Lifts Plateaued, Even Going in Reverse

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

If this post seems a little rant-y, it’s because I just finished yet another horribly disappointing lifting session and I’m pretty pissed off.

At this point in my training I’m completely lost and I don’t know where to go from here. Probably the main reason I’m posting is for someone to confirm my suspicions to why my training has been completely sucking and affirm that I’m not stuck here forever.

So a summary of my training history:

2008-2010: General fucking around in the gym, following Starting Strength off and on for a few months at a time. Nothing serious.

November 2010 - May 2011: Started following 5/3/1, got serious about the gym. I was also playing a club sport in the on-season then, but I still made my best gains during this time. Squat - 155, Bench - 115, Deadlift - 235

May 2011 - November 2011: Joined a gym after graduating college that followed a Westside template. By November, my squat had gotten up to 200lbs, but this was only because I stopped squatting ATG and just went to parallel or a little below. Bench - 115, Deadlift - 235.

November 2011 - April 2012: After I started working at a gym, I stopped following the Westside template and went back to 5/3/1. I did a meet in March and did: Squat - 200, Bench - 115, Deadlift - 240. I ended up aggravating an old back injury in early April and had to take about a month to do easy stuff / rehab.

April 2012 - Now: I made a full recovery from my back injury. Since this time I’ve also lost ~25 pounds (on purpose). I’ve been guinea-pigging a powerlifting program my friend wrote. My lifts at present are: Squat - 195, Bench - 125, Deadlift - 210.

This is absolutely pathetic, especially the deadlift. My lifts have done nothing in almost 2 years. I don’t know what to do anymore. Whether I’ve failed all the programs I’ve been on or the programs have failed me doesn’t matter, either way failure was the result. I’m tired of being stuck, and the irrational thought that this is just my limit of strength keeps getting more persuasive. I walk into the gym with the expectation of failure and I don’t know how to stop that from happening when all the evidence points that way.

Obviously the weight loss isn’t helping my case. But that doesn’t explain all of my wasted training prior to that. I’ll be done with this weight loss in the coming months and I want to know where I’m going to go from there. I know this post has been a lot of whining so if you got this far I appreciate it - any advice would be appreciated even more so.

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[quote]Solarisol wrote:
I walk into the gym with the expectation of failure and I don’t know how to stop that from happening when all the evidence points that way. [/quote]

You need to find Benny Podda ASAP

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Okay, here is what I would do in your situation. Take a short break from lifting, (one week since the last time you lifted) then take some weight off the bar and try to perfect your form, and give starting strength a real chance.
edit: Oh sorry I thought you were a weak as heck guy

4

man you need to grow a pair. I am not trying to piss you off but this whole I know I am going to fail before I even try is bull shit… Ask your fucking self do you want to lift, do you want to be a beast, do you want to be the strongest powerlifter you can be or do you be a normal guy. Because if you cant look at your self in the mirror and say you want to be a champion and be the best you can be at whatever the sport you just need to quit now.

I say this because other wise your just wasting a gym membership cost and taking time in the squat ack from some one who actually gives a damn and wants to be there and be the best possible. I dont know if your depressed or what the deal is but you need to pull your head out of what ever slump your in and man up and get to lifting. If you dont or cant do that save your $40 month and invest it into a differebt hobby.

Stop trying to lose weight without seeing a single photo from you I know 110% that you do not in any way in any part of your body have enough muscle mass to benefit from a cut. You need to EAT and eat well. 4-5 meals a day protein at each good complex carbs and fruits and veges. Get on a good program any of three you mentioned above are some of the most effective programs known to us. If you dont make gains using westside or 531 your not doing the program and or not eating. Maybe your half assing it ( whch is my guess ) or you have some kind of muscular disorder.

Take a few days off and honestly do some searching in your self on this decide if you want to be a powerlifter or what ever the hell your goals are then, decide if you have what it takes if you dont your journey stops there and you join the ranks of the millions of people who are nothing special or, you decide you do and figure out what program best suits your goals or atleast is going to prove very useful( you can not go wrong with westside or 531 ) then go to the gym and do that program, eat a fucking steak, and then grow.

Dont throw any more pitty parties for yourself espeacially on here not to many people who will honestly sympathize with you. I mean no disrespect in any of this and I relize we all run into times when progress slows down and we are not sure which way to go but, the second you start believeing your going to fail and suck before every session your fucked. I would never advise someone to stop lifting and this is more of a mental slap in the face trying to motivate you to grab your balls, get your car and start busting them in the gym.

P.S. fuck what evidence has shown you in this situation your mind is the strongest thing you have in your arsenal. Believe in yourself and in what you are capable of. So believe you can make gains and you will( if you do what is neccasary of course)

5

^well that just motivated me to get off my ass and do my squats

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[quote]Reed wrote:
man you need to grow a pair. I am not trying to piss you off but this whole I know I am going to fail before I even try is bull shit… Ask your fucking self do you want to lift, do you want to be a beast, do you want to be the strongest powerlifter you can be or do you be a normal guy. Because if you cant look at your self in the mirror and say you want to be a champion and be the best you can be at whatever the sport you just need to quit now.

