SantaClause
Level 5 Valued Member
I just wanted to share my results for bench press. But first little background: I was stuck with 105kg (230lb) for about year and a half – two years as I did lot of program hopping almost every month.
Last summer my back pain got worse so I had to stop deadlifting and squatting entirely (did bodyweight squats though). That left bench press the only barbell lift I trained with little bodyweight stuff by side.
In the fall I did one six week cycle of Russian bear that finally got me to 110kg (242lb). I did it 5,3,2 plus back off sets and increased top weight each training session by 2,5kg(5lb) and trained twice a week. Don’t know If it counts as a “real” Russian bear program as I could only get around 10 back off sets in the beginning of the cycle; it was down to 2-3 near the end (in the book the desired number of sets is 10-20). My rest periods were 60 seconds.
After six weeks of Russian bear I started an eleven week powerlifting bench cycle designed by finnish powerlifter and I stuck to it. It was one heavy and one light day a week. First five weeks was only fives with different percentages, the second five weeks was fours, triples and doubles. On week eleven I maxed and got 115kg (253lb).
After that I started Smolov jr. shock cycle and four weeks later, last Saturday, I got 120kg (264lb) up. That was a goal of mine for many years.
So by sticking to and doing the programs/cycles as written I increased my bench press 15kg (33lb) in 4-5 months after being stuck for almost two years. My weight has been 92-95kg (202-209lb) the whole time so maybe I have increased muscle mass just a little bit.
After this success the time of program hopping has gone. Another reason I wanted to share this is because when I’m choosing a program I’m looking for other peoples results so maybe some people are looking for the same.
Yesterday I started Neuperts strong with double 32’s clean and push press and I know that I’m gonna stick to it for results.
Last summer my back pain got worse so I had to stop deadlifting and squatting entirely (did bodyweight squats though). That left bench press the only barbell lift I trained with little bodyweight stuff by side.
In the fall I did one six week cycle of Russian bear that finally got me to 110kg (242lb). I did it 5,3,2 plus back off sets and increased top weight each training session by 2,5kg(5lb) and trained twice a week. Don’t know If it counts as a “real” Russian bear program as I could only get around 10 back off sets in the beginning of the cycle; it was down to 2-3 near the end (in the book the desired number of sets is 10-20). My rest periods were 60 seconds.
After six weeks of Russian bear I started an eleven week powerlifting bench cycle designed by finnish powerlifter and I stuck to it. It was one heavy and one light day a week. First five weeks was only fives with different percentages, the second five weeks was fours, triples and doubles. On week eleven I maxed and got 115kg (253lb).
After that I started Smolov jr. shock cycle and four weeks later, last Saturday, I got 120kg (264lb) up. That was a goal of mine for many years.
So by sticking to and doing the programs/cycles as written I increased my bench press 15kg (33lb) in 4-5 months after being stuck for almost two years. My weight has been 92-95kg (202-209lb) the whole time so maybe I have increased muscle mass just a little bit.
After this success the time of program hopping has gone. Another reason I wanted to share this is because when I’m choosing a program I’m looking for other peoples results so maybe some people are looking for the same.
Yesterday I started Neuperts strong with double 32’s clean and push press and I know that I’m gonna stick to it for results.
