Red Alert - Bench Stall Immenent!

KnightTemplar

KnightTemplar

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I've been running a version of SS for approx. six weeks now. I Bench and Squat twice a week(Wednesday and Sunday). On the Friday I Deadlift and SOHP, with Close Grip Bench and Skull-Crushers as well to give extra support to my Bench.

All sets are Ramped Up, 3X5 after warm up. The exception is DL which is only 1X5.

I started light and slowly built up; I've only been adding about 1 kilo every workout. Up until now I've been making slow but steady progress. That's still the case with Squat, DL and SOHP. Even Pull Ups and Chin Ups are slowly improving...

But Mr Bench Press is not my friend. I have always struggled to build a decent Bench. Everyone has their Kryptonite exercise and Bench is mine. That's why I included a lot of heavy tricep work in my routine.

Up until tonight, it seemed to be working. The first two work sets were hard but I still completed the five Reps without any major problem. The last Set was a different matter; I struggled for the first three but got them cleanly. The last two I only made by the skin of my teeth and the help of my Spotter. I could also feel my arse lifting off the Bench...

It looks like I may be about to Stall. If that's the case I reckon I have the following options:

1)Deload Bench but keep the linear progression on the other Lifts at the present time.

2)Change the Rep system for Bench; instead of 3X5, do 5/5/3/2. So the same number of Reps but spread out and with heavier weight.

3)Substitute heavy Dumbbell Bench for Barbell. This will also act as a de-load since my heaviest DB Bench is 15 - 20 kilos lighter than my heaviest Barbell Bench at the moment.

I apologise for such a long post, but I'm really hacked off at the moment. Everything was going well until now. I would appreciate any advice you guys can give me.

Thanks.
 
The deload in SS isn't that big of a deal really, you miss a few workouts worth of weight increases and then keep going on up. I've been finding more and more that a stalled weight is usually the result of me getting lazy with my eating. You might just need to step your food intake up and add more milk.
 
Origins said:
The deload in SS isn't that big of a deal really, you miss a few workouts worth of weight increases and then keep going on up. I've been finding more and more that a stalled weight is usually the result of me getting lazy with my eating. You might just need to step your food intake up and add more milk.
Click to expand...

Roger that; I'll up the milk intake. Like I said, I have another two Bench sessions to attempt before I have to deload, which takes me to this time next week. I'm not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater; I'll give it three strikes before I make any changes.

What I don't understand is why the first two sets were OK, even though I had increased the weight on them as well. Squat and Pull Ups showed improvement as well.
 
I miss weights pretty frequently. But there is a big difference between just missing two reps one day and missing reps for 3 workouts straight. Don't get too worried about missing a couple reps in one workout.

The last set is always going to be harder than the ones before because the previous sets wear you out. If you are only going to miss a rep or two, it will usually happen on the last set.
 
KnightTemplar said:
What I don't understand is why the first two sets were OK, even though I had increased the weight on them as well. Squat and Pull Ups showed improvement as well.
Click to expand...

How long did you wait between sets? I'd adjust that first and make sure that you are giving yourself adequate time to recover for the last set.
 
Instead of milk try meat, and don't get anymore help from your spotter, ever. Second, switch to normal grip bench press and drop the skulls. Just drop them. The only good iso I can see is curls for pre-hab reasons. CGBP is harder so you'd stall quicker. Even if you stall, you can still add reps until you hit 5, then add weight. Its called double progression.

And do SS the way rip had it. Its probably better than whatever ***got version you found. I don't know why you need to even ramp up the sets.

EDIT: you can also take a deload week, or a couple more days off.
 
^
Oh yeah, that is another thing I forgot to mention. If you are only resting like 3-4 minutes between sets, try taking 6-8 minutes and see what happens.
 
Searcher said:
Instead of milk try meat, and don't get anymore help from your spotter, ever. Second, switch to normal grip bench press and drop the skulls. Just drop them. The only good iso I can see is curls for pre-hab reasons. CGBP is harder so you'd stall quicker. Even if you stall, you can still add reps until you hit 5, then add weight. Its called double progression.

And do SS the way rip had it. Its probably better than whatever ***got version you found. I don't know why you need to even ramp up the sets.

EDIT: you can also take a deload week, or a couple more days off.
Click to expand...

This man speaks the truth. Help from the spotter is a disservice. A "bear favor" as we say in Swedish.
 
pliftkl said:
How long did you wait between sets? I'd adjust that first and make sure that you are giving yourself adequate time to recover for the last set.
Click to expand...

About 4 - 5 minutes.
 
Searcher said:
Instead of milk try meat, and don't get anymore help from your spotter, ever. Second, switch to normal grip bench press and drop the skulls. Just drop them. The only good iso I can see is curls for pre-hab reasons. CGBP is harder so you'd stall quicker. Even if you stall, you can still add reps until you hit 5, then add weight. Its called double progression.

And do SS the way rip had it. Its probably better than whatever ***got version you found. I don't know why you need to even ramp up the sets.

EDIT: you can also take a deload week, or a couple more days off.
Click to expand...

Because from personal experiance, I've found I Stall a lot faster if I do 3 Sets Across rather than Ramp Up.
 
Switch back and forth, do straight sets for a month, then ramp them up 80%-90%-100% for a month. It will help if you start with a lower weight too. If you can do 225lbs for a 3x5, start with 210ish. It will help build momentum.
 
KnightTemplar said:
Explain, please, my Viking brother.
Click to expand...

Oh, there's nothing much to explain - just a common phrase that sounds ridiculous translated. A "bear favor" is when something seems good but without malicious intent isn't. The quintessential example (and origin of the phrase) is a bear swatting a fly on his master's face, killing the fly and (of course) also the master though the latter was not the bear's intent. I guess it simply means "disservice".

So getting help from a spotter might seem like a good thing since you can "squeeze out the last drop of effort" from your muscles or some crap like that, but you really don't want to do that - Wendler and everyone else seems to agree that you make the best gains if you leave some in the tank. So it's a disservice from the spotter - a bear favor.
 
Speaking of Red Alert - One of the most rocking tracks to ever come out of a video game:

 
How is your technique? Do you place your feet firmly on the ground? Squeeze your shoulderblades together? Push your traps in to the bench? Keep your elbows in? Keep your elbows under the bar for the entire lift? Heavy benchpressing needs good technique.

It could also be that your muscle fibers in your chest are different. Try switching your reps, or the speed of each rep. Always explode up, but you can vary a lot on the negative phase of the movement.
 
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