Hit my first plateau. What now?

[adrianl158]

I finally hit a plateau with my flat bench press and need some advice. I would love to do dumbbell presses but don't have dumbbells or access to a gym so that's a no go. All I have is a bench, barbell and obviously the plates. For flat I do...115x10125x8135x5145x2145x2I'm trying to hit 145x3 but can't seem to get there. Would doing chest twice a week help me break through?

 

[the_predator]

Since you train at home why don't you try 5x5? I would also look into Wendler's 5/3/1 if you can swing it.

 

[vancouver]

135 X 5
135 X 5
135 X 4
135 X 4
135 X 3

When you can do 5 sets of 135 X 5, add 5 lbs and do it again, then add 5 lbs and do it again. Add close grip bench to build up the triceps and bent over BB rows to build the upper back...

I wouldn't move to 5,3,1 until you get up to 185 lbs...

I hope you are doing a lot of rotator cuff work. I have a rubber band connected to the bench and do work between my 3 warm-up sets. I also have a biceps tendon workout I do every week...

 

[Powermaster]

Try a non-linear periodization program. In other words: mix it up.
There's a good article in the stickies posted by Pirate that talks about periodization.

 

[bjg]

I finally hit a plateau with my flat bench press and need some advice. I would love to do dumbbell presses but don't have dumbbells or access to a gym so that's a no go. All I have is a bench, barbell and obviously the plates. For flat I do...115x10125x8135x5145x2145x2I'm trying to hit 145x3 but can't seem to get there. Would doing chest twice a week help me break through?

how old are you?

 

[TJTJ]

Every set, 25reps for a week or 2. Shit maybe you need to just rest. the weight is going to be lighter so put your ego aside.

The body has three types of muscle fibers. Type I fibres, Type II B fibres and type II A fibres

IMO you want to work them all.

 

[ckcrown84]

Throw in DIPS, weighted dips are great muscle builders.

Work more on triceps...skull crushers

Increase weight, decrease reps
or increase reps and decrease weight.

 

[ExLe]

Simple...

Eat more food...

After your noob gains it's going to be tough to get stronger without being in a calorie surplus...

 

[stfuandliftbtch]

I finally hit a plateau with my flat bench press and need some advice. I would love to do dumbbell presses but don't have dumbbells or access to a gym so that's a no go. All I have is a bench, barbell and obviously the plates. For flat I do...115x10125x8135x5145x2145x2I'm trying to hit 145x3 but can't seem to get there. Would doing chest twice a week help me break through?

you hit a plateau are 145x2? Hahaha for real?

just eat more. and eat clean. cuzzz you aint eating enough @ 145x2

 

[squigader]

Eat more, and see if you can do 140x5. Mix it up!

And eat more. You have no idea how much getting big and eating a lot are connected.

 

[Kenny Croxdale]

I finally hit a plateau with my flat bench press and need some advice. I would love to do dumbbell presses but don't have dumbbells or access to a gym so that's a no go. All I have is a bench, barbell and obviously the plates. For flat I do...115x10125x8135x5145x2145x2I'm trying to hit 145x3 but can't seem to get there. Would doing chest twice a week help me break through?

Change Something

Not making progress in any program is Mother Nature's way of telling you that you need to change something.

General Adaptation Syndrome

One of the mistakes most individuals make using one training program too long. The end result is you burn out and stop making progress.

Then you overtrain and go backwards.

This phenomem is know as The General Adaptation Syndrome.

Non-Linear Periodization Powermaster

Non-Linear Periodization (as Powermaster noted) changes your program up more often.

By doing so, you are able to continue to stimulate muscle growth and strength more effectively.

Non-Linear Periodization allows to push your training and then back off, recover and grow.

3-4 Week Programs

I am a fan of changing a training program up about every 3-4 weeks.

Hitting 145 X 3

One of the problems with you program (most others as well) is beating yourself up before you reach your top set.

The Purpose of Warm Up Sets

The purpose of warm up sets is to perpare you for you top set.

Your top set is where you make "inroads" into gaining size and strength.

Wearing yourself out before you get there is conterproductive.

That means 115 X 10, 125 X 8, and 135 X 5 is killing your top set of 145.

Solution To The Problem

Set 1: 115 X 5

Set 2; 125 X 2

Set 3: 135 X 1

Set 4: 145 X 3 plus

If you feel the need to perform a warm up set of 10 repetitions, use about 65 pounds. Then jump to 115 X 5.

"Eat More"/Gain Weight

That is one of the general consensus of squigader, stfuandliftbtch and ExLe.

I AGREE!

Eating/Gaining Weight is part of...

The Three Bs

1) Lift BIG

2) Eat BIG

3) Rest BIG

Dips

As ckcrown84 noted, they are a great muscle builder.

