Bench Stuck for 2 Months (Grey Skull lp)

Hi guys,

Looking for some help and advice.

Been doing grey skulls lp for about 8 weeks. You could say that my Squat and OHP are soaring and I’m hitting new
PRs all the time. Its awesome.

But my bench is one stubborn bastard. I pulled off a 1Rm a few weeks back (225lb). However yesterday I tried to the hit the long antipicated 5rm at 205 pounds. No cigar. I got 3. Looking back on my note pad I was getting 205 for 3 at the end of November.

My energy took a real hit when I realised my 3rm hasn’t increased in 2 months.

What do I do guys? Keep plugin? Add volume? Open to suggestions.

Get to lifting! Add some sets of 3. Do some close grip, wide grip, incline, flys, don’t underestimate plain old push ups. How many days a week are you training chest?

From training cycle to cycle you must add something to stimulate growth. It comes in intensity (which you are stuck on), volume (more sets), greater tonnage in training time.

Are you eating well?

What is your training for chest like currently?

Thanks for the reply man.

Chest training on grey skull lp consists of benching 2x one week and 1 x the next and so forth. Alternating with OHP

3 full body’s a week.

Sets are 2 of 5 followed by 1 AMRAP set (AS many reps as possible, as long as you get at least 5 you don’t deload)

Although as I write this it occurs me maybe I need more volume in there.

Some dumbbell presses after the barbell benching?

Maybe 5 sets instead of 3.

I have some knowledge of grey skull. But not much. So what’s the deload like ? How have yours gone?

When you dropped did weight how did your amrap go?

Dumbbells will be easier to recover from than the bar. Cables or machines easier than the dumbbells…

Some things I added that has helped my bench: close grip bench, wide grip bench, dumbbell flys, and a dumbbell press where I put both dumbbells together and isometric press them while pressing them on an incline.

I would suggest picking one or two excesses and adding 3 sets of ten with 50-60%. If you get all the reps, add 5-10lbs next time until you reach a point where you can’t get all ten. Stay there until you get the sets of ten then move up in weight. Take a step back when your training cycle does and move it up from there again…

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I like Grey Skull - Maybe you change it up a bit - What I did was a 3/4x5 or then drop the weight a bit for AMRP to get 8-12 reps and increase that weight when I got 12. when I would get 3-4 sets of the 5 reps I increase the weight to get 2-3 reps. Worked good for me Eastcoast Jim

The timeline is confusing. You were running the plan for 8 weeks, tested a 1RM a few weeks ago (so, part way through the program for no particular reason), and worked up to a 3RM yesterday (or, only got 3 when shooting for a 5RM). To paraphrase Wendler, that’s too much testing, not enough training.

If you want to stick with the program, drop the weight back to something you can actually handle, and go as long as possible without hitting or testing any kind of rep-max.

Out of curiosity, what’s your current best overhead press?

Yes i am an impatient bastard .

I just really needed to know, you know? LOL.

funny you ask about OHP because it is weak. 115 is the most I’ve ever actually tried and it was heavy enough. For way way, way to long I subbed OHP for incline bench. Silly I know. But I’m trying to fix it now.

Give it another month or two/another hard stall and then move on to Texas method or 5/3/1

Understood. It fucked up the program, but… at least you kinda-sorta know your max.

Again, the solution would be actually following the routine with the exercises and programming that are laid out in it for 8 uninterrupted weeks before thinking you’ve hit a plateau.

WhatHuh

Dude, stick to the the plan.

Why did you need to know your max? At your stage it’s very irrelevant. I’ve been lifting for years and have a pretty respectable level of strength, and I don’t know any of my maxes. Even the greatest power lifter of all time, Ed Coan, would tell you that he didn’t really know what his maxes were until he hit one on the platform in competition. Plus when is a max really a max? If I max out at 365 on the bench this week and try to do it again in a week or two and can only hit 355, is 365 still my max or has it dropped ten pounds in a week or two? You need t9 be building strength not testing it.

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