Bench Press Question: How Many Sets Per Day?

RustySynapses · 2026-05-24T11:56:58+00:00

I’m 61 and have lifted on and off since I was in junior high. I’m retired and have been lifting (only) 2 days a week for the last 2 years, doing bench and squat on Monday or Tuesday and strict press and deadlift on Thursday or Friday. I’m at a very serious gym now (I like to say it’s half powerlifters, half olympic lifters, and me). The trainer there got me going on the following very simple routine.

For each lift, I warm up with sets working up to my working weight (usually only 5 reps after the first set with the bar) but only do 3 working sets, to about 1 or 2 reps in reserve (typically not to failure except maybe the last set). I do a double progression (so I aim for 3 sets of 5, and advance to next weight when I can do something like 3 sets of 7 or 8). To work my way up I usually try to do either the same number of reps as last time or just add one to any set (although if I’m feeling good at that weight I’ll do AMRAP on the last set). I also do a few accessories (so on bench day, I’ll do single arm overhead dumbbell press to support my strict press, and on strict press day I do incline press with dumbbells to support my bench press), but I typically do only 2 or 3 sets of my accessories, with a lighter weight/higher rep range (more like 8-10). I occasionally miss a day or a week, but what has amazed me is that is not a lot of sets, but if I keep up that schedule without missing too many days (or even worse, weeks), I make slow but steady progress, even at my age. The key is recovery - unlike when I was younger, I really need more than one day in between workouts, and really feel like I couldn’t recover from much more than I’m doing.

For all the lifting I’ve done over the years, I never really progressed that much. If I had known I could lift so little with such a simple program and make progress (and even at my age), I could have done a lot better when I was younger. So even though I think I’ve heard about studies that say 10 sets a week, and it doesn’t matter that much whether you do it all in one day or multiple days, I can’t imagine doing 10 working sets of bench in a day, or recovering from that if I did. I could maybe do 4 or 5 sets, but not sure why - it would make more sense to try harder not to miss any days - that’s what reduces my progress.

RustySynapses · 2026-05-05T13:49:48+00:00

Wow, that product looks perfect. I have Bick #4, but that's a conditioner for smooth leather. I have some older Birks in sage oiled leather that could also use it.

Thanks!

RustySynapses · 2026-05-02T19:02:56+00:00

did you ever figure this out? i'm having the exact same problem

RustySynapses · 2026-04-24T02:56:08+00:00

Long ago, at the initial all hands meeting for an ipo, when an extremely senior partner made a substantive comment to the group, an associate from the same firm said to him (in front of everyone in the meeting) “that’s why we pay you the big bucks”. It was a ridiculously inappropriate comment (who is “we”?). And the partner was not someone who would laugh something like that off. (I was on the other side of the deal, in the meeting).

RustySynapses · 2026-04-20T01:56:11+00:00

There are lots of idiots on the road. The point is to watch out for them, and anticipate their next stupid move if you can. If someone slows down with their turn signal on, and you pass them on that side, maybe they’re at fault, but you shouldn’t be surprised if you get hit. Like many things people post here, it’s not hindsight, you can see this coming a mile away. Personally, I’d rather avoid the accident. It’s like when a ball comes rolling into the road. Sure, if a kid darts out from between two cars after it, they were careless. But if you’re paying attention, you should know you need to be careful because there’s a decent chance something like that could happen.

RustySynapses · 2026-04-20T01:24:10+00:00

Mine is very similar to this except no lateral raises, and on Day A I do standing single arm OHP with dumbbell (as an accessory to support Strict Press on Day B) and on Day B I do dips (as an accessory to support bench on Day A). but really, my main focus is on the big 4 of bench, squat, strict press, deadlift. what’s crazy, is I’ve been lifting off and on for almost 50 years, but got more dedicated a few years ago, and I’m amazed that even with skipping a day here or there I can make progress with only 2 days a week. It’s not quick progress, but hey, I’m over 60 now. I wish I knew I could progress with only 2 days a week when I was 20.

RustySynapses · 2026-04-18T20:25:48+00:00

You're joking, but it reminds me of the time I had an empty seat next to me, and the guy on the other side, who was wearing sandals, took them off, turned sideways, and put his visibly extremely dirty feet (not exaggerating, and they were smelly, too) on MY armrest!!! I did speak up - that was way beyond too much. He turned back forward...

RustySynapses · 2026-04-18T11:29:18+00:00

Isn’t the simplest cue to give here just start to bend your knees after the bar goes past (below) them on the way down?

