Creeping fatigue

[Aslin]

I would deload, or do a week of heavy ass sets for 2/3 reps... say 110% of 5rm.....

[Brenden]

Back when I didn't know what the hell I was doing (doing a 5x5 weekly progression as a rank novice), I took a week off, and found that my strength increased over that time. Granted, my squat was around 140-150 at the time. This October, after 6-8 weeks on SS, I took a week off after noticing decreasing strength on the DL and squat, and found that I did not feel any stronger afterwards. In Practical Programming, Rip recommends taking off one "progression cycle", meaning one workout for a novice, one week for an intermediate. So you might try just skipping a single workout and seeing how you feel after that. It's lower risk/cost than taking a whole week off, in that if it doesn't help, you at least won't have regressed as far. I just did that due to not having time to lift for the past four days, and my DL, which had been getting really challenging, felt light and easy.

[zepled37]

I used to think a week off was ok and I don' think it is a disaster necessarily, but I would much rather just lighten the load and reduce the volume as much as I need to. I think this helps prevent some detraining and aches and pains from creeping in.

Though I think it is better physically, sometimes mentally a week off completely helps more.

[Mr.City]

Welp, I'm taking the rest of the week considering the miserable stall of my deadlift and press, I'm missing reps on a squat deload, and I'm currently on a bench and power clean deload. It's clear I'm overtrained, and I've done this before when I insisted about getting my deadlift to 300 before cutting down the frequency (stupid I know).

I also believe that I'm not eating enough. I got worried about my gut and ate until I didn't feel like eating anymore. I decided to sit down at the dining hall and eat until the point of discomfort. Know what? I feet bloated for maybe 10 minutes but now I feel jumping jack flash. I gorge myself to a 400 lb squat, and should I become a 270 lbs behemoth at the end, so be it. Certain dieting methods can be administered later.