Dips are Upper Body Squats.

Kenny Croxdale

 

[adrianl158]

I'm going to go ahead and try what Kenny suggested with the rep ranges. I can't really add calories cause I'm trying to cut at the moment. I'm 18 with no real workout historty so yeah.. I'm weak. Dont know BF% but its obvious that I need to cut. Thanks for all the advice guys.

 

[bundle]

I agree w dips and Changing things up
when im training to much and hit a plateau I shock the muscle group ie if i hit a bench plateau i go with high reps for a while , and change up angle of lift, grip I'll even put a 2.5 lb on one end and a 3lb on the other as my last plate add to unbalance the weight of the bar alittle, then do the other sided-point is u need to shock the muscle always never let ur muscles adapt 2 ur routine, change ing up ur pec routine will shock ur fibers again, sometimes more is not nec. better,

 

[KILLEROFSAINTS]

I finally hit a plateau with my flat bench press and need some advice. I would love to do dumbbell presses but don't have dumbbells or access to a gym so that's a no go. All I have is a bench, barbell and obviously the plates. For flat I do...115x10125x8135x5145x2145x2I'm trying to hit 145x3 but can't seem to get there. Would doing chest twice a week help me break through?

are you a girl?

 

[sassy69]

If you're trying to cut, please be aware that a cutting diet is NOT a hypertrophy diet, so you need to adjust your expectations based on the type of diet you're following. As mentioned above, if you want to see gains, you'll need to eat for them. Its fine if you want to cut, but then set your expectations accordingly and lift to promote maintenance and not overtraining (for the fuel you're providing). Then consider scheduling a bulker phase (it can be an all out bulker or a lean bulker based on whatever your goals are - you don't have to get sloppy fat to make gains, but if you opt to do a lean bulker, expect the slower, but more consistent and more maintainable (IMO) gains. Its a slower process, but its more controlled in terms of fat gains and working w/ the fuel provided.

In terms of dimensions of changes to your current routine - read up on periodization. It might be worthwhile to pick up some dumbbells. I'd also suggest looking into some bands (check eltfitness.com) - you could use these to add resistance to a single set of DBs (e.g. if you bought 1 set of 30 lb weights or whatever) as well as adding them to your barbell lifts.

 

[bjg]

I'm going to go ahead and try what Kenny suggested with the rep ranges. I can't really add calories cause I'm trying to cut at the moment. I'm 18 with no real workout historty so yeah.. I'm weak. Dont know BF% but its obvious that I need to cut. Thanks for all the advice guys.

Adrian with all due respect to all forum members here..you are 18 and what you are lifting is not bad for your age and also for your age you should not be worried at all about how much you lift, your workouts must be focused on building a nice body and this is done slowly and with time.
SO what you need to do is:
- improve your lifting technique in each and every type of lift so that you don't get used to bad form since bad form can stick with you with time.
- quality training with reps going from 10-15
-good diet and balanced without ingesting all kinds of fast food.
- working out should never be stressful and calculating how many lbs or how many reps you should do and so on ..all these mental stress issues are useless.
-forget how much you lift it will come with time once you have been training well with good form and technique.
- and of course variation in your training is very important.... results will come by themselves
- at your age i was lifting less than you but i could do over 100 push ups, by the time i was 24 i was lifting over 300 lbs and i was less than 170 lbs no steroids no supplements no nothing

 

[bundle]

Adrian with all due respect to all forum members here..you are 18 and what you are lifting is not bad for your age and also for your age you should not be worried at all about how much you lift, your workouts must be focused on building a nice body and this is done slowly and with time.
SO what you need to do is:
- improve your lifting technique in each and every type of lift so that you don't get used to bad form since bad form can stick with you with time.
- quality training with reps going from 10-15
-good diet and balanced without ingesting all kinds of fast food.
- working out should never be stressful and calculating how many lbs or how many reps you should do and so on ..all these mental stress issues are useless.
-forget how much you lift it will come with time once you have been training well with good form and technique.
- and of course variation in your training is very important.... results will come by themselves
- at your age i was lifting less than you but i could do over 100 push ups, by the time i was 24 i was lifting over 300 lbs and i was less than 170 lbs no steroids no supplements no nothing

^ bump I didn't realize u were only 18 scratch my post

 

[CanadianStrength]

I agree with changing things up as well as a rest. Hit your rotator cuffs for a couple weeks. So much of the weight is on them so if they are weak your chest will suffer.

 

[adrianl158]

So it turns out Kenny was right. Did his rep ranges and hit 145x3 twice and 155x2. Once again, I appreciate all of your input and will look into some rotator cuff exercises. I do plan on buying a set of dumbbells once I get a job.