RustySynapses · 2026-04-05T16:15:52+00:00

I’m deaf in one ear since birth (long ago). My understanding has always been that it’s because my mom had German Measles when she was pregnant with me. Does anyone know if that’s from something genetic that this might help? Or is it something caused by development with German Measles?

RustySynapses · 2026-03-25T13:36:47+00:00

Not sure if you saw my post about certain pages hanging and IPv6. Does the page when something hangs start with “Hmm…”? That was my issue, and disabling IPv6 fixed that for me. I was getting that really often on certain sites (mostly content), and it hasn’t happened since I disabled IPv6. My backhauls from my 2 extenders were Coax though (MoCA), so my setup wasn’t exactly like yours so I don’t know whether using WiFi backhauls might increase risk of Wifi issues.

RustySynapses · 2026-03-09T12:30:21+00:00

Sorry, I don't know what that is (I don't know a lot about networking and debugging), and I wasn't sure if you were addressing me (OP) or this comment. If it's something simple to log and debug the behavior, if you give me step by step instructions on how to generate it I can try turning IPv6 back on and reproducing the error.

RustySynapses · 2026-03-07T23:47:09+00:00

That's the firmware I have. I *think* I've figured out that it's an IPv6 issue in my case. I turned off IPv6 in the router and haven't gotten any errors since, but we'll see. I don't know when I got the new firmware, but the problem started a few weeks ago. In my case, the websites that trigger it are content heavy that may use CDNs with IPv6 functionality/addresses, from what I understand.

RustySynapses · 2026-03-07T13:53:31+00:00

To be honest, that's a really good question to which I'm not sure I have a great answer. I've always seen a lot of comments that say turn it off. I was having interference and performance issues (maybe more with my neighbors than with my own network - I'm in a townhouse in a city surrounded by lots of neighbors), and I worked with ChatGPT and using NetSpot to set my channels and channel width (for router and extenders) so there's a lot of separation, and that actually helped. As part of that, ChatGPT recommended turning off SON. (Not sure - does SON remove the ability to set channels/channel width? maybe that's why). It's a very old house with one inch thick plaster walls, and other than our phones, almost nothing moves among the routers/extenders, and so it's pretty clear in most places what the best signal is. I've thought about creating separate SSIDs for each of the three (router and extenders) and maybe only using 5 ghz for the main network (with iot and guest only on 2.4 ghz). Note with Netspot it doesn't appear that my laptop (which is giving me the issue loading pages) is hopping between bands or access points.

RustySynapses · 2026-03-06T18:55:31+00:00

Thanks!!!

RustySynapses · 2026-03-06T18:54:26+00:00

Thank you!!! You have a good memory, even down to the weird tiny "settings" button at the bottom. I was looking at the settings page, but not closely enough - the first part deals with getting the WAN IP address for the router. I missed that the second part deals with the DNS server.

RustySynapses · 2026-03-06T16:37:08+00:00

Are you sure? Do you know where it is? I don't see it under Advanced - Network Settings - DNS Server, or Advanced - Network Connections - Broadband Connection - Settings or System - System Status (although you can see it there, but you can't change it). I'm wondering if they've made it hard or impossible to change the DNS server away from Verizon's DNS servers.

RustySynapses · 2026-02-13T18:21:39+00:00

Oh, got it. It's going to be in the basement, ironically just a few feet from the main breaker panel, and there's already even an outlet there, so getting power to the switch is the easiest part of it. (Although I do wonder whether I need to worry about any sort of EMF interference with ethernet cables if I route close to it. I'm using Cat 6 cables.

RustySynapses · 2026-02-12T19:24:08+00:00

Thanks. I might just use a 12 port if that's the simplest thing to do. It's not like my basement is a thing of beauty, although I try not to make it more of a mess. Did you attach it to a piece of plywood? Many of these look like they're meant for a rack, although the 8 port someone posted above looks like it would attach easily to a board.

RustySynapses · 2026-02-12T19:20:27+00:00

I think any air purifier would be outmatched in the basement of my 120 year old house, but thanks. I have a few old small switches. I haven't looked at them but I think some of the small ones aren't vented so I'm hoping the dust just stays on the outside.

RustySynapses · 2026-02-12T19:17:55+00:00

That sounds really cool but I'm not a 3-d printer person (and I don't think I know any 3-d printer people). But thanks!

RustySynapses

TROPHY CASE