Can you bench press every other day

During strength training, beginners should increase the amount of weight every week to maintain linear progression. This will get you the best results in terms of gains in muscle mass, as well as fat loss. While increasing the weight and bench press frequency is pretty straightforward for beginners, it gets a little more complicated as you gain experience. You cannot keep increasing the weight indefinitely. To make the most of your workout, you will need to perform variations of weight and rep schemes to keep progressing.

This will help train different muscle groups, while steadily improving strength and volume. One way to do this is to develop a training frequency where you alternate strength and hypertrophy. For more experienced lifters, increasing the weight every 3 weeks or so is recommended. If you want to work on your chest pectorals or shoulder blades, your bench press training frequency should be at least two days every week.

In other words, depending on how quickly you recover, each target group of muscles should be trained every days. However, a word of caution here. For long term results, a better approach is to increase volume gradually every week. This will allow you to recover and make steady gains. In a nutshell, be sensible about your training. Keep your long term goals in mind rather than trying to achieve quick gains and ending up with injuries. A key advantage of more frequent bench press workouts is that the more you do, the more your technique will improve.

Bench pressing is a skill. When you spend time practicing it, you improve. Another advantage of increasing your bench press workout frequency is you will start seeing results more quickly. This happens often with people who have been lifting for more than three years. However, over time, the progress becomes slower. Upping the workout frequency on a bench press can help you overcome a plateau in strength improvements. To overcome the stall, you need to add training volume to your workout.

The goal is to build training volume, and increasing the frequency of your workouts is the easiest way to do this. Last but not least, if you want to focus on the bench press, then increasing your workout frequency is the best way to go about it.

You can do a 3 days per week bench press schedule for weeks and then cut back on the frequency and shift your focus to whole-body, well-rounded training.

The advantage of experimenting with these periodizing strategies is that you may stumble upon a program that works exceptionally well for you. You have to maximize this time and make it work for your fitness goals. If you train less often on the bench press but still meet your strength goals, then all is well.

Restricting the number of times that you bench press in a week also reduces your risk of injuries. Your goal in such a situation should be to heal and get back to optimum function, not increase the frequency of bench pressing. This means you may have to train less frequently on the bench press or maintain the frequency at your current level in the lead up to the event.

For many people, the goal is to at least be able to bench press their own weight. The more we bench press, the more consistent with our technique we can be — which will lead to better movement patterns and ultimately a bigger bench.

In addition when we are bench pressing every day, multiple of those days will be technique focused — as we cannot bench press maximally every day or we would not properly recover. This increased attention to the technical aspects of the lift, would correct areas of the lift where we are experiencing technical breakdown and help us to lift more efficiently.

Bench pressing every day can help lifters whose progress has stalled, to break through their bench press plateau. If our bench press progress has come to a halt, it is likely that our body has adapted to our current training program and is in need of a change in programming, to provide a new stimulus to adapt to.

Bench pressing every day would increase the frequency and volume of the movement, as well as provide more opportunity for us to improve our technique — all of which should help us to break through a plateau. Still struggling to break through a plateau? Bench pressing every day is great if we have a limited amount of time to train every day i. Training every day allows us to avoid long training sessions, by spreading them out over the week while still getting the necessary training volume to make progress.

For those that only have an hour a day, whether it be because of a hectic work or life schedule or having to book a timeslot at the gym, bench pressing every day could be the solution for them to see gains in strength and technique despite limited availability. One of the best ways to get extra volume in a workout is by doing Back Off Sets click to read my full guide.

If we are trying to train multiple compound movements every day of the week with no days off, we may compromise our performance by exceeding our maximum recoverable volume. The downside to this is we may not be able to make as much progress on the squat or deadlift, but we may be able to maintain them, depending on how much we train them compared to what our minimum effective volume the minimum amount of work we need to do to maintain fitness is for each discipline — which will be different for everyone depending on their current level of fitness.

The stress of trying to make it to the gym every day when it is not realistic for our lifestyles, will cause more issues and mental fatigue than is necessary. For these reasons, it may be better to commit to 3 to 5 training days per week and spread out our bench volume across these days, rather than failing to get to the gym every day and losing out on bench gains by not reaching the minimum effective volume dose.

I cover more individual factors on deciding your bench press frequency. Bench pressing every day could lead to more issues than solutions if we have nagging upper-body injuries, or are just more prone to injury. If we push the tissues over their threshold, they will struggle to recover and are more likely to be injured. Therefore, those who already have upper body issues with their current amount of training volume, should not increase further by bench pressing every day.

We talk about whether this approach can work for novice, intermediate, and advanced powerlifters. Keeping it off guard, mixing things up, and adding variety to your workouts will ensure your body responds positively.

Always stay one step ahead by changing your workouts when you feel you're not making the gains you expect. If you're like me and want to look good while having some strength to back it up you've probably been training with reps between eight and twelve. Try lowering the reps on your bench press sets to the six to eight repetition range for a few weeks. You'll be pleasantly surprised to see how your body reacts if you haven't tried this before.

If you can avoid these common pitfalls and you're open-minded enough to try something new you'll soon be bench pressing more than you dreamed possible. Take it from me, the man who was stalemated at a pound bench press for more than three years! Learn from others mistakes and watch your bench press sore. Your wife or girlfriend will be admiring your muscular upper body while your friend's are dying to learn your secrets. Once you feel more confident in your bench press prowess, continue your chest-building journey with the 10 Best Chest Exercises for Building Muscle.

Learn how to add 50 lbs to your bench in 10 weeks! View all articles by this author. Barbell Bench Press - Medium Grip. Incline dumbbell bench press. Cable Crossover. Dumbbell Alternate Bicep Curl. Preacher Curl. Day 2: Legs. Barbell Squat. Leg Press. Leg Extensions. Seated Leg Curl. Military press. Barbell upright row.

Side Lateral Raise. Standing dumbbell shrug. Bent Over Barbell Row.