I say this because other wise your just wasting a gym membership cost and taking time in the squat ack from some one who actually gives a damn and wants to be there and be the best possible. I dont know if your depressed or what the deal is but you need to pull your head out of what ever slump your in and man up and get to lifting. If you dont or cant do that save your $40 month and invest it into a differebt hobby. [/quote]

Of course I want to be the best that I can - better than anyone else. I try to get myself in the above mindset, I have a difficult time with it.

[quote]
Stop trying to lose weight without seeing a single photo from you I know 110% that you do not in any way in any part of your body have enough muscle mass to benefit from a cut. You need to EAT and eat well. 4-5 meals a day protein at each good complex carbs and fruits and veges. Get on a good program any of three you mentioned above are some of the most effective programs known to us. If you dont make gains using westside or 531 your not doing the program and or not eating. Maybe your half assing it ( whch is my guess ) or you have some kind of muscular disorder. [/quote]

I did this cut because I was a 175lb female who constantly tells her personal training clients ‘weight lifting won’t make you big,’ and wasn’t a very good poster child for that fact. I also did it for a few other reasons, but that was the main one. Trust me, before this weight loss thing I was eating plenty.

I’m not sure how I can be half-assing in the gym when I bust my ass to the best of my ability.

[quote]
P.S. fuck what evidence has shown you in this situation your mind is the strongest thing you have in your arsenal. Believe in yourself and in what you are capable of. So believe you can make gains and you will( if you do what is neccasary of course)[/quote]

I will concede this has always been my greatest weakness in any competitive endeavor of mine. I’m not sure how to take steps to change it, though.

Thanks for the post - I’ll probably re-read it before my next session for a good mental ass-kicking.

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http://www.T-Nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_belief_effect

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[quote]Solarisol wrote:

May 2011 - November 2011: Joined a gym after graduating college that followed a Westside template. By November, my squat had gotten up to 200lbs, but this was only because I stopped squatting ATG and just went to parallel or a little below. Bench - 115, Deadlift - 235.

November 2011 - April 2012: After I started working at a gym, I stopped following the Westside template and went back to 5/3/1. I did a meet in March and did: Squat - 200, Bench - 115, Deadlift - 240. I ended up aggravating an old back injury in early April and had to take about a month to do easy stuff / rehab.

April 2012 - Now: I made a full recovery from my back injury. Since this time I’ve also lost ~25 pounds (on purpose). I’ve been guinea-pigging a powerlifting program my friend wrote. My lifts at present are: Squat - 195, Bench - 125, Deadlift - 210.

. [/quote]

Looking at this; since april you’ve lost 25 lbs and Squat dropped 5 lbs, bench improved 10 lbs and deadlift dropped 30 lbs. That’s not bad considering you were focusing on weight loss. One goal at a time. So if you are done focusing on weight loss and want to add strength at a lower bodyweight, do so.
Regarding the deadlift, I’ve been able to add lbs to mine while dropping weight by focusing on technique for what it’s worth.

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OP- LOL i didnt realize you were a female which makes your lifts much more impressive… none the less I still stand by what I said. Congrats on the weight loss. You need to find something that pumps you up seriously Loud music, watching a certain video before going in, reading a passage, or even trying to find some serious training partners. You just have to find the want to be the best. Dont tell me you want to be the best tell You that you want and then work toward it. Maybe a weird thing and maybe alittle obsessive but, every night before I go into the gym the next morning I write out what I am going to do the next day and then I visualize the entire workout from start to finish. So then in my mind I already completed the workout so I know what I can do and what I am capable of doing. I hope this or something helps you. You are already pretty strong so with the right motivation and every thing spot on you could be quite good. Last thing not to start a arguement BUT, IF you go into the gym with the mind set your going to fail or regress you are HALF-ASSING it whether you think you or not.

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good shit reed.

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HOLLA!!

Last week I felt the exact same as you! I realzed that my lifts are worse now than they were a few months ago, and they never really got GOOD in the first place. Well, good to the point where I felt suPA awesome/supa strong.
I always feel like I’m doing something wrong, like my form is wrong, or my inability to follow a program will make me weak for the rest of my life, and it’s all just hoPELESS, HOOOOPLEEEEESSS. Yadda yadda

BUT I woke up the other day when new feelings of gung-ho ness. REady and raring to figure out what the hell is wrong and fix it so I can de-suckitize myself.

ALSO i gained a lot of weight hoping for it to make me stronger, but instead it just made my pants tighter :/.

