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Thread: Help on a bench press "stall"

  1. #1
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    Default Help on a bench press "stall"

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    Hey all, I've brought my bench from 115 to 170 but my triceps aren't keeping up with the LP and are limiting my progress. On my last workout I only got 3 reps on my last set. My chest felt fine but my arms start shaking as I press toward the lockout and begin to give out as sets and reps go. Should I add some LTE's on at the ends of my workouts or maybe back off a little and make another run up with micro loading or something else I'm not thinking of.

  2. #2
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  3. #3
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    Right, sorry.

    M/34, 6' / 225lbs(up from 210) skinny fat, I've been doing LP for about 6 weeks(in total workouts I had some trouble lining up my schedule for a few weeks and wasn't as consistent as I would have liked), with 5 minutes between sets, been making 5lb jumps from 115 - 170, calories were 3,500-3,750 with about 300 gr/day protein.

  4. #4
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    My first stall was the press. I knew my diet was not even on my radar. I just ate. Once I game planned my food intake everything started to go up again and has not stopped.

    I am not anything of a special person. My genitics are average. I was never an athlete and have never lifted heavy weights.

  5. #5
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    Trapeater, your reply flew under my radar. Probably should've switched to 2.5 lb jumps a couple weeks back - per the first three questions. And make sure you get in all three workouts per week, it makes a huge difference. Once you get stuck, switching to microloading doesn't often fix it, but it does and can help you stay unstuck. Try resting another 1-2 minutes, and if you're still stuck, do your re-set to 150 and microload when you get back up to 160. Another thing I've found is that re-setting either bench or press alone isn't very helpful, because you're not really getting the fatigue reduction if you're still pushing one of those lifts to max every other workout. Even if only one is stuck, re-set both and that should count as your re-set for upper body. Ditto for SQ and DL, re-set together. Some people do 2-3 re-sets before calling LP quits, but I'm more into just a single one, assuming there isn't a giant gaping technique or recovery issue that you have fixed, which should allow for more progress.

    Finally, this is all assuming your technique is OK. Usually it's not and that can make a huge difference. Do yourself a favor and get it checked.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Michael Wolf View Post
    Ditto for SQ and DL, re-set together.
    Mike, would the same rule generally apply for a backoff week after a run-out on an intermediate program? I.e., if my DLs finish running out before my squats, should I just back off the DLs for a week and keep grinding on the squats, or should I back off my squats a little for that week too?

    Thanks!

  7. #7
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    VERY generally yes, but once you're at the intermediate stage, you may have enough actual training data to know if and how much your press affects your bench and vice versa. And to make a personalized decision based on that info. Novices who are stalling both don't have that data/info and are also pushing their limit every time they train, so stalling there makes sense to me to re-set both.

  8. #8
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    starting strength coach development program
    Quote Originally Posted by Michael Wolf View Post
    VERY generally yes, but once you're at the intermediate stage, you may have enough actual training data to know if and how much your press affects your bench and vice versa. And to make a personalized decision based on that info. Novices who are stalling both don't have that data/info and are also pushing their limit every time they train, so stalling there makes sense to me to re-set both.

    Thank you!

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