Bench press plateau

I've been on a two week bench press plateau. Maybe it's because I've been taking too long a rest between workouts. I don't know.

I think the real reason is  my adaptive stimulus is too weak. If you look at the typical power lifting setup for the bench press, the shoulders are swept back and the shoulder blades are tucked underneath the upper back.

That does two important things. It contracts the upper back muscles. This gives a solid foundation to press from which could lead to a more powerful lift.  Secondly, it activates the elasticity on the fronts of your shoulders.

Try this as an experiment. Sweep your shoulders back and then release the tension. What happens? The shoulders fall forward back into place. This rubber band like effect is the elasticity that's helping you clear the bar off your chest when bench pressing. When you setup for the bench press, you're activating this rubber band like tension across the fronts of your shoulders by sweeping the shoulders backwards.

This has been my problem in not defeating my plateau for the bench press. The elastic effect  on the fronts of my shoulders has not stimulated the muscles in my chest or on my arms fully so I can get a stronger bench press.

To remedy this, I've been using a more intensive pause bench press. Instead of only just pausing the bar on my chest for a couple seconds, additionally I'm also canceling out the elastic effect on the fronts of my shoulders. This is done by laying my back as flat as I possibly can on the bench. This allows for no upward arching of the chest which allows my elbows to sink deeper into a more severe acute angle when the bar touches my chest. This should force my body to recruit more muscle fibers along the front of the chest which may lead to a strength gain.

Secondly, when I'm setting up for the bench press I'm not sweeping my shoulders back. I'm   relaxing my shoulders by the sides of my chest.  This cancels out that elastic tension on the fronts of my shoulders. This should increase the tension on my chest and arms thus increasing muscle fiber recruitment in my shoulders, chest and arms which will hopefully lead to a strength gain in my bench press.

I've done this pause relaxed shoulder bench press for only two workouts.  My first test day was a failure as I stayed at my bench pressing plateau. The reason I'm guessing is that since more muscle fibers were recruited, my chest and shoulders were not used to this stimulus and instead took on more of an adaptive alignment response. That's where muscle fibers and ligaments and tendons align themselves in a more natural pathway to  allow for strength gains.

The second pause relaxed bench press workout did see a strength gain but no strength gain was evidenced in my reflexive bench press.   I'm awaiting for my next test day which is tomorrow to see if I have any success or failure  in my reflexive bench press.  I'll post the results either way in a couple days.