09-05-2015, 10:05 AM
(09-05-2015, 09:33 AM)Drederick Tatum Wrote: What's a decent weight for a complete novice to be benching?
I wouldn`t think of it as an arbitrary number, more the maximum amount of weight you can do with good form for 5 reps.
Literally start with the bar and pump out a set of 10 to warm-up and make a judgement based on that, if it feels easy, try a 10 kg plate on each side and go from there. If that set of 5 is still easy, try 15 or 20 kg per side. Better to go light and work up than to try to go heavy and end up doing the roll of shame on your first go.
If you can manage 5 sets of 5 at a given weight, add the 1.25 kg plates to your weight next time, you`ll probably find the weight shoots up in the first few weeks so don`t get disheartened if you start out very light.