Training cycle woes and patterns - Lifts always regress by 6-7 weeks before I reach PRs

[thoradicus]

Age:25
Height: 6ft 1
Weight:235lbs

Looking at my past training history, I notice that I can only train for 6-7 weeks at most before crashing hard on my lifts. This has been preventing me from sustained progression because I would often regress before my supposed "PR week".

For example on the Bridge, the first 5-6 weeks went quite smoothly, progressing 2.5-5kg a week but my e1rms immediately dropped 30-40% for week 7 without any clear reason. And I would need 2-3 weeks to get back on my feet again.

In another example, I barely completed 2 4 week cycles of Nuckol's bench program, but not before reducing the volume/intensity of my sets to barely complete my 2nd cycle. I completely crashed afterwards and have struggled since.

Recently I tried doing the 12 week strength program by BBM and Im currently on Week 9 though my lifts have been trapped in a hole since week 6 now. I did 185kgx1 @ 8 and 190kgx1 for my squat and deadlift on week 6 respectively, and now I barely managed to do 140x1 @ 8. I think I drastically regressed because the tapering was too gradual (Im still doing 4s sets across on Week 10 out of 12)


So my thinking is that I can only tolerate 3, at most 4 weeks of highish volume before needing to rapidly taper for my training cycle or else I will regress. I cant slowly, to borrow a phrase from SS, run down the rep range. I have to immediately go from 5s for my volume phase to singles in order to prevent regression in my lifts for example.

With this in mind, any thoughts on what sort of programming is most optimal for my situation moving forward? Kind of at a loss here.

[nealstar]

Have you looked at any RTS stuff about "Time-to-Peak?" Not universally praised on this forum, but may resonate with you.

[ChrisMcCarthy1979]

Stuff that peaks you in that amount of time would seem to be optimal...I suspect that quite a bit more background info is needed to make a more sensible comment however...

[Hanley]

Age:25
Height: 6ft 1
Weight:235lbs

Looking at my past training history, I notice that I can only train for 6-7 weeks at most before crashing hard on my lifts. This has been preventing me from sustained progression because I would often regress before my supposed "PR week".

For example on the Bridge, the first 5-6 weeks went quite smoothly, progressing 2.5-5kg a week but my e1rms immediately dropped 30-40% for week 7 without any clear reason. And I would need 2-3 weeks to get back on my feet again.

In another example, I barely completed 2 4 week cycles of Nuckol's bench program, but not before reducing the volume/intensity of my sets to barely complete my 2nd cycle. I completely crashed afterwards and have struggled since.

Recently I tried doing the 12 week strength program by BBM and Im currently on Week 9 though my lifts have been trapped in a hole since week 6 now. I did 185kgx1 @ 8 and 190kgx1 for my squat and deadlift on week 6 respectively, and now I barely managed to do 140x1 @ 8. I think I drastically regressed because the tapering was too gradual (Im still doing 4s sets across on Week 10 out of 12)


So my thinking is that I can only tolerate 3, at most 4 weeks of highish volume before needing to rapidly taper for my training cycle or else I will regress. I cant slowly, to borrow a phrase from SS, run down the rep range. I have to immediately go from 5s for my volume phase to singles in order to prevent regression in my lifts for example.

With this in mind, any thoughts on what sort of programming is most optimal for my situation moving forward? Kind of at a loss here.

Perhaps you're just very sensitive to particular relative intensities?

For me...shit goes off the rails if I push volume too hard over ~82%.

I'd re-conceptualize the notion of some sort of catastrophic "crash" though. Just call it "transiently suppressed e1RM" and work through it. It happens to fucking everyone. I'm currently pulling out of a period of transiently suppressed e1RM and I'm reminded for about the 50th time that this is a long-term game.

[Testiclaw]

Training is built around steady, consistent work, then breakthroughs, then regressions back to the mean.

The trick is to slowly increase your mean.

I think you've just learned something valuable about how you respond to training.

[mgil]

I think you've just learned something valuable about how you respond to training.

Yeah.

Just compare the program Rx to your crash and burn and use those correlations to avoid bad stimulus. Also, look back 1-2 weeks for what the likely issue is.

[thoradicus]

Perhaps you're just very sensitive to particular relative intensities?

For me...shit goes off the rails if I push volume too hard over ~82%.

