Ok im ill be 17 in March. Been lifting regulary since last January. I started out doing a beginners program for about 4 months, then i switched to the HCT-12 program (or whenever it came out) and ive been satisfied w/my progress. Ive gained 20 lbs since then, and im up to about 202.
I decided my chest was lacking, so i worked my chest 3x’s a wk. I would bench the first 2 and for my 3rd chest exercise id do flyes. I told myself that it was fine, my body’ll adapt to it. But i dont think it ever did. Last month i hit 225 for 6, but failed on the 6 rep, and did the 2+2+2. Then it was my deload wk and i felt alot weaker, i had to go back down to 210. Now when this happened i stopped working my chest 3 times a wk and kept it at 2. And now today i was supposed to hit 220, but i could only get 3. So i needed a spotter for the last 3, but i was able to hit the 2 2 2.
Idk whats going on, all my other lifts are goin up fine. The only thing i can think of is 1) training my chest 3xs a wk 2)I need to switch up my program, bcuz i have been doin this for 6 or 7 months. 3)i need more rest.
***As of now im goin to rest for my 4th workout of this wk, and take a deload next next wk. I need some help on this. And i can provide pics if neccessary.
***How train. I work up to my 6 rep max, then rest 30-90 sec and do 2 more reps. then repeat 2 more times. For a total of 6 rest pause reps.
My lifts, all 6 rep maxes-
incline-220
squat-375
deadlift-375
press-175
bb row-235
I am a bit familiar with Daniel Roberts’ HCT-12 program, but do not know what he recommends for lagging bodyparts. Is an increase in frequency recommended?
Honestly i dont know. You saw what it did to me so dont up the frequency to 3xs a wk. Im guessin u would have to use another program for lagging bodyparts
It would help if people said their height with their weight, you can be a stickman or a beast at 202.
Level of leanness is also important, and if someone hasn’t measured bodyfat, it would be better if he described his muscle definition, and his bodyfat distribution instead of guesstimating numbers.
Just another thought: am i right in thinking that you said previously you took a deload week…and you came back weaker? If so why do you think it will have a different outcome this time?
Don’t deload or take a whole week off. If you feel under 100% do a neural charge w.o. or just do some complexes, or maybe just a medley of random exercises hitting weak points.
Be smart and live to lift another day.
Also, don’t do the same exercise for a bodypart week after week. You’re not powerlifting are you?
[quote]dnlcdstn wrote:
don’t do the same exercise for a bodypart week after week. [/quote]
What do you mean by this?
You should do something untill it stops working. Feeling the need to change stuff suddenly is a big reason why people fail at this, in both diet and training.
If bench press, incline press, and flyes as an example are working for me, I’m not going to change things up after 3 weeks just for the sake of it.
[quote]dnlcdstn wrote:
don’t do the same exercise for a bodypart week after week. [/quote]
What do you mean by this?
You should do something untill it stops working. Feeling the need to change stuff suddenly is a big reason why people fail at this, in both diet and training.
If bench press, incline press, and flyes as an example are working for me, I’m not going to change things up after 3 weeks just for the sake of it.[/quote]
I understand it to mean that one shouldn’t do the same exercise week after week if its not progressing. But maybe I’m reading the statement wrong.
[quote]dnlcdstn wrote:
don’t do the same exercise for a bodypart week after week. [/quote]
What do you mean by this?
You should do something untill it stops working. Feeling the need to change stuff suddenly is a big reason why people fail at this, in both diet and training.
If bench press, incline press, and flyes as an example are working for me, I’m not going to change things up after 3 weeks just for the sake of it.[/quote]
I understand it to mean that one shouldn’t do the same exercise week after week if its not progressing. But maybe I’m reading the statement wrong.
[/quote]
Yes, thats what intuition would tell us. But I never read it that way, atleast now its clear to everyone.
Well im a bodybuilder. And during the planned deload wk you take 60% of ur max and do 2 sets of 15. Basically to give ur body a rest. But theres so many things i cant put up on the web. Like how i train etc but thx ill just handle it by trial and error
Move incline to the last lift you do on chest day, weight and reps will do down at first. Make your goal hitting 220 for 6 with incline being the last movement.
Move it back to first or second movement once you reach this goal, and I guaranty you will blow past this plateau
Your body gives you feedback everyday. Timing meals and training phases are important concepts as well, but they depend on what your body is telling you during a particular day and time. There’s no real point on planning a deload in advance; how can you know if your body will need to rest a certain precise day in the future?
OH and that advice about moving incline to last and using that to guage progression is a bad idea. Typically a bodybuilder should pick 1 or MAYBE two movements to focus on to make strength gains. This should be a “big” movement (for example: db press, not pec deck) that has the most potential for long term progress.
Putting this last with the intent to use it as the movement to guage progress is dangerous. The movement used to make strength gains is the one where the person gives maximum effort and grinds out reps.
If you attempt to do this at the end of a workout you set yourself up for injury (for obvious reasons) and run the risk of burning yourself out (along the lines of taking every set of a workout to failure). In order to avoid that you’d have to save a significant amount of energy from the stuff youre doing earlier on. That’s not ideal. Especailly not for a beginner.