Bench Press - Plateau.

[absvan]

Hi Everybody,

I have been stuck at my bench for the last 6 months. This is how it all started. I wanted to loose my body fat but retain my muscle mass. So I went on a low carb diet for a month. That brought my bench press down by 30 pounds........and also affected my millitary press.

Now I am back to eating normal. But I just cant get my bench or millitary to go up inspite of gaining a couple or more pounds and eating more carbs.

I just chaged my workout pattern now. Hoefully that will help.

Anybody - suggestions/thoughts ?????

Thanks in advance.

[SmellyOrc]

Eat more. Especially protein.
Change your workout plan (already done that, good boy!)

What weights did you use? What's your 1RM max? Etc etc...

[absvan]

I weigh 165 pounds. The max weight I have lifted is 230 pounds but only one rep.

How would you go about changing your workout plan if you were to do this??

[SmellyOrc]

Currently doing full body or ub/lb split? If you're doing the latter, changing to the former might shock your muscles into more growth.

Also, how does your regular bench-press-part of your regime look like? Do you do like 5x200, 10x 190 or something?

One can only give good tips if one has enough info. So post your whole workout plan, new and old one. :P

[absvan]

Routine:

In my old workout plan I used to mix Back/Tri on one day and Chest/Biceps on another day and Shoulders/Legs on the last day.

In the new one I am doing Back/Bi and Chest/Tri. Everything else remains the same.

Workout:

Old reps and sets

155 * 8
185* 6
205 * 4
225* as much as I can.

New reps and sets - I lost my power and so I had to drop my weights.

135 * 8
155 * 8
185 * 4
205 * as much as I can...sometimes only 2.

Of late I have stopped doing benches and started flat dumbell press. Surprisingly I can bench higher than I used to. I have benched 85 pound dumbell with a max of 3 reps as my highest.

Hope this info is good enough. Thanks again for your help.

[Jim]

First off, protein is a must. You will need AT LEAST one gram of protein per pound of body weight. You could have the most effective workout in the world, but if you don't feed the muscle, it will be a fruitless effort.

You need to induce muscle hypertrophy and basic pyramid sets are only part of the equation.

If you're specifically concerned about the bench press, read everything you can by the guys at Westside Barbell. They are world famous for the number of nationally ranked powerlifters that they turn out each year and utilize several fairly unconventional methods for increasing bench (e.g. benching with chains to increase difficulty on the lockout and increase stability, variations in grip and grip width, etc). Their articles can be found here:
Westside Barbell®"Often Imitated but never duplicated"

In the more general sense, I have utilized an escalating density program to vary my workouts and it seems to be really effective in inducing strength in the core lifts. Here's the program outlined:
Testosterone Nation - Escalating Density Training

In the end remember, the bench is a glamour lift but really doesn't do much in terms of overall fitness (if you want to live longer, cardiovascular fitness should be the emphasis). For general, overall strength, the squat is a better lift to emphasize.

On a side note: do you know that not one but TWO people have bench pressed over ONE THOUSAND pounds? Of course these days they use those denim layered bench shirts which adds a lot of stability when lifting, but it's still hard to imagine benching, squatting, fork-lifting anything 1,000lbs. These guys must sprinkle steroids on their cereal each morning.

Here's a great article about the bench record holder and brief history of the bench press.
The 1,000-pound bench press. - By Josh Levin - Slate Magazine

Mendelson says that when he's pressing 1,000, "I can feel my bones flexing." The first time Kennelly held a half-ton he heard a humming noise and had blurred vision. "Now my central nervous system has adapted to it. I'm used to it," he says.

[bylto]

I would suggest trying flies or dumbbell press for a few weeks then going back to the BP.

Also if you haven't taken a rest week in a while try this as you need a week off every now and then. Sure, your lifts will be lower when you return but in the following weeks you'll be back better than ever.

Thirdly - eat! If you're not eating enough there's just no way you'll have the muscle fuel to lift big. I know you're probably trying to keep a lean profile but if you eat a lot of lean meat, seafood, fruit (not juices), vegetables and nuts I promise you'll grow muscle with very little or no fat.

[John Hill]

I have written an article on my site called "build muscle fast", it gives an explanation of what you are trying to achieve. Overcoming a plateau is more about what you do outside the gym than what you do in the gym. The link is below.

