Bodybuilding Forums

I have been stuck at 165 on my bench press now for a good 2 months. I have tried deloading, carbing up on chest day, tried using 170 on the first set then down to 155 for the last 2. Sometimes i bench and get 12, 12, 8. Sometimes 13, 12, 9. Sometimes 12, 10, 7 on my 3 sets. Its all over the map. When I was doing stronglifts I was able to bust plateaus by eating like a hog, but a big gut was the consequence. I have cut back, cleaned up my diet, switched to a higher rep workout, and lost my gut, but my lifts seem to be suffering. I am doing a slightly modified tspa now by the way. My overhead press is stuck too.
How the hell do you progress, and keep progressing without over-eating, and gaining a gut. Or is it perfectly normal to be stuck at a certain weight like this for a while.

That happens to me quite often when i'm cutting. Somtimes i just have to put up with it and focus on the goal of cutting body fat. I would be more worried if you where on a building phase but as you have stated you are using TSPA, i'll asume you'r cuttng. Are you taking creatine or a Nitric Oxide pre-workout?

Yes I am still cutting. I guess when cutting I can only expect to maintain what I have??? Progress if any has been a struggle ever since I started it, except for maybe an extra rep here and there. I have been afraid to take creatine because i struggle with high blood pressure. I would still like to gain some more size. I am thinking about switching to MANS diet after I drop some more fat, to see if that will help my lack of gains. I had a desperately large gut when on stronglifts and went up 2 pants sizes. I had and still have a way to go to get rid of all I put on. I seem to be holding on to my muscle though, which is good news.

If you are loosing body weight/fat but are still maintaining your strength then in real terms you ARE STILL getting stronger!! Pound for Pound!

If this starts to de-motivate you the I personally would try something different like changing angles ie, do decline or incline press D/B or B/B and definitely alter the time under tension TUT.
Drop the weight and do them real slow for a while, like 4/5 seconds down, hold it at peak contraction for 2 sec's then power up fast.
These are not for the faint hearted. They're a killer but they really fire off maximum muscle fibres.

Good luck!

Hey ellipsis

Stay heavy or try and go heavier with a 6-8 rep range to waken up your fast twitch fibres for a couple of weeks to see if this helps

I thought about going heavier with lower reps for a while. I just came off of doing that with stronglifts. I'm going to press on a while longer until this gut is completely gone. I know someone who was so hell bent about strength, he ate and ate. He can bench 415 but he is extremely overweight now. I'd rather bench 100 and be cut then bench 415 and have a 40" waist. When on stronglifts my progression was quite frequent, i decided to stop all that eating before it got too far. I guess i got used to going up quick in poundages on my lifts, now i'm not and it just concerned me. Everyone who is cutting is apparently going through the same thing, so I feel better about it now.