Getting Weaker And Pissed Off

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

Hi.

For the past nearly two months I have been getting weaker. I don’t know why. I have had to reset my lifts several times, even switch programs to one with fewer sets and more variation to stop the CNS burning out etc. I just keep regressing.

  • I don’t train to failure.
  • I get as much sleep as I possibly can (about 8 hours per night)
  • I eat a lot, including protein. I don’t want to eat more because I dont want to get fat.

I do full body workouts. Usually 1 leg exercise, 1 push, and 1 pull.
For some reason I always feel like I lack energy. I have taken a week off recently, but it hasn’t helped.

I am very angry as you can imagine. I feel like I am just wasting my time while the rest of the world progresses and like an idiot I am stagnating and regressing. It’s laughable.

What the hell do I do? I don’t want to take another week off, or reset my lifts again, because neither has worked and I don’t want to waste anymore time. Just thinking about where I could have been by now makes me furious.

Please help. Thanks.

2

Post your diet.

3

post your workout too. could be overtraining. could be undertraining. could be bad exercise choice.

4

I follow an A/B split.

Workout A:
Back Squat 3 x 5-8
Flat Bench 3 x 6-10
Barbell Row 3 x 6-10

Workout B:
Deadlift 1 x 6-10
Military Press 3 x 6-10
Pullups 3 x 6-10

Weekly breakdown:

Week 1:
Tuesday - A
Friday - B
Sunday - A

Week 2:
Tuesday - B
Friday - A
Sunday - B

Diet varies. I try to east as clean as possible. It looks something like this:

Breakfast: Protein shake, oatmeal with some berries, cottage cheese, maybe some dark bread.

School Lunch: Usually some protein with potatoes. I try to limit my starchy carbs so I pile on the salad (with some mayo… so sue me) and take alot of meats and some milk too.

When I Get Home: Meat, vegetables and perhaps some rye bread or a cracker (no butter). A glass of milk or two on the side.

[Post-workout drink at this point]

After workout Meal: More Meat, some cottage cheese, veggies and some carbs (sweet potatoes or dark bread).

Evening meal (hour or two before bed): Cottage cheese and a glass of milk.

It may look small on paper but the portions are large. I may sneak in a small date cake because they are tasty.

5

Eat more

6

Do you have any other problems other then getting weaker on your lifts? Could be something that has nothing to do with diet or exercise.

7

Have you tried taking Spike or pounding a cup of coffee before a workout? Maybe you just need a little caffeine pick me up.

8

It sounds like you’re over-trained. Sometimes, you need to take two weeks off in order to recover fully from fatigue. After I take time off (I usually do a 5x5), I set my weights a lot lower and try to work up to my 5-rep PRs in three to five weeks. Usually, I’m fully recovered by then.

It also looks like you’re deadlifting twice a week. The deadlift is an awesome exercise, but it’s a CNS killer, so I’d suggest that you only do it once a week. GMs are a great substitute, if you want to avoid deadlifting so often.

9

Ok. I will take days off until I am rearing to go to the gym again. Probably over a week at this point haha. Yeah I have noticed I practically never look forward to workouts anymore. Also my sex drive is very low. So I think I am overtrained.

10

Man there is no overtraining just under eating. How much do you weigh?

you wrote:
“- I eat a lot, including protein. I don’t want to eat more because I dont want to get fat.”

So exactly how much protein are you consuming??? I have seen people say they eat a lot and when we tally the totals up they are barely breaking the 1.1g of protein.

11

[quote]sawadeekrob wrote:
Man there is no overtraining just under eating. How much do you weigh?

you wrote:
“- I eat a lot, including protein. I don’t want to eat more because I dont want to get fat.”

So exactly how much protein are you consuming??? I have seen people say they eat a lot and when we tally the totals up they are barely breaking the 1.1g of protein.
[/quote]

Hmmm… so should I take a week off or just eat more? Help.

12

Also, is my workout routine good? Could it be that my body can’t recover from full body workouts 3x a week? If so, I was thinking of doing a push/pull split. Ideas?

P.S
I weigh about 200lbs. I guess I could always eat more protein (if nothing else, add a shake to each meal).

[HYOOGE EDIT]: Yep, after reading around and thinking about my general stress levels (grades at school have actually been slipping because it’s getting rough, finantial stress also), I’m going to go with a Push/Pull workout.

