Only my squat and bench are progressing

[Mr.City]

Hey guys,

I got a weird problem. Only my bench and squat are progressing. Everything has hit a stall. I'm at a loss here. My stats are as follows

6'3 232 lbs

SQ: 335 5x3
OHP: 127.5 5x3
BP: 222.5 5x3
DL: 340 5x1
PC: 160 3x5

What could I be doing wrong? If it were a recovery issue, wouldn't my squats stall? You might be wondering why I haven't used 1 lb jumps on my press if it has stalled, however should I be able to make 2.5 lb jumps on it since I'm still able on my bench? I always seem able to make one of the sets of 5 on my presses, however the number of reps that I'm able to complete goes down the next pressing session.

My deadlift situation is odd. I could do 340 for a not too difficult set of 5, but 350 just feels glued to the floor. I'm making 10 lb jumps still, however I would assume that my squat strength would carry over to my ability to make 10 lbs in my deadlift. The bar never gets off the ground either.

I feel frustrated, depressed, and moody since Wednesday session. These are symptoms of overtraining according to PPT2, however I don't see how I can be overtraining. I deadlift every other week and have programmed a light squat day into my training. In fact, I pull on the days I squat light. I feel like I should be able to progress further on as a novice lifter. I mean, there's a huge gap between my press and bench and my squat and deadlift are almost neck and neck. Something's off here.

[nisora33]

Hey, try five sets of 3 reps on the press from now on. Focus on bar speed being high across all five sets. Add a little weight the next time. When five sets of 3 becomes too much, start doing 3 sets of three. When that becomes too much, switch to intermediate programming on the press.

It's completely possible to overtrain lifts but not become overtrained in a more general sense. This might be just the sort of change you need for your press, both psychologically and physically. As for the deadlift, why don't you start deadlifting once a week again but start doing sets of 3 instead of five? The adaptation to threes insn't that different from fives, and switching to threes might take a little bit of the psychological pressure off you, which also might just be the sort of change you need, know what I mean?

On a related note, do you think you're squats might be too high, resulting in the closing gap between deadlift poundage and squat poundage?
-S.

[gzt]

Are you still double-overhanding the deadlift? I had this same problem, I found out it was just my body refusing to pick up something my hands couldn't hold. I alternated and then it just flew up.

[Mr.City]

Squat has been fine for me. Here's me at 325: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oEgf6M1_yQ

As for my current stall, should I deload and work back up with your prescribed rep scheme? I'm currently trying to make 2.5 lb jumps on my press. However, I think those are over. Another thing that I neglected to mention is my chin/pull up volume. I do sets with 2-3 min rests until I can't make anymore reps. Could this lead to overtraining somehow?

As for the deadlifts stall, they seem to come so suddenly. The first rep of the workset just doesn't budge at all. I'll definitely give it a try though

[Mr.City]

Nope, I use a mixed grip. My double overhand grip cut out around 290-300.

[Locutus]

On a related note, do you think you're squats might be too high, resulting in the closing gap between deadlift poundage and squat poundage?
-S.

No, I don't think depth is the problem here - his squats from his other recent post were clearly below parallel.

And yes to nisora's other points - really simple changes can make a world of difference.

I, for whatever reason, changed my bench and press on the TM method to 5x2 from 5x5, and have gotten quite a bit of press progress out of it, without messing with my micro plates.

(On a side note: I think I'll do something like 5x5->3x5->5x3->3x3 after my next reset, just to keep progress going and avoid stagnation. Resetting is rather annoying.)

[nisora33]

Squat has been fine for me. Here's me at 325: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oEgf6M1_yQ

As for my current stall, should I deload and work back up with your prescribed rep scheme? I'm currently trying to make 2.5 lb jumps on my press. However, I think those are over. Another thing that I neglected to mention is my chin/pull up volume. I do sets with 2-3 min rests until I can't make anymore reps. Could this lead to overtraining somehow?

As for the deadlifts stall, they seem to come so suddenly. The first rep of the workset just doesn't budge at all. I'll definitely give it a try though

Don't deload the press yet. My gut says that switching to threes will feel like such a "breath of fresh air" that it'll kickstart your progress again. If it doesn't, do a short deload, then ramp back up using the new rep scheme.

The deadlift sounds like more of a CNS thing to me, though. When I'm really maxed out on the deadlift CNS-wise, my normal weight seems like it weighs fifty pounds more. This is gonna sound like heresy, but I'm a little inclined to suggest that you deload the deadlift, then replace powercleans with speed deadlifts for a while, while you work back up to your old deadlift PR. It's just a suggestion, and you don't have to take it, so see what others have to say first.

-S.

[nisora33]

Resetting is rather annoying.)

Yes, resetting can feel a lot like defeat, can't it? And I don't like that feeling--tends to piss me off and frustrate my progress.

[Mr.City]

Thanks for the advice, Stacey. I've been video taping my presses and deadlifts. I have this weird habit of not having an even grip no matter what I do. My deadlift warm ups show me with a slightly rounded back on my warm up sets. Could this have anything to do with the stall?

Also, could my deadlift warmup scheme be affecting me negatively? It's like this:

135x5
225x3
275x1
315x1

[nisora33]

Thanks for the advice, Stacey. I've been video taping my presses and deadlifts. I have this weird habit of not having an even grip no matter what I do. My deadlift warm ups show me with a slightly rounded back on my warm up sets. Could this have anything to do with the stall?

How rounded? Upper back or lower, or both?

Besides that, I think that the mental pressure you're applying to yourself is crippling your ability to lift. This is coming from someone who know this all too well