Sudden and surprising stall on squats

[marcf]

I'm 34 years old, 6'1" and 227 pounds. I eat everything in sight, and I sleep 8-9 hours a night.

I'm on my 11th week of linear progression, and I hit a sudden and surprising stall on my squat. I'm not sure if it's time to reset, or if something has broken down in terms of my technique. I rest about 5 to 7 minutes in between my work sets.

Last week, I did my progression as usual on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 245, 250 and 255 pounds, respectively. It felt heavy as hell to me, but in this video I posted in the SS coaches forum, the bar seemed to be moving fast enough that another 5 pounds wouldn't have been a problem.

On Monday, I went up to 260 pounds, business as usual. However, they felt about 50 pounds heavier than 255 did during my previous work out. I was only able to complete 3 sets of 3. Today, after my warmup sets, I stayed at 260 pounds and did a single where it still felt incredibly heavy. I rested and attempted another set, did two reps and hurt my adductors badly.

I wanted to attribute this to either a lack of proper recovery between workouts and work sets, but all my other lifts are still progression just fine. I'm left to assume that something is happening with my technique.

Do I do my press movements and deadlift on my following workout and give the squat a break, or deload the squat?

[Mark Rippetoe]

The First Three Questions | Mark Rippetoe

[Brodie Butland]

Could just be a bad day that happens to all of us, or it might be time to add a light day on Wednesday.

But I would also rest longer between sets. Time it with a stopwatch. 7 min minimum.

[marcf]

Could just be a bad day that happens to all of us, or it might be time to add a light day on Wednesday.

But I would also rest longer between sets. Time it with a stopwatch. 7 min minimum.

Thank you, sir. I'll rest longer and see what happens. I was just surprised that 255 moved so well, then suddenly I hit 260 like a brick wall.

[marcf]

The First Three Questions | Mark Rippetoe

Just read that, but I think I addressed those issues in my post. I'm eating about 3500-3800 calories a day (I'm 227 at 25% bodyfat, so I don't want to overdo it), sleeping a minimum of 8 hours a night, and resting 5-7 minutes (sometimes up to 10 if someone/something is distracting me in the gym). I'd been making 5 pound jumps, and 255 moved well enough that it's surprising to me that 260 is giving me a hard time. Moreover, every single one of my other lifts is progressing just fine, so I'm wondering if a breakdown in my technique is the issue, rather than recovery.

Maybe Brodie is right and that I'm just having a bad day or week.

[SteveL]

Just read that, but I think I addressed those issues in my post. I'm eating about 3500-3800 calories a day (I'm 227 at 25% bodyfat, so I don't want to overdo it), sleeping a minimum of 8 hours a night, and resting 5-7 minutes (sometimes up to 10 if someone/something is distracting me in the gym). I'd been making 5 pound jumps, and 255 moved well enough that it's surprising to me that 260 is giving me a hard time. Moreover, every single one of my other lifts is progressing just fine, so I'm wondering if a breakdown in my technique is the issue, rather than recovery.

Maybe Brodie is right and that I'm just having a bad day or week.

A couple of weeks back I had this issue where the 5lb jump seemed like 30. I couldn't do it. But the next work out 3 days later went great. Made more progress over the next two work outs and then stalled twice. So I am doing my second big reset starting tomorrow on squat and BP. I rest 8 minutes between sets. I find less than that and I can't make the 5 reps and more than that I seemed to get to cooled off.

[marcf]

Glad to know it's normal. I felt like I could move the weight today, except I ran into another problem: my shorts ripped while squatting and I didn't have spare shorts or pants and didn't finish my workout. Goddammit. It was either show the world my ass with each squat, or spare the gym members and take another day to recover.