Missing attemp & and tranning tweaking

[Francois.L]

Hello Brent,

I have been following this program for about 6 weeks now and I am very happy about it. However, there are some days were things don't go as planned and on the fly tweaking of the plan has to be made.

Usually, if I can't get the planned amount of reps in the planned amounts of sets e.g. I was planning to squat 160kg x 3 x 2 but got only two reps during the second set, I rest less than a minute and do the remaining rep(s) to at least get the volume and tonnage planned. Does that sound fine or would you suggest something else?

Also, something happened in this morning session which was a bit different. I was supposed to deadlift 180kg x 3 but could only get one rep. Then, even after a 3 minutes pause, I couldn’t get anymore reps. I therefore changed my plan for the back-off set. It was supposed to be 166.5kg x 5. But to compensate for the missing reps in the top set, I did 166.5kg x 3 x 3. Would some change of plan like that seems reasonable?

Thanks in advance.

[Brent Carter]

Are you still training 5 days/wk? How much weight have you lost?

It is completely normal for performance to suffer as a result of caloric restriction. I think your plan of getting what some people call "cluster sets" or cluster reps is fine so as to get the volume/ tonnage. Doing your best to maintain progress while cutting weight is a reasonable goal.

For DL question it is unlikely to get the same effect by doing more work at the lighter weight when you miss your intensity set. This just likely means that you might need more advanced programming for your deadlift. Consider alternating between a heavy deadlift variant every other week such as rack pulls or deficit DL.

[Francois.L]

Hi Brent, thanks fot the reply.

Since I started to be in a caloric deficit (early January), I went from 84 kg to about 81 kg. Waist went down from 90 cm to 86 cm. So I don’t think I am too aggressive on the cut. I am not in a rush anyway. For about two weeks I have cut the Olympic weightlifting course but mainly because of time issue. So it is only 4 days/wk.

Then I will keep with those “cluster reps”.

For the deadlift, I guess I will have to see next week if it was just an “out of shape” day or a need for a more advanced programming for it. In any case, speaking of deficit deadlift, do you think it would make sense to switch my regular one after the heavy squat workout to deficit ones at the same percentage of the heavy deadlift day? Or maybe paused ones?

Thanks in advence.

[Brent Carter]

Yeah, I generally like that better than light deadlifts.

[Francois.L]

Thanks, I just did deficit this morning. Two sets of 5 at 80% of the deadlift day. Does the intensity seems proper in my situation?

Also, do you have any opinion in combining deficit and paused deadlift at the same time?

Thanks a lot.

[Brent Carter]

Sounds about right.

I would probably pick one or the other.

[Francois.L]

Perfect. Thanks a lot again.