need help with weight-lifting info?

Question

my son (16) is bench pressing 124# trying to do 10 reps x 3. His arms are shaking at 5 reps and he is unable to bring the weights down to just above his chest. I do not know what is best and would like an expert's advice. Should he not take off a little weight and increase his reps then slowly add more weight? If so, how much should he take off and how many reps to increase? He is doing all this at home and I need to make sure he is not injuring himself. He is serious about training and wants to be in the special forces. Any help would be SO appreciated!

Answer 1

here's what i've read on a local mag and following for a quite some time.

start with 90% of 5 rep max in 4 sets with a constant weight. So, if your 5 rep max is 100lbs. you'll do 90lbs x 5 x 4. Within the next 4 weeks, increase weight by 5lbs. That would be 95lbs x 5 x 4. Do this until you reach 105lbs. Once he get at 105lbs do it for 2 weeks so he can allow his nervous system to recover. After this he can lower the # of sets and reps to 3 while still increasing the weight by 5 for another 4 weeks.

Answer 2

Your son needs the book "Complete Body Building" by Joe Weider. Excellent intro for beginning lifters.

He should also realize that he can't put on muscle rapidly. He needs to put on the weights that will allow him to do his presses easily the first time, set of 12, all done slowly up AND down. He should wait 1+1/2 to 2 minutes, then do the next set. Same for sets 3 and 4. If he can still do 12 reps on the 4th set, he is ready for a maximum 5 lb increase in weight. He should skip a day before doing the next set of exercises.

He should also consider doing something for the other areas of his body. Eventually he will look a little strange if he is only doing one upper body exercise.

Answer 3

First of all, he needs a strong spotter in case he gets in trouble... That's priority number one!

If he wants to build strength, it's probably good for him to do 5-6 sets of 5 reps of a heavier weight, rather than 3 sets of 10 reps of the same weight or lighter. His muscles need to be challenged, but doing 10 reps at a weight that is too high is dangerous.

Answer 4

What many people don't realize is the importance of not only lifting, but also, recovery. No matter what age, it's a good idea to take protein in order to build back hard muscle mass. How old are you? That's a crucial number. Another number (not important) is how much you're lifting. If you try to compare yourself with guys that live in the gym, you'll only depress yourself. I assume that by your question, you're doing bench. Make sure that you also incline bench. I'm sorry to say, but bench doesn't make your arms much bigger. Instead, your chest will gain size. If you want big arms, do tricep and shoulder exercises. Look it up on google or something for those. Just make sure you're getting protein, and try to workout for an hour. Good luck man. I'm anxious to hear results in a few months

Answer 5

He should be doing the routine as he is to exhaustion what I would suggest is that he do four sets to exhaustion when he is able to do ten reps for all four sets for a week straight then increase the weight. Do not increase the weight dramatically only 10-20 lbs per increase when he can do ten reps for four sets for at least a week increase by 10-20 lbs and so on and so on and so on. rest also plays a large part in the equation work pout every other day NOT every day on the same body part it is ok however to workout every day but on a different part each day. Diet will play a large part of him getting stronger he needs protien at least 1 gram of protien per pound of body weight that will fuel his muscles they are and they eat protien also tons of water at least a gallon per day.