Progressions. How to go from that 185lb bench to 225 and beyond. This has to be done through progressive overload meaning increasing training stimulus over time to elicit a greater maximal strength response. This can be done numerous ways. Here is our first foundational way you can program for yourself or you’ll see in programs you may follow.
1. Linear Progression: the classic, the staple and where every lifter starts. As it sounds you progress in a linear fashion. From one session to the next to you add weight and continue with the set and rep scheme utilized. This continues until perhaps you fail completing the set number of reps and sets and may repeat this same weight the following week before increasing or take a Deload or change your method of progressing but in its simplest form linear progression intensity increases session to session. How this may look:
Week 1 5x5 135lb
Week 2 5x5 140lb
Week 3 5x5 145 lb (but you only get two reps on that last set)
Week 4 repeat week 3 at 145lb and you get all 5 sets of 5 then you progress onward
Week 5 5x5 150lb
Linear progression just works and often works for people longer than they think. Many programs have a variation on linear progression that is modified and adjusted but in its simplest form you add weight week to week for the exercise you are progressing.