For the past few weeks, my bench press has been struggling. I was having good results with the program I was using up until then, but I hit a spot in time where I wasn't gaining strength and actually wasn't able to do the weight I could before. I took this week off of lifting and changed to a new 4 days split to start on monday. I really want to focus on the chest, so does anyone have a good routine I could do on chest day?

my split is : mon chest tue bis/back thu legs fri tris/shoulders
i incorporate abs about once every three days.

if anyone has suggestions i would really appreciate it...

For the past few weeks, my bench press has been struggling. I was having good results with the program I was using up until then, but I hit a spot in time where I wasn't gaining strength and actually wasn't able to do the weight I could before. I took this week off of lifting and changed to a new 4 days split to start on monday. I really want to focus on the chest, so does anyone have a good routine I could do on chest day?

my split is : mon chest tue bis/back thu legs fri tris/shoulders
i incorporate abs about once every three days.

if anyone has suggestions i would really appreciate it...

I was going to suggest to take a week off. I do that every so often, and always come back stronger.

Lets see, a good chest routine?
This is what i do(and its been working great!):
1st Exercise
Flat Barbell Bench Press 4 sets, 12-10-8-6 reps

2nd Exercise
Incline Dumbell Press 4 sets, 12-10-8-6 reps

3rd Exercise
Incline Dumbell Flyes 3 sets, 12-15 reps/set(feel the burn!)

4th Exercise
Cable Crossovers 3 sets 15-20 reps/set(lighter weight, really concentrate on the inner pecs)

Makes sure you got a really good tricep workout too, that will help with the bench a bunch also.

Good Luck!! :tu: (i love this smiley for some reason!)

Ok, I have a small idea you could try for a few weeks.

You could try "Power Factor Training" : What you do is use 90 - 100 % of your max bench, but only move thru your strongest range of motion. Very important, move only thru strongest range. Don't go all the way down to your chest. Also, do the reps as fast as you can. I'm not talking about a machine gun, but in as fast of a controlled motion as possible.

The goal here is to force the muscle to generate more overall power, weight / time. Each workout try to either use more weight, or do more reps in the same amount of time.

Do this with chest exercises only once a week, and give time for the muscle to recuperate.

I used this for a while and had good results, so maybe you might want to try it out..

-niko

Try eating a huge plate of pasta tonight, then do the bench press tomorrow and I will bet you think the weight is too light and you will add a few more pounds to it.

MAX-OT is your friend :tu:
I have seen amazing gains in just two weeks time.

Why do you do chest on a day by itself? If you're doing a ton of sets/reps then that could definately be your problem. It sounds like you're a bit overtrained to me. Here's my chest day workout :

Bench Press (DB or BB) 3 sets 6-8
Incline Press (DB or BB) 3 sets 6-8
Weighted Dips 3 sets 6-8 (try to lean forward to put more emphasis on the chest and less on the tri's)
Close Grip Bench (EZ Curl bar) 3 sets 6-8
Skull Crushers (EZ Curl bar) 3 sets 6-8

I sometimes do some skull crusher variants (extensions) but that's about it.

no, i said i am going to start doing chest on a day by itself starting next week, if u have another idea for a split id be glad to see it... but whats wrong with doing chest on a day by itself? i plan on doing 5 exercises including barbell bench press, db press, incline press, incline flys, and deline db...

is that too much?

I don't see a point in doing that much, but hey, experimentation is a great thing. I try to do new things from time to time to see how it works for me.

The above chest/tri day has worked wonders for me, but might suck horribly for someone else. However, I'd say if you've never tried a 3 day split following the less=more mentality then you might want to give it a go.

Can you post your entire workout plan?

Mon: Chest

barbell press flat bench: 10, 8, 6, 4
db press flat bench: 3x8
incline barbell press (or decline): 10, 8, 6, 4
incline flys (or flat bench flys): 3x10


Tue: Biceps/Back

alternating db curl: 3x8
ez bar curl: 2 sets close grip & 2 sets far grip
barbell curl: 3x8
preacher hammer curl: 3x8
pullups: 2x failure
dead lift: 10, 8, 6, 4
pulldowns: 2 sets behind neck, 2 sets in front


Thu: Legs

squats: 10, 8, 6, 8, 10
db lunges: 3x10
donkey calf raises: 2 sets feet forward, 2 outward, 2 inward


Fri: Triceps/Shoulders

shoulder press: 3x10
shrugs: 3x10
front db raises: 3x10
skull crushers: 3x10
close grip bench: 15, 12, 10, 8
tricep pushdown: 3x10 (run rack on last set)





Note: For chest, I am thinking about doing incline one week, and decline the next week, is this a good idea?

How long have you been doing this routine? How long have you been working out in general?

I'm just wondering because a lot of the stuff you're doing looks exactly like the kind of stuff I was doing a little over a year ago. I did a lot of research and completely revamped my program. I'm about to go to bed so I can't get into too much detail on the why, but here's my current split. I'll try to get on tomorrow night to give you some more insight, although I know there are plenty of others here who can do the same.

M/W/F split. I'm bulking right now so for Tuesday/Thursday I'll do abs on one and sometimes two of those days. Now that it's warm I also go to the driving range on T/Th and play golf on Sat and sometimes Sun. It's not hard cardio but it's not sitting on the couch either.

