Progression Question with Alternating Exercises

F

Franko

New Member
Okay Im working on my current cycle and Im curious if Im alternating my exercises the same way most of you are.  I'll use the example below to illustrate.

Lets say Im using these two exercises for chest and doing Bench on A days and Dips on B days.

            1       2     3      4      5      6
Bench  195  205  215  225  235  245
Dips     BW  +10  +20  +30 +40   BW+50

Would you alternate like this through your cycle?

            1      2      3      4       5     6
Bench  195          215          235  
Dips            +10         +30          BW+50


The reason I ask is that jumping up 20 lbs on bench has gotten to be quite difficult and Im wondering if you do it this way or have some other suggested way?

I hope Im making some kind of sense here....Im just frustrated that Im having trouble making my sets with bench...

Any and all suggestions are welcome.
 
What you are proposing is not bad. Personally, I would jump the bench to 245 as it is your last bench day. The downside, of course, is that you are working your pecs at their maxes twice as much as a "regular" one exercise cycle. I prefer that but it might be too much for some beginners. However, based on the weights you used in your example, you are certainly not a beginner.
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BTW, adding 20 pounds on key compound lifts is not unusual. When I do leg presses, sometimes I may increase the weight by 90 pounds the next workout. It's all relative to your starting point. I usually start compounds at 60% of my rep max.
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Just a thought to add to O & Gs. I think what you have written down would work just fine. ie.:

           1      2      3      4       5     6
Bench  195          215          235  
Dips            +10         +30          BW+50

My guess is that this is for your 5s? If this is the case then you will be pushing both exercises to the max during the post-5s anyway so save your CNS a bit now and do 245 on bench during the first week of post-5s.

If you are finding it hard to make even your first work set for bench then perhaps you need to look at your food intake. If you are bulking you shouldn't be having problems getting your sub-max lifts.
 
Im a high school teacher and I prolly should be increasing my calories a lot from the summer. Being on my feet all day definitely burns more than sitting out at the pool....
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Thanks for the obvious advice LOL

I was able to get my first set...so I guess I could just cluster to get the rest.
 
I do exactly as you've laid out there but I increase the weights by 5kg (so that would be just over 10lbs). I.E. my standard increase in weights for the same exercise each session is 2.5kg so I double it for exercises where I'm alternating.

Using 10kgs like you are wouldn't work for me, the starting weights would be too low and the difference each session too great.

Deadlifts are my only exception to this where I do use 10kg.

Cheers

Rob
 
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