Bench press plateaus
 

I was talking to this college kid at the gym this week about bench press plateaus. He said he's been stuck at 175 for months. I told him to eat more, he said he eats over 4000 calories per day already. I then told him to try benching 2x a week and he said he does that already. Not sure really what to tell him.

Any ideas what's going on here? The kid is legit. I don't think he's lying about food, and I see him working hard at the gym every week. Could this be a true plateau?

I struggled to increase my bench past 220 until recently.

I switched up to dumbbell bench work and hit some heavy tricep work for a while and it definitely helped. My bench is on the way up again.

also tell him to rotate the flat bench to floor pressing, and DB pressing....it helps

Could also be something as simple as doing too many warm-up reps.

It's hard to say what's wrong without seeing his actual routine.

Standard answer from me...

Eat and Squat more.

I agree with ehubbard. Heavy squats and deads cause an increase in the bodies natural growth homones. You will get stronger everywhere.

Whatever he is doing isn't working. He needs to change his routine.

Try some time off first
 

When our team members plateau, we first take a week off. Most of the time plateaus are caused by overtraining. One week on lifting, first week back is light, sets of 5 with an easy weight. Then the next is back to business. '

If that doesn't work then we go back to the basics.
Start out with the old 5 x 5 routine for a month (explained)
After that it's down to a month of heavy 3's
Then after that, down to heavy singles

Normally taking the time off works. Most lifters don't even know they are overtraining.


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