Anna, do you ever get the feeling that you’re in a constant cycle of peaking, recovering from the peaking, and then peaking again?
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I’m sorry, but I don’t believe you. 
But I should’ve been more clear.
Not: How’s your stress level because of school now?
But: How’s your stress level given that you’re in graduate school now?
The distinction is subtle, but important.
But really my point is this: Be aware of your stress levels.
I’m often unaware that mine are climbing, but everything starts getting harder and harder when it is.
And then stuff like this happens:
but then I got my head on straight, I changed my training, I crushed an impossible program, and set I back-to-back-to-back-to… squat PRs over the course of just a few weeks.
So maybe consider a change.
And just go a little easier on yourself.
Please.
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Hey, I’m not as qualified as @SvenG and @T3hPwnisher because they keep up with your log and have way more experience but the times I’ve skimmed through your log, you train a lot with the barbell lifts and have some thoughts. Fair warning: You should probably take it all with a grain of salt but I think it could be somewhat beneficial
First off, you are super strong! Just to echo what has already been said, have you considered doing something in the opposite direction? For example 5/3/1 Bronson Challenge or the prowler challenge allows you at push hard on the barbell lifts but have another goal to chase (bodyweight work or prowler work). Even something like the 10,000 swing KB challenge would be super beneficial or setting some sort of marathon goal. I can relate to your work ethic and want to do the best all the time. For me, doing something completely different allows me to chase that goal instead of doing true training cycles where the end goal is a bigger 1rm or more reps. The drastic change just works better for me and allows me to explore different modalities of movement.
Also, doing something completely different allows you to “not know you suck” (not saying you suck, just an expression). This is what I’ve heard Jim Wendler say when giving his reasoning for super light training maxes. If you enter a time with a lot of stress, you performance can suffer when compared to pre-stress performance but if you are chasing something new, there’s no baseline and only room for growth!
Just some thoughts but the biggest thing is you can always do the powerlifts but you have limited time to do other stuff. One 6 week cycle is nothing in a training career but can make all the difference for your mental approach. Sometimes having a drastic change in the opposite direction is what you need. In whatever approach you take, you will kill it!
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You got a comp lined up?
Not really, I only peak once per year. I used to do it more often, but haven’t the past few years. The SBS one I’m running right now is not peaking
I’m not really sure
I don’t really know what to change to
@freshyfresh suggested a new goal or de-emphasising the big three. That’s what I did over the summer and it put me where I am now despite making some gains in the other lifts and gaining weight. When I step away from squat and deadlift, I get worse and it doesn’t seem temporary like others report
I will say that I am eating slightly less (better discipline), but my weight stabilised at a higher level than it used to and I’m trying to get rid of the fluff (again, from summer)
@alex_uk i don’t compete. It is expensive and inconvenient. I do a yearly testing day
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I was curious. From an outsider perspective, it’s what it appears like.
I guess I don’t know what “too often” is.
I don’t think once a year is unreasonable. My frustration is that I’m not improving/am getting worse on every metric for squats
If it where me, I’d do something like a BW murph every, Brian Alsruhes EDC program, weight vest and prowler work, or, if I had to have barbell work, some 5/3/1 challenge where the goal isn’t a barbell number.
The point is to move away from the big 3 and any emotional attachment to them for a period. Sure they are a good preformance metric but since you don’t compete and only use them to test, there are 1,000 other ways to still train awesome and sometimes we need to explore those ways!
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I understand that. And from my perspective, this is a result of peaking and then recovering from the peak before peaking again. And primarily because the time spent recovering is typically time spent not doing the things that are typical from a recovery perspective.
Once a year was about how often I competed in powerlifting when I did it, and even then I didn’t really peak for it.
What should I be doing? Over the summer, I ate in a nice surplus, gained weight, had minimal outside stress, trained differently and even got weekly massages. It just led to where I am now.
This is very difficult. I don’t feel fulfilled even if other things improve
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Did you eat in an intentional surplus, or did you accidentally exceed your allotment due to availability of yummy food?
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Having been there with wrestling and other sports, that’s why it’s so important to be able to break that cycle. You should feel fulfilled with stuff outside of the especially considering you aren’t making a living from lifting and influencing. I struggle with it too but I’m to the point where I give it my all and what happens happens but I’m fine with that
My BJJ coach always told me “This sport will be here forever and you probably won’t be remembered in it. Go do other cool shit”
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I have no real advice. But I did want to say touch-n-go mat pulls can be pretty fun to work on. Deadlift-adjacent.
When I did them I was doing it with sets of 5 and linear-progression-ish. Two sets of 5: on set of 5, then remove ~10% and do another set of 5. Each session add some weight and follow the same pattern. Once you hit your 5RM on that first set, drop to 60-70% and start over again. It’s Pavel’s Power to the People routine, at least in spirit.
May be a fun break and shouldn’t hurt your deadlift.
Those sound like excuses, you train for it and you’re good at it, find a local comp and get involved, I’m sure this forum would crowd fund a comp for you!
But if you’re not ever going to compete then why on earth would you allow the technical definitions of a niche sport control not just your training, but your diet (I’m sure I’ve heard you talk about staying in weight classes) and have a outsized impact on your overall mentality?
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It was intentional.
That’s not feasible at my gym (no spare mats, always crowded)
I hate that it has less racks and platforms than my previous uni’s gym despite having a larger area and having to serve >5x the number of students
I suppose it is. I don’t like competing against others (everything else in life is a competition). I like competing against myself and I stick to powerlifting because I like the lifts and there are clear guidelines.
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Week 13: day 5 (yesterday)
Bike: 10min easy
Leg extensions:4x5-85lbs, 4x5-90lbs, 2x5-95lbs, all done EMOM
Rope pull machine: 10min easy
Abductor machine-5x10-75lbs, EMOM
Adductor machine: 5x8-45lb, EMOM
Conditioning: 5x(10 devils press-22.5lb dbs+ 20alt body weight lunges)
- felt horrid going in but much better once workout started, got HR up and nice pump, sometimes cardio just feels nice
My goodness, I completely missed this period of your log.
I was upset for most of it because I gained weight much faster than I wanted. Overshot by 3lbs.
The plan was a steady 1lb/month, but ended up doubling that
Why did you have a plan to limit growth?