Stuck at 50kg benchpress. What do?

Stuck at 50kg benchpress. What do?

I have been stuck around this weight for nearly a month now despite having been experimenting with lots of different rep schemes and weight ranges and am unsure how to progress.

For example, I can do 45kg for three sets of ten reps if I rest for two or more minutes between sets.

Can also do 50kg for four sets of five reps but if I push for another set I always fail straight away (usually rest for three to five minutes with this weight).

Then I tried upping the weight tonight to 55kg to attempt three sets of five reps but failed on the fourth rep of the first set.

I just don't understand why I am not progressing in a linear fashion anymore. Surely I still have lots of "noob gains" to make.

If I lower the rest time to less than a minute I can just about do 42.5kg for three sets of ten reps.

Been resting for at least a day between workouts and never more than four days. Only reason I've had to wait four days has been when I have pulled an all-nighter for uni, gone out the next night, and then needed to recover. Generally though I have been keep a pretty consistent schedule.

All I can think that might be holding me back is either that I am being a pussy and resting too long or not eating enough. Just thought I should ask what you think incase you have a solution :). Thanks in advance btw.

>despite having been experimenting with lots of different rep schemes and weight ranges and am unsure how to progress.

Just stick to 3x5, you aren't progressing not because of rep ranges or whatever bullshit, but because you aren't pushing yourself/sleeping enough/eating enough/traiing consistently.

Unless you're a girl, you should have blasted that shit easily.

Stick to one set/rep scheme, let's say 4 sets of 5 reps. Then add AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible) on the last set, so you really push yourself to your limit. Once you manage to squeeze out 10 reps on your last set, increase weight. Just don't fuck around with your sets and reps as much as it seems like you have. Pick a tactic and stick with it.

I'm not trying to prove you wrong with this following section but just trying to better articulate my situation so you can help me.

I don't think I am not training hard enough because I dropped it midrep today when trying 3x5 with 55kg. Hurt like a motherfucker. Was halfway up on my fourth rep, arms started wobbling, and kaboom it fell down on me.

I try to sleep for at least ten hours a day and am training at least every second day currently.

Eating enough I am not so sure on. I was a cyclist throughout highschool and first year of university and maintained a weight of 60kg whilst being nearly 183cm. I stopped cycling just before my 20th birthday because I no longer had time to cycle for hours on end and felt that it was a waste of time to only be doing HIIT. Stupid decision by me. Was eating approximately 4,000 calories a day mainly consisting of pasta, tuna, and chicken schnitzels (some vegetables) whilst cycling and kept that up for the past two years despite stopping. This lead to me ballooning up to my current weight of 87kg. I have been lifting since mid February when I started with just lifting the Olympic barbell on its own and have managed linear progress up until about a month ago when I have become stuck.

Should also note that I have more free time during this year of university and am able to dedicate at least an hour and a half to sports a day. On the days I am resting from lifting I am cycling and vice versa. An hour and a half of cycling every second day feels so little still and makes me very sad. Though I am learning to embrace HIIT. Specifically hill sprints.

I was sticking with 5x5 until about two weeks ago. After having been stuck at 50kg on 5x5 for two weeks I reasoned that perhaps a higher rep scheme would promote muscle growth and allow me to surpass this hurdle. Before this I had attempted deloading to 45kg 5x5, accomplishing that again, and 47.5kg 5x5, accomplishing that again. For the subsequent four workouts I tried 42.5kg 3x10 on two, smashing that, one on 50kg 5x5, failing that, and tonight's attempt at 55kg 5x3. Failing on my fourth rep of the first set.

Hmm, well I'm stumped. As a last suggestion, maybe make sure you have eaten a hearty meal about 1-2 hours before exercising, with plenty of carbs for energy, not just protein!

I've been doing that, my dude. I often do not have university until midday so for breakfast have been eating lots of pasta, tuna, and pesto all mixed together before working out. My gym is in my shed so I have no excuse not to be there.

My only theories as to why I am not progressing remain; am I simply a pussy when it comes to weight training or am I not consuming enough protein?

My current day of eating would look something like this;

Breakfast: Around 150g of spaghetti, two cans of tuna, and a helping of pesto
Snack: Banana and muesli bar
Lunch: If at home, two slices of wholemeal bread toasted and lathered in nutella or organic (hipster) peanut butter and another banana or muesli bar. If at uni I will generally just eat another can of tuna and a muesli bar or two.
Dinner: Home cooked meal by my parents
Snack: Another can of tuna, banana, muesli bar, piece of dessert, noodles, or more nutella/PnB on toast.

Throughout the day I drink at least 3 liters of water.

For my second snack I am generally eating at least two of those options. Sometimes all of them if I am feeling particularly hungry.

So you've messed with volume instead of intensity for the most part?

Have you focused on eccentric contraction? Decreasing rest time? De-loading? Switching exercises? There's way more you can do besides switching your rep scheme and volume.

you are either overestimating the amount of calories youre eating or you have bad technique

these are literally the only options as to why a healthy male would stall at 50kg

the foods youre listing are all low calorie foods. its a common mistake for beginners to say "Im eating tons. lots of chicken breast/tuna and rice, just like the pros do" you need high fat, high carb meals

Eccentric contraction is focusing on controlling the weight as it comes down and restricting the input of gravity, correct? I have always done this and made sure to do pause-reps.

Decreasing rest time? Anything less than two minutes of rest and I struggle with weights above 42.5kg. I can accomplish 42.5kg for 3x10 on a minute's rest but any weight higher or any rest shorter and I fail.

De-loading? How much should I deload to?

