I have been plateu’d for a while now on bench press and I was hoping to get advice from those who have had the same thing happen and what they did to get passed it?
Right now I’m doing a musclemag workout plan “How to increase your bench 50 pounds in 12 weeks” plan. It’s a pretty good workout, I’ve also tried drop sets. I just finished my third week on the plan. I would be happy to increase by 20 pounds from it.
I would say my max bench is close to 300, I can put up 225 * 10 most of the time.
I’ve been training consistently for close to 3 years now and I’ve been stuck for about a year now. I also eat like crazy and have been gaining weight pretty consistently, it’s just my bench strength has pretty much stayed the same.
What is your weak point? Pecs, Triceps, Shoulder Joint, other stabalizers? Are you overtraining? Have you tried doing other related lifts for a period and no barbell benching (dumbell, inclines, declines, dips, flyes, etc.). Try doing a triceps isolation exercise after benches, or supersetting flyes with benches with no rest in between for a few weeks. Try doing higher reps (12-20) for a few weeks. There are a thousand other variations to try.
[quote]adamhum wrote:
I lift with a partner and if i don’t have a partner I ask for spots.
Adam
Dedicated wrote:
Do you lift alone or with a partner?
D
[/quote]
My lift partner who designs our programs had us do the following and we made big gains on our bench numbers. You will need your spotter. He calls it the five and one. We would start with oh, I think 225 or 235 and hit five reps. On the last rep rack it and your partner immediately adds twenty pounds and you hit one rep.
For the next set add weight for instance go up to 245 hit five rack it and partner adds twenty pounds and you hit one rep. You will need your partners help at first to get past the mental barrier of adding weight once you’ve done five hard reps, but you will be happy when you adapt and are doing it. Do this for up to five sets.
Progess up to a point you can. We would go up to 280 and then to 300 for one at the end of this cycle. When we went for maxes we had gone up considerably.
I appreciate your response, your program does sound crazy, but it just might be crazy enough to work!
[quote]Dedicated wrote:
adamhum wrote:
I lift with a partner and if i don’t have a partner I ask for spots.
Adam
Dedicated wrote:
Do you lift alone or with a partner?
D
My lift partner who designs our programs had us do the following and we made big gains on our bench numbers. You will need your spotter. He calls it the five and one. We would start with oh, I think 225 or 235 and hit five reps. On the last rep rack it and your partner immediately adds twenty pounds and you hit one rep.
For the next set add weight for instance go up to 245 hit five rack it and partner adds twenty pounds and you hit one rep. You will need your partners help at first to get past the mental barrier of adding weight once you’ve done five hard reps, but you will be happy when you adapt and are doing it. Do this for up to five sets.
Progess up to a point you can. We would go up to 280 and then to 300 for one at the end of this cycle. When we went for maxes we had gone up considerably.
I vary my workout every couple months. I do different excercises, different number of sets and reps, every once in a while I will do 25 rep sets with lower weight. I try doing only 12-14 sets for a while and now I’m back to 18-20 sets. I’m pretty good about mixing it up to keep my body guessing, it just seems lately that nothing works to increase strength. I’m going to try dedicated’s idea once I complete my current 12 week program.
Adam
[quote]Seattle_Lifter wrote:
Can you describe your general training program over the last 3-6 months?
Many times people can break out of a plateau if they radically change their training plan.[/quote]
[quote]adamhum wrote:
Is that a shot at my writing?
SkyzykS wrote:
Maybe something along the lines of a conjugate program would work.
[/quote]
No I’m not rippin on your verbs. Conjugate periodization is a format of lifting where you combine lighter weight dynamic effort with maximum wieght sessions. The periodization can be twice a week for the tagreted movement. for example- Mon- Dynamic effort bench press, Fri- Max effort.
This explanation doesn’t do it justice, but I think Siff, Tate, Waterbury, King, and Thibs have all written a good bit on it.
[quote]adamhum wrote:
I vary my workout every couple months. I do different excercises, different number of sets and reps, every once in a while I will do 25 rep sets with lower weight. I try doing only 12-14 sets for a while and now I’m back to 18-20 sets. I’m pretty good about mixing it up to keep my body guessing, it just seems lately that nothing works to increase strength. I’m going to try dedicated’s idea once I complete my current 12 week program.
Adam
Seattle_Lifter wrote:
Can you describe your general training program over the last 3-6 months?
Many times people can break out of a plateau if they radically change their training plan.
[/quote]
I bet your max would blow through the roof if you started steadily dropping the reps and increasing the weight.
The high rep work is great for metabolic or volume adaptation, but nothing beats max effort and neurological training for all out strength.
Adam, that is what I thought when he proposed it. It flew in the face of anything I had done up to that point. But, I had agreed to follow his lead and said what the hell lets roll with it.
Also, modify this to fit your parameters. Like you can keep it at 225 and adding 20 for one for each set. Or you can start lower and 225 can be your last set until you get stronger. Another words adjust it to your strength levels.
[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
adamhum wrote:
I vary my workout every couple months. I do different excercises, different number of sets and reps, every once in a while I will do 25 rep sets with lower weight. I try doing only 12-14 sets for a while and now I’m back to 18-20 sets. I’m pretty good about mixing it up to keep my body guessing, it just seems lately that nothing works to increase strength. I’m going to try dedicated’s idea once I complete my current 12 week program.
Adam
Seattle_Lifter wrote:
Can you describe your general training program over the last 3-6 months?
Many times people can break out of a plateau if they radically change their training plan.
I bet your max would blow through the roof if you started steadily dropping the reps and increasing the weight.
The high rep work is great for metabolic or volume adaptation, but nothing beats max effort and neurological training for all out strength.
[/quote]
I would assume you are not doing this more than twice a week and that most of your sets are using the repetition method as opposed to maximum force training or max effort training. There are many other variables that could be introduced into your training. A Westside template would seem to be a dramatic change from what you have been doing.
Also, a high frequency plan (training the pressing movements 4+ times a week). You could try a Sheiko bench training plan for a real shock to your system.
i would say that about 90% of the average gym-rat lifters can improve their bench dramatically in a short time by doing some top end tricep work.
instead of revamping your entire program, just add in some 2-4 board presses(or similar distance rack pin presses) and subtract heavy shoulder pressing and heavy direct pec work.
IT’S THAT SIMPLE, REALLY.
i say this as 90% of the average commercial gym lifters have undertrained triceps. they stick about 2-6 inches of the chest.
if you HAVE NOT been doing heavy rack or board pressing, your triceps ARE undertrained. guaranteed.
back off heavy shoulder pressing and direct pec work, and after benching, work up to a heavy 1-5 rep set or board or rack presses.
the movement will seem awkward at first, but soon you should be doing more on these movements than full ROM benching.
most wil NOT be able to do this.
most will find it unacceptable to stop cable crossovers and pec dec work and machine shoulder presses. its like crack, a terrible addiction to try to break, LOL
i cant tell you how many times i have sugested this to people who come up to me and ask questions about how to up their benches. most dont take the suggestion(as in the above mentioned group), but those that do dramatically improve their bench in a few months.
[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
what are the advantages of board presses as opposed to benchng in a rack and manipulating the depth and weight?[/quote]
Used a couple of routines found on here (*Search) I increased my bench to 400lbs for 1RM ( I know its nothing special). It seemed every time I wanted to get through another plateau I had to learn about more about technique. I also realized that to have a good bench you need a good back.
Read the routines here and follow them to a ?T? and you should be able to add weight. Remember to keep your goals reasonable, it took A LOT longer to go from 300-400 than it was 200-300.
