3 months ago. now i do: bench 120kg/ squats 160kg (175 on the front squat machine) deads 185kg and overheads still stuck around 85-90kg on a good day. ive been doing a lot work at 80% of my 1RM for compound lifts and use a powerbuilding routine for assisstance work. not using wendlers much now as i feel ive built the base to work on. cheers. sam
Cheers mate haha. It was 3 singles, but i don't feel i could have gone heavier. 125 next time! Can't seem to get bigger though.. must be doing too much cardio.
Once again i hear the merits of the 5/3/1 system. Don't think i've heard a bad word about it yet, when i stop making gains on my current system I'm sorely tempted to move onto this.
Yeah it's definately worth using mate, ive had some great gains from it and definately feel it helped me work on correct form. i only used it for that and to get my strength up a bit, but will definately go back to it if my gains start slipping. right now i'm doing 5 -10 sets of 3 at 80% for my compounds, and a power,muscle,burn routine for my assistance stuff and test my maxes once per month the re-evaluate the weights. I'm a natural lifter by the way, no steroids etc. forgot to mention this in my original post, and mentioning it now in case my gains look a little fast. cheers
as far as the 5/3/1 stuff people really fret over programs and rep schemes....but i have found that the most important...it really comes down to two factors...constancy and intensity......
