Sudden loss of upper body strength

[Newbie68]

Cliff notes: I had a short period of sporadic workouts for about a month. Coming back in at low volume, and have lost about 90 lbs of off my bench...seems to continue to decline. Left arm may be dragging; don't think it has before. Squats/DL's not impacted. No pain. What the heck?

Anyone experience this or know what the cause might be? Anything to do other than run a low volume LP with weight dialed way down?

Longer version:

49 m, 5'11", 207 lbs

About 6 weeks ago, worked up to a test week. Did a single at 305. 5rm was somewhere in the 250's. Had tapered volume for 3 weeks leading into that.

Week 1: Next week was a deload week: 2 or 3 work sets as opposed to my usual 5...very slight deload. Maybe benched 225 x 5, or 230 x5

Week 2: Out of town, couldn't lift

Week 3: repeated week 1

Week 4: Out of town, couldn't lift

So sporadic and low volume lifting for a month after test week. So I started back lighter:

Week 1, Day 1: BP: 215 x 5 reps x 3 sets. It felt a little bit heavier than usual, but nothing crazy.

Day 2: OHP....100lbs? 6 reps x 3 sets

Day 3: BP: warming up with 185: wth? only got 3 reps, and holy hell, that last one was a near thing! Let me get my head on straight and do that weight again. 185 x 2. ?!?! Believe I dropped the weight to 165 and did 3 sets of 5

Week 2, Day 1: Let me take it down again and work up...this will move quickly. 155 x 5 reps x 3 sets. RPE 9.5 on the last two sets. Almost didn't get it. Left arm lagging?

Day 2: OHP: 100 lbs: 5 reps x 3 sets. Left arm lagging? harder than last weeks sets of 6 reps

Day 3: BP 160 x 5 reps x 3 sets. RPE 9.5 on the last 2 sets. Left arm lagging?

Also did chin ups in there, and I think I'm going up crooked, again with the left side weaker.


I have no idea what's going on. Squats and DL's don't seem impacted. I have no pain,and haven't had any DOM's during this time.

Anyone run into this? Thoughts on what it could be? Do I need to see a doctor? If not, how long do I keep doing this?

Can't be form...my form has always been decent, and if form was the issue, I'd see a slight drop...not 90 lbs.

[Chebass88]

Both the bench press and press need to be trained regularly, otherwise strength drops off. You'll detrain on the squat and deadlift also, but it takes a little longer to lose a proportional amount of strength. Curling strength falls off even quicker than the press. So, basically, the first four weeks after you tested your max, you did four sets total, at a submaximal weight. The next two weeks were also low volume and intensity, likely with some mental doubts thrown in, which will always negatively impact lifts, especially upper body lifts. Nine total weeks of reduced volume will definitely cause a drop in strength.

Things that might help you:
1. Find a way to bench so that you can minimized losses when you have to travel. When I train the bench regularly, I bench once per week, usually on Sundays. With some exceptions, most of my work travel begins on Mondays and ends on Fridays, leaving Saturdays for deadlifts and Sunday for the bench.

2. If you're in a position where you cannot bench 2X/week with a 3x5 set & rep scheme, you might want to change to something that can be done less frequently, while not losing too much. There are a variety of set & rep schemes which might work - personally, doing 16-24 reps at ~80% 1RM in doubles and triples, done once per week. It isn't the standard Starting Strength progression, but it works for me.

3. Take video of your lifts / chins. Either you are crooked or you aren't. If you are - work to rectify it, even if you have to see a doctor about it. If you aren't, it is just a perceived issue, and some hard training should take care of it.

[Tom K]

Eating? Stress? Sleep?

[Mark D]

Like Chebass88 said, try to find some way to work the upper body when you can't lift. Staying at a hotel with a gym? Use dumb bells or machines if they have them. Failing all else do some push-ups. You may not improve like you would with barbells, but you'll prevent going backward.

[marcf]

Do you need to see a doctor? Probably not, unless you wanna get your testosterone levels checked. At your age, you detrained severely taking that month off. Technically, you became detrained over the course of almost two months because you tapered into your testing week.

The one week you deloaded and the other week where you did the same workouts did nothing to retain your strength.

Like Chebass said, upper body needs a lot of work in terms of volume and frequency.

I wouldn't freak out. Your strength will come back. Basically, you just didn't train upper body for over a month, and when you came back with your much lower strength/1RM, you probably started somewhere around 80% for 3x5 and didn't recover enough for your next workout, which is why you failed easy reps for easy weight.

[Newbie68]

I appreciate all of the feedback. Will try not to worry about it and continue an LP. Many thanks!