question about PL routines

[HOLLYWOOD]

i've been chattin with some olympic trainers for powerlifters and actual olympic lifters when they'er all telling me they're say benching like 5 times a week !!! now i don't understand because i follow a BB's routine but am thinking about trying out a PL's routine because they all have huge shoulders,chest,traps,legs bigger than alot of BB's i know ! know my questions, how do you PL's not over train your chest if you're working it 5 times a week i know you're only doing like 1 exercise with 3 sets and single or a couple reps but still the amount of weight used is still putting a huge amount of stress on your chest and yet it still grows! i want to develope a routine utilizing these techniques because i get my best results using the basics (bench,squats,bent rows,chin,military) so how do you guys explain not overtraining a muscle group if you are working it almost everyday ?

[slobberknocker]

i've been chattin with some olympic trainers for powerlifters and actual olympic lifters when they'er all telling me they're say benching like 5 times a week !!! now i don't understand because i follow a BB's routine but am thinking about trying out a PL's routine because they all have huge shoulders,chest,traps,legs bigger than alot of BB's i know ! know my questions, how do you PL's not over train your chest if you're working it 5 times a week i know you're only doing like 1 exercise with 3 sets and single or a couple reps but still the amount of weight used is still putting a huge amount of stress on your chest and yet it still grows! i want to develope a routine utilizing these techniques because i get my best results using the basics (bench,squats,bent rows,chin,military) so how do you guys explain not overtraining a muscle group if you are working it almost everyday ?

There's a difference between olympic lifting and powerlifting. Sounds like you have them confused.

PL'ers don't "train their chest" really, but they bench. I don't know anyone who benches 5 times a week. Most I've heard of is twice.

Some Oly lifters hit the same muscles several times in a week. Oly lifting is different though. A lot of the lifts have no eccentric, so they won't cause hardly any muscle soreness. So I could see how an olympic lifter could train the clean or snatch several times in a week.

[HOLLYWOOD]

ive also read that sports doctors and surgeons are now saying that after 36-48hours (depending on the person but 48hrs is the max) your muscle fibres are healed and after this amount of time atrophy starts to take affect they also say that no matter how hard you train a muscle it will only tear as much as your body allows it and as as much as your muscle allows it to before you begin to real train beyond repair , so any extra work done you will not necessarily benefit from it because your muscle fibres have been already been worked to it's maximum expansion and anymore lifting will cause over training and damaging of the muscle ! but i dunno they're the doctors not me but they would know because this was said by a doctor that repairs muscles which in return he must know everything there is to know about the skeletal system ! this just kind of got me thinking ! hit me with your comments on this ! ]

[echobeach]

No way do Powerlifters 'train chest' 5 times a week!

Benching twice or thrice is the max...

Olympic lifting is a whole different kettle of fish - you can snatch (or C/J), 4-5 times a week,and do it naturally - provided your nutrition and rest is up to speed.

If you are looking for a basic size increase, try one of the myriad of Powerlifting Bench routines out there - and remember, training for strength will by definition bring about an increase in size - for the athlete who hasn't already reached his genetic maximum...

If you want to get really big - throw in heavy squats too - as far as the big three lifts go for strength and size; they rule...

[saboudian]

I beleive some of the soviets back in the day used to train bench up to 48 times a week or something to that effect.

As far as the comment about muscle recovery between 36-48 hrs, there really is too many factors to consider to actually measure this. If one person does 1 set and takes in 500g of protein vs a person who volume trains for 90min and takes in barely any protein, they will obviously recover much differently. There's tons of other factors too, this is just a lil example, obviously genetics would also be a huge factor.

As far as OLY training goes, most use PLing splits, and the ones that don't are pretty much the dumb ones(as the consensus seems to be).

If you do decide to use a PLing split, my suggestions would be to do what it says, don't try to mess around and turn it into a BBing split. Also find yourself a serious partner, because PLing is definitely a team sport.