Thread: Best Plateau Buster for Benchpress

I would go heavy on flat and incline dumbbells for a while.

whats your warmups look like ? Are you warming up the muscles or fatiguing them before you get to the working sets? I'm way guilty of the later.

Deadlifts

Seriously, it helped me break through plateaus in bench.

Stop heavy flat benching and move onto something else. If you train the same movement every week at 90% or heavier (5 reps about), you will after about the 3rd week overtain your CNS.

However it depends why you are stuck, which is what you need to judge yourself. Your back or triceps could be holding you back, who knows.

Originally Posted by Mudge

Stop heavy flat benching and move onto something else. If you train the same movement every week at 90% or heavier (5 reps about), you will after about the 3rd week overtain your CNS.

However it depends why you are stuck, which is what you need to judge yourself. Your back or triceps could be holding you back, who knows.

using myself as an example:

i got 245 for 2 on flat bench, then i switched to floor presses for three weeks linearly periodizing from triples to singles and just yesterday i flat benched again and hit 255 for 3 easy reps, probably could've hit it for 5-6 if i had a spotter around and i was just going for 1 all out set.

Originally Posted by gwcaton

whats your warmups look like ? Are you warming up the muscles or fatiguing them before you get to the working sets? I'm way guilty of the later.

Warmup 135 x 10
185 x 8
205 x3 x3 x3
Last two sessions I've done 215 x 1 after the triplet.

Inc Flyes 35x10, 40X9, 45x7
Inc DB Press 70x10, 75x7, 80x4
Pec Dec 120x10, 130x8, 140x6
Decline Super Slow machine 220x6

This is my chest day, after this I work biceps two exercises for six sets, the last one being a hammer curl dropset.

Originally Posted by snoogans

Warmup 135 x 10
185 x 8
205 x3 x3 x3
Last two sessions I've done 215 x 1 after the triplet.

Inc Flyes 35x10, 40X9, 45x7
Inc DB Press 70x10, 75x7, 80x4
Pec Dec 120x10, 130x8, 140x6
Decline Super Slow machine 220x6

This is my chest day, after this I work biceps two exercises for six sets, the last one being a hammer curl dropset.

17 sets for chest is a bit much IMO. I only do 9-12 sets and I'm making very nice gains. More is not always better.

I have gone as high as 18 sets for back and I think 14 for chest, and there is no way I'd do 14 sets now. However some people do condition themselves to do that kind of volume, Metal Militia powerlifters do rather high volume that I look at and picture myself just hurting and getting hurt far too often.

Why flys AND pec deck???

Originally Posted by Mudge

Why flys AND pec deck???

Incline flys and pec deck. I feel the incline flys hit the front of my shoulders and chest and upper lats nicely. Pec dec gives me a good stretch/contraction on only the pectorals. Should I perhaps rotate these two weekly?

It's a lot of sets but it has never bothered me because I do heavy weight with low reps. Next month I am starting to change my diet and go lighter with more reps with a goal of getting leaner and building endurance. I will probably cylce this way for two months and go back to lifting heavy.

Thanks for all the input!

my presses all went up when i started increasing lat strength from weighted pullups.

Surprised no one has mentioned rest. As much as most of us hate to do it. Resting for a week, every 12 weeks or so really does help us grow. Occasionally we all need a break.

There could be all sorts of reasons for your bench not going up. Generally I would say work your TRI-ceps harder/heavier, take a break from the actual flat barbell bench and use dumbbells for a few weeks, like others have mentioned too work your lats and get stronger on deadlifts. All of these different body parts contribute on a big bench so GANG UP on that plateau and show it that YOU are the boss.

I no longer do any type of flat pressing. also my sets for chest are very low volume. Today for instant
Incline bench 80% 1rm until failure. rest pause 15 deep breath again until failure and repeat for the third time.
lightweight cable crossover doing lots of reps. That's it for chest.

I was also thinking about switching to dumbbell's for a while the only problem is my heaviest dumbbell is 45kg while I rep out on 140kg is it still a good idea to change bearing in mind I want to increase my bench?

Have you tried the dumbells? That should suit you just fine at least for awhile.

as already stated I would switch to another mass builder for the chest. personally I prefer heavy bb work to db work. I would also look into a bench routine if you are serious about benching and throwing up big weights.