My Recent Experience on Linear Progression

Here's a brief write-up about my recent experience on linear progression (bench press alternating with the press every session, and increasing the weight each time you bench or press the next session). I switched to a weekly routine too early for my bench press and press and they didn't make significant progress. After a while of messing around trying to figure out what was wrong, I realised the answer was simple, to go back to linear progression and milk out those gains properly. My bench press and press were going nowhere with the training methods I was using at the time so going back to basics worked out pretty well for me. If you're not following, basically I did Starting Strength for the bench press and press, using 3x5 (3 sets of 5 reps) for the bench and 5x3 (5 sets of 3 reps) for the press.

When did I start LP: 28/11/12

Stats before:
Bodyweight: 77kg (28/10/12)
Bench press: 90kg x 4
Press:60kg x 3
Dips: B.W + 43.75kg x 1 (not as deep as possible, just below parallel)

Stats after:
Bodyweight: 80-81kg (15/4/12)
Bench press: 96kg 5,5,4 (14/3/12), with one deload. 110kg x 1 (actually tested this)
Press: 70kg 5 x 3 (13/4/12) with one deload. 77.5kg x 1 (actually tested this)
Dips: B.W + 45kg x 3 (as deep as possible) (21/4/12), doing more volume on dips too

So I did 3x5 for bench press, with a grip wide enough where my forearms were perpendicular to the floor. I did 5x3 for the press, with a grip just outside the shoulders. I originally started out using touch-n-go for the press. The reason for this was it helped to teach me to press in a vertical path. My technique sucked before because my grip was too wide, and the bar would travel in too curved of a path.

My bench press stalled at around 92.5kg, deloaded and worked my way back up to 96kg for 5,5,4 before stalling again.

My press eventually stalled at 67.5kg. The reps got really hard because I couldn't get decent breaths in when I held the bar at the top, so when I deloaded I switched to dead stop. It worked out to be better for me (much easier to breathe), and I got my press to 70kg 5 x 3, I stalled at 71kg 5 x 2.

My bench press and press also started interfering with each other. When I benched on Monday, my press on Wednesday sucked, and by the time it came to press next Monday it went a lot better.

When I found that the improvement of my bench press after deloading was not significant, I decided LP was finished for it. I decided I would focus on my press for the time being, and switch from regular bench press to close grip bench press for the time being. My press stalled at 71kg, and similarly to the bench press, the improvement was not significant after deloading, so I decided that LP was finished for the press too.





I plan to now begin weekly programming for the bench press and press (increasing the weight on a weekly basis to give my body more time to recover), since LP no longer works for me now (which is good).

In terms of my physique, my shoulders, arms and chest got bigger. My back and traps also got bigger due to deadlifts, heavy pull-ups and rowing. My legs (and probably glutes) got bigger from squats. Bodyfat levels stayed pretty constant. During this time my diet and sleeping patterns were also very consistent (today diet is still consistent, sleep slightly less consistent due to university and work).

http://img152.images...omparisondr.jpg

What did I learn:

• fix up technique first before experimenting with assistance exercises. My bench press grip width was too wide, when I narrowed it slightly I was able to recruit my triceps more effectively. Same for my press.
• Keep your programming as simple as possible for as long as you can. People have been training for decades, no need to reinvent the wheel and do weird rep ranges. Keep everything in perspective. If you're bench is 100kg, you are not advanced. No point doing advanced routines if you're not ready for it. You're a novice for longer than you think.
• Dynamic effort is pointless for beginners. If you can't even bench like 150kg don't bother with dynamic effort.
• Volume is important. Gotta get in enough work to stress your body to adapt. Madcow for the presses is shit if you're naturally a bad presser, the ramped sets are not enough volume.
• If you're naturally a bad presser, get your triceps as strong as possible. Do heavy ass weighted dips. If you can't do that other options include lying tricep extensions, push press or incline bench. Just make sure you're hammering your triceps and forcing them to grow.
• You're a beginner for longer than you think. Let your ability to recover from your training sessions dictate your programming. If you can bench heavy and then bench with a heavier weight again 4 days later, you're a novice. Don't listen to strength standards that might say your bench is intermediate or whatever. Listen to your body.

To those intensity junkies who work up to 1 top set, the top set only feels 'tiring' because you had to get mentally prepared for the set. Don't interpret stalling from training this way as overtraining, interpret it as undertraining. You cannot overtrain if you're benching 100kg and pressing 70kg. I stuck with 1x5 for my deadlift for 2 years, eventually I plateaued (stalled then deloaded and worked my way back up to pretty much the same weight, no improvement). Once I added in more sets my deadlift got moving again. Volume is important.