Regressed on squats, gotten fatter!

[xagent]

Bodyweight: fluctuates between 155 and 160. Height = 5'6.5"

Background: Did LP from August 2011 until November. Went from 135 lbs to 150-155lbs BW.

Squat 240x3x5, 245x1x5 for a 5RM
Deadlift 315x1x5, Bench 145x3x5, Press 105x3x5, PC 125x5x2.

Started getting fatigued, achy, workout "hungover" the days following my workouts. Tuesday I'd be a wreck. Wed I'd be sore and tired to progress, had to use same weight as Monday - wasn't able to make jumps each workout. This stalling continued for about a month (most of December), until I thought OK, maybe I've progressed to "intermediate". Maybe I'm killing myself by doing 3x5 and trying to add weight each workout.

Took 2 weeks off for holidays, and started TM. Reset for TM at 185x5x5.

2 months later, my squats have gone *down* to 205x5x5 for VD. One week in Feb I magically hit 235x1x5 for a Friday PR... but next week, I was back down... couldn't even do 225! On average, my squats fluctuated between 205 - 225.

Bench is currently 155x3x5, and press 110x3x5 (only 10 and 5 lb increments, compared to Nov).

My DL has sky rocketed to 360x3. I competed in a meet on 2/19, and pulled 353 lbs. (missed 375). I competed only in the DL for the meet, since I felt my squat and bench #'s sucked. Officially weighed in at 157 lbs in the afternoon (so maybe 154-155 in the morning).

I weighed myself today, and my BW increased to 160 lbs.

With that said, what do you suggest I do? Am I not advanced enough yet for TM? Is it a matter of poor recovery? I work a desk job, average 6-7 hours sleep weekdays, 9-10 hours weekends. Eat about 1500-2000 calories solid food breakfast lunch dinner + around 1800 calories in the form of whole milk + whey protein (3 shakes a day, 16 oz. milk 2 scoops protein, each around 600 cal, spread across the day between meals). Each solid meal contains meat and/or eggs.

Or... is it the deadlifts? I've been DL'ing once a week, and pulling real heavy. Also been doing doubles, triples, singles (ok, so I havent been following TM strictly, doing 1x5 for DLs). Partly in prep for the meet, partly because I just love them, partly because im being ambitious and overeager about it. I know deadlifts are taxing on the system. Could they be keeping my squats down?

I just got back from the SS seminar, and yes, I do have form issues to work out. But after learning a great deal more and getting corrected, I want to reset again but cut back on the DL intensity and frequency, and this time start on the correct program for me.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Hmmmmm......it sounds like your recovery is shit, but your diet doesn't sound too bad, and you are getting enough sleep.

How old are you?

[xagent]

I'm only 25, which makes it all the more surprising, so I know I'm fucking up something. Do you suggest I cut back on the singles/doubles/triples for DL, or perhaps deadlift only once every 2 weeks instead?

Tomorrow will the the start of the new week for me (I took today off due to lifting at the seminar all weekend). Do you suggest, given my lift #'s, height/weight, to stick with TM, or return back to LP?

And i I do return back to TM, could it be that perhaps my volume day lifts are also too high? I am essentially doing what I can normally do 3x5, and having to wait quite a bit (around 10 min) between sets 3-4 and 4-5, and even those I feel damn near kill me and form breaks down. This volume of squats coupled with the DLs could be what's overkilling me?

i think i'm going to skip DLs this week and see how it goes, along with the new form corrections I learned at the seminar... hopefully my bad form could've also been contributing to some inefficiencies thus extra work done, thus not enough recovery.


Can you recommend a starting lift number I should do for volume tomorrow? And what should I aim for on Friday's PR. Wed I will do 80% of what I did Monday for 2x5.

[xagent]

Oh, I forgot to mention, I bike about 3 miles to my gym (flat/very slightly downhill). Then after the gym, I bike back home 3 miles (same route, flat, then slightly uphill). Could this be fucking up my recovery too?

I went to the gym yesterday and decided to go back to LP. Well, I only did 3x5, and did not murder myself in the gym like normal, cut back on the weights/reset. On Wed, I'll play it by ear and see how I feel, if I can add weight.

