Time for me to need some general programming advice please guys

[danlightbulb]

Adam haz smart.

Dan, how's your egg, milk, and fish oil intake?

Eggs every day for breakfast, still drinking 4 pints of milk a day sometimes 5 or 6. Fish oil zero.

Well, if recovery isn't reliable and lack of sunlight affects you, it might be time to start taking vitamin D and move to intermediate (weekly) programming. No point in wasting time with staying stuck at the same weight. Move on.

And get a form check on the bench.

Ive just been and bought a multivitamin. I did have some coaching on the bench from UK's Carl Raghavan. My form was generally ok I just have thin weak arms, he suggested either microloading or sets of 3 which is what I've done. I'm planning to go back and see Carl again, but I want to actually have made some decent progress when I go back again. My lifts aren't that far ahead from where I was when I saw him a month ago.

[George Christiansen]

There's always the option of spreading out the same workload across three or four days per week. I tried this and practically felt like I was cheating, but sometime the time isn't there.

[SpinyNorman]

Here are my thoughts on a few of your statements/questions.

Ive been training now for nearly 6 months. For the past few weeks I have been feeling constantly tired, my weight gain has slowed and my lifting rate of progression has slowed. Its felt hard at various times before so I know it has to be hard, but I felt it was time for me to get some general advice on how to move forward now.

You haven't been training that long. Just keep that in mind when you think about the amount of weight you are lifting. Keep with it and those numbers will go up. You're right, it will be hard and will be consistently hard, not just hard at various times as you progress. Progression does tend to slow, that's just how it goes. Sometimes it may pick up for a bit for reasons I don't understand. I think it took me longer to take my bench from 185 to 200 than it did do go from 235 to 250.

As I said above, for the last several weeks I've just felt very tired all the time. I've had a few colds and some personal stress with ex wife and during those periods I cut back on training.

My weight gain has continued slowly, I haven't ever gone backwards but it has slowed down or stood still for periods of time. Sometimes I've fell asleep on the sofa and missed a meal just because I'm tired. I am getting sleep, but for some reason its not been the best quality sleep. I'm still tired in the morning and I wake up alot in the night.

Unless you are quite sick I would try not to skip lifting. Stress is a reason for me to get to the gym, not a reason to skip.

I have two kids ages 4 and 2. I have done lots of training over the past few years with crappy broken sleep and have still made fairly good progress. Eat, Eat, Eat! Seriously, eat. I found that helped compensate a bit for lousy sleep.

For the past few weeks Ive only been attending the gym twice a week, pretty much following the 1 on 2 off schedule in PPST3 advanced novice. As you can see I've also made the switch to 3x3 on squat, bench and press. This is very recent.

That doesn't seem like it would give you enough volume. Make an effort to get to the gym 3 times. My lifts suffer if I don't get adequate volume.

Please note that I'm sure the answer to gain more weight will come up and whilst I agree, I'd like to point out that at the age of 29 I only weighed 120lb so bear in mind that I am naturally very small framed.

Great work getting up to 180!

So any advice on what to do now would be greatly appreciated. Maybe its as simple as a deload I don't know.

Doesn't really sound to me like you need a deload. Just keep at it. Lift, eat, sleep, repeat.

[cutlet#]

Eggs every day for breakfast, still drinking 4 pints of milk a day sometimes 5 or 6. Fish oil zero.

After I asked you that, I did some research and found that most milk isn't fortified with the D on your side of the pond, and eggs don't have as much as much as I thought. A tablespoon of fish oil a day should have you fixed up though. That way you can at least eliminate that variable. Plus it's supposed to be good for lots of other stuff and things.

[danlightbulb]

Thanks for the response so far.

Does anyone have some ideas about what I should do about power cleans? I've made zero progress on these in the whole 6 months. I think the main issue is that I am out of energy after my squat sets. I can't see this improving really. Deadlift or chins doesn't seem so affected as power cleans are.

[Chebass88]

Added stress in your life (i.e., non-lifting related) can really impact your training negatively, both in and out of the gym. Sorry to hear about your ex-wife impacting your training. I would suggest to try to clear your mind during training, so you can focus on your lifts. Do this with music, ear-plugs, or whatever helps you focus.

Regarding powercleans, while it is NDTFP, try doing them while you are fresh (first exercise of the day). You might still be able to do your squats. It is worth trying it out over a few sessions. I have had some success with this approach (also doing bench / press first in a session)

From your description, I suspect you have some issues with consistency in training sessions / schedule. Sorry if I misinterpreted this. My advice is to find a training schedule / regimen that works and stick with it. If you're doing a 1 on / 2 off schedule, you are only lifting on the same days every three weeks, which probably means training at different times of the day as well. In lifting, consistency wins everytime. For example, I had excellent success when I trained weekdays just before dinner. When I am in a routine, I can power through training sessions at other times of the day, but they aren't ideal. Occasionally, some strong black coffee is what is needed to get a particular training session done.

You are making progress. One of the best pieces of wisdom I received about lifting was "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time".

[tmcnulty]

"How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time".

Like this guy

[Miro]

+1 for consistency. Find a time that will work for you consistently. If it turns out you can only lift five o'clock in the morning consistently, then stick with that. Drink lots of coffee and lift even if you feel crappy. After a few weeks you will adapt and hopefully sleep better.

[Simon Rest]

Dan, have you added creatine and BCAAs to your diet? These both helped me a good deal with recovery at about the same stage as where you are now.

[danlightbulb]

Dan, have you added creatine and BCAAs to your diet? These both helped me a good deal with recovery at about the same stage as where you are now.

Not yet no. Will think seriously about it thanks.