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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Bench press plateau and an overall approach to defeating plateaus

So I've added more exercises to get over my bench press plateau. When I'm at the gym, I do a reflexive bench press and standing tricep cable extensions on one day and then give myself rest. On my next workout I do Hammer Strength seated bench presses and Hammer Strength seated decline presses.

The rationale for doing this is that the tricep extensions allow for bringing the forearm and bicep close together almost touching each other.  The Hammer Strength seated presses  also close the angle gap between  the forearm and bicep as well  because the handles where you initiate the bench press are swept back to the point where you have to reach beyond the horizontal plane of your chest and thus put the elbows at a sharper angle and a severe  swept back position on the fronts of the shoulders. The overlying principle is that when that angle gap is closed  and the shoulders are swept back like that, the exercise is more difficult and will eventually help to overcoming the plateau.

This gives us a framework for us to analyze our targeted movements such as the bench press or squat and allow us to overcome our plateaus.  When you come to a plateau in your exercise, ask yourself how can I create a translative exercise that is more difficult than my target range of motion. Examine  the start of your lift. If there is reflexive bounce that is used to complete the lift, is there any way  you can retard the momentum  from the bounce and thus force your muscles to work more and elicit an adaptive response?  Can  you use a pause or elastic bands or chains to cancel out the reflexive bounce?

Also examine the angles at which you put your body joints to complete the lift. Ask yourself which complementary exercises can I do to make  the angles the joints take on more difficult and sharper than your targeted exercise. Ask yourself can I use a http://strengthtrainingwithoutsteroids.blogspot.com/2013/05/bench-press-plateau-and-how-cambered.htmlor machine to put the limbs and their joints at more severe sharper angles compared to the targeted exercise.

You see strength training really has nothing to do with how many reps you complete. If you've done my max out workout, you've probably gained strength and you only used one rep sets.  I've seen exercise regimens advising doing sets of three reps or five reps sets then three rep sets then a single rep  set.  It's all nonsense.

It's not the reps that will make you strong.  When you do multi rep sets, you are hoping for a strength gain that will translate to your single rep max out. This may get a couple strength gains in the beginning but eventually you will plateau. Your body will become too accustomed to the movement and plateau in strength.  That's why you analyze the movement for reflexive bounce and  body joints that take on too wide an angle gap between limbs. Then your create more difficult translative exercises with the same range of motion as your targeted exercise that hinder the reflexive bounce or close the angle gaps between your limbs to eventually overcome the plateau.

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