Stress, depression, and squats

[Adam Stevens]

How much of an effect can stress and depression have on lifting performance? Lately I’ve been wrestling with a lot of stress from work (graduate school - advisor dynamics and graduation timeline are rocky), generally feeling depressed about life, and I’m simultaneously struggling with my squats. Generally, I feel fine during warm-up and then fail very early with my work weight. My sleep and diet are OK, I think, ~8hr/night and ~3000kcal/day and >= 200g protein.

This started when I was squatting 245 on my way back to 255 after a reset, then for several workouts in a row I couldn’t complete squat sets. I’d get in the hole, wouldn’t have the drive to stand back up after grinding the first two reps, and I’d end up leaving it on the pins. When this happens the weight feels much “heavier” than usual, too. Missing a rep would start a vicious cycle, eating into my confidence. When it was at its worst, I couldn’t get a set of 5 at 185.

It’s only my squat that’s significantly affected, my other lifts are down after getting sick recently, but only squats have this issue with lack of drive and feelings of exhaustion. Squats have always been the most mentally and physically challenging for me, for what it’s worth.

For now I’ve taken a big reset on squats to 195 and am working my way back up. Maybe I’m just being a sissy, but some combination of mental/physical factors seems off. Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks,
Greg

Stats:
27 y/o
6' 1"
BW: 212 (started LP at 175)
BF%: Unsure, starting to feel fluffy, waist ~38" at navel
Lifts: current (PR), all in pounds
DL: 280 (305) x 5
Squat: 205 (255) x 5 x 3, ~8 min rest b/w work sets
Bench: 200 (211) x 5 x 3
Press: 117.5 (119) x 5 x 3
P. clean: 126 x 3 x 5

[Karl Schudt]

Yes, stress and depression can negatively impact your lifting. I wonder how your squat form looks, though.

Note that you have to be a verified user to get a form check here.

[Adam Stevens]

Thanks. I'll get verified and return.

[AndrewLewis]

Depression and stress have a massive acute influence on your training.

Depending on how bad the depression is, you need to handle it in some capacity. If it's not getting better and you don't foresee any big changes in your life, you need to make changes in your life to deal with it. That might be seeing a therapist, getting on anti-depressants, or cutting certain things out of your life (shit friends, unnecessary hobbies, etc), but you need to do something if you're not getting better and it's affecting your lifting.

[AndrewLewis]

As Karl alluded to, the form is going to matter a lot more though. You might just have intermittent depression as all humans do, and it's not that bad. I don't know.