No progress with weight on my Bench.....

[tjpatrick1987]

Hey guys, had few questions with my workout...... Im coming up on a year of working out solid now and i am making big gains in everything but chest.... i made gains in my chest for about 6 months and then it just quit....i tried changing up routines for muscle confusion but that was no help......im sad to even post my numbers but im small and i have no body to spot me.....i started at 3x8 at 70lbs.... i am currently doing 4x8 at 105......im not happy with this even though my stamina has went up i still feel really weak in my chest....

Chest workout...
1rst- incline 3x8 80lb Has barely moved up
2nd- traditional bench 4x8 105lb has barely moved up
3rd- flys 3x8 20lbs

sometimes ill mix up sets and do more incline bench sets.... and vise versa sometimes ill do more traditional... no matter what im always doing at least 7 sets with bench..... i am an ectomorph and i dont understand.... ive made good steady gains everywhere else..... Help me, i am always up for learning something new or taking advice....

[FallenWyvern]

Are you eating 3500+ calories a day?

[tjpatrick1987]

yes, i eat plenty.... im just a bit confused why im not making any progress on bench...... for example.... for wide bar cable pull downs i started of at 30lbs now im at 90lbs and will probably put on another 5lbs in a couple days.....on shoulder press i started at 45lbs now im at 80 and ill probably put on another 2 1/2lbs next shoulder workout.... bent over rows started at 30 now im at 70 and ill prolly put another 5 on that..... see the trend but for the past about 6months i aint moved all but 5lbs on bench

[AdamGH]

Whats your weight and height? you just started working out so some gains can be quicker than normal. you do eventually level off and more gains just take time. you could be genetically weaker in the chest and just takes more time for you to get stronger/bigger. I would try to be more patient with it.

i have weird way of doing my chest, but i feel it helps me get stronger. its a slow process. ill give you an example below.


barbell bench

warm up set - 10 reps

pick a weight thats really heavy for me for 10 reps.

next set, increase 5 lbs and do 10 more reps.

next set i do 8 reps. if i can do 10 reps, then next time i do bench, my first set weight amount increase by 5lbs. so that way by the third set i can just barely do 8 reps. repeat this till i can do 10 reps then increase the first set weight again by 5lbs. you incrementally get stronger over time.

so just for example

warmup set
1st set 215 lbs - 10 reps
2nd set 220 lbs - 10 reps
3rd set 225 lbs - 8-10 reps - if i can do this 10 times, next time i would bench first set would go up to 220 lbs. 2nd 225 and so on...

dumbbell incline

similar type deal

1st set 70 lbs 10 reps
2nd set 75 lbs 10 reps
3 rd set 80 lbs 10 reps
4th set 85 lbs 8-10 reps <-- if i can do this 10 times, then next time i do incline, first set goes up to 75 lbs.


if you want something different, give that a go maybe

[Gaspari1255]

I think a bench press pyramid would benefit you greatly. It made my flat bench go through the roof but then I decided to stop it simply because I am not worried about strength any more.


Give something like this a try:

Warm up set: 45lb barbell for 10 reps


10 Reps: 90lbs
8 Reps: 105lbs
6 Reps: 120lbs
4 Reps: 135lbs
2 Reps: 150lbs

You can play with the numbers a bit to see which is suitable for you. Good luck.

Also, change the flies to incline flies and maybe finish your chest routine with 2 or 3 sets of Cable Cross Overs.

[j4ever41]

how often are you working your chest?

[tjpatrick1987]

once every four days

[j4ever41]

as mentioned above make sure you have a good diet,if you have not done so you can list your stats with what your goals are along with your diet and post in the diet forum. Everyone is different but you could try to switch to working each bodypart once a week and see how that works for you.

[jaz75]

Glad to see I'm not the only one with minimal chest growth. I am having the same issues TJ. Everything else appears to be growing but I am seeing very slow progress in chest area.

[FREAK]

how are ur shoulders are they strong?chances are if u have weak shoulders u will have a weak chest

[jaz75]

I am a pretty lean guy (skinny) and trying to maintain a diet as best I can. I have seen development and strength in my shoulders but yes I would have to agree with you there that my shoulders are a little on the weak side too. But alas...I press on. It will come eventually...I hope HAHA.

