Advice needed: Early lifting plateau?

I agree with the above that your form looks decent. I had a mental block on squats for months and months at 135#. For some reason, I couldn't get myself to physically put any more weight on the bar. I've been doing Wendler's 531 for my main lifts during this bulk, and last week did 195# for 5 reps. I'm not recommending Wendler's specifically. I'm just saying I understand not being able to get out of your own head.

lev_k wrote: »

Davidsdottir wrote: »

I agree with the above that your form looks decent. I had a mental block on squats for months and months at 135#. For some reason, I couldn't get myself to physically put any more weight on the bar. I've been doing Wendler's 531 for my main lifts during this bulk, and last week did 195# for 5 reps. I'm not recommending Wendler's specifically. I'm just saying I understand not being able to get out of your own head.

Yeah, sometimes it feels like the biggest problem is just the anxiety and fear of lifting heavy weights. And yet, I'm not quite sure how one is suppose to get over a mental block yet. Guess it doesn't help the fact that I'm almost always lifting with no spotter.

Honestly, I use the 531 app and load the bar with whatever it tells me. Seven months and I'm still going strong.

lev_k wrote: »

Erik8484 wrote: »

lev_k wrote: »

Hi All,

Bench:

This one I'm still struggling with. Tried to put an emphasis on keeping everything tight (even using legs to push and create more power inwards, but it's very difficult to focus on everything at a heavy weight. Not sure if it's visible in the video, but I try to re-position my traps as necessary between reps. Some of the pressure did come off my arms though, which I think is a step in the right direction.

What's your weekly bench press volume at the moment? How many sets had you done before this video? How many more reps do you think you could have done in the set that you filmed?

1. What's your weekly bench press volume at the moment?
If you mean how much do I bench in a week - I alternate between Workout A and Workout B, and do bench during Workout B (3 workouts per week), so that means it's either 1s or 2s a week (alternating). It's 3 sets of 5 reps working sets for each Workout B.

2. How many sets had you done before this video?
This was my first set.

3. How many more reps do you think you could have done in the set that you filmed?
This was definitely my last rep, if I had a spotter I could've maybe barely squeezed out one more, but that's really pushing it.

To me, there's nothing glaringly wrong with your bench form that would explain why you can't continue to progress. I don't mean to say that it's perfect, just that as a novice it won't be perfect, and that you should still be able to progress. I would suggest that the problem may be with your weight selection.

I don't think it's optimal, from a strength development over time perspective, to go to failure on set 1 of 3, every other workout.

I have been in a situation similar to you, where my squat wasn't progressing and I was going to failure every time I squatted. I overcame that problem when I:
1. Dropped my squat weight so that I had 2 reps left in the tank after set 1
2. Used fraction plates to increase the weight each week at a rate that kept set 1 at 2 reps left in the tank. For my squat that ended up being 2 lbs per week. For my bench it was 1-2 lbs per week. I had been benching / squatting for longer than you, and was benching and squatting more weight than you, so you would have to play around with those numbers.
3. Upped my squatting frequency to 3 days per week.

Given that you're running SS (I think), just 1 and 2, with the weight bumps occurring every bench day, may be appropriate. The key may be in selecting the right weight to bump by each week, so that you don't end up lifting to failure in week 2 or 3 (or 4, etc).