Hey guys im having trouble with my squats. I can hit 385 for a 1 rep max.
But the last couple of legs day i feel really weak and struggle with 245 and it feels like my worksets. Light weights feel extremely heavy. I sleep enoughtl and eat enought. I do 6x5 or ill or 6x3. And 6x 10. One day heavy one day light. Why do light weight feel so heavy. I dont understand.
Any help appreciated
Take a break maybe? How consistently have you been progressing in weight without having a deload week? That’s really whats hurt me in the past as well. I’ll go 3-4 months straight adding weight and intensity and then I’ll burn myself out and never give my body a chance to rest and recover. Just recently I hit a 400 lbs back squat after doing daily squats for about 3 weeks straight. After I did that I still tried to deadlift heavy once I got off and just recently went back to doing 3 workouts a week and 325 for 3 on the squat felt heavy as shit to me. A reason I believed I needed some time off to come back strong. So maybe give yourself a complete week off or just deload and hit reps at 50% and 60% of your max. But it sounds like even thats heavy for you right now.
Ever since I started powerlifting. I’ve been going 5 rep max on my compounds. Twice a week. Just recently I started adding volume to my training so I can recover faster. I will take a week of from squats.( was squatting 3 times a week for. The past 3 weeks) then deload by half and work from there I hope it helps. I’m not in any structured program I just go by how my body feels. I’m making linear progression. But lately I’ve been stalling a lot due to my worksets feeling like mazes. Any mote tips appreciated
Try loading way more than you can actually do and just unracking it. You don’t even have to walk it out, just pick it up off the perches and stand there for a few seconds. Probably 455 would be good. Then drop down to your working weight and it’ll feel lighter. That’s just something that normally works for me but maybe it’ll help.
When you perform a lift with a relatively heavy weight, it taxes the central nervous system. For example , some days you feel like you can lift a house, other days the same weight you did a few days ago feels heavy. That’s often a sign that your nervous system isn’t fully recovered. CNS recovery has nothing to do with muscle soreness.
Your soreness may have gone away but your CNS may not be fully recovered from your last workout. Sounds like you might need a deload week. By deload I mean come into the gym, do a 1-2 sets with about 65-70% of what you normally do and just a few excercises. This usually helps me when I feel like I need a week to recover.
WHen you come back from your deload week, you might still feel sort of weak, but after the first workout you’ll feel great and should be back to normal progression. Let me know what you think.
You say you’re eating an sleeping enough? do this:
Eat more. Sleep more.
Also, You didnt mention any recovery work. Are you foam rolling / doing proper mobility work? Scale the workload back for a week, hit it hard again the following week.
Also eat more.