I'd re-conceptualize the notion of some sort of catastrophic "crash" though. Just call it "transiently suppressed e1RM" and work through it. It happens to fucking everyone. I'm currently pulling out of a period of transiently suppressed e1RM and I'm reminded for about the 50th time that this is a long-term game.

Ive thought of that before, but while doing my 12WS, I started regressing while still doing 70-75% volume, which seems too low to make sense. The weird thing is that the best way to get my "transiently suppressed e1RM" up and running is through rerunning LP, so yea...

[Hanley]

I started regressing while still doing 70-75% volume

Can you link to a log? Intrigued now.

[platypus]

@thoradicus have you tried preemptively taking deload weeks?

[KyleSchuant]

Sounds like your stress is exceeding your recovery.

Are there stresses outside the gym?
How is your sleep?
Your food?

You don't have to tell us if it's personal stuff. But it's worth thinking on.

[thoradicus]

I started regressing while still doing 70-75% volume

Can you link to a log? Intrigued now.

Not really, but this is my squat week on Week 3-5 before things started going off the rails:

For reference my alltime PR is 220kg, but that was 2-3 years ago. Never been able to get past it since


Week 3

SQ 160x1 @ 6ish 170x1 @ 7 175x1 @ 8 140x5x3 (-20%)

2ct SQ 100x4 @ 8 , 110x4 @ 9, 105x4x2

Tempo 3-0-3 Leg Press 80x10x3

Week 4

Squat 185x1 @ 8, 147.5x4x4 (-20%), 135x4

2ct SQ 100x4 @ 7, 120x4 @ 9, 110x4 @ 8,9

Tempo 3-0-3 Leg Press 80x10 @ 8, 100x10 @ 9,9


Week 5

Squat
180x1 @ 7ish
190x1 @ 8
155x4x2 @ 8, 8.5 (-18%)
145x4x3 @ 8,8,9

5-3-0 Tempo Leg Press

50x10 @ 7
60x10 @ 8
70x10@ 9
65x10 @ 8,9

And it has been downhill since. Now on Week 9 I barely managed 140x1 @ 8


I even kinda modified the Rx a bit to skew towards lower stress. E.g. I did leg presses to ease back fatigue and further deloaded my backoff sets. On Week 5 I didnt do paused squatting because by then I sensed something was wrong

Sounds like your stress is exceeding your recovery.

Are there stresses outside the gym?
How is your sleep?
Your food?

You don't have to tell us if it's personal stuff. But it's worth thinking on.

Quite good actually. There are a few fluctuations here and there but nothing I shouldnt be able to handle

[Stoop]

Could you be drastically over-shooting your RPE's for multiple micro-cycles? Is your work capacity at a level where you can do all the volume without needing 5 minute breaks between all of you sets? If your breaks are long maybe your 4x5@6,7,8,8 is actually 4x5@.7,8,9,9. I don't think this is likely, or could even be the only explanation - but maybe a participating factor.

The only drop in performance I've had that have been that dramatic are 1) massive life stress 2) doing advanced novice at the end of SS for OHP.

If this happened to me and I couldn't reliably connect it to anything other than "that's just the way my body is," I would just divide my program into high stress weeks - which would be similar in volume at relative intensity to the 5-6 weeks you're doing now - and low stress weeks, which I'd use more frequently to try to extend the progress so you can peak when you want to. Something like two high stress to one low stress. Just a thought.

[thoradicus]

Could you be drastically over-shooting your RPE's for multiple micro-cycles? Is your work capacity at a level where you can do all the volume without needing 5 minute breaks between all of you sets? If your breaks are long maybe your 4x5@6,7,8,8 is actually 4x5@.7,8,9,9. I don't think this is likely, or could even be the only explanation - but maybe a participating factor.

The only drop in performance I've had that have been that dramatic are 1) massive life stress 2) doing advanced novice at the end of SS for OHP.

If this happened to me and I couldn't reliably connect it to anything other than "that's just the way my body is," I would just divide my program into high stress weeks - which would be similar in volume at relative intensity to the 5-6 weeks you're doing now - and low stress weeks, which I'd use more frequently to try to extend the progress so you can peak when you want to. Something like two high stress to one low stress. Just a thought.

My work capacity seems ok. I mainly do 5 mins because Jordan asks for it in his programs. Definitely can't do 3 min rest on 8s though.

That's a good idea, been thinking of doing that, now I'm just trying to salvage my current training cycle atm.