Somebody HELP!

[busyLivin]

I think I may need a week off... tell me what you think.

About four weeks ago, I got up my best bench ever... probably one of the best workouts of my life. Since then, every week I can handle less than the previous week... At first I though I was just having a bad day, but this is the fourth time. I even had a hard time finishing my warm-up set today!!
-> Also, dips seem to be harder now.

It only seems to be affecting my chest workouts... as far as I can tell, everything else seems to be going along.

I only work each muscle group 1x a week, and do 12 sets for chest. I sleep at least 7.5-8.0 hours/night. I think I'm getting plenty of rest!!

It's been about 14 weeks since I last took off a week (had to for injury), but I have been reading that taking a week off every 8-12 weeks is a good idea anyway, but always feared the consequences of taking a week off!?!

Tell me it's that simple! Unbelievable how aggrevating it is

 

[scottrtrout]

You need to listen to your body. There is nothing wrong with taking a week off especially after 14 weeks on. You are not a machine you body need a break somtimes. You'll probably be stronger when you come back. Don't even thing your going to lose muscle it's not going to happen in a weeks time. Now if you take of a month and eat no protien yea you'll loose muscle. The only thing you'll lose in a week is muscle fullness which will come back after a couple of workouts. Take a break

 

[QuestionGuy]

i hate taking off, i am taking a week of right now because i injured my shoulder bad, (hurts like a bitch, never happened before) but im not worried about loosig muscle..... as for protein i try to eat as much protein as possible but i layed of protein shaked for 3 weeks now, i just cant take them anymore, i threw up the last time i had my protein shake i just got so sick of them, but ill be starting next week again.......

 

[buffed]

you should take a rest off.. i ve done that before and it sure increases what i can lift for my bench.. and yep listen to what your body tells you..

 

[gopro]

You may not necessarily need a week off of training, but a few weeks off of bench pressing. When you begin losing strength in an exercise it usually means you need a break from it, or you may keep getting weaker, or worse, experience an "overuse" injury.

 

[Mudge]

When my numbers go down like that, its either too much volume or too frequently training heavy. I have lost 1/2 rep every session before from going heavy too frequently.

Even powerlifters cycle their training, and intensity.

 

[Todd Bostrom]

What you have done, essentially, is "peaked" in your benchpress. Now i don't mean you won't get any stronger than this, what I mean is in this training cycle you have peaked.

You need to drop the weight back and start increasing it all over again in a new training cycle.

What many people do is keep plugging away at a certian weight and never seem to go anywhere. This is called accommodation. Accommodation is the decrease in response of a biological object to a continued stimulus. The biological object being you, and the stimulus being the benchpress (using the same weight, sets and reps).

So let's say you are getting 1 rep with 225. You might want to drop back and do something like this for your next workout:
160 5sets x 5reps

Every week add weight to all of the sets. This keeps increasing the "stimulus" so your body will be forced to get stronger.

I hope this made some sense to you.

 

[tjwes]

Stop maxing out so often.Too heavy,too often is overkill.Cycle your training for best results!

 

[busyLivin]

Thanks for everyone's responses.. I did take last week off, and came back yesterday... feeling great. I think I actually over-trained my triceps, not my chest. I think I do go too heavy too often, too. Oh well, live and learn.

 

[Mudge]

For me right now a heavy flat press is around 12 reps, I dont like going heavier than that but once in a blue moon, or declines.