How long would you consider lifting a certain weight before you consider yourself being at a plateau?

my bench went up about 80lbs in 3 months

now for the past 2 months my gains have been maybe and extra rep or so.

My buddy was like just do high reps light weight.

i usually do both though.

work up 3 sets heavy

work down 3 sets high reps

i think im reaching that point where im losing fat/losing muscle from not eating enough

Whats your diet and sleep like?

As for 'plateauing' I would try and change some shit up. Prahaps alter your grip position, or try and drop EVERYTHING for 2 cycles of working out to half weight and higher reps. Helps you re-focus on form and might help your muscles relax. How long has it been since you took a week or two off the gym? You will come back SLIGHTLY weaker than you were before the time off, but the gains when you come back you will have a new vigor, new detirmination, and most importantly REST which is the KEY for stength, and size gains.

J

man my sleep pattern has been horrible for yrs now lol.

I sleep maybe a couple hrs and can stay up for a long time with out being sleepy.

Diet no real junk food and gallon or so of water a day

I know i dont eat enough maybe 1 or 2 meals, and protein in the morn and night.

most times im just not hungry.

Guess im trying to lose weight and gain muscle and i'm defeating myself lol.

i took about 2 weeks off last month, no supplements at all,

its really just bench.

my results go up constant on squats, went from 315 to 500 in about 6 months.

i usually try to not move up until i can get my three sets all to 10/12 reps.

but you prolly right, might start doin dumbell presses or incline for a while.

Oh yea i dont really get sore anymore. Which i think means my muscles r getting content with my workouts.

Edited April 25, 201114 yr by djjdnap

Muscles definatly seem to becoming 'conformed' to this routine. Additionally how may grams of protein are in each of your shakes. I would try increasing to 4-6 meals a day including your shakes. Sometimes you just have to force it. Including cardio with weight training and proper diet and your body fat will go down. The water helps alot but with no cardio you can store alot of water in your body.

J

usually 3 scoops so 24per scoop is 72g once or twice a day.

along with 3 fish oil pills and bcaa pills(things are like swallowing rocks)

I always read 1g or protein per non-fat body weight.

Think im at about 20% fat so .2*235=47-235=188g per day

Thats is alot, i couldn't imagine weighing under 200lbs though

that was like freshmen yr in high school weight lol

But i can try upping the protein.

I consider my squats cardio though. On my drop sets i do them as fast as i can, drop some weight bout 30sec rest then do my next set.

Usually do this last because it feels like doing wind sprints.

Other than that i warm up on the bike trying to bike a mile as fast as I can with the resistance up, usually sweating within minutes.

Figure if i keep it up i'll keep progressing, maybe im just trying to advance too fast.

Don't look as squats as cardio. Its a muscle building exercise and should be treated as such.

The protein method is nice in theory, but IMO take in one gram of protein per pound that you want to be at the minimum. If you want to be 250 of solid muscle eat like you are and train to get there.

J

read up on westside barbell if you want to up your bench. You must constantly change and incorporate new lifts if you want to continue to get stronger. Try board presses, those are my favorite for a shock.

well another downfall besides not eating enough and not enough rest would be.

I dont have a workout partner, so I cant really do that extra rep on bench.

Squat hell yea I can put the weight on my shoulders and know if im going to be able to make it back up lol.

prolly why progress on squats is so good, bench lol, no sir you will die lmao

appreciate the site btw

Westside is a damn good site. I use intensemuscle.com fot my workout stuff. Alot of good info at both sites.

As for no partner, trust me I can understand that. Try switching to dumbells for a bit. It would allow you to press and if you can't hold it you can drop them to the sides (be very careful with this).

You just have to exparament, and don't be afraid to try new stuff. Add that in with proper food, and rest and you can grow.

J

yup, lifting heavy really requires a spotter. Is there no random strangers at your gym that you can bug for a spot? Sometimes if there's no one around to spot me I'll do something I know I can "save" myself on. Like heavy lockouts inside the power rack. Set the safety pins so you're only doing about 6" of pressing. If you don't have a power rack you can just do floor presses.

yup, lifting heavy really requires a spotter. Is there no random strangers at your gym that you can bug for a spot? Sometimes if there's no one around to spot me I'll do something I know I can "save" myself on. Like heavy lockouts inside the power rack. Set the safety pins so you're only doing about 6" of pressing. If you don't have a power rack you can just do floor presses.

Power rack is a great idea. The smith machine has saved my ass as well.

J

We only need to change our lifts for mental reasons. Or if you are lacking in a support muscle strength, or lifting incorectly. Other lifts also help to completely destroy more muscle fibers as it's really hard to only flat bench for an hour straight.

The best way to build your bench, is to bench.

I really think that you could best benefit from more food, especially protein.

The reason people get so much more weight up in the first few months of lifting heavy out is you're body is getting more and more effectient at lifting. Once you get effecient with lifts then you're actually waiting for muscle to grow for the weight to go up. It's not really a plateau.

A reverse bench helped me when I first started. you turn your hands the opposite way from benching. Turn your wrist facing your head and bench that way.

Something that can really help your support muscles handle heavier weights is to work the incline and decline(or hunched over dips).

Whats your diet and sleep like?

As for 'plateauing' I would try and change some shit up. Prahaps alter your grip position, or try and drop EVERYTHING for 2 cycles of working out to half weight and higher reps. Helps you re-focus on form and might help your muscles relax. How long has it been since you took a week or two off the gym? You will come back SLIGHTLY weaker than you were before the time off, but the gains when you come back you will have a new vigor, new detirmination, and most importantly REST which is the KEY for stength, and size gains.

J

This is exactly it.

You need to change up workout routine. Add the "JM press" in to your lift. Add dumbels and pre loaded bars to get the same workout with different equipment. When I was in college playing ball. They never had us even do bench but other workouts and my bench weight sky rocketed. I would increase as many chest mass workouts as you could. If you can remember that you did the same workout last week. Then your doing it wrong.

You can pm me any time for workouts or diet.

took another week off actually.

healed up more i guess, went back in and PR'd

Guess i did just need more rest