Are you stuck on your bench press? Find out how to break through your bench press plateau. If you’ve been lifting for any length of time, you might find your progress stalling. You will feel like you are doing everything right – you are putting in the work, you’re resting. Maybe you changed your program and took advice from seasoned lifters. Maybe you adjusted your technique. You still find yourself not progressing at a pace that you think would be reasonable for the effort you are putting in.

You’re in a plateau. 

Don’t stress. This is common. This is some thing that every lifter will experience. Above all, don’t quit. Keep training. Read a few of the pointers below to find out how you can work through this and come out of your plateau stronger.

What is a Bench Press Plateau

If you are wondering, “why is my bench press not increasing?” let’s first address if you’re actually plateauing, or just seeing stalled progress for some reason. Sometimes when you have a few suboptimal training sessions, it can seem worse than it is. 

Ideally you are following a training schedule. This would allow you to train hard and train smart, and actually track your progress. If you are following a program and not just haphazardly winging it, yet still not seeing progress, let’s look at other factors. 

Lack of sleep or poor quality sleep, lack of adequate rest, and over- or under-training can all affect your lifting progress. Every person is different and in a different phase of life, so look honestly at your weekly schedule and assess all of these factors. Consider if you also have a physically demanding job or if you have children in a busy phase of life. You might not be able to alter these things, so consider how you can optimize your time in the gym to lift enough, and rest enough. 

Ensure you are eating well too. You’ll want to make sure you are eating enough calorically, and also eating enough protein. Estimates from experts who understand lifting are around 1.2-1.6 g/kg bodyweight per day. That sometimes takes some planning but is entirely possible. 

Bench Press Plateau Break Through Tips

I hope your lifting career is a lifelong one! It certainly can be. And as such, it is a constant game of working hard, adjusting, and learning as new challenges present themselves. 

Below are a number of ideas on how to break through your bench press plateau, ranging from technical tips, programming tips, and more. 

Work your Whole Body

This one may sound counterintuitive, but to progress as a lifter, you need to work your whole body. Hopefully this is not an issue you are having, but sometimes lifters skew toward their favorite lifts and train their favorites harder.

In the long run, this will not lead to maximal growth, size, or strength. 

Make sure you are getting compound lifts such as squats and deadlifts, not just leg press and isolation machines. Ensure you are doing heavy back work as well. 

Think about it: some people are bench specialists, or deadlift specialists, but the elite ones don’t have gigantic weak spots. When have you seen a 700+ plus puller with skinny arms? I don’t know a big bench presser with tiny legs. 

Train your whole body and you’ll be happy with your progress!

Work on Technique

The bench press is highly technical and improving your technique can increase your capacity. Several technical factors of the bench press will be unique to your body and your leverages, and some will be your preference. For example, if you have a thick chest and torso, and short arms, you are made for bench pressing. If you are tall with long arms, your bench press will have many more inches to travel. 

You are given the body you are given, so in the meantime, you can choose how you would like to set up. A very narrow grip will be a harder angle to press. A wide grip allows you to be in a stronger position, and a position in which the bar has a shorter distance to travel. Most people bench at a grip wider than shoulders, but it is your choice how wide you set up. 

Likewise it is your choice how much you arch in the bench press. The arched position allows for a stronger set up, increased utilization of the lower pec muscles, and again, a shorter range of motion. The arch is safe and will allow for higher bench press numbers. It is your choice how you would like to bench on the continuum between flat back benching and a high arch. 

Finally, there are many technical angles you can work on such as specifics of your set up, arch, grip, and optimal bar path.

Specialized Lifts

Bench pressing often improves from more bench pressing, but you’ll want to add in some supplemental lifts too. Partial reps, dumbbell work, board presses and Spoto presses can help grow your bench press. 

Continue working your bench press as you have been, but experiment with adding in  some of these accessory lifts. Be sure to add in triceps work as well. Stronger triceps will help with a stronger bench press.

Change It Up

Hopefully you are following a smart program that will take you through well designed progressions. This means some of your exercise parameters will change, but you will not be going through crazy, random changes each week.

For example, to change the stimulus, you might decrease your reps as you increase in the weight. The timing of this will depend on whether you are peaking for a meet or competition. If you have plenty of time away from a competition, experiment with changing the set/rep scheme, such as moving from a 5×5 to 5×3 with heavier weights. That is just one example, any how you adjust your sets and reps will obviously depend on what you are doing now.

