Power or Reps? How to benefit most from the Bench Press

[MightyMouse]

I’m planning out my workout schedule for the next week and was wondering, in-season is it best to bench reps 3X8-10 or power lift 3x3-5
I was looking at Scott Slover’s journal (a great resource by the way on neovault) it seemed he did more reps than power
I am currently doing more power lifting, but was thinking about switching back to reps for the season
What about you all?

[ashcraftpv]

you want to be at your strongest at the end of your season, right?

early in the season, depending on your current lifting/training cycle, you want to do more sets, more reps, lighter weight. As the season progresses, you decrease the sets and reps and increase the weight. Set your workout so you start out with the 8-10 rep sets. Hit the 6-8 rep sets mid season, and the 4-6 rep sets towards the end of the season. Keep in mind that these are for the core lifts(bench, squat, clean, deadlifts, etc) Auxiliary lifts should remain in the 6-10 rep range.

[CLCPV04]

ok so... let me just take this moment to say:

my weight coach is having me do sets of 2 with REALLY REALLY heavy weight. Sets of two for the last two weeks. Sets of 2-4 for the last month.

My shoulders are DYING. Like if-you-dont-stop-you-will-tear-a-rotator-cuff-soon dying. Too heavy, too soon for me. When I could barely get the sets of two up one day, and saw that he wanted me to go EVEN heavier two days later, despite my shoulders, I told him I was NOT doing it anymore.

I believe more in the reps, with sets of 8 early on, then maybe sets of 6 or 5, and maybe MAYBE sets of 3-4 late late in the season. Hence, my frustration, and then refusal to do the heavy nonsense this early, especially with sore shoulders telling me to stop.

thoughts? comments? Am I totally wrong here? Was I right to tell my weight coach no?

[csuvaulter]

I think you're right, and lifting like that this early in the season doesn't make much sense if you don't have a base. And you shouldn't be doing sets of 2-4 for a whole month! That seems to be asking for injury, as I'm sure your shoulders can tell.

Personally, I do cycles. I'll lift high reps/low weight for a few weeks, then I drop down in reps and up in weight, and I keep doing this until I get down to low-rep sets (like 5-3-2-1-1 or something...sorry, I don't keep a journal). Then you repeat the whole thing over, but hopefully with a little more weight, since you should be getting stronger. One cycle takes a couple months or so.

[RoySloppy]

ok so... let me just take this moment to say:

my weight coach is having me do sets of 2 with REALLY REALLY heavy weight. Sets of two for the last two weeks. Sets of 2-4 for the last month.

My shoulders are DYING. Like if-you-dont-stop-you-will-tear-a-rotator-cuff-soon dying. Too heavy, too soon for me. When I could barely get the sets of two up one day, and saw that he wanted me to go EVEN heavier two days later, despite my shoulders, I told him I was NOT doing it anymore.

I believe more in the reps, with sets of 8 early on, then maybe sets of 6 or 5, and maybe MAYBE sets of 3-4 late late in the season. Hence, my frustration, and then refusal to do the heavy nonsense this early, especially with sore shoulders telling me to stop.

thoughts? comments? Am I totally wrong here? Was I right to tell my weight coach no?

i think you are right dont get hurt i dont know what the dead rose means but i gave it to you anyways

[rainbowgirl28]

Welcome to the SEC. It doesn't matter what you think is right, whatever your coach says IS right

[Robert schmitt]

Personaly I don't think you should be lifting during the season at all period. You will get more benifit from imitative gymnastic exercises. It drives me nuts when kids lift in PE then have trouble practicing b/c they aren't as explosive lifting that day. Usually it isn't a lack of strenght it's a lack of technique and body control that limits your vault.

If you are determined to lift this is a program I got the best gains in strength from. I would lift one body part once a week Chest, arms, back, shoulders, and legs. Never do a chest day the day after a back day the same thing with legs. I would do five exercises for each body part with five sets consisting of 15 reps, 8-12 reps, 5-7 reps, a one rep wonder, then and 8-12 rep set. Just pick a weight that you can do with in that range when you can do the max number of reps with in a set time to move up 5lbs. I went from a 250 lb bench to 405 lb bench with in 1.5 years. my highest wieght bench work out looked like this.
275lbs 15x
295bls 8x
315lbs 5x
360lbs 1x
295lbs 5x

You cann't do this in season with out get an over use injury. Never, Never lift the same body part more than once a week. You will not build muscle tearing it down that much, infact you might lose strength.

Also I didn't work out like this for pole vaulting I was done with college. I was just lifting to see how big I could get. Now I do a reduced/ modified version of this for 2-3mo then switch to all high rep sets of 15-18 for 2-3 mo.

[lonestar]

Personaly I don't think you should be lifting during the season at all period. You will get more benifit from imitative gymnastic exercises. It drives me nuts when kids lift in PE then have trouble practicing b/c they aren't as explosive lifting that day. Usually it isn't a lack of strenght it's a lack of technique and body control that limits your vault.

Amen. My college guys are lifting more right now, and jumping worse. When they weren't doing weights, they were fresh for vaulting, and had good quality technique days, and were pr'ing regularly on short runs. Yesterday they maxed out on squat, and today was their jump day. Well you can imagine how well jumping went - it didn't. Unfortunately, I'm not their strength and conditioning coach and everything I suggest gets swept under the rug. How am I supposed to get them jumping higher when they can't even run b/c they're so sore? Frustrating!

[MightyMouse]

Wow thanks for the advice, i might minimize weight training in season, and concentracte on tecnique and speed.

[rainbowgirl28]

Wow thanks for the advice, i might minimize weight training in season, and concentracte on tecnique and speed.

That is definitely a good idea.

[Robert schmitt]

Personaly I don't think you should be lifting during the season at all period. You will get more benifit from imitative gymnastic exercises. It drives me nuts when kids lift in PE then have trouble practicing b/c they aren't as explosive lifting that day. Usually it isn't a lack of strenght it's a lack of technique and body control that limits your vault.

Amen. My college guys are lifting more right now, and jumping worse. When they weren't doing weights, they were fresh for vaulting, and had good quality technique days, and were pr'ing regularly on short runs. Yesterday they maxed out on squat, and today was their jump day. Well you can imagine how well jumping went - it didn't. Unfortunately, I'm not their strength and conditioning coach and everything I suggest gets swept under the rug. How am I supposed to get them jumping higher when they can't even run b/c they're so sore? Frustrating!

I've told this story before. When I was in college I didn't improve for 2.5 years. Then we got a new coach. One of the first things he did was literaly ban me from the wieght room by taking my athletic pass away. Pr'd by 9" that year and an additional 3'3" the next. Now I'm not attributing this improvment all to stopping lifting. It does shows that strength or lack of wasn't what was holding me back.

[MightyMouse]

Now I'm not attributing this improvment all to stopping lifting. It does shows that strength or lack of wasn't what was holding me back

Care to share your secret