WTF?? 5X5 question

[bigstve12]

Alright im on week 4 of 5X5. All is good, i feel really strong and am still able to get all my reps and sets while adding weight every week. Except....My incline bench. Last week i only got 4 reps on my last set with 210. this week i stuck with 210 and on my 3,4,5th sets i got 5,4,3 reps respectively. WTF is up with this? should i increase weight next week and do 5X3 even though all my other lifets are still increasing at 5X5...or should i maybe switch to flat bench?

 

[needsize]

I would switch to flat bench and stick with 5x5

 

[Lee]

i was gonna say just that. or do incline db press, helps build stabilizer muscles more than barbell.

 

[fastgain]

I was doing 5x5 flat barbell bench with 2x8-10 incline barbell bench and dips. I added weight for about 8 weeks straight until I finally hit a wall on week 9 (missed the last 3 sets with 4,4,3). I switched the accesory exercises to incline dumbells and flat dumbell fly. The next week I was able to add weight and make all my sets (which is almost like a 10lb. gain). Try switching up the accesory exercises, it might help.

I've also noticed that moving up even when you miss sometimes works. Somewhere around week 5 or 6, I only made 4 on the last two sets, but I upped the weight anyway the next week and again missed the last two sets. The following week I added weight and made all my sets. I think the gains tend to be somewhat cyclical, even though it's a program based around linearizing gains. 5x5 is a great program, but using it as a foundation for instinctive training (responding to how your body feels) can work even better in my opinion.

 

[bigstve12]

Thanx for the advice guys...right now my accesories are flat dbell and dbell flys. I avoid using dbells for any of the compound 5X5 movements b/c its hard to add weight every week b/c they only increase at 5lbs increments...whic is a total of 10lbs per week.