In need of serious help - Chest Growth Plateaued

[donald44]

Hey Guys,

I have been an avid bb.com forum reader and shopper for years and first time poster. I am really hoping someone in the bb.com community could help me out with my serious plateau problem...

A little bit of background on myself and my training history. I had the same problem many of the bb.com users have putting on size, when I was 15 years old i was 6'3'' and about 150 lbs and this is when i started working out because i needed to put on size for football and basketball. Putting on size was next to impossible for me but after reading forums on this site and using the tips and sups I started to grow and eventually became one of the strongest at my school. At university my working out tailed off due to workload and I didnt work out as often as I should but since last year I have really started to put in work. Now I am 20 yrs old and weigh about 205lbs, my gains have been predominantly muscle and bodyfat% has even gone down.

My problem is, while the rest of my body is slowly getting bigger my chest is staying the same size and looks disproportionate to the rest of my body. I follow a pretty intensive workout plan that has worked for me in the past, working out one muscle a day, 4 - 6 exercises per muscle, 6 - 8 reps, 4 - 6 sets. This has worked well for me in the past in gaining size which is still currently my goal.

A regular chest work out for me looks like this (depends on fatigue levels):
Flat Bench: 225 x 8, 225 x 7, 225 x 6, 225 x 5, 225 x 4
Decline bench: 205 x 8, 205 x 7, 205 x 6, 205 x 6
Incline Dumbbell Press: 70's x 8, x 7, x 7, x 6 (gym only has weight that goes to 70 lbs in dumbbells... gyms in switzerland are really not designed for people to bulk up...)
Decline Flies: 45's x 8, x 7, x6, x6
Then will alternate pec deck, cable crossovers, or incline flies depending on time and fatigue level
I work out my chest 2 to 3 times a week as it is the area of my body which I am trying to improve most on. I also generally work out with no spotter as no one here really knows how to do it properly and cant find a dedicated work out partner.

In terms of diet a typical day looks something like this:

Breakfast: 2 eggs 1 egg white with red pepper, 1 bowl of oat meal
Work out
Post Work out: protein shake w creatine mono, grilled chicken breast with grilled peppers sometimes an avocado
Snack: Sandwich
Lunch: Large Salad w grilled chicken or turkey breast or tuna depending on food prices (dressing olive oil and balsamic)
Snack: Greek yogurt w cut up strawberries & protein shake
Pre Dinner: bean salad (can of kidney beans, chick peas w sweet corn)
Dinner: Chicken Breast w head of broccoli or asparagus
Snack: will sometimes cook up some pasta if feeling hungry
Post dinner snack: Protein shake

I am currently living in switzerland for the past 3 months (one more month of living here before going back to Canada), food prices here are ridiculously expensive (10 american dollars for 4 chicken breasts...) so I am doing the best I can in terms of diet.

In terms of sups, everything here is really expensive but I managed to get some things shipped overseas for cheaper than it is here (thanks bb.com!) and am currently taking myofusion for my protein, assault for pre workout and am on creatine mono. In need of other sups for a better stack but am waiting till I am back home to do that, i realize a multi vitamin is essential but just cant afford it over here...

I dont know if my caloric intake is too low or maybe I am just over working the muscle but I have noticed a serious lack of development in my pecs and my development in the rest of my body is starting to slow down as well.

I am open to ANY advice and willing to try ANYTHING that will help.

Thanks to anyone who reads this and replies!

[Tm1212]

Is your weight increasing or decreasing? (if your losing bf i assume its decreasing, and to build muscle you need a surplus not a deficit)

What is your calorie intake and macros?

Is your chest increasing in strength? Your workout is sufficient (maybe even overkill, have you tried just a few very heavy lifts till failure with some warmups and supporting lifts after, something like GST(check the sticky)) to gaining on chest. Anytime I hit a wall on a muscle group ll switch things up maybe work legs and the problem group on the same day but you are lifting one muscle group a day so you cant do that. Maybe changing up your routine could help (again check GST sticky I love the workout for putting on mass and gaining strength).

From your post it sounds like you are disappoint in the shape of your chest. If you have a calorie surplus, are increasing in strength, and hitting your macros, your chest shape is going to really depend on genetics. You could of course increase your calorie intake further, but this will lead to an increase in BF. Also I wouldn't be as concerned about what your chest looks like in the mirror, especially for an athlete. If you are getting stronger and weight is increasing there's not much more to do to simulate growth in a single area. Just continue to lift the area well and eat enough to gain mass.

Oh and your stack is not going to change this. And Vitamins are essential in your food, not in pill form, unless you want expensive urine. (or are deficient in something). It seems your meals are nutritious enough but get a good grasp of your macros and micros, check the stickies in the nutrition forum and let us know what they look like.

[Tm1212]

Also 5 sets seems to be overkill. How about 3 sets of increasing. Move your flat bench up something like 225 230 235 (if your repping out 8 then 7 then 6 at 225, moving up as you lift to 235 should be no problem). Also do incline bench with a barbell if possible. Try doing higher weight lower rep workouts (if possible) and maybe see some results.

If you need a spot and fell no one can do it properly. Tell the person to not touch the bar unless you fail and to help you place it back on the rack. I assume they attempt to assist you on ever lift which is irradiating, Bench becomes a team sport all of a sudden . Also a smith machine can help for raising the weight you lift safely, or a rack with safety clips.

