Blackout!

[Peter Dempster]

LP since October (reset following back injury in August). Squat went from 75# in mid October to 235# today (was 185# pre injury). Weight went from 206 to 219 in same period. I'm about 6'1, 19% bf. Rest is 5:30 between sets. No de loads, etc. yet, but the last two workouts (225, 230) were hella tough.

Anyway, squats today. Got the first set done, last rep was about 9.999999/10 RPE. Rested 6 minutes. At the top of the 3rd rep of the 2nd set, the darkness closed in and I almost blacked out. Just got the weight back on the pins. Scary! I reloaded to 90% and got the last set of 5 in after a 6 min rest.

Thoughts? Time to do a weight reset, or maybe one top set and two 90% sets? Maybe time to add a tiny bit of conditioning? Longer rest?

[marcf]

It could be a number of things. Maybe it's your diet, sleep, breathing technique, etc. You'd also be surprised how a rep actually moves compared to how it feels (i.e. your RPE 9.9999 on video might have looked like an RPE 8).

Anyway, if 225 and 230 were hell, and I'm assuming your near-blackout work weight was 235, you could start adding a light day in the middle to make better recovery.

So for your last workout this week, just repeat 235 since you missed it. Next week, do this:

Day 1: 240x5x3
Day 2: 195x5x3
Day 3: 245x5x3

And follow the same scheme the following week, etc.

[Luke S]

I bet you're breathing wrong. Search valsalva and blacking out on this forum.

[Satch12879]

You're a novice, you don't have a RPE scale, yet.

[Meshuggah]

You're not training hard unless you see the White Buffalo.

[Peter Dempster]

You're a novice, you don't have a RPE scale, yet.

Well yeah, of course not. It's just to give you an idea of the effort. It was definitely the hardest set I've ever done, if that works better for ya.

Do you have any thoughts on the blackout?

[Meshuggah]

Well yeah, of course not. It's just to give you an idea of the effort. It was definitely the hardest set I've ever done, if that works better for ya.

Do you have any thoughts on the blackout?

If you want a good laugh, go check out the last 10-15 pages in his training log (SS Section). He's always giving advice, but he doesn't have a clue on how to train.

[Peter Dempster]

I bet you're breathing wrong. Search valsalva and blacking out on this forum.

Ah ha! Thanks. I think I'm taking too big of a breath.

[marcf]

Ah ha! Thanks. I think I'm taking too big of a breath.

Nope, that's definitely not it.

[Dag]

It's probably your breathing, yeah, but it's not from taking too much air. It happens. Don't sweat it but make sure you're bracing correctly. It's not a good workout unless you sweat, bleed, and see spots, lol.