As accessory work after your main bench work, you can add in paused reps or tempo work. These can increase time under tension, causing a different stimulus.

Find a Program

The best thing you can do for breaking up a bench press plateau, and making progress overall, is following a good program. A program will help you workin a way that challenges you, balances you (upper/lower body, pushing/pulling), doesn’t neglect any fundamental movements or lifts, and allows you to reach your potential. 

Don’t waste your time and energy hopping around the gym and guessing about what to do. Reach out to a trainer who coaches what you want to learn, and use their hours and hours of study, coaching and experience to get where you want to go faster. 

Check out my programs here or message me here about your specific situation. Good luck breaking through your bench press plateau! Here’s to many more years of lifting PRs!

Having a well written workout plan is one of the most important things to consider in your exercise routine. It is hands down the most effective way to get the best results from your time exercising. A workout plan that you follow can help you reach your goals faster and more effectively, take the brainpower and mental stress out of the process, and help you avoid blind spots to get the best out of your fitness routine. 

How Can a Workout Plan Benefit You?

We know all the reasons that exercise is worth doing: you’ll feel better, move better, look better, and stave off injury and disease. No reason not to exercise! Except that it does take time, energy, and potentially a financial investment. If you are going to put in the effort to exercise (and you should!) then you should make it worth it.

The best way to do that is to follow a well designed exercise plan to maximize your results. Read on for more information about how a workout program can help you, and how to find the best plan for you.

1 – A Workout Plan Can Help You Reach Your Goals Faster

A workout plan can help you reach your goals faster and more effectively, since it will help you work toward specific outcomes. Often, people go in the gym or go for a little pop on the elliptical, hit some machines randomly and hope they get exactly where they want to be. It doesn’t work this way; the body responds very specifically to exercise stimuli. For example, if you want to get stronger, you need to lift heavier. If you want to lose weight, you have to increase your exercise capacity and be able to exert more energy.

I receive inquiries for people from an online exercise company, and it asks people to check off their desired goals. Often people will list many goals, such as “build muscle mass”, “run a marathon”, “increase flexibility”, and “bodybuild”. These are all worthy goals, but in the short to medium term, they will compete. A well written workout program can help reach these goals, but it needs to be methodically planned. Otherwise, the process will be similar to chasing cats; chaotic and ineffective.

The bottom line is that if you are going to do the hard work (and making the time and effort for the gym is hard work!) then it should be work that takes you to your desired outcomes. 

2 – Take the Brainpower and Mental Stress Out of the Equation

Having a well programmed workout routine to follow is incredibly peaceful. A good plan will give you a roadmap to trust, so your only job is to do the hard work. It takes the brainpower and mental stress out of it for you, so you can do the work and reassess at the end of your training block. This is usually 4-12 weeks, at which point, you’ll continue to the next phase, or commit to a new program. 

3 – Avoid Blind Spots in Your Workout Routine

Often, we can learn from others and their experiences. After all, we don’t know what we don’t know! If you have a well designed workout plan, you will be following a well rounded routine that includes everything you need to reach your goals. For example, to avoid and work past back pain, you need a couple smart glute exercises. Athletes, including weekend warriors, typically need more hamstrings work than is conventionally written into general workout plans. 

Make sure you follow a good program, and you’ll hit everything you need to feel and perform best! 

What is a Personalized Workout Plan?

A personalized workout routine or fitness plan is written specifically for you and your goals. Finding a personalized plan written by a fitness expert is a great plan to follow. If that is out of your budget or doesn’t interest you, you can find a plan online that’s written by a fitness expert for people like you. If you look on Train Heroic, for example, you can find extremely specific programs such as plans for beginners, jiu jitsu enthusiasts, people who want to build their butt or grow bigger arms, military and post military, etc. I have plans for people who sit at work all day and need to decompress, people who exercise with limited equipment, and people who train in a full gym toward strength and physique goals. 

This can be incredibly effective and cost effective as well. This way you’re not, as mentioned before, hopping around and wasting your on things that won’t take you to your goals. 