Switching exercises? I honestly only really know how to benchpress, do dips, chinups, pull-ups, and curls. Always do those other exercises subsequently to the benchpress. A friend has offered to teach me how to deadlift, overheadpress, barbell row, and numerous other exercises over the holidays though.

I see whats wrong now. try touch and go bench instead. when that stalls, go back to pausing

dont try and reinvent the wheel at your level. at most you should be doing a couple of sets of dips/CGBP as accessories of your bench

I want to clarify. I dont mean stop doing chin ups etc. you should keep doing those. but you dont need to ass any specific bench assistance

...

Dinner usually consists of very hearty meals. Perhaps I really am not counting my calories properly but I am just eating the same as when I cycled a lot. Back when I was 60kg I was eating the same and cycling 50-75km every weekday, 100-125km on Sunday, and resting Saturday. Most rides were at speeds of 25-30km/h though many consisted of sprints, hill training, and some recovery rides that stayed around the 18-22km/h mark.

On sprints I was generally at the local velodrome and completing flying 200 or 250m laps in 13-16 seconds. I am allowing such a large margin for error because I am not 100% sure of either.

>telling someone who benches 50kg to train westside

kys

What other chest work do you do besides just bench? I have been progressing nicely doing bench (3x10) followed by incline bench, pec dec, dips and cables and occasionally doing pushups on off days.

Also, if you're not on creatine already it sounds like it's time to start.

Touch and go? Okay. I will definitely give that a go! Thank you. I have only stuck with pause-reps because I was scared of not being able to control the downward movement and only realising at the bottom of the rep that the weight was too heavy to push back up.

Close-grip benchpress? I have never actually tried moving my grip. That is one thing I forgot to mention. My benchpress has an awkward placing of the rungs from which I derack my bar and this forces my arms out so they are wrapping around the outer ring. I always felt my arms would flare out too much if I was to bring my hands in closer. I can certainly try that though.

U need to bench more often with more volume atleast 4 times a week and u will gain if u eat

Honestly only dips as my accessory work. I can certainly try variations on incline bench though I do not have access to any machines for pec dec or cables.

I generally do pushups as part of my warmup but that is never exceeding one set of ten.

I've never tried creatine before, haha. I heard that it can speed up balding when I was younger and have been deathly afraid of it since. Please tell me that balding from it is a myth.

whats your form like? are you retracting your scapula and arching your back etc? this will prevent shoulder injuries. if you find something to put either side of your bench, it will also mean that if you get pinned under a weight thats to heavy, you can collapse the arch and the bar will rest on the stands. basically just make shift safety pins. does that make sense?

What is your weight/height i am 6.1(186) and when i started training i was a 130(60kg) lbs skeleton took me 1 month to go over 50kg,3 to get to 90 kg and after 6 montsh i stopped at 110kg and i am 74kg in weight now.....

I believe my form is good but I am not entirely sure. I certainly arch my back and retract my scapula to the best of my ability but I still believe that I could be doing it all much better and more efficiently. My leg drive seems to be good as well. Never let my butt leave the bench either. Hopefully a friend who lifts and is legitimately ripped can go over my form during the holidays to correct any mistakes that I currently have.

I was thinking of getting two saw-horses and placing those on either side. Would they serve as good safeties?

There is evidence that it will accelerate balding in men who would have gone bald anyways (so it's genetic). It definitely WILL help you add reps though.

87kg/183cm. Might be a cm or two shorter or taller and might be a kg or two heavier or lighter. Don't really trust home scales or measuring tape but those are the measurements I have gotten most often.

How accelerated are we talking here? I don't particularly want to go bald before my 40s, haha.

On my father's side the men bald in their early twenties and on my mother's side they have a full head of hair until they die.

yeah. any safeties are better than no safeties. idk how much they would cost tho. maybe it would be better to just spent that money on a rack/half rack

Racks are usually upwards of 300 dollars here, sadly. If I'd have had upwards of 700 dollars when building my homegym I would just have purchased a powerrack. Saw horses are less than 50 dollars and I ought to have a pair somewhere in my shed anyway. Most only have a maximum weight capacity of 100-150kg though.

Here's the deal dude, you're 87kg, so you will want at least 180g of protein, but I'm assuming most of that is fat considering your lifts, so aim for about 160g of protein a day.

You NEED to get into the habit of counting at least your calories, and your protein, ideally all your macros.

Ensure you eat sufficient food before your workout, and also I'd suggest a big protein rich meal after the workout.

Invest in some caffeine pills or a pre workout for your workouts, they'll get you pumped and ready. Get the filthiest music you have and blast that shit.

Before every set get reved up, you need to lift with intensity and get pissed with the weights (just don't get too pissed you break form)

If you still don't progress doing all this then you're fucked, either low test, or overexertion from your cycling.

Just keep at it dude, we all plateau, think outside the box, try using bands try a new rep scheme.

"Do whatever it takes"

>Stuck at 50kg benchpress

Jesus Christ, are you pic related?

Creatine mono might help you add an extra rep after you load up on it for 3 weeks, but it's found in beef and meats already, I've used it before and noticed perhaps a 10% increase in performance, if that. Not worth it in my opinion.

So we just let him fail? Fuck you.

If you have any doubts, eat more. I'm currently stuck at 55 but I feel like I can do 57.5 easy next time. I wish my gym had smaller plates. 1.25kg are the smallest ones. Makes progressing harder

>I'm currently stuck at 55 but I feel like I can do 57.5 easy next time. I wish my gym had smaller plates. 1.25kg are the smallest ones. Makes progressing harder

Don't worry sweetie, that's pretty good going for a lady like yourself.

Wanna hook up?