Need help breaking a close grip bench plateay

[bushidogainer]

I asked this question a week ago but the answers were not helpful. I've been stuck at 185 for 3 sets of 6 for 4 weeks. I am eating and sleeping enough because I'm gaining 1 lb a week and I'm sleeping my 7-9 hours a night every night. Also all my other lifts have been going up such as squat and deadlifts but I've actually began to notice a drop in strength in my close grip bench press. I was thinking about doing 3 sets of 12-15 reps on dips resting 1 minute between each set for about a month and focus on progression because I'm trying to increase the volume and workload the triceps so that can hopefully break the plateau. Is this a good idea or do u have other suggestions. And this is my workout routine.

Workout A

Box Squat 3/5×4-6
Floor Press 3/5×4-6
Pendlay Row 3/5×4-6
Overhead Barbell Extension 3×6-10
Barbell/Dumbbell Preacher Curl 3×6-10
Stiff-Legged Deadlift/Good Morning 2-3×6-10
Weighted Plank 3×30-60s

Workout B

Box Squat 3/5×4-6
Paused Overhead Press 3/5×4-6
Trap-Bar Deadlift 2×4-6
Close-Grip Bench Press 3×6-8
Weighted Chin-up 3×3-5
Weighted Plank 3×30-60s

[TrettinR]

Well to start if your goal is to increase your close grip then have it be the first exercise you do in the workout.

[braden101]

Put your CG Bench as your first or second lift for a few weeks and see how that goes for you or even try progressing through a different rep range for a few weeks, for example; work on 2-4 instead of 6-8 (For the lift your working on, not the whole lot).

Also, this may not be true for you but for me a drop in strength is usually from overreaching, not from doing too little. I find my chest, tris to be easily overtrained and i will always come back stronger after a short deload/time off.

[Garage Rat]

You need to know where your weakness is on your close grip BP.
If it's off your chest work heavy front delt work and upper back, as well as paused BP.
My favorites are 45 degree incline front barbell or dumbbell raises stop ever rep at the bottom for front delt starting BP strength.
With the bar start from quads,with DB's start from hanging from your sides while laying back on the incline bench.
Upper back i like to do chest supported rows pulling to where you bring the bar on the BP.Also do lat work.
Paused BP,close or regular for 1-3 seconds will help also.

If your weaker on lockout from half way to lockout try board presses which will allow you to use more weight or reps than what your currently using.
I put 2x6's under my sweat shirt either 1,2,or 3 board and sometimes 4 boards.
Do this with close grip with a brief pause to overload the trips.
You could dip heavy dips which worked well for the first 600 pound bench presses Pat Casey.I would not go further than a 90 degree angle at the bottom and keep the body upright so the tri's get much of the work.
Only pick one movement to help your weakness and determine where your weakness is.

[bushidogainer]

You need to know where your weakness is on your close grip BP.
If it's off your chest work heavy front delt work and upper back, as well as paused BP.
My favorites are 45 degree incline front barbell or dumbbell raises stop ever rep at the bottom for front delt starting BP strength.
With the bar start from quads,with DB's start from hanging from your sides while laying back on the incline bench.
Upper back i like to do chest supported rows pulling to where you bring the bar on the BP.Also do lat work.
Paused BP,close or regular for 1-3 seconds will help also.

If your weaker on lockout from half way to lockout try board presses which will allow you to use more weight or reps than what your currently using.
I put 2x6's under my sweat shirt either 1,2,or 3 board and sometimes 4 boards.
Do this with close grip with a brief pause to overload the trips.
You could dip heavy dips which worked well for the first 600 pound bench presses Pat Casey.I would not go further than a 90 degree angle at the bottom and keep the body upright so the tri's get much of the work.
Only pick one movement to help your weakness and determine where your weakness is.

I am definently weak off the chest. Would starting with a paused close grip bench in the 2-4 rep range help

[BenG1987]

The biggest thing that helps me with both my bench press and close grip bench press is starting to incorporate weighted dips into my workout routine. I would suggest giving this a shot

[bushidogainer]

You need to know where your weakness is on your close grip BP.
If it's off your chest work heavy front delt work and upper back, as well as paused BP.
My favorites are 45 degree incline front barbell or dumbbell raises stop ever rep at the bottom for front delt starting BP strength.
With the bar start from quads,with DB's start from hanging from your sides while laying back on the incline bench.
Upper back i like to do chest supported rows pulling to where you bring the bar on the BP.Also do lat work.
Paused BP,close or regular for 1-3 seconds will help also.

If your weaker on lockout from half way to lockout try board presses which will allow you to use more weight or reps than what your currently using.
I put 2x6's under my sweat shirt either 1,2,or 3 board and sometimes 4 boards.
Do this with close grip with a brief pause to overload the trips.
You could dip heavy dips which worked well for the first 600 pound bench presses Pat Casey.I would not go further than a 90 degree angle at the bottom and keep the body upright so the tri's get much of the work.
Only pick one movement to help your weakness and determine where your weakness is.

