Bench press plateaus

[TitanWIP]

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?

[JordanK91]

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.

[RobMoriRB]

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

[Beverly McD]

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

[muscle_g]

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

[ehubbard]

Standard answer from me...

Eat and Squat more.

[Beverly McD]

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

[Ryano]

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

[Ironman]

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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