Road to 405lb Incline Benchpress

[Outlier]

I imagine the title makes many on here chuckle, especially many of the hardcore power lifters. But 405lb on incline will be a lot for me. However, I am currently only doing 315x5, at least that's what I did last night for my final set. Personally, I am probably going to need to do 315x9-10 in order to have a 1RM of 405.
Right now I am using a typical bodybuilding routine for every muscle group. For incline bench-press, I usually work my way up to a heavy set of 8 (last week it was 275x8) as most of the time I do not have a spotter and I stop short of failure. I would like to hear some routines for increasing my strength on incline bench-press in terms of sets, reps and so forth. Anyone have any suggestions or a good starting point. I have never done anything other than a traditional bodybuilding split but I would be opened to different programs.

 

[Skull]

@Docd187123 This guy is trying to increase his 1rm. I bet he needs a good strenght program

 

[RodgerThat]

405 incline will make no man chuckle here my friend. If you are looking to push heavier things you need to up intensity and lower volume so you can recover from that session. Work in the 3 rep range one day and the 6 rep range another day so you can hit incline 2x a week 3 days apart.
3 rep day
Warm ups
315 4x3
Up this weight by 10 pounds every week if you hit all the sets and reps
6 rep day
Warm ups
275 4x6
Also up this by 10 pounds each week if you hit your numbers
If you fail on the reps of a set then do not up the weight of the weight is grinding from the 2nd set and you still finish all reps then only up by 5 pounds for the future session

 

[Outlier]

405 incline will make no man chuckle here my friend. If you are looking to push heavier things you need to up intensity and lower volume so you can recover from that session. Work in the 3 rep range one day and the 6 rep range another day so you can hit incline 2x a week 3 days apart.
3 rep day
Warm ups
315 4x3
Up this weight by 10 pounds every week if you hit all the sets and reps
6 rep day
Warm ups
275 4x6
Also up this by 10 pounds each week if you hit your numbers
If you fail on the reps of a set then do not up the weight of the weight is grinding from the 2nd set and you still finish all reps then only up by 5 pounds for the future session

Thanks for taking the time to read and reply to my thread. You outlined a far different routine than what I have been doing, but as I mentioned I am open to new things and this sounds great.
I typically workout at about 2a.m. 3 or 4 times per week, as this is what my work schedule dictates. I typically do not have a spotter and the power rack does not allow for an incline bench to fully set in the cage. Therefore, I will have to find a different gym where an appropriate power rack is provided. Fortunately, I workout at Anytime Fitness and have several in my immediate area. They are all designed slightly different but one definitely has the power rack I need...it's 20 minutes from my house rather than 5 minutes but a small sacrifice to make.

 

[RodgerThat]

It will benifit you greatly working with the heavier weights with that form of intensity especially if you haven't trained like that before. Happy to help and see huge numbers be pushed

 

[Oregongearhead]

I didnt catch what your max flat bench was Outlier ?

 

[Perrin Aybara]

I agree with @RodgerThat that you should go up to 2x/weekly benching or even 3x/weekly if you're already on 2x.

An example of 3x would look something like this:

Monday 260lbs 4 sets of 8
Wednesday 275lbs 5 sets of 6
Friday 315lbs 6 sets of 3 and rep out the sixth set

The next week add 5-10lbs to everything and repeat.

If you're used to 1x/weekly benching I'd just go to 2x first and get what you can out of that before moving to 3x. Might as well get the most out of each frequency increase.

 

[weighted chinup]

If you want a temporary approach that doesn't involve making dramatic changes to your current routine, do short microcycles of planned overreaching where you substantially increase weekly volume on Incline (increase frequency as well), followed by a deload. A regression in strength is to be expected during the overreaching phase (fatigue masks fitness) but ideally you should come back stronger FOLLOWING the deload week.

This is the most crude way and it's far from being the most efficient, but it's the simplest because you could literally keep everything else the same and use this to get stronger in a particular lift. I only recommend planned overreaching like this for very short term or close strength goals and generally used sporadically.

If you want to make changes to your routine that are more conducive to gaining strength (which is the ideal approach) then I would increase frequency for starters, increase intensity / % of 1rm that you work with, and include periodization technique(s) to handle recovery.

Lots of things you can do for this, the suggestions so far are what I would also recommend (changing intensity and volume requirements every day a movement is trained during the week). I'm having good success with this model.

The Daily Undulating Periodization (DUP) Bible - JMax Fitness

 

[Outlier]

I didnt catch what your max flat bench was Outlier ?

I haven't done flat bench press since 2007. My chest simply did not respond to flat bench in terms of hypertrophy. I do inclines, flies and I throw in declines. I have more volume in my chest than ever before. I suppose everyone is different

 

[RodgerThat]

I haven't done flat bench press since 2007. My chest simply did not respond to flat bench in terms of hypertrophy. I do inclines, flies and I throw in declines. I have more volume in my chest than ever before. I suppose everyone is different

If you want to increase your incline strength I would do flat bench for sure! Maybe it won't give you the hypertrophic you want but it's crucial for strength

 

[caveman72]

I thought the same but the home gym I have permits me to only flat bench and dips and inclined flyswatter and peckdeck
but I believe they all work. its all under tension. now if you slam shit up fast ya you will get strong but I learned if I do everything including flat bench with slow or moderate reps I get pumped and my chest is bigger than ever.
I love dips I actually feel dips to hit the whole chest as well.
good luck if you push that kinda weight I'm sure it shows on you're upper pectorals.

 

[Outlier]

I thought the same but the home gym I have permits me to only flat bench and dips and inclined flyswatter and peckdeck
but I believe they all work. its all under tension. now if you slam shit up fast ya you will get strong but I learned if I do everything including flat bench with slow or moderate reps I get pumped and my chest is bigger than ever.
I love dips I actually feel dips to hit the whole chest as well.
good luck if you push that kinda weight I'm sure it shows on you're upper pectorals.

Good point. When I use to do flat bench, I was basically ego lifting. Bouncing the bar, arching my back, etc... However, I adamantly believe flies have made a significant difference in the fullness of my chest. My upper pecs are nothing to gloat about. My arms and delts are really out of proportion to my chest. It's always been my lagging body part. Granted, having about 15% bodyfat doesn't help matters neither.

 

[Outlier]

If you want to increase your incline strength I would do flat bench for sure! Maybe it won't give you the hypertrophic you want but it's crucial for strength

I'm definitely going to incorporate it into my routine. Thanks for the advice