Sticking points

[Goosey]

A point beyond which something will not budge.

What are some of you examples of getting over sticking points?

A few favorites of mine, that I've used over a period of time;


I'll use the dip as an example...
When I reach 12 reps with good form and only when I own those 12 I will increase my weight and do as many as possible.

My favorite and one I use quite often with success...
My rep range for this exercise (for me) is between 8~12, this has become evident over years of workouts.
I've had the best results (for me) doing one work set to MMF.
If I'm stuck on 11 with x amount of kg around my waist I will add a couple of kg's and try to achieve 11 or more, if I can only do , say 8 that's fine I will try and usually progress each workout.

Negatives;
Adding negatives to the work set for a few weeks at a time creates a response, you have to know when to stop, they are quite brutal after a set gone to fatigue.
If my previous week I did 7, I of course then plan to do 8...
We all know it's impossible to constantly progress through our life, workout to workout but I do like adding a couple, or as many negatives as I can do if I don't achieve my target.

Ladders;

Originally the concept was thought of to accommodate training a group in an efficient manner.
1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5,6
If working alone I will rest only as long as it would take for another person to do that same number of reps, I base that on a 2 second positive and 4 second negative, so from three to four for example is a rest of 18 seconds or thereabouts.

These are just examples that have worked for me over the years, just some thing to consider if you have not tried.

I'm not a believer or fan of de-loading or changing routines at the drop of a hat to shock, confuse the muscle.

Your thoughts

 

[gareer]

In my opinion your body will only grow if you push it to, we get stronger because we put new stresses on our body that it tries to adapt to. SB your way of doing things works well for you and I follow a similar thing. I've never found the need to deload (considering I'm a noobie) but just to work on the weak areas to bring them up to speed. I.e. my bench, my sticking point is the lockout, the bar gets off my chest but the transition from chest to triceps just isn't going well.

 

[Oli]

I don't believe in sticking points. If your car breaks down on the highway do you blame the car or the part of the highway where your car broke down?

 

[haz]

if your car fails every time you hit that same piece of highway, then you blame the highway.

 

[JDizzle]

people eat roughly the same every day yet they want to get bigger and lift heavier every day

eventually your going to stall

 

[Dancelot]

Deloading (or restarting at a lighter weight then working back up) with a focus on technique and explosiveness worked very well for me in the last 8-weeks cycle for the 3 big lifts. I blasted through my squat and deadlift sticking points & added 10kg to each lift. Bench also improved but only by a little bit.

I still worked hard at the assistant lifts during that time though.

 

[Oli]

if your car fails every time you hit that same piece of highway, then you blame the highway.

But that doesn't happen.

When you bench press your triceps don't sleep at the bottom, wake up halfway through and go 'omg can't take the weight bro', they're involved the entire way. And if your strength off the chest sucks then the point where you stall isn't going to be the issue.

Tricep work works not because everyone gets stuck in the 'lockout' but if you look at EMG charts benching is primarily:

1) Triceps
2) Front delts
3) Pectorals

In that order.

 

[Goosey]

You young blokes shouldn't have an issue, if you are eating correctly and training very hard, we all know the drill.

Your gains will slow as you mature I can assure you.

You try differing ways to coax gains.

The sticking points Oliver refers to is quite different.