I’ve been doing your version of Poliquin clusters for about a month (following your rendition of the 1-6 method). Using the method on the big 3 compound lifts, twice weekly, divided into squats/benchpress and deadlift/bench days. Applying 2-3 cluster sets with great improvement in strength (as well as bodyweight). The weights lifted increase almost every workout! I supplement with creatine, beta-alanine, hydrolyzed whey/cyclic dextrin periworkout and omega-3.
That said, I am experiencing longer recovery periods post workout, which I would like to ask about here. I assume this is to be expected.
Have added a magnesium supplement, which is too early to evaluate. Sleep is adequate but not perfect, which is a work in progress. Dietwise about 3500 cals fairly clean, without being exact on macros. Added additional proteinshakes.
Would a shift to Miller clusters benefit recovery? Other strategies to consider? Adding: I realize I may be emphasizing the negatives in every lift, as a way of controlling the weight, but a negative for 3 seconds is not that much.
This is certainly not meant to be dismissive, but if you’re doing 4-6 heavy cluster sets for each of the big lifts weekly and increasing your weight lifted as frequently as twice a week, I’d be more inclined to learn from whatever you’re doing to recover rather than deign to teach you something new!
Is it maybe more likely you’re experiencing more neurological fatigue because you have increased weight every session while accumulating a lot of high-percentage reps?
I’d probably, personally, think about a lower-percentage routine for a couple weeks; more like a deload. Shake off some of that fatigue and then get back into the heavier stuff. I look forward to the expert opinion, though!
Adding an edit for context: I find about 3 weeks is what I can do on something really heavy/ neurologically intensive. CT had an absolutely genius program on his own site awhile ago called “Jacked Athlete 31” that seemed to lean into this: it was 3 weeks of performance training, followed by a week of more or less bodybuilding, before another 3 weeks of a different performance method/ focus. That always seemed like a really smart way to extend an intense training cycle to me.
Well it sounds like typical side effects from heavy cluster \1-6 sets…trainforpain sounds about right…its very hard on nervious system…maybe you should switch to b.o.s.s system by ct for while …or wait till you hit 6 wk…tom sheppard has great article on clusters on elitefts as well…