I hate switching routines. I have been paralysed by analysis for nearly a year. I think I also have pretty poor recovery. I started Rippetoes at one point, believ it or not, but I burned out in 3 weeks. So I thought it might be because of the lack of rep variation or something. Anyway, I know think that a Push/Pull split (with 3-4 days of rest for each muscle group) would work better.

Not that I am not looking for a ‘magic bullet’. I know that there is no magic program. Instead this is a question from recovery. I also know that my body doesn’t handle failure training very well (a problem on the Rippetoes was that I was very quickly struggling with adding weight to the bar and was dipping into failure).

So I’ve talked for long enough. This is what I had in mind. Basic. To the point. Something I can progress from for a long time without having to change again.

Push:
Bench
Front Squat
Military Press

Pull:
DL variation (what would be best here? SL maybe?)
Rows
Pullups

All done with 3 x 5-10. Maybe 3 x 5-8. I don’t think it matters. I think I should just add weight when I feel like I should, and add reps when I feel it would be better.

I would alternate this Monday-Wednesday-Friday. Each muscle would thus get hit 3x every TWO weeks (and not ONE week).

Inputs would be appreciated.

P.S
I know I am probably getting on a lot of people’s nerves with these posts. I am sorry. I feel like I am so close to finding a way to progress but I just can’t nail down a proper balance of frequency and recovery.

13

Have you considered changing up the rep/set scheme? If you only train with 3 sets using progressive overload as the only means of increasing volume, you might be too adapted.

14

WTF is up with over training and fullbody owrkouts people talk about… I do a full body workout 5x a week with 2 days rest(saturday and sunday) I dont even eat a lot, maybe 3.5k calories, 8 or less hours of sleep. I do alot more workouts than that, I normally do this everyday:

Upper Body
Pullups: as many until failure
DB flat: 3 X 6-10
DB rows:3 X 6-10
Skull Crushers: 2 X 8
Concentration Curls: 3 X 8
Some kind of fore arm workout I made: 2 X 15

Lower Body
Back Squats: 3 X 8
Leg extensions: 3 X 8
DL: 3 X 8
Leg pulls(when your on your stomach): 3 X 8

Thats about it and try for 5x per weak and have made pretty good gains in size and strength. I know people are going to say its shit, but it works for me.

15

did you try taking a week or two off?

16

[quote]rander wrote:
did you try taking a week or two off?[/quote]

he clearly already said that…

17

[quote]codypt wrote:
WTF is up with over training and fullbody owrkouts people talk about… I do a full body workout 5x a week with 2 days rest(saturday and sunday) I dont even eat a lot, maybe 3.5k calories, 8 or less hours of sleep. I do alot more workouts than that, I normally do this everyday:

Upper Body
Pullups: as many until failure
DB flat: 3 X 6-10
DB rows:3 X 6-10
Skull Crushers: 2 X 8
Concentration Curls: 3 X 8
Some kind of fore arm workout I made: 2 X 15

Lower Body
Back Squats: 3 X 8
Leg extensions: 3 X 8
DL: 3 X 8
Leg pulls(when your on your stomach): 3 X 8

Thats about it and try for 5x per weak and have made pretty good gains in size and strength. I know people are going to say its shit, but it works for me.[/quote]

It’s probably working because you’re young - keep at it, but just remember that fact…

18

OP - keep track of your carbs and increase them until you feel better. Instead of a week off, I’d first try a pigout weekend - go to a buffet, and eat tons of meat and potatoes. Eat a whole pizza. Eat pancakes and bacon. Drink a session beer like Guinness.

If that makes you feel better, try incorporating one “refeed” day per week.

19

that sounds like breakfast to me.

20

[quote]codypt wrote:
WTF is up with over training and fullbody owrkouts people talk about… I do a full body workout 5x a week with 2 days rest(saturday and sunday) I dont even eat a lot, maybe 3.5k calories, 8 or less hours of sleep. I do alot more workouts than that, I normally do this everyday:

Upper Body
Pullups: as many until failure
DB flat: 3 X 6-10
DB rows:3 X 6-10
Skull Crushers: 2 X 8
Concentration Curls: 3 X 8
Some kind of fore arm workout I made: 2 X 15

Lower Body
Back Squats: 3 X 8
Leg extensions: 3 X 8
DL: 3 X 8
Leg pulls(when your on your stomach): 3 X 8

Thats about it and try for 5x per weak and have made pretty good gains in size and strength. I know people are going to say its shit, but it works for me.[/quote]

That’s great if it’s working for you.

However I am not you. I don’t have the same recovery capabilities as you do. If I trained full-body 5x a week I would kill myself.