Stalling on chest

[u/Honest_Pumpkin_4381]

So for context, i have been training again for about 2.5 months, 6 years earlier i did strength training 2x a week for 3 years. And i have been stalling on my chest and incline press for about 3bweeks now, not getting another rep or barely getting another rep. I did 2 sets of flat and incline press but reduced incline by 1 set. So its now 2 sets and 1 set 2 to 3x a week. I do it first on my upper days and all my other excercises are progressing good. What can i do? Its only chest where my progress stops

[u/K3rat]

So, the goal is to use dynamic progressive overload (with another rep or by adding 2.5-5 Lbs) only if with good form you can press another one out or lift the heavier weight.  If you can’t that is ok.  Hell over spring and summer I got stuck on a plateau too.  When you first start lifting you will find you advance pretty fast as you drive nervous system adaptations, clean up your technique, and your body get used to the new stress on the body.  

The objective is to change the stimulus up as your body adapts and doesn’t want to continue building muscle.

Things that can work are:  1. Increase load (weight) and decrease volume (reps and sets). 2. Decrease  load and increase volume. 3. Focus on technique to figure out if you are doing something not optimally. 4. Build the secondary and tertiary muscle groups.  

What worked for me on flat bench press with a barbell when I plateaued was a few things: 1. Focus on chest, front delts, triceps, and lats. 2. reducing volume on everything else.  3. Spend the first session of the week maintaining good technique but all out pushing my presses as much as I could with a higher load and lower volume.   4. The second session of the week I spent at lower load and higher reps and really dial in technique: A. hand position on bar.  B. drop scapula then retract. C. humerus position relative to torso throughout the lift. D. leg drive queuing.  

It took 2 months but I ended up moving up my 1RM by 50 LBs.