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Intermediate hell
Hi guys!
Been doing "this" for about three years now.
After a four month LP I've been trying all sorts of programming, TM, 531, HLM and a some of my own.
After the initial rapid success, progress has been slow, but still progress and I'm happy with being the strongest I've ever been and lifting regularly is now part of my life.
Lately I've run into a problem perhaps caused by my success.
I seem to walk a fine line when it comes to volume, intensity and frequency.
Everything is so much heavier now that the slightest misjudgement totally wrecks me.
For the moment I do One Lift a Day with one, sometimes two rest days and I can barely muster one little accessory lift on top.
Sometimes I wonder how the F... I was able to do two or three main lifts in the same workout.
Had a good squat session two days ago (just squats) and I felt like I had a bad flu for 24 hours.
I eat well, sleep's good and T was ok last time I checked.
Thinking I'm nearing my limits and thought you guys might have some tips and pointers.
I'm in no rush, but I want my lifts to go up. They still do but the price is getting high.
52 yo
220, 6'2
SQ: 400
DL: 425
BP: 240
PR: 170
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I was feeling the same way and I had success by lowering weekly volume. I do only one heavy (training day) per week and one light day per week (Sunday is heavy day, Thursday night is light day). Light = 85% of heavy day. Based on a recent video from Feigenbaum, I may add a third extra light day (50% is my guess) just to maintain form. It feels like I never workout and my numbers are still low, but the lower weekly volume has allowed me to continue on a novice progression. I also feel great during rest days. I feel that if I can push my body weight up to 200lbs+, I can definitely break 400+ lbs on my squat. I don't do bench presses, so that helps simplify the heavy day to just Squats, Press and Deadlift.
52 yo
190, 5'8"
SQ PR: 355 (Going to squat camp this weekend, so that will also help)
DL PR: 340 (Need to improve form, so waiting for the next DL Camp in my area)
PR PR: 142
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Thanks! Exactly the kind of input I was hoping for.
When you say heavy, do you mean volume or intensity or both?
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Heavy is the highest weight level at which I can perform my work sets while reasonably maintaining good form and avoiding injury. I list my "heavy" and "light" worksets below. Again, it feels like I hardly workout, but it seems to work.
Heavy Day
Squat: Workset is 3 x 5 at 320lbs
Deadlift: Workset is 1 x 5 at 315lbs
Press: Workset is 3 x 5 at 122lbs
Light Day
Squat: Workset is 3 x 5 at 275lbs
Press: Workset is 3 x 5 at 115lbs
No deadlifts on light day, but I may add to practice form.
The presses are a bit low because I inflamed one of my shoulders. I was doing 3 x 5 (128lb) presses a few months ago.
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Interesting. That would make room for a little conditioning too, which is totally off the table at present.
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I found after leaving SS behind I adopted the progression in Practical Programing. I just wasn't recovering enough once the weights got heavy for me. For example:
Deadlift:
wk1 325x3x1
wk 2 325x4x1
wk 3 325x5x1
wk 4 330x3x1
...
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