I would recomend bumping up the reps slightly on ME I found max singles every week too taxing also being drug free means doing the recovery work and the extra workouts for GPP is really important. make sure you know how and when to do them also.
[quote]Kerley wrote:
bville wrote:
No it was actually working great and I hit PRs in all the lifts. I just didn’t want rest on my laurels and wanted to work on the weak points of my lifts. Unfortunately it has completely backfired. Stronglifts isn’t without it faults but its periodised nature and simplicity appealed to me. I’ll probably go back.
perhaps 5/3/1?[/quote]
Definately an option.
[quote]Monopoly19 wrote:
I think the most simple answer is that your taking a 1rm wayy to much.
Not sure what templete you followed, but here is one I used for the bench and it worked really well for me. I didn’t even take a true 1rm on the bench until 8 weeks was over. Hope this helps, good luck.
Week One
Day 2 (max effort bench day)
Board Press: Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue working up to a one-rep max.
Lying Barbell Triceps Extensions: 6 sets of 10 reps
Pushdowns: 3 sets of 10 reps
One Arm Press: 3 sets of 15 reps
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)
Bench Press: 10 sets of 3 reps with 60% of 1RM. Use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets
Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions: 4 sets of 8 reps
Dumbbell Side Raises: 3 sets of 10 reps
Bent Over Dumbbell Side Raises: 3 sets of 10 reps
Week two
Day 2 (max effort bench day)
Board Press: Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue working up to a one-rep max.
Lying Barbell Triceps Extensions: 6 sets of 10 reps
Pushdowns: 3 sets of 10 reps
One Arm Press: 3 sets of 15 reps
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)
Bench Press: 10 sets of 3 reps with 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets
Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions: 4 sets of 8 reps
Dumbbell Side Raises: 3 sets of 10 reps
Bent Over Dumbbell Side Raises: 3 sets of 10 reps
Week three
Day 2 (max effort bench day)
Board Press: Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue working up to a one-rep max.
Lying Barbell Triceps Extensions: 6 sets of 10 reps
Pushdowns: 3 sets of 10 reps
One Arm Press: 3 sets of 15 reps
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)
Bench Press: 10 sets of 3 reps with 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets
Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions: 4 sets of 8 reps
Dumbbell Side Raises: 3 sets of 10 reps
Bent Over Dumbbell Side Raises: 3 sets of 10 reps
Week four
Day 2 (max effort bench day)
Floor Press: Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue working up to a one-rep max.
JM Press: work up to 2 sets of 3 reps
Incline Dumbbell Press: 2 sets of 10 reps
Seated Dumbbell Cleans: 4 sets of 8 reps
Straight Leg Raises: 5 sets of 15 reps
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)
Bench Press: 10 sets of 3 reps with 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 sec rest between sets
Close Grip Bench Press: work up to 2 sets of 3 reps
One Arm Dumbbell Extensions: 3 sets of 10 reps
Front Plate Raises: 3 sets of 10 reps
Week five
Day 2 (max effort bench day)
Floor Press: Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue working up to a one-rep max.
JM Press: work up to 2 sets of 3 reps
Incline Dumbbell Press: 2 sets of 10 reps
Seated Dumbbell Cleans: 4 sets of 8 reps
Straight Leg Raises: 5 sets of 15 reps
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)
Bench Press: 10 sets of 3 reps with 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets. Note: After your sets, work up to a heavy single. This isn’t a maximum attempt so don’t miss the lift.
Close Grip Bench Press: work up to 2 sets of 3 reps
One Arm Dumbbell Extensions: 3 sets of 10 reps
Front Plate Raises: 3 sets of 10 reps
Week 6
Day 2 (max effort bench day)
Floor Press: Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue working up to a one-rep max.
