Why do People Hit Walls/Platues

[Switchblade]

Why is it that people hit walls and platues. I've been on a wall for a long time in bench, and i just havnt gotten any stronger in it. I tried bills intermediate 5 x 5, but i failed at 165 again. i don't get it.

Also, how is it that when people break through walls, they can usually add pounds alot easier for a while....

[SuicideGripMe]

Your body gets used to the same thing over and over again. When you do something new, your body responds to it. To keep from platueing....
1. Change routine.
2. Add new supplement (sometimes is a placebo effect too!)
3. Switch excercises (you love your routine! just switch bench for incline)
4. Changing grip/style weekly (sumo-traditional deads, front squat-back squat, medium grip-wide grip bench)

All these will help you break your plateu. Id suggest reading into max-ot and bill star about warming up, ramping, and adding weight to your lifts.

[Forge3]

Your body gets used to the same thing over and over again. When you do something new, your body responds to it. To keep from platueing....
1. Change routine.
2. Add new supplement (sometimes is a placebo effect too!)
3. Switch excercises (you love your routine! just switch bench for incline)
4. Changing grip/style weekly (sumo-traditional deads, front squat-back squat, medium grip-wide grip bench)

All these will help you break your plateu. Id suggest reading into max-ot and bill star about warming up, ramping, and adding weight to your lifts.

Agreed. And sometimes you can break plateaus in smaller increments by adding smaller discs (i.e. 1 lb discs).

[Switchblade]

then how do programs like ripptoes starting strenght work, where there is very little variety..?

[AJbuilder]

then how do programs like tipptoes starting strenght work, where there is very little variety..?

Read that 5x5 again or any of it's branched variation especially MadCow's and Bill Starr's writeups

http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow...Linear_5x5.htm


It's about overreaching and having a "downtime" to let the body catch up to it's training effects. Then ramping up again, back down, repeat till desired. It's all about cycling.

[Switchblade]

Agreed. And sometimes you can break plateaus in smaller increments by adding smaller discs (i.e. 1 lb discs).

so once you start adding one lb discs..will this be the fastest progress you will make? or can you try to speed it up once you get past your wall....

Shouldn't it continue to be hard to progress past a platue? What makes it easyer to progress for a while once you pass it?

[waynelucky]

Hi there,

You most properly need a rest from training 7 to ten day, or change the number of reps your doing As if your only doing say 10 reps on each set or 5 x 5 the Mental, Metabolic, and Motor limits are “NOT”explored with this type of training and "each" can create, its own limiting factor. To reach Maximum Potential, one must be prepared to recognize the stimulus needed for the goal (load/volume/time wise) and develop each of those limiting factors to allow maximum, or high percentage results.

Try one of the below, yes I know a lot of you have heard it, but this person may not have;
You do not really have to take the first set to failure, but I took all other sets to full failure.

1/2 rep speed,

Hypertrophy,
Set 1, 30 reps, rest 5 minutes, set 2, add 25% 15 reps, rest 5 minutes, set 3 add 15% 10 reps, set 4, 10 to 20 reps, you drop down weight to your first or second sets weights, and do a full stop at the top and bottom to take advantage of Good recognition of the role of stretch in sarcolemma (cell membrane of a muscle fiber or muscle cell. The membrane is designed to receive and conduct stimuli.) Disruption.

Strength,
Set 1, 20 reps, rest 5 minutes, set 2, add 25% 15 reps, rest 5 minutes, set 3 add 15% 10 reps, set 4, which is 5 reps, drop down weight to your second sets weights, and do a full stop at the top and bottom to take advantage of Good recognition of the role of stretch in sarcolemma (cell membrane of a muscle fiber or muscle cell. The membrane is designed to receive and conduct stimuli.) Disruption.

The Mental, Metabolic, and Motor limits "ARE" explored with this type of training and "each" can create, its own limiting factor. To reach Maximum Potential, one must be prepared to recognize the stimulus needed for the goal (load/volume/time wise) and develop each of those limiting factors to allow maximum, or high percentage results.

Or you could be benching three times per week, after the rest cut it to twice.

I see a lot of posts and people ask: I have a sticking point, plateau or I am making no gains at all, please what can I do ???


Then they get back replies saying do this do that routine try this
try that, when they should be saying you are most properly overtraining, or
training to frequently, YOU BODY IS SAYING I WANT TO GROW BUT YOUR
NOT LETTING ME PLEASE TAKE AT LEAST TAKE A WEEK TO TEN DAYS FROM TRAINING AT LEAST EVERY FOUR MONTHS FROM TRAINING.

I myself used too combat the symptoms of overtraining by having a basic routine, and specialising on a certain bodypart for a month, then backing off, picking another bodypart for a month then backing off, then going back to the vanilla basic routine for a month or two, then having a full 7 to ten days off ever four months.

How to recognise the symptoms of over training:

Overtraining results from an imbalance between the amounts of stress applied to your body, and your ability to adapt to it. The line between adaptive stress or training and destructive stress or training is a fine one. To make maximum strength and size progress, you must know where that line is. Unfortunately, at least nine out of ten of all the strongmen, powerlifters, and bodybuilders I have known over the last thirty years have been guilty of overtraining
not just once in a great while, but consistently. No trainee is immune to over training.

However, even if the muscle itself does recover entirely, this is no indication that the system supplying the muscle is fully recovered e.g. liver, brain, kidneys, C.N.S.

Simply put, overtraining is stressing the muscle before it has gone through regeneration and over-compensation. When you train a muscle through weight training, you create small tears and leasion in the muscle fibers. Your body then repairs these muscle fibers and then hopefully increases them in strength and size so that the same level of stress will not degenerate them next time the body sees it.

