225 vs 245

stretchMk · 11-Aug-05, 03:12 PM

Party people!
I have been stuck with 225 on bench for about 3 months, and i have improved from 1-2 reps to now a comfortable 4-5 reps, but if i go up to 245 on bench, I can't even do 2 reps.... so, should I stay on 225 for a while longer to slowly gain strenght or should I continue to struggle on 245? Also, creatine is a heck of a supplyment the last time i used it about half a year ago, but i was feeling kidney pain during the time after about 4 months of usage (a little around the kidney area), should I ever go back to creatine again?

thanks for the help.

**maverick** · 11-Aug-05, 03:16 PM

You probably weren't drinking enough water if you were having kidney pains. Lots of people cycle creatine also, so maybe you should consider a 1-2 month cycle to prevent that from happening again.

**Firehawk** · 11-Aug-05, 04:22 PM

I'm interested to the advice that people give this gentleman

.

**Todd** · 11-Aug-05, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stretchMk

I have been stuck with 225 on bench for about 3 months, and i have improved from 1-2 reps to now a comfortable 4-5 reps, but if i go up to 245 on bench, I can't even do 2 reps.... so, should I stay on 225 for a while longer to slowly gain strenght or should I continue to struggle on 245?

Well, of course you can't barely do two reps with 245.... 225 to 245 is a 20 pound jump man! If you can get a comfortable 4-5 reps with 225, then of course you're barely going to get 2 reps with 245...that's a whole lot of weight more! Try adding the smallest increment your gym has to the bar, and work with that until you can get an easy 4-5 or whatever reps, then increase it again by the SMALLEST increments available! That's how you keep moving up in weight. But if you try to jump too much in weight too soon, then yah, you're going to get frustrated, tax your CNS and possibly regress in progress.

Cort · 11-Aug-05, 09:35 PM

Jump the weight up to 230 instead...

You could also try adding triples, doubles, and singles to your routine in some fashion.

Todd is right though, it isn't at all strange that you can't jump up 20 lbs and do a lot of reps.

Axion · 11-Aug-05, 09:38 PM

What Todd said

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mesomorph · 11-Aug-05, 10:44 PM

We've had this debate before - small vs bigger weight increments. With scientific and educated anecdotal evidence, the jury definitely came down on the side of small increases. I remember because I posed the query.
Something else that helps is to step away from the bench and include other chest related exercises- dips, tri work, Db work, cables etc in your w/o for a few sessions then go back to bench. Variety!

m@xpower · 12-Aug-05, 12:07 AM

i have to agree, 225 to 245 is big difference. My advice would take it up no more then 5 lbs up at a time and see if u can do 4-5 reps

stretchMk · 12-Aug-05, 02:52 PM

thanks a lot, guys
Any words on the creatine and the kidney pain problem?

Cort · 12-Aug-05, 03:01 PM

My advice, if you really want to start taking it again, is to skip the loading phase and stick with the 5g daily dose, and get plenty of water. If you have issues again, stop taking it.

You could also try to find an sports medicine doctor and ask their opinion.

Maxgain · 12-Aug-05, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Todd

Well, of course you can't barely do two reps with 245.... 225 to 245 is a 20 pound jump man! If you can get a comfortable 4-5 reps with 225, then of course you're barely going to get 2 reps with 245...that's a whole lot of weight more! Try adding the smallest increment your gym has to the bar, and work with that until you can get an easy 4-5 or whatever reps, then increase it again by the SMALLEST increments available! That's how you keep moving up in weight. But if you try to jump too much in weight too soon, then yah, you're going to get frustrated, tax your CNS and possibly regress in progress.

100% right you cant expect a twenty puound increase at once 2lbs a week increase would be super if maintained.

DaRkAnGel · 12-Aug-05, 07:10 PM

The problem with just working 4-5 reps is that you are missing a whole spectrum of reps that will build slow twitch muscle fiber and another spectrum that will tax the CNS more and result in better strength gains.

During the week have a lighter day maybe (12 reps lets say) and then a heavier day (2-5 reps). Don't be afraid to use different rep ranges.

Also, Dynamic training is good if you havn't tried it if all you do is use heavy weights.

Vas85 · 15-Aug-05, 03:56 AM

Firstly what i dont know is how often do you train chest? and what does your workout look like.... if you want to bust a plateu what i would try doing is start with your heaviest set first (after a proper warmup), Boyer Coe is behind this approach to training, and i did it to biceps to blast to 32kg (~70lb) dumbell curls in each hand.

I did that by instead of slowly building up the weight as you progress one each i instead did a thorough warmup of 20 light-mediumlight reps, flexed the muscle, and then hit it hard and it worked.

Try that with chest, after a thorough warmup, it should work. And then you pyramid down so that each subsequent set you will only be able to do the same amount of reps but with less weight.

Also in my opinion any natural trainer that trains each bodypart more than once a week with proper applied intensity to the workout is too much, thats just my opinion tho.