Being stuck in a bench press plateau can be one of the most frustrating aspects within strength and conditioning. Follow these key points to blast through that plateau and blow up your bench!

The first key point behind blasting through a bench plateau? Put yourself on the incline bench and live there for a long time. The incline bench is a harder movement that improves your shoulder strength, tricep strength and upper pec development. 

Do you struggle with the lockout? Start by working on close grip incline bench. This is a movement that will make most champion bench pressers cry! The range of motion is longer and the coordination between the shoulder and tricep becomes a bit more challenging. 

Are your shoulders weak and you struggle to drive from the chest to mid-range? Use 1 and ¼ reps on the incline. This means you need to lower the bar to the chest, press the bar to a ¼ range, lower the bar back to the chest and then finish the movement with a full press.

This will help by using time under tension, multiple stretch shortening cycles and greater range of motion!

Hit the incline bench regularly and alter the variation you will be using. On higher rep days, focus on hammering the close grip, on more intensity focused training days, hit 2-4 reps with 1 and ¼ style reps.