chest only

[howdy1]

I compete in only bench, I was wondering how I should train for that. Should I drop deads adn squat or what, I had multiple surgeries on my leg so I only go farely light on the two things, so I was trying to just compete in bench.

[Deleted]

Hey Howdy,

I'm 24 and only been competing for a little over a year. I am in the same boat you are, bad knees don't really squat. I've recently started doing deadlift again and enjoy it. Deadlift may help strengthen your lower back, back is a big part of a solid bench. Haven't done a leg routine (squat) in over a year.

My I usually do chest 2x a week, and go heavy for both (Monday, Thurs). A lot of people don't do this for different reasons, but I feel that if I don't work chest twice a week I lose strength in the long run. My Monday's consist of flat bench (warmups than 3 heavy sets of no more than 3 reps), Dumbell incline heavy (3x8-10) and lockouts with boards (3x3 heavy). Thursday I do close-grip bench (warm-ups; 3x3 heavy), flat dumbell (3x8-10 heavy), and declines (warmups; 3x3 heavy).

Of course, I mix other upperbody parts in at different times during the week (shoulders, back, tris, bis).

[Deleted]

I forgot to add, since I started competing in Nov'05 my bench went from 365lbs. - to about my current 455-465lbs

[abebesheir]

That's a really nice increase in a short period of time, monster! I, too, bench on Mondays and Thursdays... I also go heavy both times.
On Mondays, I do some heavy singles then a couple of back-off triples... a paused drop set... close grips for 5s and 3s... and shoulder press
On Thursdays, I do board work for heavy triples... and light tricep assistence.
This got me from struggling with 275 to doing 300 with roon to spare... all in the span of a couple of months.
I can't DL or squat right now due to a lower back injury, but normally my split would look like:

Mon- as above
Wed- squat, pause squat, goodmornings, calves & abs
Thu- as above
Sat- deadlift, DL off blocks, power cleans, shrugs, abs