bench press plateau?

Question

Stuck at 205 for a month. Any tips?

I already do incline, decline, and regular bench, butterflies, 3 sets of 10 each.

Answer 1

if you were overtraining you would be seeing a decrease in functional strength. I would very your rep range, only doing 3x10 is not good. you need to make sure that you are effective stimulating each muscle fiber type. I recommend sticking with compound exercises when training at a high level of intensity close to 80% of the 1RM. isolation exercises like flies I will keep the reps up to 25-30 to really hit and fatigue the slow twitch fibers.

if you just want a bench press routine you can do a Internet search on MM2K or check out the Critical Bench, Westside Barbell or Metal Militia power lifting websites. also I think 3 compound exercises for such a small muscle like the pectorals is excessive. I would stick with 2 compound exercises and 2 isolation exercises.

Answer 2

There are a few things to try. If you've been progressing all along and are now stopped at a point, first thing is to switch up the exercise and do something different for a while, then come back to bench. You can also try different rep ranges and number of sets. Try going really heavy for a while, 2-5 reps to failure (with a spotter!) resting 2-4 minutes between sets. This is closer to a powerlifter workout. If your gym has them, you can try using wood blocks, chains, rubber bands, etc.. Also, make sure you're not doing too much - this is the tendency of people to do and for the most part it's not necessary. Try scaling back your chest workout to only one chest exercise instead of doing three or four. High volume doesn't necessarily equate to better quality.

You'll also want to make sure you're getting adequate calories. Most people vastly underestimate the importance of diet and good nutrition, even if they think they're getting enough. Try upping your daily caloric intake 10% each week until you start making gains again.

Once in a while you need to take a break in order for your CNS and endocrine system to heal and "catch up". You can go into active recovery if you want, where you're working out but not going to failure on any lifts. This is also a good time to experiment and try new things.

Answer 3

I plateau'd there as well. So I did just 1 set 3-6 reps until I could not go any higher. Then dropped back to 215 and was able to do sets of 10 no problem

Answer 4

You need to change it up some!
Either go really heavy (3-5 reps) or really light (75% of what you press now, until exhaustion) for a few days.

I have sometimes taken a week or more off from working a particular muscle and when I returned I was able to lift more than when I stopped.

Answer 5

Get a partner and start doing negatives after the very last rep of the very last set. It worked for me. Just don't overdo it. Negative reps tends to easily overwork your muscles.