Someone please help my friggin' squat!!!!

[zepled37]

So, my squats been going nowhere fast. In fact, I feel like it is off about 15% from where I was a few months ago. My other lifts are off a little bit, but more just stalled, not regressed like the squat.

Things were going great with the texas method for about 8 weeks. I made it up to 315x5x5 and they actually felt pretty good at that weight. I actually thought I could make it to 365x5x5. After that I crashed a bit and reset to try again with a variation on the TM that included speed work for squats on intensity day to try to help with recovery. That didn't seem to help much and I only ran that for 4 or 5 weeks.

So, I switched things up again and went to a Starr model trying ramped sets again to help with recovery. My squats still felt crappy so I dropped squats one day of the week and did a couple sets of lunges and leg extensions / leg curls on the medium day to get more rest and kept a light and heavy squat day in the program. This hasn't done the trick either. I've been on the Starr model for 6 weeks. Today I did 2 sets of 3 with 315 and it felt heavier than when I did 5x5 with it months ago. Oh, I also switched away from deadlifting heavy every week and went to haltings and rack pulls about a month or so ago also.

Squats have always been a pretty good lift for me so I'm at a bit of a loss. I really don't think I'm someone that needs or can handle a lot of volume so I'm wondering if I'm still doing too much???

Stats: 33 years old, 205 pounds, 5'9"

Other recovery issues..

Yes, I'm trying to lean out a bit so that is a factor, but please, no diet haters...I'm not some skinny teenage kid here and I'm only down 5 pounds or so from when I hit my bests a couple months ago. Sleep is not too bad, 7 hours regularly. Weekends usually 9 plus naps. The last 4 days I've gotten 9+ hours sleep. I'm following Shelby Starnes very low carb diet so I think I have a pretty solid plan there and I've worked with Shelby a bit before and as I said, I've only lost 5 pounds or so over 3 weeks so I'm not going nuts with it. Only doing some low intensity cardio like walking 30 minutes a few times a week so far.

Maybe someone has an idea??

I don't feel like I should revamp my programming too much as I've been tweaking it little bits at a time to try to find something to work, but no luck so far.

[Mr.City]

Have you tried taking a week off?

[PVC]

The Texas Method and the Starr model both seem like they'd be a bit too intense if you're on a caloric deficit.

[zepled37]

Have you tried taking a week off?

Yes, I've had time off and a very light week a time or two with only 2 light workouts.

This doesn't seem to be the issue as I've tried a week off, resetting, etc.

[zepled37]

The Texas Method and the Starr model both seem like they'd be a bit too intense if you're on a caloric deficit.

I actually started having trouble before I restricted calories. Also, this was part of the reason I went to the Starr model with ramped sets because I figured one heavy set of 5 was going to be easier to recover from than sets across even if the sets leading up to it were also 5's.

Shouldn't there be some way to modify both the Starr model and TM to account for the decreased recovery on a slight caloric deficit? Especially the Starr model seems to be more adaptable.

[fnet]

Zepled, I noticed that you've been doing abs and back extensions as warm-ups. Could those be causing some fatigue issues before you get under the bar for squats? How hard are you going at those warm-ups? Is it something you just started doing?

[zepled37]

Zepled, I noticed that you've been doing abs and back extensions as warm-ups. Could those be causing some fatigue issues before you get under the bar for squats? How hard are you going at those warm-ups? Is it something you just started doing?

Thank you for your help. I actually do those very light, no added weight. I've been doing 2 sets of 12-15 reps of each which is pretty easy. I've done these before also.

I do these because it seems to take me a very long time to warm up and I'm actually wondering if there is some type of mobility issue that is limiting my squats. I have no trouble hitting depth and my form is good, but if there is some kind of muscular recruitment or movement issue? I don't know, it sounds like partly bullshit if depth and form is good, but I generally feel much better physically by the end of my workout than the beginning. Especially if I do a deadlift movement. Somehow that really loosens things up for me.

Anybody ever run into something like that causing a major halt to progress??

[theuofh]

Whenever I go to a really low carb diet, my lifts stall, particularly my squat. Everything else is alright for a bit.

I've found I can lose similar weight by including some carbs in my diet without totally stalling my lifts. Granted, they aren't flying up as if I were chugging milk with every meal, but they don't totally stall. Now I will eat fruit in the morning, add a bit of carbs with lunch, and have a bowl of oatmeal with whey as my pre training snack on lifting days, as a minimum when trying to lean out. I'll cut it out during upper body days as the diet progresses.

I'd recommend giving a carb up a go.

5lbs over three weeks is significant fat loss IMO, it may not be crash dieting but it may be effecting recovery more than you may expect.

As to the question of programming for reduced recovery capabilities, I see it as a problem of creating a stimulus large enough to cause an adaptation that can be recovered from; at some point, you will need to do more work to progress that can be recovered from on a caloric deficit.

Another thing I think of is trying higher reps for a change. The extra work may be more conducive to dieting and you may be may be able to progress in a new rep range. Then switch back to 5s when you are done with your diet.

Just some thoughts.

[zepled37]

Oh, one other thing I'm considering is adding good mornings back into the program. I did them some time ago and have done them before and they seem to help me. Problem is that I've been slowly changing lots of other shit around trying to find something to work that I'm not sure where to put them right now.

Either I drop them into the medium day or I go back to full deadlifts and deadlift every other week and do good mornings on the other week. Probably will try some other things first as I'd like to stick to the haltings and rack pulls first to see how they work as I haven't done them consistently before (haltings never until the last few weeks).

[stronger]

what length of rest are you taking between sets? My observation is that too often people will short change their rest. As the weight gets heavier, you're probably going to have to rest longer.