Recovery Throughout the Week

Training
1

One thing I’ve been noticing on my workouts:
I suck on Friday. Monday’s workout is usually good even if I didn’t get a great deal of sleep that night, Wednesdays is ok to good…friday’s, not so much. It seems like by Friday I’m just not up to snuff.

What’s really troubling is I’m not doing a ton of lifts; my log is here
http://tnation.T-Nation.com/hub/paulwhite959#myLogs

basically, I alternate squat/bench/straight leg dead/curl/pull ups with dead/OHP/front squat (switching to just one set of back squats)/rows/pull ups. The workouts are about 45 minutes to an hour, just depending (squat days take longer. Usually at the end I do some calf raises with loaded dumbbells.

I don’t know if it’s diet, sleep, or sometime else that’s impeding recovery.

Diet is pretty basic; I don’t eat much in the morning (because I puke if I do–blame the ulcers). But I can usually do a glass of skim milk and/or a small thing of greek yogurt within about an hour of waking up.

Starting at lunch through the evening I eat 2/3rds of a lb to 1 and 1/2 lbs of poultry and/or fish, 4-8 eggs, 1-2 cups spinach (mixed in with eggs), some broccoli (I got through about 4-5 lbs per week), 3-4 pieces of fruit, 1-2 cups of carrots, 1-2 cans of other veggies (green beans, peas, corn, water chestnuts, more carrots, whatever) or a couple of squash or a clump of asparagus.

There’s usually a can of green chili or some fresh green chili in there too, because I put it on…everything, I love that stuff…and a tomato or two. Once or twice a week I have red meat instead of poultry or fish, usually a cut of sirloin (because it’s frigging wonderful but expensive).

usually within about 30 minutes of lifting I’m chowing down on a chicken breast and veggies or 2 fish fillets and veggies.

I’ll consume 2-3 cans of diet dr pepper or diet coke throughout the day (I’m cutting down from a 2 liter per day, trying to work down to 2 cans). While at work I drink a cup of water every hour on the hour.

The only weak spot I see is the morning, but again, I puke if I eat much in the early AM; I’m o prilosec and it helps (at least I don’t wake up puking now, which is nice). but it doesn’t cure it.

Does that seem like a good diet for this, or am I Missing something/sabatoging myself in there?

The other option I’m seeing and worrying about is sleep. Generally my sleep hygiene is decent, but I still do have bouts of insomnia, particularly on days I don’t lift. Sometimes life happens too and you have to stay up late to fix a mess (like this Thursday…up till 1am managing a sick, PO’d 16’ python that tore up the room while I gave him antibiotic shots).

2

Personally your diet sounds ok on paper… bower ever looking at your log I noticed even on just the first day your doing squats and deadlifts to actual failure… that’s a big no no for me. My recovery if I Squat or Deadlift to failure starts going to shit quickly. I also recommend deadlifting no more than once a week whether its stiff leg, one leg, sumo or whatever espeacially if its to failure. I recommend one of two courses of actions.

  1. Drop doing Squats and Deadlifts to FAILURE. Especially if your going to be doing it more than once a week.
  2. May be time to switch programs to something more specific where your able to allow more recovery between body parts ie… alternating upper and lower body 3-4 times a week.

DAY 1 Upper
Bench or Overhead Press
Pull-Ups or Rows
Triceps
Biceps

DAY 2- Lower
Heavy Squat or Deadlift
Light Squat or Deadlift (obviously which ever you didn’t do heavy)
Calves
Core.

3

Great progress on your presses in your log

4

Thanks Reed. I’ll probably quit doing them to failure and try to make sure I have a rep or two left in the tank. It won’t look too much different in the log (I mean, it’d still read 3,2,1) but I wont’ have pushed as hard and maybe that’ll help with recovery. It’s frustrating to go into my session Friday already hurting all over.

Part of the reason I do SLDL is it’s one of the only barbell lifts I know that I can feel in my lower back without it feeling bad–it seems split between lower back, butt, and hams.

I actually bought 5/3/1 this week and am planning to switch to it after gains here quit, but if it would work better for recovery I might do that sooner.

I might to add my diet on the weekend is a bit looser; Saturday lunch we usually eat out (steak, Mexican or Thai food generally).

Thanks chobbs :slight_smile: now if only my squat didn’t suck! I’m OK with where my deads, press, and bench are. They’re not great but they’re hardly bad for a beginner…but squats relative to them are just…sort of bad.

5

5,3,1 would be good and I personally think you have the strength to start it with good progress. Honestly you could be a bit to strong for the program your currently doing (hear me out). You have to remember as you get more efficient in the lifts you actually put more stress on your body so you can’t continue squatting and training the whole body to failure 3 times a week. If you have access to 5,3,1 program I would take a few days off and get recovered as possible and dive balls deep into 5,3,1. Also there is nothing wrong with cheating on the weekend man keeps you sane and motivated to keep training. think of it more as a reward for busting your ass all week.

6

This isn’t probably the best theory/advice but I have a Mon/Tues/Wed/Friday split and my main goal on the weekend is to consume as many calories as possible and sleep as much as I can…"calorie " is a loose term, anything except pop,candy,cookies,cake, sauces etc etc

7

Chobbs doesn’t sound like a horrible theroy to me

8

Eating piles of steaks, Mexican and Thai food on the weekend won’t hurt recovery, it will help if anything. It might hurt fat-loss goals depending on how much you eat, but not recovery.

9

yeah, I’m trying to not gain fat (if you view my photos you can see why) but I’m not terribly concerned with losing lots of it right now either. I kind of figure clean eating and working out and it’ll take care of itself. I haven’t eaten this well in…ever.

10

I appreciate the comments…they made me think it’s okay I ate Panada Express today

11

Im pretty tired by Friday aswell.

Do you take any pre-workout supplements? Im not a fan of Jack3d or anything, but sometimes a double shot of coffee and pump up some loud music does the trick.

tweet

12

[quote]paulwhite959 wrote:
yeah, I’m trying to not gain fat (if you view my photos you can see why) but I’m not terribly concerned with losing lots of it right now either. I kind of figure clean eating and working out and it’ll take care of itself. I haven’t eaten this well in…ever. [/quote]

Have you looked into Carb Night Solution, John Keifer’s e-book? I’ve cut 50 pounds or so since March using mostly this method–and my strength numbers are going up nicely, all things considered–although I didn’t know about Keifer and CNS until recently. With a few tweaks to what I was doing I think I could have done even better after reading up on CNS. I am transitioning into more carb backloading because I am only a few pounds from where I want to be and I feel like I need some more carbs if I want my squat to move north.

13

Caffeine (coffee works for me) and loud metal/rock on your iPod should do the trick, if you’re tired.

14

From friday to sunday evening i did 8 training sessions of various content, 5 of them heavy weight training, 3 of them sprints or ballistic fun stuff,

by the time sunday rolls around I dont necessarily feel PHYically worn out, but i just seem to get mentally drained and slightly irritable,

like when i am walking around in a crowded store i get inwardly annoyed jocking around a bunch of people… and just think about bowling people over and telling them to get out the way.

15

for me, the last couple of Fridays…

I expect to be a little sore on Thursday. But on Friday it’s still been painful to do things like take a crap, or walk up a flight of stairs or do basic household chores like mowing the yard or turning over the compost pile.