Bench press or dips?

[MetalFortress]

I am going to start an 8 lift EDT routine, 4 upper body and 4 lower body lifts. I'm not sure whether to do bench presses, incline bench, dumbbell incline, dumbbell flat bench, or dips in the routine. Which one works more overall muscles (I'm guessing the bench press) and is better for overall mass and strength?

 

[NEWBIE101]

They're both good IMO. So why not do both?

Incline DB Press
Flat DB Press
Dips
DB Flyes

and you should be set.

 

[MetalFortress]

I said an 8 lift, all compound lift, EDT routine. And I'm not doing two lifts for the same muscle groups. My upper body day will consist of DB bent rows, bent presses, push presses (or military presses), and dips/bench/bench variation. I'm not kicking off any of those lifts so I can hit the same muscle group twice.

 

[gym addict]

I'd go with Incline DB. Just my .02

 

[Templeton]

Newbie, you missed the whole point of his question and the type of training he is talking about.

How many days per week are you training in total Girevik? I'm not quite clear. EDT - Escalating Density Training I am assume? I might be tempted to alternate benches and inclines and always do dips anyway. They are a great all-round upper body movement. Routines like this often include a barbell chest movement AND dips. Either way, this kind of programme is a good approach to training. It's good to get away from the conventional bodybuilding type training and do whole body power and strength stuff for a couple of months now and then. Remember, most of the old time bodybuilders used to train in such a way.

 

[MetalFortress]

3 days per week - first week is 2 upper body days, 1 lower body day, and the second week is the other way around, on a MWF basis. I don't want to throw two exercises in for the same muscle groups, because I don't want to ditch the bent press, and ditching the push press and bentover rows are simply out of the question.

I've never trained like a bodybuilder - I trained using olympic singles and crap for awhile, then switched to disorganized 5-rep routines later on, and now I'm organizing it a bit more, but still keepin it pretty loose.

 

[MetalFortress]

Search www.dragondoor.com or www.bodybuilding.com for Mike Mahler's "EDT + Kettlebell = Major size and strength!" article. I'm doing a routine similar to his setup.

 

[NEWBIE101]

Ok I'm sorry about that I'd go with incline db presses actually then.

Just my opinion, I think a regular split would give you better gains.

 

[MetalFortress]

A challenge to you NEWBIE101

Check out this article:

http://www.dragondoor.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl?rm=mode2&articleid=168

This is what I'm doing. Try it out in similar fashion with all compound lifts. This will help build strength and mass. The only difference in what I'm doing is that the second PR zone is 20 minutes in my workout, not 15 minutes. Here is my setup:

LOWER BODY DAY
PR ZONE 1: Olympic cleans, two KB snatches
PR ZONE 2: Olympic snatches, KB/DB walking lunges

UPPER BODY DAY
PR ZONE 1: DB/KB bent press, DB/KB/BB push press
PR ZONE 2: DB/KB bentover rows, (insert tricep/chest exercise here)

I've been doing a limited version with different lifts for awhile, using only a 54 lb kettlebell and a rail for dips, but I've gotten a lot stronger off of it (and lost fat, and gained muscle), and more or less grown out of it. Once I start this EDT, my gains are going to skyrocket.