How to Find a Personalized Workout Plan

Like I mentioned in the previous paragraph, you can find any kind of training program on Train Heroic, which is an incredible training app that my clients and I love. (They aren’t paying me to say this! I just really love Train Heroic!) It features programs from experts of all kinds of strength, fitness and sport specific doctrines. 

Consider how many days a week you can commit to working out, what kind of equipment you have access to, and what your goals are. Be as specific as you can. Keep those factors in mind when you are searching programs, and select one that matches you as much as possible. Often on Train Heroic, you can do the first week free, or even contact the coach directly. Research it as much as you are comfortable with to find a program that excites you. 

If you are interested in any of my programs, check them out here. If you have questions about which would be a good fit for you, feel free to email me at kathryn@kathrynalexander.com.

Are you brand new to the gym and need a plan to start? Try this 6 week program which walks you through what to do, how to do it, and how to use your gym.

Take Action and Start Your Workout Plan

Take action! Take imperfect action! I encourage you to think deeply on your goals and how you will feel when you achieve them. Then find a plan that will help you get there! Ensure it’s a good program by looking at reviews and/or talking to the coach. From there, GO GO GO! 

Take a leap of faith, put in great effort, and follow that workout plan!

Best of luck! Remember, I want to see you succeed! If I can help you at all, please let me know! 

How to Get the Best Workout Possible

Whether you are training at home or at the gym, there are things you can do to make sure you get the best session. Follow the tips below to make sure your workout counts in the best way possible!

Prepare Yourself to Have the Time for a Proper Workout/Training Session

If you are training at home, don’t do your laundry or clean your kitchen between sets. Don’t do work emails on your phone, sitting on the bench between sets. Make the time to get it done. It might have to be quick depending on the stage of your life, but focus to the best of your ability to make the minutes when you are lifting count. 

Take the Time to Get a Good Warm Up

Warm up properly! This is crucial! Warming up isn’t just about temperature. It is an increase in neurological recruitment. This means your body gets better and better at doing what you’re asking it to do. Make sure your warm up reflects what you are going to do, and that it starts light and progresses. Don’t skip your warm up! 

Don’t Stop in the Middle of your Session and Finish Later

Don’t stop in the middle of your session! You can do this with some cardio. Depending on what your goal is, cardio minutes can accumulate. But a training session is planned to be done in a certain order. You warm up, get the most dynamic and coordination-demanding exercises done first. Then do your heavy work. Next comes accessory work, then core/trunk/abs and cool down. 

You don’t want to start and stop in the middle of this. If you are consistently having to stop and re-start your sessions, a better plan would be to re-write them so they fit in your time constraints. 

Rest the Right Amount of Time Between Sets

Resting an appropriate amount between sets is extremely important. How much rest is optimal depends on your goals, which you have hopefully committed to beforehand. For example, if you are training for high volume and endurance, you might rest 30-60 seconds between sets. Resting longer will change the stimulus on your body, prolonging a mediocre session, and making it less effective for your endurance goals. 

If you are training for strength, you will need to rest 2-4 minutes, or maybe longer, between heavy and challenging sets. Moving too quickly into the next set will cost you quality on the next set.

Tie It All In

Give these tips a go during your session, and let me know how it goes. Happy training!

Exercise can be done a million ways: in a group, as a team, with your partner, a neighbor or friend. It can be intense and mission driven, or just a way to pass healthy time. Training can also be done solo, and there are a lot of benefits that come with it.

Peace and Quiet 

Or not! You get to pick. Training out alone affords you the time to take a break form the world; away from the coworkers, the kids, and your overflowing inbox. You get to pick your music, or choose no music. You get to recharge and spend time without having to be “on” at work or serving others. This is about you! 

Exercise Is Meditative

Training done properly is not rocket science, but it is not simple! You should be paying attention to the nuances of form; your grip, hand and foot placement, angles of the body. Correct set up is a procedure in itself. From there, during and after the movement, you should be collecting feedback about the tempo, control, and speed of the rep. This feedback guides the decisions about the next set.

It is truly a misnomer to call meatheads “meatheads”. Again, not rocket science, but if you are paying attention to your training, it does not leave much room for consciously ruminating about your problems. The end result is a peaceful mind and a happily exhausted body.

