Finding Out that the Iron Never Lies

[idlehands]

flu is a bitch man. I'm finding everything is heavy lately

[bustermonkey2]

Yep- It's been about 3 weeks and I'm still a bit off my lifts.

[bustermonkey2]

Feb 25, 2014
Bodywt @ 221 lbs

Bench @ 360 lbs- 1. PR. This was very tough and very slow, at least in part because I lost all tightness at the bottom so my back was completely flat. If I had kept tight it would have been much easier, but I still made it.

Bench @ 282 lbs- 4,4,4,7. These were pretty tough. My arms were very sore by the end, likely due to effort expended on single, so I skipped accessories.

[bustermonkey2]

Feb 27, 2014

Deadlift @ 530 lbs- 0. Fail. I got it just above knees and got stuck there. I don't think I've ever failed before above my knees.
Deadlift @ 412 lbs-1. I just didn't feel like pushing forward with deadlift volume.

I am getting frustrated with lack of progress this week. I'd like to blame it all on the flu a few weeks back but I also think it is just that I'm tired of max efforts and then grinding out my volume work. I'll probably stick with it one more week. I may need to reconsider the programming altogether, or maybe I just need to deload and start over.

[Róbert Kovács]

I know how frustrating it may feel, but getting a bench PR is not exactly lack of progress. You'll bounce back!

[bustermonkey2]

I know how frustrating it may feel, but getting a bench PR is not exactly lack of progress. You'll bounce back!

Thanks. I've thought a little but more about it and I'll see how it goes next week to see if I can squeeze out any more progress this cycle. In looking at my log, I think I did 2 things wrong on this cycle: 1) I got greedy and jumped the weights up too quickly; and 2) I didn't build in any deload weeks which has contributed to running myself into a wall. I thought I could adjust the weights up more quickly and then reduce the jumps at the top but too many weeks in a row of grinding volume sets don't allow enough recovery. On the deload issue, I realize that on the last cycle that on the lighter top set weeks I only did the 4 x 4 backoff sets without AMRAP and without accessories. This time I continued AMRAP and accessories on the light weeks which is a mistake.

[Róbert Kovács]

Good point! Going near failure with the AMRAP sets isn't really light. Plus you're getting ever stronger, and closer to your genetic potential, thus making things more complex.

[bustermonkey2]

Seti- You are absolutely right. It has gotten much more difficult to program correctly. Too much volume/weight and no progress. Too little volume/weight and no progress. I'm think about giving the 531 3 month challenge a try, really just to do something different. I doubt I'll make any real progress of the lifts but I think I'll gain some more muscle mass.

[JohnRoman]

Just out of curiosity, how many cycles have you run it? What were your gains each cycle? What did you do differently for each cycle?

[bustermonkey2]

I'm about halfway into my 2nd cycle. I'm making progress on bench and press but had kind of a stall of squats and deadlifts this week.

After finishing my first 4 x 4 cycle, here were my results:
Bodywt- 217-->223 lbs.
Press- 205-->210 lbs.
Bench 335-->355 lbs.
Squat (unwrapped) 405 for 2 reps-->455 lbs for 1 rep.
Deadlift 480-->525 lbs.

The differences between the cycles was that on the 2nd cycle I added incline press as an accessory, and kept up AMRAP and assistance work on the lighter weeks (every 3rd week you use a lighter top weight but add some weight to backoff sets). I also kept up 15 lb jumps for several weeks longer on squats/deadlifts. I think it has been too much too soon and it's run my squat and deadlift into the ground. I'm going to try repeating the same weights next week for squat/deadlift and see if that allows me to bounce back. If not, I may have to reset and start the cycle over.