Lifts/bodyweight/height? what were your PRs and what weight were you?
I started SS about a year and a half ago and made excellent gains in strength and size without too much fat gain. After several injuries in and out of the gym (mostly out of the gym) and too much time off, my weight stayed the same but strength fell through the floor. I decided to start eating paleo to help shed some of the excess fat. I was able to get my strength heading back in the right direction, too. I recently hit a wall, some most definitely mental, but a lot is physical. The physical part is due to not having a caloric excess like I did the first time through. I am also limiting carbs to less than 50g a day, usually less than 25g. Anyway, I want to mix it up a little, at least while I'm doing the paleo diet or get my head right. I tried throwing in front squats a couple times last week but I couldn't sleep both nights I did them due to the pain in my shoulders. It also trashed the pushing exercises I did those days. I'm toying with going off squats for a few weeks and doing deads for a while for my main lift, maybe doing squats once a week. What are some suggestions from someone else that's hit a wall even if they aren't at their peak? By the way, my weight is getting close to me being comfortable adding some regular food in soon.
Lifts/bodyweight/height? what were your PRs and what weight were you?
Nothing to brag about for weights but 285 squat, 315 deads, 145 press, 235 bench. PCs I always struggled with, I think the most I did was 145. Never did 1rm just the 3 sets of 5. I'm 6', was 220lbs when I was doing those weights. Right now, I'm about 5-10% from those weights. Bench is a little further off, I did 205 last time, probably could do 210 next time without too much issue. I'm down to about 202 right now, I want to get back to around 220 again, but want to do it right.
Getting back lost strength is easier than building it from scratch, so whenever you're ready / stop dieting, you can build back up normally. Probably do a small deload so you don't stall early, and then ramp up your food intake & weights accordingly.
Some background: I hadn't lifted in years and was seriously detrained, but after about 3 months of amazing gains, I was burned out. I had never missed a rep, and within the span of 2 weeks missed at least one rep on every exercise. I had hit up against something, and was pretty discouraged. I didn't look forward to the gym and was thinking about TM or something else. Also I injured my hip flexor (can't be more specific). It didn't bother me much when I squatted or deadlifted, but hurt like hell when I had to take a step back in the power rack just before squatting. It was the right time to take time off to heal. I expect a week, but even after 2 weeks the hip hurt even when I would try to lift my leg in bed. 3 weeks turned into a complete month. I've been back now for 4 or 5 workouts. I compared videos looking for grip tips, and noticed by legs were significantly bigger a few weeks ago than they are now. I deloaded about 30 percent across the board and am increasing 10 pounds per workout in the SQ, 20 pounds in the DL, and 5 pounds in everything else to take is nice and slow. The weights feel heavy, but go up pretty smoothly. I look forward to the gym again.
I've hit that wall. My suggestion is to change your programming to something that has less progression. 5lbs-10lbs per month is still 60 - 120lbs a year. Choose the program and use just enough volume to drive that progression.
For my DL i just finished up 5 cycles of 5/3/1 at 10lbs per month progression. I've recently started eating on a leangains protocol, dropped 10lbs of fat and I'm now just starting to use RPT to see if I can progress just a bit faster. I'll run that for as long as I can and then decide how to program from there.
Trust me, I love carbs. Overall, I've adapted much better to the paleo diet than I thought. My body has adapted well to the increase in fat and lower carbs and I only notice it on the 4th or 5th rep of 5s. It's like my muscles just throw in the towel. I do need to try to eat more carbs on lifting days, I think. And yes, I know I need to HTFU. That was much easier when I was eating everything in sight and had time to lift 3 times a week regularly without outside life interfering. Now, I'm lucky to get 2 workouts in a week. 3 on occasion. Also, I'd hit a wimpier plateau a couple months ago before I started paleo. I decided then that whatever was going on with me, I might as well drop some of the extra fat if my strength wasn't going to go up. I actually progressed pretty well after that.