If you do not give the body time to regenerate and over-compensate, you may simple add more tears and lesions to the already damaged muscle fibers. As you can imagine, this give the opposite effect you are after through weight training.

If you can only lift as much as last time you trained, the muscle have regenerated but not over-compensated. If you cannot even lift as much as last time you trained, your muscle have not fully regenerated. Either way, you should either increase your time between training, or decrease your training intensity and duration.

If you have any of these symptoms, you are probably overtraining.

? Irritability grumpy always argumentative
? No training progress
? Decreased muscle size and strength
? Longer-than-average recovery time after a workout
? Increased heart rate
? Increased blood pressure
? Increased joint and muscle aches
? Loss of interest in training
? Lack of energy
? Headaches
? Hand tremors
? Loss or diminution of appetite
? Tiredness
? Listlessness
? Insomnia

Overtraining results from too much exercise and too little rest and recuperation. It leads to a reduction in muscular size, strength, and performance. Proper exercise creates a need for growth. It makes demands on your body that cannot be meet by your existing muscular development. But you must understand that exercise is only the stimulus. Once the stimulus is applied, you must back off and permit your body respond that is, to grow.

Wayne

[waynelucky]

Hi again,

One more thing it could be you need to get more food down you, I eat from 20 to 24 calories per pound of bodyweight.

Wayne

[SuicideGripMe]

That way is add 2 lbs each training session. Micro plates are awesome!

Another great trick to break MENTAL plateus. A lot of people pshyche themselves out with big wheels on the bar. Instead of tossing on 45's, try putting on a few 25's or 10's. Same weight, just looks smaller. Sometimes thats all you need. My friend was convinced he couldnt do 205. I kicked on 205 in small weights, told him to try to max out but didnt tell him how much it was. He did one full rep and went for another but couldnt get it.

[Switchblade]

20 reps, rest 5 minutes, set 2, add 25% 15 reps, rest 5 minutes, set 3 add 15% 10 reps, set 4, which is 5 reps, drop down weight to your second sets weights, and do a full stop at the top and bottom to take advantage of Good recognition of the role of stretch in sarcolemma (cell membrane of a muscle fiber or muscle cell. The membrane is designed to receive and conduct stimuli.) Disruption.

The Mental, Metabolic, and Motor limits "ARE" explored with this type of training and "each" can create, its own limiting factor. To reach Maximum Potential, one must be prepared to recognize the stimulus needed for the goal (load/volume/time wise) and develop each of those limiting factors to allow maximum, or high percentage results.

Wayne

hi wayne. i just had a couple of questions about what you said.

the first is about the stopping at the bottom of the rep to take advantage of the muscles stretch....i thought that by pausing, this eliminates the stretch, which is why pro powerlifters have to pause at the bottom of a lift.

second, i was confised about what mental limits you are talking about. do you mean like how fast yoru CNS recovers?

as for overtraining, it may be a possiblility, but i just came back from a 2 week vacation, so i dont think i could overtrain that fast, being that i am doing starting strength (only i reduced the amount of squatting as its to much for e i think
)

thanks again.

[Bringindapain]

pausing at the bottom eliminates momentum, not the stretch.

[Switchblade]

even if you didnt do a long pause, momentum would be gone for the time you pause...so no matter what, momentum is eliminated until the bar starts to go up....right?

[waynelucky]

Hi switch blade, great name,

hi wayne. i just had a couple of questions about what you said.

the first is about the stopping at the bottom of the rep to take advantage of the muscles stretch....i thought that by pausing, this eliminates the stretch, which is why pro powerlifters have to pause at the bottom of a lift. .

The bit about stopping at the rep top and bottom, particularly the bottom. This is a very nice way to accentuate the stretch for exercises. Elasticity of the muscles,

second, i was confised about what mental limits you are talking about. do you mean like how fast yoru CNS recovers?.

The mental limits mean if you work in one rep range you will not tax your CNS much, as it and the body will get stale doing just one rep range, doing the higher reps will excite your CNS, and that will promote more strength, thus getting you more size.

as for overtraining, it may be a possiblility, but i just came back from a 2 week vacation, so i dont think i could overtrain that fast, being that i am doing starting strength (only i reduced the amount of squatting as its to much for e i think
)

thanks again.

Ok your not overtraining, nice vacation I hope.

Wayne

[Switchblade]

Hi switch blade, great name,

The mental limits mean if you work in one rep range you will not tax your CNS much, as it and the body will get stale doing just one rep range, doing the higher reps will excite your CNS, and that will promote more strength, thus getting you more size.



Ok your not overtraining, nice vacation I hope.

Wayne

thanks for the responce, but i have another question (sorry)

How can you say the body gets stale, when there are programs like the 5 x 5 by ripptoe and bill starr which really only concetrate on one rep range? how do they keep from becomeing stale?

[John Prophet]

keep a detailed and accurate log......then people can generally look back at it and say stuff like "uhmm, you have done the same exact workout for 7 months"

[John Prophet]

thanks for the responce, but i have another question (sorry)

How can you say the body gets stale, when there are programs like the 5 x 5 by ripptoe and bill starr which really only concetrate on one rep range? how do they keep from becomeing stale?

those programs are generally for newbs and high school/college lifters who arent super experienced...generally newbs can progress for a while without too many hangups

no offense, but if you are stuck at 165 bench I am betting you just have crappy form...(just DROPPING the weight down on the negative....not holding your breath thru the hard part of the lift....not planting your feet solidly...squirming all over the place)

either that or you just arent pushing the sets nearly hard enough

can you get some experienced lifters to watch you do a few sets?