Stalling on upper body lifts

andylllI

reading rippetoe's practical programming for strength training...he suggests that for women because of different neuromuscular efficiency and adaptation and generally more difficulty with upper body strength should consider going from 3 sets of 5 to 5 sets of 3 when progress stalls on the bench and press.

I'm on my second or third week of starting strength here and I don't have micro plates so I think when I stall out on the press and bench (which will likely be this week or next) I will try out 5x3. Just throwing this out there. I suppose if you were doing 5x5 you could try 8x3. Has anyone tried this?

canadianlbs

instristing idea. i can imagine it easily enough . . . i usually do find the first three in any ohp/bench set to be pretty easy and then all of a sudden the tank empties out.

DawnEmbers

Interesting indeed. I did like doing 3 sets instead of 5 when I went back after NROLFW. Now, with PHUL, I only need to do 3 or 4 sets of 3 to 5 reps, so long as I make any of those it's good. Still, upper body is a slow increase. Finally made 100 my working set on bench but it was tough.

fanncy0626

I have been reading the book kettle bell simple and sinister by Pavel. He states that by swinging kettle bells it will increase upper body strength and heavy lifts can increase.

DawnEmbers

But the kettle bells are all the way on the other side of the gym. So much cardio trying to find all of the equipment, it's insane. *giggles*

Actually, I have used those once, at a workshop thing with a trainer. They were kind of fun though.

krokador

fanncy0626 wrote: »

I have been reading the book kettle bell simple and sinister by Pavel. He states that by swinging kettle bells it will increase upper body strength and heavy lifts can increase.

Swinging the bells the "proper way" teaches your body the hip hinge pattern and to stay tight throughout. Unless you're doing american swings tho (all the way overhead) you won't really gain that much actual "pushing" or "pulling" strength. Your grip will improve. Your posture too. So it does carry over, but it's def not going to get you through a bench press plateau.

I do find I have more weight in me but not more reps often. It got pretty silly during my later stages of doing Wendler, actually. And those few singles at 135 of bench i've done were smooth, but I really didn't have it in me to go for a 2nd (even though I went all the way up to 150 for singles). But I can double a much higher percentage of my deadlift, comparatively.

So that fewer reps, same amount of sets, doesn't sound too crazy. I wouldn't go anywhere below 3 reps, though. Gets a tad dangerous from there on out :P