Awareness of the Body

Since you are more attune to your body without the distraction of working out with others, you become more aware of how you feel. You can feel illness before it truly sets in, potentially giving you the chance to head it off. I have often seen clients have an “off” day, only to discover that later they come down with a milder illness or realize allergies are about to flare up. 

This isn’t to say you can’t have this benefit while training with others, but training alone heightens your ability to focus on yourself. Give yourself the gift of training alone and see how you enjoy it.

People ask me this question often and want the one right answer. 

There is no one right answer, but our bodies do well with frequent movement. It would be optimal to move every day. 

But how you move every day is important too. You don’t need to go all-out hard every day, and going too easy every day won’t help you as much either. When you are lifting hard, heavy, or doing HIIT training (links) you’ll want to add some lower intensity days. If you are healthy and conditioned, doing all lower intensity days will decondition you.

So how many days should you exercise? It’s not rocket science, but there are lots of right answers to this question and none the same from person to person. Read on to learn about what is best for you right now.

Factors to Consider

Let’s start here: 

• What are your goals? 

• Do you have a deadline for your goals?

• What is your schedule like?

What Are Your Goals?

Do you have an event to prepare for, like an athletic competition or a wedding? Does this event require you to compete physically, or do you just want to look great? If you don’t have an event to prepare for, are your goals related to health? You might have short term health goals like reaching a certain percent of body fat, or a certain amount on your bench press. Or, you can have truly long term goals like maintaining your conditioning and balance all your life. 

I encourage you to think hard about what you want, both short term and long term. “I want to be healthy” is GREAT, but pretty vague. I want to be healthy all my life too. I want to be hiking to remote natural hot springs, moving the furniture when I want, doing my own lawn work, maintaining healthy blood pressure and body composition. Think specifically about what you really want to do next year, and when you are old. 

Do You Have a Deadline for Your Goals?

Like your short term and long time goals, consider if you have timelines for these. If you have an event, do you have to peak to be at your best physically? Do you want to feel good in your own skin at a reunion or beach vacation? If you have a short term goal coming up quickly and you intend to meet it, you’ll have to prioritize exercise more. 

You can have short and long term goals. In fact, I recommend it. They keep you moving, and keep that sense of relevance. It’s easy to put off working toward a 10-year goal until tomorrow, but not as easy to put off working toward a beach vacation next month. 

What is Your Schedule Like?

I do want you to prioritize your health at all times, but it’s important to understand that sometimes life demands a lot of your energy elsewhere. Post -injury, -surgery, -childbirth, during some school or work programs, and caring for a sick loved one, might chronically stress and drain you. In these situations, you do what you can. Your goal is to take care of your body to the extent that you can now, so you are healthy when you can push it later.

Scheduling 5 sessions a week in your busiest time in life, then missing them and feeling guilty leads to a depression spiral. Instead, be honest about what you can do. Do you have a pocket of time on Saturday mornings, and 15 minutes after the kids go to bed? In that case, you can schedule in a full training session on Saturday and quick movements a couple other days a week. Even ten minute walks once a day add up. 

How Many Days Should You Workout?

The final answer is that you should consider how many days you need to workout given the proximity to your goals. Be reasonable about how much you can do. You can’t do 3 months of work in a week, so give yourself plenty of time but work hard. Likewise, keep your long term health in mind and exercise even if it’s 1 day a week. 

Remember every season of you life will be different. You will be able to give more physically in some stages of life than others. If you do the best with what you have, whether it’s 2 quick sessions a week or 6, you’ll always be at your best. If you are in a period where you don’t have as much to give, do your best to take care of yourself and get through that time. When you have the time and energy, take advantage of it! 

The bottom line is, do what you can even if it doesn’t feel like much. It all adds up! Email me if you have questions about your situation! 

Exercising with less equipment can be liberating. You can train almost anywhere and you don’t have to spend time on all the details of the session. Lift, move, go! Push, pull, squat!

The challenge is continuing to progress with fewer options. You’ll eventually reach a point where you feel like you are doing the same 5 exercises over and over. That’s ok because 1) the basics work and 2) it only takes a little bit of adjustment to break out of that. 

I focus on squats on this article because you’ll find yourself doing squats often. They are bang-for-your-bucks, and universally applicable. Below are some ways you can make your squats more challenging when you’ve run out of home weights.

