Upper body plateau, strength and size suggestions

tacticalcraptical

Over the last month I have gone from 190 lbs. to 193 lbs. and my body fat has gone from 15% to 13.5% obviously, this is good news. I feel like in terms of leg, butt and abdominal exercises, I am killing it. I break records weekly on nearly every exercise. My legs are looking pretty ripped and I feel like a BA until I think about my upper body...

With my arms, shoulders and chest I have been stuck with little improvement for almost 2 months. My size is not increasing much all, I am not putting up significantly higher numbers. I have tried switching things up in terms of exercises and schedule but I just feel like I am getting nowhere with my upper body.

Anyone have some good suggestions, advice, encouragement, jokes, etc?

Thanks.

usmcmp

Have you taken measurements of your upper body? It could be that you've lost the most fat there. Also, upper body exercises don't progress as fast as lower. Smaller muscles, more force on joints, lots of limitations in upper body.

Are you following a program or just doing what you want? Ideally as a newer lifter you should be following a strength program that has a set progression. You'll get the most bang for your buck doing that.

ndj1979

what are you using to measure body fat? I am curious how you added three pounds, but decreased body fat?

Are you running a structured program right now, or one that you designed on your own?

tacticalcraptical

@ usmcmp, I am sort of new to weight lifting, 6 months in. I am kind of just doing what I want with research. I basically do isolated and compound exercises that target most of my upper body muscles. I'll look into strength programs. It's good to know that slower upper body progression is normal. Thanks!

@ ndj1979, I am measuring with body fat calipers, tape measure and a scale that measures body fat. I just average out the 3. I know it is not always accurate but I have always been doing it this way and seeing the number decrease so progress is consistent, if not perfectly accurate.

It is one I designed based on a book I read that gave pick and choose options on routines and exercises to do depending on your goals. I can't remember what it was called but I will look it up.

In a nutshell, I do a low impact, high resistance 10 mile bike ride 6 days a week. 45-ish minute upper body workout twice a week, lower body twice a week, 8-10 reps, 3 sets per exercise. Then Yoga 3 times a week on days I do not lift.