JM Press: work up to 2 sets of 3 reps
Incline Dumbbell Press: 2 sets of 10 reps
Seated Dumbbell Cleans: 4 sets of 8 reps
Straight Leg Raises: 5 sets of 15 reps
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)
Bench Press: 10 sets of 3 reps with 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets
Close Grip Bench Press: work up to 2 sets of 3 reps
One Arm Dumbbell Extensions: 3 sets of 10 reps
Front Plate Raises: 3 sets of 10 reps
Week 7
Day 2 (max effort bench day)
Ball Press: 3 sets of 20 reps (average rest period = 5 minutes)
Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 5 sets of 10 reps
Incline Barbell Triceps Extensions: 5 sets of 6 reps
Face Pulls: 5 sets of 15 reps
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)
Bench Press: 10 sets of 3 reps with 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets. Note: After your sets, work up to a heavy double. Again, this isn’t a maximum lift so don’t miss the attempts.
Dumbbell Triceps Extensions: 4 sets of 6 reps
Reverse Grip Pushdowns: 3 sets of 15 reps
Front/Side/Rear Delt Combo Raise: 2 sets of 60 reps (20 each raise)
Pulldown Abs: 5 sets of 10 reps
Week 8
Day 2 (max effort bench day)
Ball Press: 3 sets of 20 reps (avg. rest period = 5 min)
Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 5 sets of 10 reps
Incline Barbell Triceps Extensions: 5 sets of 6 reps
Face Pulls: 5 sets of 15 reps
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)
Bench Press: 10 sets of 3 reps with 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets
Dumbbell Triceps Extensions: 4 sets of 6 reps
Reverse Grip Pushdowns: 3 sets of 15 reps
Front/Side/Rear Delt Combo Raise: 2 sets of 60 reps (20 each raise)
Pulldown Abs: 5 sets of 10 reps
Week 9: Work up to new 1RM
[/quote]
Thanks very much for this.
[quote]PublickStews wrote:
You haven’t told us anything about your assistance work, which could burn you out even faster than the main lifts.[/quote]
I thought I mentioned it earlier. Followed Dave Tate’s training log. Lots of hypers, reverse hypers, weighted dips and chins, pull-throughs etc. Usually 4x6 or 3x10.
[quote]sig805 wrote:
I would recomend bumping up the reps slightly on ME I found max singles every week too taxing also being drug free means doing the recovery work and the extra workouts for GPP is really important. make sure you know how and when to do them also.[/quote]
Yeah if I continue with it, that’s the way I’ll go. Can anyone recommend a time period to go easy and give my CNS a break? Full rest or some light RE work maybe?
[quote]bville wrote:
PublickStews wrote:
You haven’t told us anything about your assistance work, which could burn you out even faster than the main lifts.
I thought I mentioned it earlier. Followed Dave Tate’s training log. Lots of hypers, reverse hypers, weighted dips and chins, pull-throughs etc. Usually 4x6 or 3x10.[/quote]
Sorry, when I made my post, yours hadn’t shown up yet.
[quote]bville wrote:
No it was actually working great and I hit PRs in all the lifts. [/quote]
There’s your answer, don’t fix what ain’t broke. Programs be damned.
Wait till you stall out, then change.
One possible cause of your stagnation could be that you are getting too jacked up for your 1 rep max every week. Even though you are working to a max, you are not in a meet. If you are getting incredibly psyched up every week, it will burn out your CNS. You shouldn’t be taking tons of time thinking about the lift in between your sets. Your max effort lift should not take more than 20 minutes from when you start doing warm-up sets. Now don’t get me wrong, you should be concentrating very hard and should give a great effort to complete the lift, but you should not pace around the gym like a crazed dog before your lift. Some lifters have this mentality every time they step into the gym and it makes for a short powerlifting career. I do not know if this is what is causing your problems, but I know that it is a fairly common problem and it is a likely reason why someone using the Westside template may not have great results.
Also, you should hardly ever work up to a weight that you cannot get. With the conjugate method, you want to walk away from the max effort lifts being very confident that you are going to do more weight next time you do that lift.
Switching the lift every week is a good idea to take it easy on your CNS.