Plateau Problem

[stuckopa]

Hey everyone,

I am 22 yrs old, 5’10, and 165 lbs with 12-13% BF and have been lifting for 3 years and gained 25lbs over those years. I have seemed to hit my first real plateau and can’t seem to figure out how to break it. My workout schedule is like this:
Monday: Chest/Bi’s
Tues: Abs/Calves
Wed: Back/Tri’s
Thurs: Abs/Calves
Friday: Legs/Shoulders
Sat: Off
Sun: Sometimes calves and abs, but usually off

I have a pretty good diet plan, but since I am in school and struggling financially, I can’t afford to keep it constant. When in place, it provides me with 4200+ cal with prot/carb in morning and prot/fat at night. I always have a PWO shake and PWO meal. I know for sure that not keeping that diet is part of my problem, but unfortunately I cannot fix this problem at this stage in my life. I have to just deal with that and hope I can make constant small gains through lifting correctly. When I first hit my plateau, I started to change my workout and do 3 sets of 10-12 for the majority of my exercises because I usually lift heavy and do 4 sets of 8. I did not notice any weight gain, but I noticed some difference in the mirror. Here is where I think my problem may be in and where I believe I need advise on :

Chest Workout: Flat Bench 3x12 or 4x8 (when lifting heavy), Flat Dumbbell w/ 1 sec pause at chest level 3x12 (or 4x8), Decline Bench 3x12 (or 4x8), Decline Dumbbell w/ 1 sec pause at chest level 3x12 (or 4x8), Pec Deck 3x12, and Cable Crossovers 3x12.

The rest of my workouts are in the same format: I usually try to hit 6 exercises for each muscle group. I am not sure if this is too high volume for me or not . The reason I do this is because when I do 3 exercises per muscle group, I don’t feel like I am hitting it hard enough and I don’t feel sore. Another problem I have is not knowing when to switch to incline bench. I sometimes hit chest twice a week just to work incline. Any advise would be welcomed and I am willing to try anything that pertains to changing my exercise plan.

[zodiac666]

following a diet that puts you in a caloric surplus and also ensures you will always have aminos available in your bloodstream would be the easiest way to break past your plateau. as far as training i would try mixing up your workouts with different exercises and try all the intensity tecniques you know like: drop sets, pre-exhausting the muscle, forced reps, forced negatives...etc

the way ive been training the last few years is to first do one heavy set to failure for each exercise and then finish up with a higher rep set. i always reccomend that people incorperate some high reps, low reps, fast reps, and slow reps in every workout, that way you cover all your bases.

[MuscleScience]

you may try decreasing the volume. You may be overtraining, do you periodize your workouts throughout the year or is this the same workout that you follow year round. I had a lot of problems when i was about 19 or 20 also I hit a wall and couldnt make gains at all. I hovered around 175 at about 5 % BF. I decreased my training regime because of college baseball and magically I shot to 200 lbs in about a month and a half and had a huge increase in strength. My workout was similar in total number of reps as yours. I know I was pretty overtrained from that. So now i periodize my training regime with a completely different set up every 3 months and I have never had another plateau since while healthy.

[stuckopa]

Zodiac do you do your first set to failure then do the high reps or other way around. I think I will give that a try. I usually do 8 months of lifting heavy and 4 months of high reps, but I like the idea of new intensity every 3 months. I was thinking of switching to 4 exercises per muscle group and doing 5 sets of 8. Would it make more sense to lift heavy on bench and dumbbells and go for high reps (12-15) on the flys?

[zodiac666]

i usually do my heavy low rep sets first so i can use more weight. also i think you should expiriment with doing low reps and high reps on all exercises. even with an exercise like cable crossovers i will do a drop set where i reach failure at 4 reps and just keep stripping weight all the way up the stack so i finish with very high reps. i am a huge fan of drop sets for almost all exercises but you also have to be careful not to overtrain.