Stuck at one weight

[Joe300]

Hi, name is Joe. I hope that everyone had a good holiday. Well let me get to question. a year ago this month I used to weigh 295 pounds. I have dropped down to 200 pounds and I am not interested in body building. I have been stuck at one weight for the past two months. For most exercises I have been doing 3 sets of 8.

For example I have have been stuck at 155 pounds at 3 sets of 8 for bench press for about 2 months now. I can up the weight however I cannot complete the sets. I have been drinking muscle milk during workouts and this has not been helping either. How can I start upping the weight and completing sets?

[bodybuilder]

Hi, name is Joe. I hope that everyone had a good holiday. Well let me get to question. a year ago this month I used to weigh 295 pounds. I have dropped down to 200 pounds and I am not interested in body building. I have been stuck at one weight for the past two months. For most exercises I have been doing 3 sets of 8.

For example I have have been stuck at 155 pounds at 3 sets of 8 for bench press for about 2 months now. I can up the weight however I cannot complete the sets. I have been drinking muscle milk during workouts and this has not been helping either. How can I start upping the weight and completing sets?

hi joe
first merry christmas to u , man you need spotter , training partner to finish those heavy sets , if you care to lift heavy weights and gain strenght then find a good serious friend to help you finishing your heavy sets , the definition of this popular advanced training technique :
forced rep is when you are trying to lift more weight than you can lift by yourself and you need your partner to help you get it up especially on the last 4 or 3 repetitions
peace
mostafa

[swanso5]

forced reps can be a bit ordinary because you aren't lifting all the wt. For example if your doing 3 x 8 with 200pds and you get all reps by yourself you'll have a 4800 power factor rating. If you can only get 2 x 8 and 1 x 6 with 2 forced reps, not only are you lifting LESS than 200pds, your power factor will only be 4500 - 4600ish. A spotter is excellent in that you will push yourself harder but I'd take more rest days, drop the reps or even try some rest pause mike mentzer style e.g use 3RM, 1 x 1, rest 10secs, 1 x 1, rest 10secs, 1 x 1, rest 20secs or decrease wt to 80%, 1 x 1 and try and increase each session. That will work better on 2 - 3 compounds at a time, 1 for each day and will also increase your muscle. Low reps for high sets is also excellent such as 10 x 3 or 8 x 3 with 5RM

[chuk]

check out dave drapers site, he has written some articles and workout regiments that deal with your specific question.

It is www.davedraper.com


Train Hard Train Smart

[Bulwark]

Your problem is a 2 steps forward one step back issue. In order to up the weight to do 8 reps, you have to first up your weight and do sets of 4 or 6. Then once you can get 6 reps, try 7, then try 8. To get stronger you have to make yourself lift more. So, lower the reps and up the weight til your strength catches up.