It can be depressing sometimes, BUT BELIEVE IN YO’SELF! You’ll never get stronger if you don’t believe.

TRUTH.

Do not get to a year from now WONDERING what you could have been if you really stuck to it and gave it your all. DO IT. Become that strong person that you dream of being someday, le sigh…

ENd\/// motivational speech.

ALSO ADD: You and I have the exact same lifting ####'s.
START LOG AND LET’S BECOME BESTIES.

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OH ANNDDD since my last post wasn’t very helpful, LOL…

I am trying to remember what the hell i did when my lifts where at their best

Bench=volume for me. Benching at least 3 times a week with lots of volume below my max made my bench awesome. SMOLOV JR.

Squats
Frequency. Squatting often made it suck wayy less.
DL I DUNo, my deadlift is a strange mistress. I truly believe one day I’ll just like add 40lbs to my deadlift in one workout cause I feel like the strength is there, but the stars aren’t alligned properly, HAHA.

K YOU’re awesome, BYE!

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I began powerlifting 2 years ago. First six months I was King of the World…weights increasing all the time, life was good. Since then…I have to fight for EVERY SINGLE FREAKING POUND…and sometimes fight to not go backwards! I have been at a bench plateau for about a year now and that just sucks big time. Thankfully my squat and deadlifts are moving…very slowly.

This is a very frustrating sport and it tests your patience severely.
I also am coming to the regretful conclusion it is going to take years yet to get where I want to be…but I am undaunted.

So hang in there. You (and I) can still lift things that the average person could not fathom.

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[quote]mpg wrote:
I began powerlifting 2 years ago. First six months I was King of the World…weights increasing all the time, life was good. Since then…I have to fight for EVERY SINGLE FREAKING POUND…and sometimes fight to not go backwards! I have been at a bench plateau for about a year now and that just sucks big time. Thankfully my squat and deadlifts are moving…very slowly.

This is a very frustrating sport and it tests your patience severely.
I also am coming to the regretful conclusion it is going to take years yet to get where I want to be…but I am undaunted.

So hang in there. You (and I) can still lift things that the average person could not fathom.[/quote]

yep. This is quite common. Lifting is like a relationship. You start off all in love and shit then you get serious. You chose a certain goal and you “marry it”. This shit becomes your life and nothing gets in your way. The “honey moon” is great and then one day that new wears off and your left with WORK. you look back at all those “fun” times and wonder what happened… you realize that every day is a decision to continue on or say fuck it and quit or maybe some other “hot thang” over there catches your eye and you think “maybe I’ll do that”, now your “whoring around” in the gym, doing anything and everything but getting no where but further in the hole. You’re spinning your wheels while the shit that works, is waiting patiently for the “proverbial son” to return home…

OP, the program your doing now is shit. You said yourself that you are dejected right off the bat. It ain’t workin Darlin’. I’d take a short break from lifting. Get your head back in the game and think about the shit that gets you excited. The program that worked for you in the beginning. Maybe it was something simple. Maybe you told yourself that simple weasn’t good enough and you tried some shit that doesn’t work. The “best” program is the one that you get jazzed about. Maybe stop lifting for a while… they say absence make the heart grow fonder. Take up a new sport, maybe cycling. Then your workouts will have purpose. You do squats so that you can CRUSH hills on your bike. Take up kayaking… now your deadlifts make your back strong so that you can paddle the shit outta the boat… get it? good luck in whatever you decide to do.

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Awaiting the start of your log and the formation of our unbreakable best friendship…

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[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:

yep. This is quite common. Lifting is like a relationship. You start off all in love and shit then you get serious. You chose a certain goal and you “marry it”. This shit becomes your life and nothing gets in your way. The “honey moon” is great and then one day that new wears off and your left with WORK. you look back at all those “fun” times and wonder what happened… you realize that every day is a decision to continue on or say fuck it and quit or maybe some other “hot thang” over there catches your eye and you think “maybe I’ll do that”, now your “whoring around” in the gym, doing anything and everything but getting no where but further in the hole. You’re spinning your wheels while the shit that works, is waiting patiently for the “proverbial son” to return home…

[/quote]

This is great. Even the things that work, won’t work all the time and won’t guarantee gains. I’ve only been competing for four years but in that time, after beginner gains plateaued my strength has increased in increments and it isn’t a linear progression; it’s more of a wave. There are ebbs and flows. When I get frustrated feeling weaker than I did three months ago, not hitting weights that should be easy, I look back at the last time my strength hit a trough and hang in there working towards the next crest. It’s not easy. Pick a path and stick to it for a while.

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Height and weight? Are any of those lifts greater than bw?

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As Mark Rippetoe would say, YNDTP.

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What is your current height, weight, and rough estimate of BF%?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure Westside Training methods and 5/3/1 programs are better suited for advanced lifters and I do not think 5/3/1 has enough volume in it for a beginner/intermediate lifter.