I Plateaued!!!

[Killface]

Im having a little problem here with weight lifting. I've reached a plateau with my Biceps, Traps, Lats, and my Pectoralis (chest) muscles.

Anyone know how to get past a plateau and start me off with adding more muscle again. It used to be that every week I'd add about 5-8lbs to my max, but now its stopped.

Am I gonna have to resort to doing supersets?

 

[Smith|]

Uh, more reps?

 

[MC]

Im having a little problem here with weight lifting. I've reached a plateau with my Biceps, Traps, Lats, and my Pectoralis (chest) muscles.

Anyone know how to get past a plateau and start me off with adding more muscle again. It used to be that every week I'd add about 5-8lbs to my max, but now its stopped.

Am I gonna have to resort to doing supersets?

Supersets?

Why did you stop adding more weight?

 

[Rayos]

Don't expect to be constantly gaining, your body has to have time to recover.

supersets should be done regardless in a muscle building workout. What you do is you stick with what you got now. Say you are benching 150 pounds and you can't go any further. You will constantly do this weight until you can get 10 reps up. Now if you can only do 3 reps of 150...go down to 140 and do that till you get 10 reps. in doing that, your muscles have gained more endurance and more "Push" to get that extra weight up...you will be able to start raising your weight limits up again.


P.S Remember not to max out everyday, that isn't healthy either

 

[Killface]

Oh, I only max out every so often... My last max was 1 week ago.

Well, I just learned about supersets, well, ive heard of them, but was never interested... until now. Im gonna start doing them, about once every 2 weeks or so.

And yes, sadly.. my bench has been stuck at 155 for about a month now.

I dunno if this is relevant information, but I've been recovering from when I hit that tree back in June, I just got my bench back up to 155 about 5 weeks after the crash... same with my curl.

My bench 1 week after the accident (and I shouldn't have been doing this with an injured pec) was around 105. But its been increasing in leaps until about 3 weeks ago, when I hit 155.

btw... some of my maxes

barbell curl: 120
Benchpress: 155 (pitiful, i know)
Squat: 280 (atleast, i dont have enough weight =P )

thats only some of them.... I dont wanna emberass (Sp?) myself too much.

 

[Jesus]

best thing ive found for breaking out of a plateau, is to try something completely different for a short while.

so instead of exercising your upper body, exercise your lower. or if youve only been concerntrating on muscle gain, but havent been focusing on cardio as much, try going for a 10 mile run instead of a 5 mile run. once you reach a new level in a different performance area (especially cardio), youll be surprised how easy it is to do the things you currently feel stuck on.

 

[Killface]

So I should go for building my endurance?

 

[Ravendust]

Increase your calorie intake too.

 

[Killface]

Thanks anyway guys, but I figured out whats wrong.

I'm doing more than enough in the weight room, Its definately not what I thought it was, its my Diet.

Im ripping apart my muscles, but im not feeding them the nutrients to rebuild. SO.... whats going on is that My muscles are shredded, and in order to rebuild they need nutrients.

One problem with that... I DONT EAT MUCH. So, im making an effort to start eating a lotta high protein foods and consider getting some Whey Protein, NO X-plode, Creatine (for fast recovery) and some Multi-vitamins.

Thanks for the help anyways though. A mod can close this, or if anyone wants to say something, GO FOR IT!

whichever comes first.

 

[[S]]

Don't take protien you'll regret it trust me

 

[Killface]

Why?

In order to make big muscle gains you absolutely NEED protein. Same goes for carbs, and calories (to an extent).

What happened anyways? Why dont you like protein?

 

[Optional22]

You don't need much protein. Eating those pure powdered protein is stupid in that 90% of it will just pass through your system untouched.

 

[[S]]

no not that i meant Whey Protein and Creatine and **** don't if you want to do something do it right taking all of this doesn't pay off in the long run.

 

[Jesus]

S is right, if you want protien, eat lots of fish. tuna for example, is almost 90% protien. on top of that, you'll benefit from all the other good parts about the food your eating, rather than trying to force your body to ingest that synthetic crap.

 

[Killface]

OH, thats what you meant? Whoops, I thought you guys meant protein in general... my bad.

I still think i might take protein shakes or something like that. I dont get nearly enough protein in my diet. According to bodybuilders I talk to and www.animalpak.com I should have atleast 1 - 1.5 grams of protein per pound I weigh.

So thats like.... atleast 200g of protein daily.

But it's gonna be a long time until I decide to take that stuff or not... I simply have no spare money, since it's all going towards a car And I think i'll only use protein shakes if i really need more protein, and I cant keep up with it.

 

[Rayos]

having a protein shake or a suppliment along with a healthy diet is NOT in anyway shape or form a bad idea. I have no idea how you could come to that conclusion. Doing everything correctly and set to specifics is the key.

WS go to a nutritionist and talk to them about your intakes and they will help you create a diet that you should go on to help you. Go to a professional not people on a forum board...that is including me...you have a different body than me and i don't know how you react to certain foods and shakes. Everyone is different which is why you should go see a nutritionist. It will be most beneficial to you as a whole because it just is good for you