Time to Dial It In

[Barbecuebarbell]

I've been running this program for the past 8-9 months with great results. I am in my early 20's and am 6'2" and 230lbs. My close-grip bench got to 250lbs x 2, overhead press to 180lbs x 1, and 5 x 5 weighted chins on rings to 45lbs. I am happy with the results and've been able to add weight and/or reps in my main lifts over the course of this time by taking a few deloads, microloading and switching rep and set schemes when necessary.

Since my goals are to add upper-body size and strength while pushing towards a 200 press and 300 bench, the program consists of two upper body days (OHP/Bench) and one lower body day. While I've gotten great results, I am starting to feel run down lately on upper body days, and I've stalled on my bench and press for the past 4 weeks now despite deloads/resets/micro-loads. My squats and deads are still improving with the one day, and I am where I want to be for now with them (450 x 5 dead and 385 x 5 squat). I love this structure of training, but I am wondering if anyone could help me with what to do on my two upper body days to get my bench and press moving again (new rep schemes? less assistance work? etc.). I would love to not have to switch programs, but if I had to it would need to be one similar to the one I am on now in terms of days per week and structure (two upper, one lower works well for me).


Here's how I progressed up until now: For my bench and press, I stuck with a 3 x 5 format (I have done SS in the past), adding small amounts of weight each week until I stalled, then reset and worked back up. Once I stalled with that a few times, I switched to 3 x 3 and repeated the same process until it did the same. I eventually went to working up to one 3-5RM each week, which helped me make more progress. Once that stalled, I added in two back-off sets after the max set in a reverse pyramid style to add a bit of volume, and this got me to where I am currently... For the assistance work, I was able to add weight, sets or reps week after week. Eventually, however, as the weights got heavier with my main lifts as well as the assistance work, I was waiting 4-5 minutes between each set on all exercises, not just the main lifts, and this extended the length of my workouts to almost 2 hours sometimes, which I think aided in me feeling burnt out. Can anyone help me out with what to do from here?

Current routine for upper body days are as follows:

Upper Day 1:
Close-Grip Bench: 250 x 2, 225 x 5, 210 x 6
DB Rows: 5 x 6-8
S/S (I superset antagonistic muscle groups to save time)
DB Neutral-grip Overhead Press: 3 x 6-8
Lat Pull-downs: 3 x 8-10
S/S
EZ Skullcrushers: 3 x 10-12
Face-pulls: 2 x 15-20
S/S
Abs: 2 x 15

Upper Day 2:
Overhead Press: 180 x 2, 155 x 6, 148 x 7
Weighted Chins on Rings: 45lbs 5 x 5
S/S
Neutral-grip DB Floor Press: 3 x 6-8
Chest Supported Rows: 3 x 6-8
DB Curls: 3 x 6-8
S/S
Band Pull-Aparts: 2 x 20
S/S
Abs 2 x 15

Thank You

[Barbecuebarbell]

bump

[Barbecuebarbell]

nobody? The beginner powerbulding routine looks really cool, but I feel that I may be too intermediate to make progress on it.

[Barbecuebarbell]

Anyone try the 70's big LP?

[brenthopkins]

swapping DB rows for pendlay rows is the only thing i could see.

if you push horizontally, you should pull horizontally

[fluidZ]

Well, since you have a ton of gain this may be a dumb post, but you are checking your protein + calories and sleep, yes?

Also, you are taking a rest day in between completion of an UL?

Also also, you are shooting for some respectable numbers here, so you may be expecting a bit much adding weight every other week or so... How long have you been stalling out exactly?

[Barbecuebarbell]

Well, since you have a ton of gain this may be a dumb post, but you are checking your protein + calories and sleep, yes?

Also, you are taking a rest day in between completion of an UL?

Also also, you are shooting for some respectable numbers here, so you may be expecting a bit much adding weight every other week or so... How long have you been stalling out exactly?

Yes, my UL days are on Sundays and Wednesdays so plenty of rest between. Also I have reset and worked up a few times and tried adding volume, dropping volume and changing set/rep schemes to get to the CG Bench and Press I am at now. I have stalled for the last three weeks on both. In fact, the second week I got 2 reps of 180 on the press and then got weaker the next two. I have just been feeling beat up too and I feel like maybe a chance to the Beginner Powerbuilding Routine or 70's Big LP would be a nice change to get the ball rolling again as I have never truly exhausted an LP properly.

[fluidZ]

Are you having any symptoms of overtraining?

To me, it sounds like you really need to just take a week off, or at least take one of your two UL off one week.. so you can get 5+ straight days of rest.

[Barbecuebarbell]

Are you having any symptoms of overtraining?

To me, it sounds like you really need to just take a week off, or at least take one of your two UL off one week.. so you can get 5+ straight days of rest.

More-so feeling like I need a change from what I am doing and that it may have run its course for now. I think I need more emphasis on the compound lifts as opposed to just benching and pressing with a bunch of accessory work. Also it is just taking too long to finish workouts now that I am up to certain weights and I just feel that I am grinding too hard lately and need to dial it back and approach things from a different angle.