If you did it right you shouldn't have plateaued or gone stale for a few months at least, but now that you have plateaued on your bench, you're ready for a more advanced program that will focus on sculpting the chest rather than increasing your bench press strength. This is, after all, bodybuilding.

Also, while you were on the old routine, you probably found your personal ideal rep range, so I'm not going to include any reps here. You might also be thinking, at this point, that your triceps aren't getting a full workout because their after chest.

I'm a big fan of training triceps after chest because I've tried it the other way and it just doesn't work as well. If you train your triceps on another day they can never come back at 100% on chest day, then your arms burn out long before your chest does.

If you train triceps on chest day, then they only get hit once a week, and so can come back stronger the next time. Also training triceps after chest forces you to dig deep in their strength and energy reserves, which strengthens them even more.

Biceps I do not train on back day because the back is such a large muscle it takes longer than chest to train.

*Note: in the back routine, 40 minutes is the time it takes to train the BACK, which does not include the giant set at the end for shoulders. Sorry I didn't make that more clear in the article. So, here's the advanced program (modified from a workout in Arnold's Encyclopedia):

Sample Advanced Chest/Tricep Routine:

Flat Bench: 3 sets, on the third set strip off 25% of the weight and go to failure (4 sets total).

Incline Bench: Same

*After four weeks switch the order so you do inclines first then flat.
**Every 3rd workout substitute dumbbells for barbells to keep from goin' stale.

Flat Flyes supersetted with cable flyes: 3 sets

Incline Flyes: 3 sets

EZ Bar Heady Presses: 2 sets, get a close grip on the EZ curl bar and do a strict flat press, just like a bench with your elbows in, then alternate that with a skull crusher, and back to a strict flat press, with squeeze at the top.

Great for developing the inner striations in the pec and the outer head of the horseshoe, the one that's harder to see if you don't have low body fat.

Dumbbell Kickbacks: 2 continuous sets, hits all 3 head of the triceps equally.

Click Here For A Printable Log Of Week 1: Monday.

Total: 14 sets specifically for chest and 6 specifically for triceps.

That's it! You can continue to do feeder training if it worked well for you, if not, don't. After several months of chest training you should have a good idea what's what.

I don't recommend changing the auxiliaries around too much, flyes can continue to work for a while if you really stretch at the bottom. One thing most trainers need to work on is stretching their chest at the bottom of the flyes without damaging their shoulder.

Bend only slightly at the elbow, and learn to focus the stress into your pectoral as much as possible so your shoulders don't get hurt. On cable flyes, its a good idea to vary the angle from squeezing near your forehead to squeezing a little below your pec, and everywhere between. So, if you've plateaued on my old program or on your own, give this high-intensity routine a try.

- Alton

beautifuldisaster420@yahoo.com

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