How Would You Train For The 225 Rep Test…
How much time you got? First I would try to get your max strength up, then focus on endurance work.
yeah what bsmith said as well as your stats.
Agreed, first due maximum strength and then do muscular endurance as the event approaches.
in most cases i would train both simultaneously.
I have done this in the past and I was able to get 18 reps at 225; however I still feel that the sequencing would be best.
i agree both can work. if i was working them together, i’d have a ME day and then an endurance day. is that how you did it?
No, the way I did it was doing bench twice a week and this is what the lifting scheme looked like,
Warmup on bike,
9x135 Warmup
18x225
3x315
1x335
3x315
16x225
is was the old pyramid system that was forced down my throat by my Physical Education teachers. This was done a long time ago. I no longer do it.
i think a good way to go about the 225 test is to bench 2 times per week
on day 1 lets say you want to do 20 reps as your goal
then take 225 and do 4 sets of 5 reps
with as little time as possible between sets
example do 225X5 take 5 sec 225 x5 take 10 sec 225 X5 take 15 seconds and maybe you cannot get one more set of 5, so then do 3 reps. then wait a few seconds and do two more reps. make sure you accelerate each reps to your fullest don’t slack on the first few sets becaus they seem easy. eventually you will work up to 225 for 4 sets of 5 with almost no rest and 225 for 20 reps on testing day will be in each reach.
finish workout with 185 and do as many reps as possible. and some high reps triceps.
day 2
mix it up each week with different rep schemes going heavy and medium.
i know many people who have increased their maxes in the bench, yet their reps at 225 may only increase by one rep. i think you have to train at least once per week with lots of reps
learn to bounce the crap out of the bar off your chest 
…no I am just kidding I think??? I wish I wasn’t so weak so I could give you advice…(Strengthen those Tri’s MAN!!!) Also maybe try to learn to set up in a Powerlifting format, with leg drive and arch so you move the bar as little as possible…just to add about the bouncing I think maybe this would not be a bad idea as I saw that most of the guys who banged out huge amounts of reps at the combine bouncied that bar like basketball of their chests!!! One more thing, if you have been following the schroeder posts, the iso extreme push up holds with a db on your back of up to 30% of your weight…held in the bottom position has " Coach Schroeder had one of his athletes add 18 reps onto his 225lb bench test by just doing extreme push ups. The athlete never even touched a barbell." :eek:
Without specifically training for it I’ve done 225x20 @155 pounds. My 1Rep Max at that time was around 330.
The stronger you get (the higher your 1 rep max is) the more reps you are going to be able to get. For a person with a 400 pound 1 rep max 225 is only 56% and if you max is 365 it is 61%. You can do more reps with a weight that is less % of your 1 rep max obviosuly. So in training for this test I would train for max strength. In addition to the max strength training I would actually practice with 225 doing depletion sets. Resting 1-2 mins in between and going again. Ex. set 1- 225x20 set 2 225x12 set 3 225x8 etc. In my opinion 4 sets should be enough. Of course this would be very taxing so I would use it sparingly in certain blocks depending on how long you’ve got to prepare for the test.
Asd123,
Great video. Thanx man.
^HOW THE HECK DO YOU BENCH SO MUCH?
how long have youve been lifting?
on May 14th and May 16th I am going to be doing the Bench Press test one of them is with 150 lbs and the other is 185 lbs. Right now I am training ME after track practice so my numbers are suffering but still improving at a slow pace. I did 240 lbs for 4 reps on the Bench Press last monday and considering I have about 4 weeks before the combine how should I set up my Bench Press workouts to best benefit myself?
this seem to work very well for me when training for my tryouts…
225 max reps
25 tubing presses
rest 3min
repeat SET 1
165 max reps
25 tubing presses
rest 2min
repeat SET 2
135 max reps
25 tubing presses
do this on mon and thur along with some back work. if you really want some quicker gains try adding 150 pushups per night for 14 nights stright… this method took my 225 from 12reps to 22 reps in 4 weeks.
goodluck
What is a tubing press?
just take those exercise bands from walmart and wrap it around a pole and just press them out. its those latex tubing that the fittness models use, u could also replace them with 25 pushups but those are very hard…