I have been an on and off lifter for the past 20 years (38yo). Before shoulder surgery (rotator cuff) in November of 2017, I had been doing the core 5/3/1 routine (minus shoulder press) for about a year with great results.
Now that I am back from shoulder surgery and beginning to hit it hard again, i am finding that the main core set is taking it’s toll on me, specifically with deadlifts and squats. I like to think that I push myself pretty hard but after the main set, I am pretty worthless when attempting my accessories and for an hour after my workout, I feel like it takes a lot of effort just to stand and keep my head up. Anyone else experience this or am I just getting old?
For reference, I am 5’8", 195 lbs. My latest 5/5/5+ with squats was 320 for 20, and 370 for 15 on deadlifts.
I hate all this talk about “Destroying the CNS”. Your CNS can get destroyed from spinal injury, ALS, getting shot in the head, etc, not AMRAP squats/deadlifts
It sounds more like 15-20 reps are just building up fatigue.
Try and not push the 5+ weeks so much. Stick to just going 5 over or so or start pausing them to make them harder, slow eccentrics, etc. If you’re getting this burnt out it’s probably because you’re pushing too hard for too long. You could also try and do 3/5/1 where you amrap the 3 and 1 weeks and keep the 5s week at 5 reps and kill accessories more. Obviously the program is working well as is if you’ve been doing it a year and still hitting 20 and 15 reps on your main lift, so who cares about the accessories as much right now?