# FITNESS and NUTRITION FORUM > WORKOUT AND TRAINING >  Chest - once a week or twice?

## jg42058p

Some guys I've noticed around here suggest benching twice a week but with fewer sets on both days


What do you think is better for gaining strength? Once a week or twice?
How many sets would you suggest doing?


My goals are strength. I'm not using steroids .
I do have a bruised rotator cuff, but its gotten better as I do the shoulder twists used for strengthening my rotator cuff..

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## ayomacs

I suggest taking a look and seeing what others do . Therefore you will have an idea on what good exersizes are. If you have low self confidence some of the exersizes of what people are doing will help boost you confidence.

example : 
chest:

ROTATE weights from highest to lowest when most energy is used

2 x 12 = chest flys (? sets) :
2 x 12 = fly machine 
2 x 12 = push up on knees = 30
2 x 12 = flat bench
2 x 12 = upper bench
2 x 12 = de cline bench

= now if you add all the _calculations_ on _routine_ , its not bad

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## blacspydr0

I think itd be better to go once a week and lift heavy...

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## MuscleScience

I would only hit it once a week. The shoulder is a delicate joint/joints and needs time to recover.

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## ridedivefx

I would suggest once a week but I usually go crazy with it - many reps, mix of many exercises and both heavy light and supersets and the entire routines differs the next time i get back to chest

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## gettingBIGGERfast

if strength is your main goal, twice a week with less volume would be a better option.

Doing the movement more frequently (and heavy) will lead to better neuro-muscular development...thereby making you more efficient at the lift.

Strength training and bodybuilding can be two very different things

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## Win369

> I would suggest once a week but I usually go crazy with it - many reps, mix of many exercises and both heavy light and supersets and the entire routines differs the next time i get back to chest


agreed!

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## verino

> if strength is your main goal, twice a week with less volume would be a better option.
> 
> Doing the movement more frequently (and heavy) will lead to better neuro-muscular development...thereby making you more efficient at the lift.
> 
> Strength training and bodybuilding can be two very different things


that makes no sense. you say do it twice a week but less volume. then you say " Doing the movement more frequently (and heavy)" ....so you say less volume 2 times a week but then do it heavy hmmm

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## Edgar

on some lifting programs like DC you will hit bodyparts twice a week but not the next week. only once on a two day split program.

example incline smith machine 6 sets is all you will do 3 are warmups and you are done with chest will not do chest again for 4 days than the following week on a two day split program. you will only hit chest once that week.

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## kickinit

> Some guys I've noticed around here suggest benching twice a week but with fewer sets on both days
> 
> 
> What do you think is better for gaining strength? Once a week or twice?
> How many sets would you suggest doing?
> 
> 
> My goals are strength. I'm not using steroids .
> I do have a bruised rotator cuff, but its gotten better as I do the shoulder twists used for strengthening my rotator cuff..


I think twice is ok but it also depends on your spread(workout).

Pyramid workouts will help your strength go up dramatically IMHO. 5 or 7 sets to complete your workout. Search it since I just worked out and time for my hot bath my arms are ready to POP...

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## quarry206

it all depends on your body type, your body's limits

if your goal is strength once a week high volume heavy weight. and maybe a super light day for speed drills.

your CNS gets burnt out from heavy weight.. don't let people trick you.. if you aren't juicing i wouldn't do more than one heavy day a week. and no more than 2 or 3 super heavy days a month..

i'm not a pro but i put up around 2.2 times my body weight raw on bench (no juice) and i do heavy bench on day one of my split and then a 2 set 40% work out on day 4 of my split and only three heavy weeks out of every four.

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## gettingBIGGERfast

> that makes no sense. you say do it twice a week but less volume. then you say " Doing the movement more frequently (and heavy)" ....so you say less volume 2 times a week but then do it heavy hmmm


How does this not make sense?

volume = number of reps not weight....

I say more frequent as in number of time per week.

Best for strength is higher frequency, more sets, less reps. You should use near you maximal wight because you muscle recruitment pattern is different at heavy weights (ie: above 80% 1RM).

Look at how powerlifters or olympic lifters train.... thing they train like bodybuilders? Hell no.

Besides all that, strength is very lift specific. You want a big bench, you need to bench. I don't think doing flies is really going to increase your bench, ya know?