Do More Reps

The easiest and perhaps most common way to challenge yourself more is to do more reps. This isn’t always the answer, especially if you have the option to go heavier on the next set. If you have used your heaviest weights though, you can add more reps per set. You can also add more sets if your sets are becoming excessively long.

Shorten Rest Interval

Like adding more reps, you can shorten your rest interval to increase the challenge. This decrease in recovery calls on your body to do more work in a fatigued state. Doing the same amount of work in a shorter amount of time shows progress. 

Use Different Implements

This advice typically refers to using dumbbells, kettlebells, bands, and barbells. At home, this takes on a whole new meaning. Need more weight? Have a willing kid hanging around? Pick ‘em up and squat! Hold them in your arms like a baby or piggyback. No children or willing partners? Load up a backpack and squat. Wear it backwards for a front squat.

Tempo Squats

A tempo squat uses a familiar set and rep scheme, the same form, and even the same implement. However, you will vary your pace by going slower at certain parts of the lift. Tempo is commonly written as 4 digits, such as 1010. This means a one second descent, no pause at the bottom, one second up, and no pause before performing the next rep. I commonly use a 5010 tempo, which means a sloowww 5 second descent, no pause at the bottom, then a regular fast ascent. This will quickly spice up a squat set!

Pause Squats

Adding a pause at the bottom of a squat is also a great way to increase the challenge without increasing weight. To properly execute a pause squat, you will do a normal squat and dead stop at the bottom. Keep generating pressure so you aren’t wobbling, dipping or rising. Once you have held your pause as long as you need, drive up from that dead stop position. It is important here to NOT dip then drive. 

Using the terminology of the last example, a 5 second pause squat would be a tempo of 1510.

Suitcase Deadlift and Offset Loads

A suitcase deadlift is performed by picking up something that is parked on one side of you, like a suitcase. It is an offset load, so the demand on your trunk is to resist the imbalanced pull while. This can be performed like a deadlift or a squat. You can do a suitcase deadlift with one weight, or with two weights that do not weigh the same. Because of the offset load, your trunk works asymmetrically, which is much more of a real life situation than a crunch type movement.

How to Apply These in Your Training

Identify in your sessions where you feel under worked. You can add in one of these exercises and see how it changes your workload. You can also add one of these techniques to the last set of your training. For example, if your goblet squats have been easy, add in a pause squat on the last set. If it’s a good challenge, you can call it a day or repeat that paused set. 

Let me know if you have more questions! Get creative and challenge yourself on those home sessions! 

Optimal posture can help you breathe better, alleviate and prevent back pain, and look and feel more confident. Maintaining good posture is always important, but is especially pertinent if you sit many hours of the day, or are less active than you have been in the past. 

Much of having good posture is simply practicing it habitually, but you can do exercises to develop and reinforce good posture. Do these 3 exercises a few times a week. You can do these at the beginning of your training session, after, or as a standalone session. 

Band Pullapart

• extend tall through your spine, whether you are sitting or standing

• press your arms straight around your side

• squeeze your shoulders behind you as you do this

• press until the band touches your chest

• elbows can have a slight bend here, but will stay at the same angle. Do not straighten or bend at the elbow

Bird Dog

• start from a 4 point position on the ground 

• be sure wrists are directly under shoulders and knees are directly under hips

• keep an active, neutral, flat back (no arching or hunching)

• be tall through your spine, from the top of your head to your tailbone

• without wiggling or compensating, extend one arm straight in front of you, and back under you

• repeat on your other arm

• extend one leg, thinking about squeezing your glutes and straightening at the knee

• imagine you are wearing your favorite white shirt and balancing a tray of red wine on your back

• If this is easy, you can extend the right arm and left leg at the same time, then alternate sides

Breaststroke

• lay flat on the ground with arms extended in front of you

• head should be facing the floor, not looking in front of you

• make a wide sweep with your arms around and slightly extend your upper body off the floor

• as arms reach your sides, tuck your hands by your sides as you again extend your arms in front of you

• inhale as you sweep your arms wide toward your sides

• exhale as you return your arms to your starting position

The Details

Begin with a set of 8-10 reps of each exercise. That is one round. From there, repeat, trying to do each movement better. Be in a better control, pay attention to what you are feeling. You can do 3-5 rounds, depending on how you feel. Still have more questions? Leave me a comment or email me! I’m happy to hear from you!