WesCottII said:
Allright man,thanks, here goes.
Breakfast: Weetabix + Rice Krispies with skimmed milk.
Lunch : Could be anything, whilst at home usually Cheese on toast or Spaghetti Bolognase.
Dinner: Usual "mum-made" stuff. From Chips/fries, to Chilli con carne, to...well anything.
I try to pack calories in after a workout, Whey protein shake + going to subway/Kfc/Burger king.
As far as squats go, I just got to 120kg/264lbs (2X5) and couldn't lift a Kg heavier. I think this might be a form problem, I recently (as in last session) dropped the Kg's and concentrated on getting "ass to the grass". Any further "modifications", I'll think about taking it back to the Smith machine.
Chest, as I don't have a spotter, it can be difficult to get a heavier bench presses and/or dumbells.
Btw, I weigh 143lbs/65kg.
Ok if there is something that I know about it is plateus and also how to gain the hard way. It has taken me two years to be able to train proper, 2 friggin years on my own working out what is best for me and how I can gain muscle optimally. Firstly I managed to work out how not to gain the 'hard way' and now I gain the 'not so hard way.' Secondly I have finally worked out a way to bust through plateus.
Right, like yourself I do not have a spotter for my chest I just bench as much as possible, on occasion the bar falls on me but I have managed to develop a risky role out technique whereby I ease the bar onto the bench and pivot myself out. Besides that chest is the staple exercise for any serious bodybuilder or those that want the manliest looking muscles of all the pec. To be able to add muscle you must bench as much as possible, I bench 3 times a week.
However in saying that I was looking at your regime above and you have no proper exercise to effectively target those triceps. Triceps are an important muscle when benching or any push movement for that fact and any increase will add your bench press. Furthermore you need to do other exercises to increase your chest muscle, i.e. dumbell flies etc.
So your rountine for an effect chest exercise may look like this, bench1 warmup and 3 work set, incline 3 work sets, incline or normal dumbell flies. Here you are doing 3 different exercises targetting the chest, this is effectively known as supersetting and is a sure fire way for improvement however high intensity is required and that will take time to develop. This may then be followed by working your triceps because they will be at the very least pumped from all the benching to triceps extension or barbell tricep extensions, 1 warm up 3 work sets would work well here.
Now you mentioned plateaus with regards to the chest, i.e. I take it you mean that you cannot add more weight to your set. Another effective method was the following:
1 warm up set of the bench, then I would do a heavier than normal bench being only able to do 3-6 reps at the most, 1 or 2 sets. I would then follow this by dropping the weight to lower than you would normally bench and go for reps i.e. drop 5% from normal and go for 10 reps x3 sets. This increases your intensity and in a week or so you will be able to bench your normal workout weight more effectively and then move on.
Try it see how it goes, adding muscle takes time, it can be v frustrating but stick at it and work hard and the gains will come
:yes:
