Stuck

[W13NY]

Hey, I've been stuck on Incline DB Chest Press at between 65 and 70 lb dumbells for a long time now and same thing with Flat BB Chest Press I can't seem to put up more than 135 for more than 8 reps. I'm not sure what to do to get past this but I haven't been able to add weight for a while now. My chest workout looks like this:

Incline DB Press - 4 Sets (1 Warmup)
Flat BB Press - 3 Sets
Cable Crossovers - 3 Sets
DB Flys - 3 Sets

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Rodja]

What do you do for your back/rear delts?

[W13NY]

Back:
DB Rows - 4 Sets (1 Warmup)
Wide Grip Pulldowns - 3 Sets
Narrow Grip Pulldowns - 3 Sets
Cable Rows - 3 Sets
Rear Delts - 4 Sets Reverse Flys

[Rodja]

Switch to pullups and more free-weight rows. To have a strong chest, you also need a strong back.

[youngandfree]

Switch to pullups and more free-weight rows. To have a strong chest, you also need a strong back.

Also stop doing sets of 8. Add weight and drop reps. 4-6 range.

[Wilderbeast]

Also stop doing sets of 8. Add weight and drop reps. 4-6 range.

This is good advice. I do not advocate lifting in this range for indefinite periods of time, but I have currently switched to a more HIT style program where I hit between 4-8 reps for one working set of each exercise (plus a few rest pause sets or dropsets). Training with 3-4 sets per exercise is not the best way to gain strength or generate increases in muscular power/torque. I have made some of my best incrimental strength increases by doing 4-6 exercises per workout with 1 working set of each exercise between 4-8 reps. Switching up exercises, exercise order, and rep tempo is also a good way to generate new stimuli to the body. I find that for a given exercise, if I simply do it week after week at the same point in my routine my weights on it do not increase like they do if I place it in a different order and replace it with other movements from workout to workout and then come back to it. Hope this gives you at least a few ideas.

BEAST

[W13NY]

Yes, thank you, you've helped a lot.