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## gettingBIGGERfast

> it all depends on your body type, your body's limits
> 
> if your goal is strength once a week high volume heavy weight. and maybe a super light day for speed drills.
> 
> your CNS gets burnt out from heavy weight.. don't let people trick you.. if you aren't juicing i wouldn't do more than one heavy day a week. and no more than 2 or 3 super heavy days a month..
> 
> i'm not a pro but i put up around 2.2 times my body weight raw on bench (no juice) and i do heavy bench on day one of my split and then a 2 set 40% work out on day 4 of my split and only three heavy weeks out of every four.


You get CNS burn out from going to failure. You can still lift heavy without going to failure. 

1) Just lift heavy, 
2) always finish you workout just short of failure (if you can't lift the weight yourself, don't lower it)
3) lift frequently, 3 times per week is good
4) lift in the 1-3 rep range. (some like 3-5, depends on the person)

why do you think 5x5 training works so well for beginners and intermediates? You lift heavy, you lit frequently, you stop short of failure, you make sure to progress. You learn how to become efficient at the movement.

You might wanna look into west side barbell training.

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## gettingBIGGERfast

> Some guys I've noticed around here suggest benching twice a week but with fewer sets on both days
> 
> 
> What do you think is better for gaining strength? Once a week or twice?
> How many sets would you suggest doing?
> 
> 
> My goals are strength. I'm not using steroids .
> I do have a bruised rotator cuff, but its gotten better as I do the shoulder twists used for strengthening my rotator cuff..


are there specific lifts you are trying to get stronger on?

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## quarry206

gettingbiggerfast.. i don't dis agree with what your saying but at the same time if u really looking into the strength only side of it 5x5 or 3x3 or any block training set is only good for a short peroid of time, powerlifters use those mostly for peaking or setting themselfs up for a longer rountine.. i have used 3x3 a few times (german block training) but even in those workouts u use 40-60 percent during your load phases. and the typical 5-9 week u only lift heavy once a week.

and why they work so well on biggers is they force volume into muscles not use to the movement.

but i will dis agree on ur CNS burning out. if you are truely lifting "heavy" (80% or higher of your 1RM) u will burn out or have injury.. ask any powerlifter that actually has any kind of good numbers and they will say they fit in either off weeks or deload weeks. that is why even tho the concept of westside is good, it causes alot of injurys in people who fallow it to the letter. but everybody is different, diet,size, level, deadication so many factors.

the basic concept behind westside lifting is two days a week on the big three lifts, on ME day (Max effort) and one day DE (dynamic effort). which is what i said i did do day one heavy (me) day 4 speed work at 40%-60% (DE).. 

if you want to get stronger in any muscle group or single lift the best thing is design a program that mix's volume and weight. tweak it down to your bodies level and stick with it. and always remember the muscles that support it have to be strong also. you can't have a massive bench of u don't have good tri's,delts,lats and a few others. just like squat uses about ten muscle groups besides your quads and glutes

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## gettingBIGGERfast

I think it goes without saying that any effective will have some type of periodization in place. Really, it should have multiple levels within a week.

As far as burning out from lifting heavy, surely if you lift heavy every workout and continue to do so week after week you will fatigue and burn out you CNS. However, I think an y single heavy session is minimally damaging to the CNS given that you don't go to complete failure. 

I would say something like...
2 x 12 = chest flys (? sets) :
2 x 12 = fly machine
2 x 12 = push up on knees = 30
2 x 12 = flat bench
2 x 12 = upper bench
2 x 12 = de cline bench

is going to be much more draining on you CNS than 5 sets of 5 bench press at 80 % 1 RM. Furthermore, you could do 5x5 3 times a week. No doubt something like the above will lead to more hypertrophy, but undoubtedly 5x5 will lead to better strength.

Certainly, west side barbells method of speed work on dynamic ways is a good way to minimize the risk of over training. But this still falls under the category of lifting the same movement patterns more frequently, just with different goals.

Without knowing the current state of the original posters training and strength, it is really hard to detail the best program for his needs.

My MAIN point in all of this was, strength training does not equal bodybuilding, and typically a once a week split is less than ideal for strength purposes.

Really, any details past that are moot at this point as we really know nothing of the original poster....he hasn't been back to this thread since starting it.

Also, I agree that some supplementary work is often necessary to fix weak points on any movement, but first those need to be identified. Of course you can't have a big bench without good delts, tri, lats, etc.... but benching works those muscles....dumbell flyes don't

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