I've recently hit a plateau in my gains at the gym, and any thoughts you guys have to break it would be awesome. Currently I'm 6'3 and 205 lbs. About 4 months ago I went through a lot of stress when my position at work was cut and I dropped from 215 to 190 in 3weeks to a month. Stayed there awhile and took about a month and a half or two to get back to 205. I haven't been having too much trouble putting on weight even with my fast metabolism, but I feel like I haven't been getting stronger.
I usually hit 4 different types of excercises with 4 sets of 8-12 reps, and just focus one or two muscle groups. I try to do two different excercises each time with two that I do just about every time which are my warmup and burnout sets.
hm... 8-12 reps sounds like a bit too many for building mass. i don't know much about your current training, but at lest to consider i would recommend this routine: http://www.bodybuildingdungeon.com/forums/training-articles/42777-wannabebig-original-routine.html because it's been tried and proven and you can find lots of reviews, additions and variations based on individual needs. hth
Thanks man when i first read that article i was kind of skeptical because it seems like not thay much lifting takes place, but i dug further into it and aparently doing more then 50 reps a week of a certain muscle is the maximum before you are actually hindering your gains. Thanks again for sharing!
np. glad you've found it useful. yes two key points there are: 1. compound exercises like deadlifts 2. always trying to increase the weight or lifting heavy, add a 2.5lb plate between sets if that's all you can push. (also if you feel like 8 reps is too easy with the given weight, increase it... you really need to push hard to get that 8th rep.. i would actually aim for 5 at least and 8 max... if you can do 8 it's time to bump up the weight). p.s. what you eat is probably even more important than how you lift. remember that you grow when you are out of the gym not when you are in it. so you need to feed your body the right things to sustain growth and help with recovery. cheers