Here's what I did yesterday:

Squats: Warmups: 45x5, 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 205x5. Worksets: 210x5, 210x5, 210x5
Press: Warmups: 45x5, 65x5, 95x5. Worksets: 105x5, 105x5, 105x5. Decided to try 110, got 110x4
PowerClean: Warmups: 45x5, 95x3, 115x3, 125x3, 130x2 (nearly missed 2nd rep, horrible form). Worksets: 125 x 4 x 3 (only 4 sets since i'd already done a set at 125, and missed my set at 130)

Assistance: Bodyweight dips 3x8, +20 lbs Weighted chinups 3x8.

Did I do anything wrong?

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

I will get to this shortly. My brain is fried at the moment and all these questions are frying it even more.

[xagent]

I think I figured out the problem.

I go to two gyms. Gym A is state of the art - bumper plates, 3 Oly lifting platforms, 3 power racks, high quality Ivanko plates, etc... Gym B is my work's fitness center. Has 2 power racks and 2 fixed squat racks. but the bars are cheap (lot thicker than the quality bars at Gym A), and plates are some Hampton brand plates. But, it's subsidized by work and only $10/month, and located in my office's campus.

Well I just measured the 45 pound plates at Gym B. Each plate is off by a whopping 2.5 lbs! So for squatting 2 plates, we're talking a 10 pound discrepancy! and for my 3+ plate deadlift, 15 pounds! And who knows how off the cheap bars are, I didn't even weight those.

So what happened was,,, I'd hit "235" at Gym B (in reality only 225). Then I'd go to Gym A, and attempt 240 on real plates - a whopping 15 lb increase! And no shit I'd feel like crap and be in total pain/sore. Then I'd go back to gymB, and instead of adding weight or even keeping it the same, I'd be going DOWN 10 lbs. Of course I didn't strictly alternate between the two, but I'd say I did a good 2/3rd at Gym A, and 1/3rd at GymBad.

The 2.5lb plates and 5lb plates were true to weight. I did not weigh the 10, 25, or 35lb plates at gymB. Add more discrepancy if those and the bars are off too...And for deadlifts, since I'm at over 3 plates, we're talking over 15lbs difference... a whopping 20 fucking pounds if I try to increase by 5 lbs from gymB to gymA!

I feel like an idiot. That must have been why I started fucking up on LP, my weights were going all over the place plus or minus 10-20 lbs each time.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Thank you for finding the solution for me so I didn't have to work on this one anymore.

[vxmorpheusxv]

I'm just curious how you measured the weight? On a scale at the gym? I plan to do the same at my gym after reading this.

[xagent]

Yea, I always had a feeling because at gymB I'd always "kill it". So today I finally dragged the plate to the electronic scale in the bathroom. The 2.5lb plate read 2.4 lbs, the 5 lb plate skipped between 4.9 and 5 lbs. So, the scale seems accurate. The 45 lb plate registered at 42.2 pounds.

I haven't weighed the stuff at GymA, but I suspect those are accurate since that's a real gym w/ Oly platforms, bumpers, and all the iron plates and bars are Ivanko brand, and high quality (correctly marked knurls, nice spin, 28.5mm diameter).

I talked to one of the PTs at GymB, and he smugly retorted, "Oh yeah, we know, what do you want us to do about it?[sarcasm] We found out the day after we got them".

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Unfortunately this is pretty common. 45 lb plates can vary anywhere between 42 and 47 lbs. I bought a bar a long time ago at a
Sports Authority store.....it weighed 38 lbs. Health club type facilities just aren't going to pay top dollar for good bars and plates, mainly because the general public doesn't know the difference, and by and large the staff doesn't either.

[medsteele]

I'm going to have to weigh the plates and bar I have at home. When I used to frequent the local YMCA (alternating workouts at home), I found that I could generally handle more weight at home than I could at the gym, and would frequently fail sets of bench, press, and squats. I have a cheap Cap bar/plate set at home, but don't know what they have at the Y-- back then I didn't know enough to think there was a difference.