You may also experience a plateau from training at a high load for too long of a period. Not having periodization in your training may have you spending too much time performing doubles and triples, never building a contractile structure. 

Doing hypertrophy work, 5 to 10 reps, will have your muscle growing in size. The muscle growth in size through myofibrillar hypertrophy and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy allows for the muscle to be innervated so the larger contractile structure has better innervation to allow you to bust through lifting plateaus. 

If you are training too long at the high percentages, your contractile structure, the muscle, is not gaining a lot of mass. One benefit of sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and myofibrillar hypertrophy is that the contractile structure gains mass to allow the improved innervation to produce more force.

You know that mechanical load leads to greater levels of hypertrophy. You also know that precise reps can improve neural drive and muscular coordination, both of which lead to more force. 

Unfortunately, most athletes don’t use enough volume. But this isn’t going to be you. A higher level of volume (sometimes insane levels of volume) can lead to greater adaptations which in turn will help you produce more force to bust through your lifting plateaus.

SO WHAT IS THE SECRET TO BUSTING THROUGH THE PLATEAU???!!!!???

When you hit a plateau, you can establish a relative mass. Let’s say you have been stuck at 390 lbs and your main goal is to bench 405 lbs with four plates on each side of the bar, you will apply the secret by basing your max on 405 lbs.

Based on your 405 lbs max, you will go to about 80%. Let’s say that number is 315 lbs. Having your 80% established, you will hit that load for 3x5. You want to be as precise as possible, be nice and controlled, and have good speed. It will be challenging. You might have a failure in the first week. You need to be aware of where and why you are failing (if it happens). Is it technique? It is your pecs? Is it your triceps?

You will rest 2 to 2.5 minutes between each set of 5 reps. If you hit all three sets of five reps, you want to add about 10 lbs the next time you do the workout, which will typically be 5 to 7 days in between. 

The second part of this secret is where the crazy volume comes into play. 

So you already did 3x5 at 80% and now you are going to do 3x17 at 60%. With your 405 lbs hypothetical max, you will drop to 235 lbs for your 3x17.

You are now arm deep in the 80/60 Drop.

You crank out 17 reps at 235 lbs. You just blast through the set, thinking driving through as fast as possible, good elbow extension, and feel the mind-muscle connection. You want to rest 60 to 90 seconds between the sets of 17 reps. 

When you do the 3x5 at 80%, you are working at the upper end of a max effort. It isn’t 90% to make you stale, but heavy enough to push intensity to stimulate your nervous system. Then when you drop to 60%, the decreased mechanical load will help improve your technique and your overall sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. With sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, you will possibly be creating more space for more myofibrils to come in and lead to greater contractile structural force.

Using the sets of 5 and the sets of 17 allows you to cater within a crazy area that allows you to stimulate growth in all areas.

Bench press. YES! Incline bench. YES! You can even use the 80/60 Drop with pull-ups if you have the skill. You can even do the 80/60 drop with deadlifts, just use the barbell for the 3x5 and dumbbells for the 3x17. You can do the 80/60 drop with back squats as well; you can do the 3x17 as goblet squats or light squats to just bust through the positions. 

You want to do 3 to 5 weeks of utilizing the 80/60 drop before working in a 2-week transition period of working at a higher intensity. The 80/60 drop can be extremely fatiguing. Be aware of the fatigue leading into the transition weeks to make sure you break through that plateau.