John

[absvan]

I have been working out seriously since 2005. For the first one year I used to load myself with lots of food and I had good gains in mass and strength. But at the same time my body fat did not go down much. So since the last 6 months or so I have changed my meal plan focusing on trying to get lean. My protein intake has been good. Here is my meal plan

I have oatmeal + 6 egg whites for breakfast
40g in protein shake as mid meal
brown rice and 1/2 pound of meat/fish for lunch
40g again in protein shake in the evening
brown rice and meat/fish for dinner with some veggies sometimes.

Sometimes I have another protein shake before bed depending on when I take my dinner...........and sometimes during the day I have a banana or some snack etc etc.

I will take a look at the articles/links given here. Thanks again for all the responses.

[absvan]

John,

With reference to your article, How often do you recommend changing workout routines?

I change them every couple of months or so, however I dont change the core lifts like bench press, dead lift, millitary etc.

Any thoughts on this?

[CeciL]

It is all about hardwork (lifting), eating and resting. Surprisingly eating is the most difficult and important one.

If you serious then you will need to intake a lot of protein and the right carb at the right time. Stomach acids are key to absorbing your food properly and different foods produce different acids that effect the way your body handles the type of substance.

Just my 2 cents body building schedule...

Per week alternate the cardio and weights...
3 days of weights. Alternate upper and lower body.
3 days of cardio. 20 minutes will do, increase and decrease intensity every 5 mins so you don't plateau.

Scrap the bow flex or any other "machine", unless all you want is to look good. You want real strength use free weights.

6 meals eat every 2 -3 hours
(Vegetarians cover your eyes)

1 - egg whites, protein shake, simple carbs (fruit / yogurt)
2 - ALL your complex carbs for the day, 3 servings. (WHEAT breads, BROWN rice) as long as it isn't "bleached". (As well as not interfering with the protein absorption you burn them all off before the end of the day.)
3 - protein shake / simple carbs
4 - Lean meat, fresh veggies, simple carbs
5 - Protein shake / simple carbs
6 - Lean meat, fresh veggies, simple carbs

Some people are against protein powders but unless your very wealthy and LOVE to eat then supplements are the easiest / cost efficient route.

Recommended supplements...
A good multi-vitamin (not centrum or similar) something that doesn't have all the additives. Fish-Oil and a B-Complex (later in the day after the multi has burned off) Unless your profession demands it stay away from creatine, steroids and other types. They are just not needed nor worth it.

On your free day eat / do AYNTHING you want!

[SmellyOrc]

Jim already gave some great links for you, but I'll also add in my portion: Your warming up is way to long. You should keep it to a few reps/minutes at a low intensity, and after that, you need to do it HARD. Don't build it up like you did. Just a warming-up with some low intensity bench presses or whatnot, and then go to like 90/95% 1RM, or w/e you can keep doing for 3-5 reps.
High intensity = most muscle breakdown, most muscle growth.


For the rest, I believe everything that needed to be said, is said. So get to work, lazy bum

[ticktockclok]

Take a week off. You'll come back later amazed at your gains after your body, and especially your CNS take a rest.

[John Hill]

absvan,

I change around the order of my exercises everytime I go into the gym. Not only will you shock your body into growth but it also helps break the monotany of doing the same stuff over and over.

For example, you can stick with your hard core mass builders like bench presses and squats but mix up the routines each week.

Lets say this week you do for chest:

flat barbell bench press x 3 sets
incline dumbell flyes x 3 sets
cable crossover x 3 sets

next week try a slight change like the following

decline dumbell press x 3 sets
dumbell pullovers x 3 sets
incline smith machine bench press x 3 sets

This way you will have more fun with it, keep your muscles guessing and growing by hitting them from slightly different angles each week and you are still using the basic hard core growth exercises.

John

[빈센트]

Deadlifts
Power clean
Squats
Pullups

That's all you really need to up your bench press

I do 4 warm up sets of lower weights. Then I do 5(sets)x5(reps). Sometimes when I'm feeling ambitious I go 10x5 but not often. Increase the weight by 5-10 pounds each week. Avoid your 1RM. You're going for volume. If you stick to 80%-90% of your 1RM and do 5 sets of 5 reps, you get more done.

As for your diet, it doesn't really matter what you eat as long as you're eating more calories than you need. I usually go about 500 calories over.

ETA:

To elaborate. Warm up more. After your bench press workout, you should still like you can keep going but tired. You should never feel fatigued. But you should never feel like you've done nothing either. It's a fine line.