Do you need to increase the amount you lift to put on size?

[ds3587]

In order to put on size, do you have to increase how much you lift? I'm in a weird situation... I've been stuck at 200lbs max for flat bench, but I'm still making gains on incline and decline. I only weigh 165s. Do I have to push past this 200lb flat bench plateau in order to grow my chest?

[ds3587]

I may have put this in the wrong section... wasn't sure where to post it.

[CtGray84]

In order to put on size, do you have to increase how much you lift? I'm in a weird situation... I've been stuck at 200lbs max for flat bench, but I'm still making gains on incline and decline. I only weigh 165s. Do I have to push past this 200lb flat bench plateau in order to grow my chest?

Yes

[lisaboots22]

absolutely that is what you need to do in order to put on size
also
eat a real protein meal right before workout

[ds3587]

Thanks guys. Any ideas on how to push past the plateaus? Not sure I've been eating enough... eating a lot is pretty hard for me. I do get 120-180g of protein per day though.

[TallKyle13]

Progression is extremely important and often overlooked and misunderstood.

It can be in the form of more reps, more weight, more controlled reps, etc.

If your stuck at a certain weight for an amount of reps, try doing a different rep scheme. If your doing 5x5 with 200 pounds, try doing a 5x3 with more weight or 4x8 with less weight. You want to progress in every rep scheme.

[k9pit]

Thanks guys. Any ideas on how to push past the plateaus? Not sure I've been eating enough... eating a lot is pretty hard for me. I do get 120-180g of protein per day though.

Carb up, good music, do flat bench first in your routine. If you don't feel like eating carbs, drink orange juice. A typical RTD bottle of minute maid is 52g carbs. The Vitamin C is good for you as well. When I don't train fasted, I drink OJ pre and sometimes during my workouts. Creatine helps IMO also.

When are you doing Flat Bench in your current routine?

Also, if your incline and decline are going up, I personally would drop flat. Flat and Decline are very similar, albeit Decline is typically easier on the shoulders. Incline and Decline and an accessory move is a good routine in itself if you are progressing with them.

eat a real protein meal right before workout

Personally, I prefer to eat a mostly carbs pre-workout over protein and fats. Just an opinion however.

[DerekEt]

Go from 3x10 at 185 bench to 3x10 at 275 bench and tell us how much your chest grew.

In short : yes

[LiftingSteve93]

Personally, I have found much success in varying up the max lift. I only do a max flat bench every 4-5 weeks and it still goes up. I rotate incline, floor press, overhead, etc. in as max lifts.

[darscogre]

In order to put on size, do you have to increase how much you lift? I'm in a weird situation... I've been stuck at 200lbs max for flat bench, but I'm still making gains on incline and decline. I only weigh 165s. Do I have to push past this 200lb flat bench plateau in order to grow my chest?

It all depends on how that weight is being used. At the end of the day what matters most is that you are using your chest muscles to push the weight up. If you increase the weight but end up not doing the move correctly and letting other muscles take over than your chest will not improve obviously.
Also, Increasing the weight is not necessarily the only way to grow muscle. Slowing down the movement to make the weight seem heavier in my opinion is better than throwing more plates on the bar cause you know you're working the right muscles. One person here said that benching 275x10 as opposed to 185 x 10 will give you a better chest. I completely disagree. Taking 185 and doing the movement slowly and focused on the pecs will get you much more chest growth than pushing up 275 with your shoulders and legs and triceps. Ive seen countless people in the gym "bench" 275, 315, whatever the case is and have far less chest development than people who I've seen lifting lighter weights. Is there a correlation, sure there is, but theres much more to the picture

[DerekEt]

Ok,let's rephrase that then.

Go from a 185x10 bench to 275x10 bench with good form; training in that rep range the whole time.

See how much your chest grows.

[KarmicEffects]

Nay sir, you don't HAVE to but it's the most effective. You COULD in theory move weight faster with a higher scheme and make the weight heavier that way (think clapping pushups, jumping dips, 3/1/0 lift tempo making sure the power portion of your lift is 100% effort to move it as fast as possible with a 50-75% of 3 rep max load, boxing and hitting the bag as hard as you can, etc.) but honestly it's very limited for iso and compounds, so bumping the weight is the most efective way. Plus, you will hit a wall if you are not challenging your CNS/PNS maxing out at times, which is very hard to do on higher schemes without your form going to absolute crap. The heavier up on weight you go, the easier lighter weight becomes which gives you higher endurance for those heavier weights, essentially a continuing circle...and yes, if you lift and eat more than your DEE, you grow...whether or not that weight is in your chest, arms, legs, belly fat, etc. is how much you are putting into the gym and how your diet is laid out.

[coolexec]

It all depends on how that weight is being used. At the end of the day what matters most is that you are using your chest muscles to push the weight up. If you increase the weight but end up not doing the move correctly and letting other muscles take over than your chest will not improve obviously.
Also, Increasing the weight is not necessarily the only way to grow muscle. Slowing down the movement to make the weight seem heavier in my opinion is better than throwing more plates on the bar cause you know you're working the right muscles. One person here said that benching 275x10 as opposed to 185 x 10 will give you a better chest. I completely disagree. Taking 185 and doing the movement slowly and focused on the pecs will get you much more chest growth than pushing up 275 with your shoulders and legs and triceps. Ive seen countless people in the gym "bench" 275, 315, whatever the case is and have far less chest development than people who I've seen lifting lighter weights. Is there a correlation, sure there is, but theres much more to the picture

Yes. One of the most intelligent observations I've ever read on this forum.

[xbayrockx]

Put it this way, if you don't increase the amount lifted, eventually you won't put on any more size.
You need to primarily target type 2 muscle fibers, which are more susceptible to growths in size, by lifting at the appropriate rep range to failure.

[Tommy W.]

As far as benching it's more about form. A big bench number is secondary to the proper form required for chest development. A big bench and form for pecs is 2 different things.

[stealth_swimmer]

Progression is extremely important and often overlooked and misunderstood.

It can be in the form of more reps, more weight, more controlled reps, etc.

If your stuck at a certain weight for an amount of reps, try doing a different rep scheme. If your doing 5x5 with 200 pounds, try doing a 5x3 with more weight or 4x8 with less weight. You want to progress in every rep scheme.

This. *Something* about your workout has to make progress. Lifting more weight (intensity) is just *one* variable (something you can change). You can lift more weight, do the same workout in less time, do the same weight for more reps, and/or do more sets (volume). You could also switch exercises for a couple weeks and come back to your usual ones. Could even take a week or two off and then come back to training if you've been training for a few months straight. Also make sure to always be using good form with a good mind/muscle connection, making sure to feel the pecs working, squeezing in order to move the weight. It's a good rule of thumb for all exercises - don't just move the weight, feel the muscle squeezing and let the movement of the weight simply be the consequence of that. Using a heavier weight is a tool that's used to contract the muscle harder, so use it for that, not just to push numbers around(I'm not saying you're doing this cus I don't know what you're feeling when you train, I'm just saying that tons of people make this mistake all too often so just make sure to always keep it in mind).