This workout was given to me by Frank Luna. Frank was an amateur Powerlifter in the Huntsville, Texas area for a quite a few years. He has since married and packed out to Arizona. Big Frank was capable of an 800+ squat and a 500+ bench, so I took this routine seriously when he lined it out for me. The first thing he told me about it was not to worry about singles. He said missing a single in practice could mess with your mind (it always didi mine). He said go for twos and threes, and don't worry if it's two or three. Singles are for competition, and in competition you always open with a weight you can triple. So this routine is based on triples. It also is the type of workout easily performed in your typical home gym. While it is not a "pure" hardgainer type routine, so what. It worked for me for a cycle, and somebody may br looking for something like this out there.
I am going to set up the schedule like a bencher with a 250lb. bench wanting to go higher. Frank said the same schedule works on squats and deadlifts, only the weight increases are in the 15-20 lbs. range each workout, It helped my deadlift, but didn't do much for my squat. However, it worked well with my bench press. Enough talking, Heres the routine.....
The cycle: (remeber this is for the 250 lb. bencher, adjust your weights up or down to your level):
week 1= 3 sets of 180 x 6
week 2=3 sets of 190 x 6
week 3=3 sets of 200 x 6
week 4=3 sets of 210 x 3
week 5= 3 sets of 220 x 3
week 6= 3 sets of 230 x 3
week 7= 3 sets of 190 x 6
week 8= 3 sets of 200 x 6
week 9= 3 sets of 210 x 6
week 10= 3 sets of 220 x 3
week 11 = 3 sets of 230 x 3
week 12 =3 sets of 240 x 3
This would (after 12 weeks) give about a 8-15 lb. increase in the bench press, with a new one-rep max in the vicinity of 260+. Doesn't sound like much, but it is a real number that can be acheived with hard work, unlike a lot of baloney about 60 lbs. in 6 weeks. And it probabaly won't bulk you up much, but should do wonders for over all strength. This strenght will carry over into increased gains once you get back into your "bodybuilding" routine. It also must be remebered that this is not a bench specialization routine. It is meant to be a part of an entire powerlifting routine. This routine could feasibly add 50 - 70 lbs. to a total.
I would do no more than 1 auxiallary exercise for no more than 2 sets per workout. I would probably eliminate the Thursday workout, but some people got to do biceps. So if that was the case I would limit it to 1-2 sets of bi's, calves, and light (pumping) bench. Remember, what ever you do to your biceps Thursday will be felt (in a bad way) Friday in your Deadlifts. Looking at it closer, if I were to use it again, I would space each workout at least 2 days apart, instead of one. I would also postpone a workout if I felt tired from the last one. This, of course, would lengthen the cycle quite a bit. However, I think you would increase gains cosiderably, and be less likely to burn out in the middle of the cycle. It is possible, doing it that way, to maybe add about 5 - 7 lbs on the final results.
Now I'm not a true powerlifter, so I'm open to suggestions. But the routine worked for me, adding about 12 lbs. to my bench in about 3 months (I said 2 months on last weeks page, I hadn't looked in my training log yet). Not too bad for a Hardgainer with about 4 1/2 years of training at that time. My Deadlift jumped about 35 lbs., my squat about 20. I probably overtrained because I just had to do that Thursday workout. I am a little wiser now.
This would (after 12 weeks) give about a 8-15 lb. increase in the bench press, with a new one-rep max in the vicinity of 260+. Doesn't sound like much, but it is a real number that can be acheived with hard work, unlike a lot of baloney about 60 lbs. in 6 weeks. And it probabaly won't bulk you up much, but should do wonders for over all strength. This strenght will carry over into increased gains once you get back into your "bodybuilding" routine. It also must be remebered that this is not a bench specialization routine. It is meant to be a part of an entire powerlifting routine. This routine could feasibly add 50 - 70 lbs. to a total.
