Thread: Im kinda on a platuea with my bench press...what can i do?

Welcome to the board Luke

There's many factors that can cause your bench to stop going up, Diet, can be one of the big factors here, especially for a teen.
At 15, if your able to bench 200, your doing great so don't be to hard on yourself.

What are you doing for chest exercises, and how often?
What does the rest of your body routine look like?
How's your diet and rest now?

We'll need more info to help you out.

Ussually on chest day i start out with flat bench and do about 5 sets, go to decline do about 3 sets, and go to incline and do about 3 sets. Then i will do about 3-4 sets of cable crossovers. Im doing chest every about once every 72 hours. I suppose it could be my diet cuz i dont eat that great. I get alot of protein but thats about it lol. I do legs just about every 72 hours and back about every 72 hours.

If I have read this correctly, you work out chest once every 3 days, legs once every 3 days, and back once every 3 days. Assuming you are doing each body part on a different day, I see exactly ZERO days of rest. Also, 14-15 sets for chest on this schedule is overtraining. Try adding a rest day every 4th day and perhaps reducing the number of sets by about a third.

Indeed..I smell some overtraining here. Too much going on in one workout..break it up a bit..Also, in addition to rest and etc...try mixing it up...throw some different exercises in there...try dumbells instead of barbell for flat bench...or hammer strength...do some incline/decline flyes...hell, what about pushups? those don't hurt either..shock and suprise your body...Yesterday I did:

Hammer Strength Machine..3 sets 8-12 reps
Incline Dumbells ....3 sets 8-12
Decline barbell press 3 sets 8-12..
Flat flyes...3 x 8-12

I usually throw in some variety from week to week just as long as I keep stuff there to work the muscles...maybe some decline flyes this week and inclines the next...don't get stuck in a routine for too long or you'll definitely plateau..

Like the others said, it helps to change things up if you've been doing the same thing for a long time.

Here's my chest routine (courtesy of Gopro)
Week 1

Bench Press 3 set x 4-6rep
Incline Press 3 set x 6-8rep
Decline Flyes 3 set x 10-12rep

Week 2

Decline Bench 3 sets x 6-8reps
Incline Dumbells 3 sets x 6-8reps
Flat Flye 3 set x 6-8rep
Weighted Dips 2 set x 6-8rep

Week 3

Incline Fly 2 set x 8-10 supersetted with.....
Bench Press 2 set x 8-10rep

Pec Deck or crossover 2 x 8-10 supersetted with Incline Bench 2 set x 8-10rep

Weighted Dips Drop Set....enough wt. to get 4-5 reps, drop the wt. and get another 4-5, take all wt. off (just bodyweight) and go till failure.... only one set of this.

Repeat after 3 weeks. Your chest will grow like a weed!!

a 200 pound bench has nothing to do with genetics. You could not have a solid enough foundation or "back". Your supporters maybe lacking or " triceps and shoulders". Try working on those muscles as they could be slightly under par, which will definitely increase your bench poundages. Also try a 5x5 rep scheme. It has worked wonders for my bench.

There a million things you can do to help.

You have already received the single best peice of advice, however. REST.

You are a novice, what you have done so far is fine. Hell, you can probably bench more than anyone you know. Now you need to cut it back a notch. Do each BP once every 5 days. At least one, if not 2 of those days should be an off day.

Simply doing this will produce enormous gains. When you learn how to focus more energy and intesity into each set you can cut back the volume, but for your age and for your relative length in time in this sport if you want to keep the number of sets its fine.

In another six months to a year, you'll want to cut back the volume more, training each BP only once per week. Don't jump ahead and do that now, you'll miss out on all those gains in the meantime.

Don't bother mixing up rountines (assume you have a solid foundation, and you do for chest). Its not necessary in the slightest until you get MUCH more advanced.

Most importantly KEEP IT UP! You have a great foundation, make sure you continue to learn and enjoy!

try doing close grip bench presses on tri's day it adds at least 25 pounds to your max bench press

Thanks yall for all the advice. I'm really glad i'm part of this board.