[tjpatrick1987]

yeh jaz im with you... i dont have big shoulders... but i am making decent gains in my shoulders.....upright row i do 3x8 70lbs...i shoulder press 3x8 80lbs....laterial raise with a 30lb plate slowly....on yeh i am 6'1 155lbs 21 years old.... my goals are to gain weight but to stay in shape doing it.... ands its sorta grew into this hobby im obsessed with now...for yearly goals i have already achieved them....... i started on 01/14/08 at 118lbs!!!!!! now 12/05/08 i am 155lbs.. Thats 37lbs in shy of a year.... thats almost bad for your heart lol.... now you can understand why i started at such light weights and i am still skinny as shat at 155. i look healthy though.....by 04-20-09 ==* i plan to be 175 with a good summer bod

[jaz75]

I understand...I am only at 160 right now. Started at 150ish. 3 months of meals and planning mixed in with workout regiment. This forum site has been a real savior. I don't do alot of posting as almost every question I have has been asked at some point or another. Gotta love the search tool

[tjpatrick1987]

its really all bout diet....you can workout as much as you want but your not eating enough your not going to grow....eat eat eat eat

[Reed]

Do some rotator cuff exercises and grip strength exercises as well

[fit4ever180]

When do you work your arms? If you've hit them earlier in the week, you may have pre-fatigued them, which negatively affect your bench as well...

[tjpatrick1987]

most of the time it goes sumthing like this
Monday- Chest
tuesday- bi
wensday- tri
thursday- back
friday- off
sat-legs ,shoulders
sunday- off
restart cycle

[binder]

yeh jaz im with you... i dont have big shoulders... but i am making decent gains in my shoulders.....upright row i do 3x8 70lbs...i shoulder press 3x8 80lbs....laterial raise with a 30lb plate slowly....on yeh i am 6'1 155lbs 21 years old.... my goals are to gain weight but to stay in shape doing it.... ands its sorta grew into this hobby im obsessed with now...for yearly goals i have already achieved them....... i started on 01/14/08 at 118lbs!!!!!! now 12/05/08 i am 155lbs.. Thats 37lbs in shy of a year.... thats almost bad for your heart lol.... now you can understand why i started at such light weights and i am still skinny as shat at 155. i look healthy though.....by 04-20-09 ==* i plan to be 175 with a good summer bod

Upright rows will be more of a trap exercise (which is a large muscle). The reason your cable pulldowns increased so fast is because latisimus dorsi is considerably larger than your chest.

6'1" and 155lbs you are quite a bit underweight. There could have been a couple things going on here causing what appeared to be a slow growing chest and fast growing other body. First off, the other weights you are talking about lifting aren't very strong at all. What you initially started off with was actually very light, so there is quite a bit more room to rapidly move up. I think you said like 30lbs on lat pull downs. That's crazy light. If you would have started it at 70lbs like your chest hten you would only be 20lbs of an increase with your chest only going up 10lbs. Not much of a difference. You can't reference large muscles using small weight with small muscles with larger weight.

Also, your chest muscles might have been actually stronger than the rest of your body which means they are closer to their full potential for your weight. If your other mucles were only being used at half of their potential then you would go up in weight faster once you started pushing them. So it's just an illusion.

gaining 37lbs in a year isn't unhealthy when you started out WAY below a healthy weight. It's actually the best thing you could have done for your body. Now 37lbs on a person that is already at a healthy weight or 37lbs of straight fat, those would be unhealthy choices.

most of the time it goes sumthing like this
Monday- Chest
tuesday- bi
wensday- tri
thursday- back
friday- off
sat-legs ,shoulders
sunday- off
restart cycle

legs? the key to gaining weight is using the body's largest muscle group: quadracep. I also thought you said earlier you work chest every 4 days. This setup is every 7 days. Either way, 7 days is fine. Quite a few people only hit muscle groups once per week. Especially when you are starting out.