Chest/Tris
Bench Press (DB or BB) 3 sets 6-8
Incline Press (DB or BB) 3 sets 6-8
Weighted Dips 3 sets 6-8 (try to lean forward to put more emphasis on the chest and less on the tri's)
Close Grip Bench (EZ Curl bar) 3 sets 6-8
Skull Crushers (EZ Curl bar) 3 sets 6-8

Back/Bis
Deadlifts 3 sets 6-8
BB Row 3 sets 6-8
Chins 3 sets 6-8
BB or EZB curls 3 sets 6-8
DB Hammer curls 2 sets 6-8

Legs/Shoulders
BB Squat 3 sets 6-8
SLDL (stiff-leg deadlift) 3 sets 6-8
Seated/Standing Calf raise 3 sets 6-8 (I alternate each week)
Military Press 3 sets 6-8
Shrugs 3 sets 6-8

**The reason I only listed Military Press for direct shoulder work is because I am dealing with a nagging shoulder injury. Depending on how I feel I will sometimes add in 3 sets of another shoulder exercise. Also, it is okay to put shrugs on back/bi day if you need to keep the legs/shoulders day a little shorter for some reason or another and vice versa.

Just keep in mind that soreness and 'pumps' are in no way an indication of whether you are working out a muscle group properly or not.

I am going to start this routine next week, because right now I am on a week break because I think I was overtraining on a different routine that had me lifting body parts twice in a week... I have been lifting for 3 months and I really would prefer a four day split as opposed to a 3 days split...it just fits my schedule better. thanks for your help, is there any way I could keep the 4 day split and change my workout around?

mpmayer, I think that looks like a great split to me. It's pretty similar to what I do and I've had very good luck with it, not to discredit anyone elses split on this thread. A few comments though....

1. It looks like you've got too much bicep work on your back/bi day. In my own experience, back excercises tend to work the biceps pretty hard too, so you may want to cut one or two of the curls out. I'd say cut the preacher hammer curl.

2. You should have at least one more excercise on leg day. Leg extensions, maybe add some bonus excercise for your glutes over the squat... something.

3. I'd throw a little something small onto chest day (I do forearms then). It breaks up doing x number of chest excercises in a row. And I don't recommend the alternating incline/decline. Stick to the same routine, once a week.

Please post what you decide on and also post some results to let us know if it helped you break through your plateau.

ok, i'll try switching my split around..

Hey,

Your split looks fine to me.

I do a ton of chest excersizes, all different kinds. Might be OTT and unnessesary, but it makes me feel like im really hitting all of my Chest and i enjoy it, which is what its all about. :nod:

I notice...

Youve dropped the cable crossovers from your routine (First post stated them, second did not). Was this a typo, or did u mean to drop them and if so, why ? And youve added dumbell flats? You dont really need these AND barbell flats. Same thing (apart from with dumbells, you dont get one side compensating for the other). Choose one or the other, then you can throw in some declines instead.

If you follow slushpuppys advice (which i would) and drop a biceps excersize, id add another back excersize, such as good mornings for the lower back, or seated rows, which are excellent.

Defo add to your legs day. I prefer to do deadlifts on legs day myself. But try adding leg presses or something.

This is purely an opinion, but i'd do tri's with chest. Chest works your tris really hard. Take advantage of this and work your tris afterwards. I know shoulders works tris to, but not as much, especially as ur not doing big shoulder session.


Hope all this helps in your quest. Your split looks fine and take all the advice on board you wish, but always remember what works for one doesnt always work for all. And above all, do what you enjoy and what feels good for you. :tucool:





GLAMDRING - Your doing stiff leg deadlifts on leg day and normal deadlifts on back day. In my understanding, this is the wrong way round. Stiff leg Deadlifts put more onto the back then normal deadlifts. Normal deadlifts place more emphisis on the legs. So i'd swap them around. :)

I suggest you switch your back day and leg day. If you have a fatigued lower back from deadlifts, your squats will suffer.

Looks good to me mpmayer. Would it be a good idea to throw in some isolated excersizes for the biceps and triceps once every 3 weeks? Something like cable pulldowns for tri's and seated one arm bicept DB curls? Also, which exersizes hit the lower back and traps the best of those you have listed? Just wondering if lat pulldowns and dumbell flys are needed.

GLAMDRING - Your doing stiff leg deadlifts on leg day and normal deadlifts on back day. In my understanding, this is the wrong way round. Stiff leg Deadlifts put more onto the back then normal deadlifts. Normal deadlifts place more emphisis on the legs. So i'd swap them around. :)

Nah, it's not backwards. :)

Do a couple of SLDL's and see just how hard you hit your hams and you'll understand heh!

Today I started with the new split that I listed earlier in this thread. I made an improvement after just taking off one week and doing no weight training during that week. I came back stronger than before because it was a fact that I was overtraining. I learned that if you hit a plateau the first thing you need to do is take a week break because nine times out of ten you are overtraining... It was just hard for me to do because it feels awkward not to lift for a week straight, but for anyone who has doubts, just take a week off and it will be a lot better in the long run. also, if you hit a plateau, take the week off and then try a new split.