Chest Workout Help

[vthokies88]

I have been weight lifting since early July and I have picked up 20 lbs. in that time. But for the last month I have ran into a wall with my bench. The following is the workout that I do and the order I do it in. I typically try to go up in weight with each set and do at least 6 on my last set.

5 Sets of Bench-Warm up with 135 10x, 165 10x, 175 8x, 175 7x, and 185 5x (been here for a month)
4 sets of Dips (10x, 8x, 7x, 6x on all my sets)
4 sets of Skull Crushers
4 sets of Incline Chest Press
4 sets of Seated Tricep Press with a dumbbell
4 sets of Incline Dumbbell bench press
4 sets of Dumbbell bench press
4 sets on a skull crusher machine
4 sets flyes
4 sets of bench dips
4 sets of chest press machine.

Any recommendations/critiques on how to change this routine up so that I can get past the 185 wall?

[CCTEN]

way to many sets your are over training...cut the routine in half

Like

5 sets of bench
5 set of incline
3 sets of flys
abs

something like that....also switch your routine up don't do the same routine every work out or you will get stuck.

Make sure you are eating the right amount of cals and protein ..check the diet section for meal plans.

[vthokies88]

way to many sets your are over training...cut the routine in half

Like

5 sets of bench
5 set of incline
3 sets of flys
abs

something like that....also switch your routine up don't do the same routine every work out or you will get stuck.

Make sure you are eating the right amount of cals and protein ..check the diet section for meal plans.

So should I do something like 4 chest exercises and 4 tricep exercises? Then alternate the order every week? Do incline one week and decline the next? Should my rep ranges be different?

[CCTEN]

So should I do something like 4 chest exercises and 4 tricep exercises? Then alternate the order every week? Do incline one week and decline the next? Should my rep ranges be different?

Yes that sounds good...I would alternate my work outs week to week or every other week how ever you want to do it. Switching rep ranges is big too. Like one day a month go real heavy. Switching around your routine is something you have to play around with.

Over training will kills gains try to complete your work out in less than an hour. If you can stay in there longer than an hour then your not really working hard enough.

[vthokies88]

Thanks for your help! So even if I am working two major muscle groups (chest and tri) my workout should last no longer than a hour or so?

[PappyMason]

try some close grip bench press (targets triceps more). should help up your bench press overall

[DizzyPhyziks]

I used to do a similar workout because i felt my chest was lagging so i tried to work the piss out of it. I saw much better results from a simplified routine:

Bb flat bench 5x5
(Or alternate db flat bench 5x10)
Incline db press 5x10
Decline hammerstrength 3x12
Skullcrushers 3x12
Maybe some pecdec or crossovers to polish it off at 3x15 and really focus on the squeeze.

My shoulders and triceps have always been the bigger parts in my upper body so i try to really think about limiting their involvment in most movements. I liked this episode of "Getting cut with Glass" in which they trained chest and the way he talked about form helped me feel my chest more in my training

[oldballs]

Ditch this stupid routine and get on starting strength from the workout fourm.

[vthokies88]

Thanks for the advice guys!

I used to do a similar workout because i felt my chest was lagging so i tried to work the piss out of it. I saw much better results from a simplified routine:

Bb flat bench 5x5
(Or alternate db flat bench 5x10)
Incline db press 5x10
Decline hammerstrength 3x12
Skullcrushers 3x12
Maybe some pecdec or crossovers to polish it off at 3x15 and really focus on the squeeze.

My shoulders and triceps have always been the bigger parts in my upper body so i try to really think about limiting their involvment in most movements. I liked this episode of "Getting cut with Glass" in which they trained chest and the way he talked about form helped me feel my chest more in my training

[Dolor2013]

45 sets? **** me...

[Jamescan22]

Too many workouts.

Stick to 3 main ones. Incline decline Flat.

[thetrueSSJ]

That's a **** tonne of volume, you might be over doing it, 5x5 bench (flat or decline) should be the center of your chest work if you want to increase you bench. I personally would do decline because it emphasizes the front delts less and will also not fatigue the upper chest as much, allowing more weight on incline.
decline 5x5
incline 4x6
flys 3-4x6-10
CGB 3-4x6-8 (not the most effective hypertrophy movement but it will make your tris hella strong
Skullcrushers 3x8-10
add in whatever isolation movement for tris you want if you don't feel like 2 exercises is enough

[kntkody]

yea yea less sets more weight and maybe do high volume once a week bro

[TigerStealth]

WAY to many sets wow that is insane. i do 12 work sets for a chest workout. my best tip is do control the negative

[vthokies88]

So essentially I should maybe do 4-5 chest exercises 3 sets (combination of flat, decline, and incline), high weight, low reps 5-6? Is there anything that I should absolutely do every week? Should I do all the chest exercises on the front end and triceps on the back end or mix them together?

[Bequi]

all good advice but I am also a high volume person. I work about 4-5exercise/ bodypart w/ anywhere from 5-7 sets each (true story) and it works for me. Very well, mind you. So, OP, drop the volume, see if you respond better. If not, try hitting that final set of bench 3x. I havea similar set/rep breakdown and when I am ready to break that plateau, I do that "final" set 3x so....

5 Sets of Bench-Warm up with 135 10x, 165 10x, 175 8x, 175 7x, and ( do this 3x...>>>185 5x (been here for a month)

Try that as well. also, occassionally, give DB bench priority and just switch those 2 in your workout every other week or so

[miamibodybuilder]

one way i break a lot of my plateaus when it came to the barbell bench was to stray away from it for a while and focus more on db flat presses. i did that for a couple months really hard and heavy, and then i'll come back to the barbell bench and i was able to break my previous plateau. give it a try and see if it works for you big man. i believe you'll be just fine doing that.