I think I've hit a plateau...

[I Love Lamp]

I'm currently doing a full body workout 3x a week, Mond/Wed/Fri. I have access to a bench, barbells, dumbbells and a friend who acts as a spotter.

My Diet is good, I'm consuming plenty of protein, good fats, carbs.

My current routine consists of the following.

Shrugs (Traps)
Side Raises or Shoulder Press (Delts)
Twists (Obliques)
Lying Flies (Chest)
Lateral Raises (Lats)
Bent Over Rowing (Back)
Bench Press (Chest)
Isolated Bicep Curls or Hammer Curls (Biceps)
Overhead Extensions or Kickbacks (Triceps)
Squats (Quads)
Calf Raises

The majority of exercises are in a 3x12, else 12,10,8.

I've been pleased with progress but the last month has slowed. I've been following this routine for around 6 months and doubled the lifting weights I started with.

I'm not overly keen on moving to a split routine unless I can change it to a 2 day split, as this would tie in easier due to the fact that I don't have access to a bench or spotter on the Friday, so I'd look to change it to a Mon/Thurs. Would this work, or is a 3 day split the only option?

Failing that, I guess that leaves me with supersets to increase the strength? If that's the case, I'll need to buy more weights.

I'm not aching like I used to the following day, which is odd because I set the weight so that I'm commonly failing on the final set/rep. Doing the full body, I know I can't leave it 10 mins and then destroy the muscle again, else it won't have enough time to recover.

Any suggestions?

Edited by I Love Lamp on Thursday 7th April 10:13

[LordGrover]

Take a week off, then start again at maybe 80% of current weights and gradually build your way back up again. You'll probably be able to surpass your current 'limit' sooner than you think.

[balders118]

Maybe swicth to a two day split, push/pull so you can work each body part harder on each session. This IMO would bebetter than a three day spilt, so one workout is getting repeated each week. I'd suggest the following as a guidline of what exercises you could do...

Push
Squats
Lunges
Bench Press
Fyes
Shoulder Press
Lat Raise (this is shoulders, not lats!)
Close grip press/dips (if you have the facilities to dip)
Calf raises

Pull
Deadlifts
Lying dumbell hamstring curls. I can't here the sound on the video so I don't know what he's talking about but the movement is right.
Bent over row
One arm row
Reverse Flyes
Bicep curls
Crunches
Reverse crunches

That should be plenty on both, and you can change the exersises around as long as the basic gist of the workouts is stuck to.

As far as rep range is concerned it depends what you goals are. Strength up to 8, bulking 80-12, toning 12+ (these are pretty rough guidlines). Sets depends on how many reps you are doing; if you are doing sets of 4 then 5-6 sets would be good, sets of 12 than 3 will suffice.

[LordGrover]

I Love Lamp said:

Shrugs (Traps)
Side Raises or Shoulder Press (Delts)
Twists (Obliques)
Lying Flies (Chest)
Lateral Raises (Lats)
Bent Over Rowing (Back)
Bench Press (Chest)
Isolated Bicep Curls or Hammer Curls (Biceps)
Overhead Extensions or Kickbacks (Triceps)
Squats (Quads)
Calf Raises

Is that the sequence you work in?

[I Love Lamp]

balders118 said:

Lots of useful stuff I'll look into

Lat Raise (this is shoulders, not lats!)

Regarding the Lat Raise, I did wonder this.. I thought that by leaning forward this targeted the lats?

Any alternatives?

LordGrover said:

Is that the sequence you work in?

I usually work from the bottom up.. Let me know if there's a better alternative!

Calves
Quads
Obliques
Lats
Delts
Traps
Chest
Back
Bis
Tris

Edited by I Love Lamp on Thursday 7th April 10:49

[RemainAllHoof]

Bear in mind I know next to nothing about weight lifting/body building, what about moving a lot more slowly? And squeezing at full activation? Also holding mid-move? I know that even though I climb regularly, if I really push it and keep going until exhaustion, I can ache (experience the pump) for days after.

[LordGrover]

I Love Lamp said:

I usually work from the bottom up.. Let me know if there's a better alternative!

Calves
Quads
Obliques
Lats
Delts
Traps
Chest
Back
Bis
Tris

For me, it'd be:

Quads - Squat
Back - Deadlift
Chest - Bench press, maybe alternate dips
Traps - Shrug
Lats - Chins/pull-ups
Delts - Seated shoulder press
Calves
Abs/Obliques
? Bis
? Tris

Not sure I'd bother with bicep/tricep work - should get enough elsewhere.
Not a big fan of little exercises like curls, flyes, lateral raises, etc. Get big with the compound movements first.

Edited by LordGrover on Thursday 7th April 11:09

[balders118]

I Love Lamp said:

balders118 said:

Lots of useful stuff I'll look into

Lat Raise (this is shoulders, not lats!)

Regarding the Lat Raise, I did wonder this.. I thought that by leaning forward this targeted the lats?

Any alternatives?

LordGrover said:

Is that the sequence you work in?

I usually work from the bottom up.. Let me know if there's a better alternative!

Calves
Quads
Obliques
Lats
Delts
Traps
Chest
Back
Bis
Tris

Edited by I Love Lamp on Thursday 7th April 10:49

If you lean over far enough (like a bent over row) then that is a reverse flye, not a lat raise and that work rear delts, traps, rhomboids and to a lesser extent your lats.

With regards to seqeunce you should start on the biggest, most compund movement and work down to the smaller more isolated ones. For example, Bench Press - Shoulder Press - Flyes - Tricep extension. IMO flyes could go before shoulder press as it gets all the chest done (bigger muscle group) than shoulders even though the movement is less compund.

I agree with LordGrover Re: bicep/tricep stuff not being all that imortant, but most people will want them in their program so I usually include them. Flyes and lat raises etc however I disagree, they have got there place in most peoples workout IMO.

[Lost_BMW]

I Love Lamp said:

I've been pleased with progress but the last month has slowed. I've been following this routine for around 6 months and doubled the lifting weights I started with.

I'm not overly keen on moving to a split routine unless I can change it to a 2 day split, as this would tie in easier due to the fact that I don't have access to a bench or spotter on the Friday, so I'd look to change it to a Mon/Thurs. Would this work, or is a 3 day split the only option?

Failing that, I guess that leaves me with supersets to increase the strength? If that's the case, I'll need to buy more weights.

A few comments for what they're worth - if you've doubled the starting weights in around 6 months then (assuming they weren't way too light to start with) you've done really well and gains do tend to start to slow down after the initial start to weight lifting as some of the nervous system effects/gains seem to slow. Not to say you can't get better, just that it might come more in fits and starts now and suggests a need for some changes to keep mind and body stimulated.

If it is strength rather than size you are after then supersets aren't likely to help imho. You might try going on programmes/cycles for 6 to 8 week blocks focussing on strength, then hypertrophy etc. by varying the number of sets/reps/rest times as well as actual exercises and order. If you want to kick-start strength gains again then dropping to lower reps could pay off, even if for just one of the sessions each week. There's loads of examples of these on threads here, like the 5 x 5 programmes etc.

If you don't have a spotter on Friday maybe that day could be for back/trunk work with deadlifts, shrugs, rows, pullups/machine pulldowns, maybe curls/hammer curls and possibly cleans/cleans and jerks, hangpulls and the like which would help develop overall strength and power.