3 benchpressing related questions

[senna_trem]

i do 15 curls/reps with 55lb barbell i can do this easily so dont worry.

Why do I want to roll my eyes when I read this? Can anyone guess?

[daeinwolf]

Ok....

 

I disagree with a few things in some of the posts.

 

Your soreness is a difficult question to answer. Make certain your form is dead on, not by asking your dad. Get on the internet and Google up some good exercise sites with videos to make certain. Until you are certain you are using correct form, go light on all your lifts. If the soreness continues, you might want to see a doctor.

 

Your lifting program can and in some cases should go under 5 reps. The reason being you are recruiting different muscle fibres(Type I, Type IIa &b). For starters many lifters follow this bit of information: 3-6 reps for developing power, 6-8 reps for hypertrophy, 8+ for endurance. These are often done in sets of 3-4. For a well rounded athlete, one should cycle the rep scheme so that maximum muscle recruitment occurs.

 

Doing one rep maxes at the beginning does nothing to energize/warm up your muscles. To properly warm up your muscles, do a couple of sets that are light (50-60% of your 1 rep max). Then tackle your core sets.

 

Also, I do not think anyone mentioned it, but never lift until failure. You might make decent gains at first, but this will stagnate after a time.

 

Now this is generalizations that hold true for most individuals, but there will always be exceptions. You need to listen to your body and see how it responds. That is why I always reccommend people to start a lifting journal to record their lift performance.

 

SiK---Joshua