As a matter of fact I get stuck right in the middle which is a tricep weakness. But I've been doing floor press to fix this problem but I plateaued on that exercise too. I have no idea wtf to do now

[bushidogainer]

The biggest thing that helps me with both my bench press and close grip bench press is starting to incorporate weighted dips into my workout routine. I would suggest giving this a shot

**** it I'll give this a shot. Should I change the rep range and if so what rep range and sets should I do?

[ayoayoayo]

The biggest thing that helps me with both my bench press and close grip bench press is starting to incorporate weighted dips into my workout routine. I would suggest giving this a shot

oh yeah, love them weighted dips. Buy your own dipbelt if you have to, they're a good investment. About 8/9 months ago i added in weighted dips and they've progressed very fast. I can dip with 70lb attached to me for 8 reps on a good day and when i first started it was difficult to even get 8 reps without weight (and i was benching around 205lb for 6 reps at the time). I like to lean forward a little when i do them to target chest. Try to stay controlled on the descent and don't go down too rapidly, it can be hard to stay stable especially with weight attached.

[bushidogainer]

oh yeah, love them weighted dips. Buy your own dipbelt if you have to, they're a good investment. About 8/9 months ago i added in weighted dips and they've progressed very fast. I can dip with 70lb attached to me for 8 reps on a good day and when i first started it was difficult to even get 8 reps without weight (and i was benching around 205lb for 6 reps at the time). I like to lean forward a little when i do them to target chest. Try to stay controlled on the descent and don't go down too rapidly, it can be hard to stay stable especially with weight attached.

Ya definently. I've done weighted dips a couple times and its really a bitch to try and stay upright with weight attached. But how exactly would I incorporate dips to break the plateu?

[k9pit]

From all that you're saying (weak off the chest, stuck in middle of the rom) it sounds like you need to strengthen your shoulders.

Barbell OHPs help strengthen my shoulders to fire the bar off the chest (with close grip, flat, and incline barbell bench) with momentum enough to power through the sticking point (middle of rom) so that my triceps can contract on the lockout.

If your OHP form is not good, incline barbell (not dumb bell) could help too.

[bushidogainer]

From all that you're saying (weak off the chest, stuck in middle of the rom) it sounds like you need to strengthen your shoulders.

Barbell OHPs help strengthen my shoulders to fire the bar off the chest (with close grip, flat, and incline barbell bench) with momentum enough to power through the sticking point (middle of rom) so that my triceps can contract on the lockout.

If your OHP form is not good, incline barbell (not dumb bell) could help too.

What about weighted dips. Will those help strengthen my shoulders if I do them with a slight forward lean

[TrettinR]

I don't mean this as a putdown but you bench 185x6, you're not weak off your chest, you're weak everywhere. Worry less about strengthening weak spots and worry more about strengthening EVERYTHING. Also if you're actually 5'11 167lbs I'd recommend eating more, A LOT more. You're only limiting yourself staying that small.

[k9pit]

What about weighted dips. Will those help strengthen my shoulders if I do them with a slight forward lean

They could (indirectly) but I personally don't do them as a front delt builder. But they could give you some extra stability that could have carry over to different exercises.

I personally (and it's good practice to) retract shoulders before attempting weighted dips (same way you do with bench press) in order to minimize their role and add extra safety to the move. Also, it's best to only go down as much as you can safely, which is typically parallel or slightly below.

[bushidogainer]

I don't mean this as a putdown but you bench 185x6, you're not weak off your chest, you're weak everywhere. Worry less about strengthening weak spots and worry more about strengthening EVERYTHING. Also if you're actually 5'11 167lbs I'd recommend eating more, A LOT more. You're only limiting yourself staying that small.

No offense taken at all. And I'm not 167 any more and can continue to gain weight very easily as I've been doing lately. I know its not a weight gain issue tho because my bench has barely been going up despite weight gain. So I know its a training problem

[Serge4]

You are having a plateau because you have accommodated to your training. You adress this by, as with any plateau, switching ya stuff up. Change the reps and intensity ( crazy light sets of 20 reps for example), change the exercise, change the technique (wide grip for example), drop sets etc.

Raw lifts (no shirts) will always fail close to mid point because you cannot build enough acceleration in the initial phase, after missing a rep you either will keep failing in your next few work outs (plateau) or you get stronger and progress. And really it could be as easy as putting in some wide grip bench presses for 3/4 weeks or like others suggested dips.

[bushidogainer]

You are having a plateau because you have accommodated to your training. You adress this by, as with any plateau, switching ya stuff up. Change the reps and intensity ( crazy light sets of 20 reps for example), change the exercise, change the technique (wide grip for example), drop sets etc.

Raw lifts (no shirts) will always fail close to mid point because you cannot build enough acceleration in the initial phase, after missing a rep you either will keep failing in your next few work outs (plateau) or you get stronger and progress. And really it could be as easy as putting in some wide grip bench presses for 3/4 weeks or like others suggested dips.

Thanks for the advice man. I recently plateaus on my paused overhead press so I'm doing seated dumbbell press for about a month and see how that transfers onto my standard overhead press. Will also do this with dips as u and others have recommended