bench plateau

[ksteensma]

I am 46 yrs old and lifting for 4 years. I have hit a plateau in my bench. I warm up properly, eat and sleep as best as I can. I work the bench once a week. The other 2 work-outs a week are all progressing fairly well. I do flat bench. My progress is all fairly slow, but consistant until lately. I know there are alot of variables, but I'm looking for some basic advice to start with. I am by definition a hard gainer.

Thanks

 

[Old and Grey]

You have hit the dreaded RBE. Consider adopting HST to overcome this.

 

[Aaron_F]

you mean the HST program designed to increase muscle mass without a real increase in strength, becuase it is hypertrophy-specific?

 

[Jester]

*Bryan makes a mental note to roll over in his grave for that*

How does HST lead to strength increases incidentally? The neg. training?

 

[Old and Grey]

Aaron, as you well know, HST is not designed to add only muscle mass without any gains in strength. If you had said that "HST is not designed specifically as a strength building program", you would have been correct. I would challenge anyone to follow HST and increase their muscle size only, with no increase in strength. It is not possible. Granted, it may not be the most productive method to increase strength but it will increase strength. BTW, there is a recent post describing a 70% increase in bench strength in 4 HST cycles.    

Also, please note that KS did not specifically mention a problem with strength in the post. What was  mentioned was a plateau which could be interpreted as strength ot hypertrophy. Reference was also made to being a "hardgainer" which is typically used more when speaking of hypertrophy than strength. In either case, HST would help overcome that plateau via SD at the very least.      

   Its versatility and portability is one of the aspects that makes HST so great.
However, had you not made a similar type comment, I would have been surprised as you seem to delight in making snide remarks after many posts. That doesn't personally bother me (although it may others) but I would suggest that that time could be better spent disseminating some of the vast amount of  knowledge that you have obviously accumulated in a more positive manner. Bryan's board has historically been relatively free of such antics. This was addressed by Bryan previosly in his Forum Etiquette sticky.

Jester, generally the concentric portion of the rep is where strength will be built from. For that reason, many people, myself included, use an explosive concentric lift to help balance the strength and hypertrophy benefits of HST.

 

[Dood]

Quote[/b] (Old and Grey @ Mar. 22 2005,9:28)]However, had you not made a similar type comment, I would have been surprised as you seem to delight in making snide remarks after many posts.

O.G., Aaron seems to be in a bad mood lately, roid rage?

 

[ian]

Quote[/b] (Old and Grey @ Mar. 22 2005,9:28)]I would challenge anyone to follow HST and increase their muscle size only, with no increase in strength.

I dont really understand this. If you do any type of training your body adapts to that specific method. So if your doing 50 rep sets, youll get good at that, but when you try anything else, youl be useless. Defo think this applys to HST, I tryd my old methods for a bit and cudnt lift anything like I used to, and my forearms seem to be totally out of action and unable to cope with the weights my upper arms can lift.

As far as the actual post goes, try something new, DBs, incline,decline, more reps, less, reps, a week off, tiny increments every week, or geta training partner to push you. Dont just sit back doing the same thing, thatl do you in phycologically 2.

 

[Totentanz]

O&G's point was that it is very difficult to increase your muscular size without increasing your strength as well.