Also are you still 6'3"? cause 6'3" 205 isnt bad. 6'5"or taller 205 you could use some mass...

[donald44]

Weight has marginally increased, I don’t have the means right now to accurately measure my body fat %, the reason I think I might have put on lean weight is my abs are a lot more defined than they have been in the past (could just have grown as well the exercising).
Calorie intake is about 2500 a day, trying to increase it as much as possible. Diet breakdown is about 50% protein at 240grams a day, 15% fats (olive oil, peanut oils), and 35% carbs. I need to get my hands on more whole grains for my carb intake, surprisingly hard to find over here.

Chest slowly increasing in strength. Havent tried maxing out on a few heavy lifts yet but will try for my next workout and see how it feels. I will check out GST for sure, had a chance to quickly browse through it today.

My fear was that it was genetics, no one im my family is as tall as myself or muscular so I can be thankful Ive managed to get to where I am at now. Slowly but surely have been getting stronger and increasing weight but at a significantly slower rate than my past, managed to go from setting 200lbs on bench back in December to 225lbs today but 25lbs in a 4 month period is not greatly impressive...

In terms of the stack I wanted to try adding more BCAA’s and EAA’s during and right after the work out and just a simple multi is all I was thinking, drug store brand.
For the workout plan, good advice Ill try increasing weight and dropping reps and smith machine unfortunately doesn’t exist in the European gym here... but I will try out the rack with safety clips and really max out as much as I can
Regarding the spotter, they do always grab it, or don’t know the appropriate time to spot and let the weight go static, language has been somewhat of a barrier... Back home I have a team to lift with so I have that to look forward to.
I am also still around 6’3’’ but would like to get up to a lean 215 an then just maintain the size and develop more definition from there.
Thanks for the advice, I will try it out and let you know how things went!

[dday39]

if you aren't adding weight to the bar, you can't expect too much growth
if you aren't gaining weight, you can't expect much growth

2500 cals seems a bit low

calculate BMR/TDEE and eat 300-500 cals above that. monitor weight and increase cals as needed

[donald44]

good point dday, i guess i just got too comfortable with the weight and need to push it

i did do the BMR calc and got around 2200, which is why I had the 2500 cal diet, TDEE was at 3200 but that seemed a little high to me... but you are right, ill increase my cals and start pushing more weight, ill let you guys know how it goes

[aspengc8]

I think you are not eating enough and your chest workout is over-kill. You need to focus on increasing the weight each workout by a small amount you can handle since you don't have a spotter.

From your numbers above, this is how I would structure it.

Chest workout A:
flat bench 5x5- try starting with 230 since you can hit 225 for 8. If you can get all 5 sets of 5 with 230, go up 5 lbs next session.

For the rest of the session I would do 2x incline db bench, 2x decline or fly's, both excercises in the 8-12 range. I like tricep work after chest, so I would do weighted dips and dumbell skullcrushers.

Chest B:
Incline barbell 5x5, start with 205. you can do flat DB and some flies again for supplement movements.

The main point is the try and keep ADDING weight to the bar on both sessions main movement. This lets you hit chest heavy twice a week and has extra work in if you need it.

[Diddii]

I would increase fat intake when/if you increase your calories. More fats = more testesterone is produced (although i think there is a limit the body can produce). I think i red this somewhere that it's associated mostly with saturated fats (so don't avoid them) try to google this but im 90% sure of this info

[donald44]

Hey Guys,

Once again just wanted to thank everyone for the help and thought i would give a small update after hearing everyone's advice.

Ive increased my cals to about 3000 per day keeping the same breakdown of 50% protein, 35% carbs and 15% fats. Feeling a lot better about the diet now, may need to increase cals depending on the progress I see.

In terms of workout ive increased the weight on everything I have been doing an feeling a lot more soar after the workouts and the next day which is the best feeling in the world.

Have gotten in two of my "newer" chest workouts and now starting to look like the following:
Flat Bench: 230 x 6, 245 x 5, 245 x 4, 245 x 4, 245 x 3
Decline: 205 x 8, 225 x 6, 245 x 4, 245 x 4, 245 x 3
Decline Flies; 4 sets, 4-6 reps, 55 lbs
Incline Dumbbell press: 4 sets, 6-8 reps, 70lbs
Cable Crossover: 4 sets, 6 reps, 90 lbs each side

Now have spotters for bench or use safety arms. Let me know if you think this is a better improvement or if I should switch things up again.

Cheers

[qoohhlt]

How often do u switch ur order of exercise?
How often do u change ur routine?
How often do u change ur rep range?
How often do u try dif tech?
How often do u change the time of rest between sets ?

[Vygotsky]

When I workout chest I only do 2 sometimes 3 exercises.
DB bench 3 working sets
DB incline bench 2 working sets

Sometimes (weighted dips) 2 sets

[karimabuseer]

Hey big man. Keep pushing up the weight, and try and hit on more calories if you're growth is stalling. My chest recently slowed down a bit, so I changed the order of exercises- starting instead with incline press, as well as changing my rep range (changed from 4x8 to 5x5). Coupled this with eating about 300 calories more, and growth started again. Just try mixing things up a bit, and let us know how it goes.