Seriously. I was in a rut in my training (I mostly do Strength focus, 5/3/1 stuff - I compete in Highland Games and such. I am over 40, so there is that to consider as well.
I decided to search around for a workout that scared me so much I didn’t want to do it. So, I tried “Six Weeks to Superhero.” Very interesting results:
Pain in my left arm (shoulder, elbow, wrist) that has persisted for nearly a year, vanished after the first two workouts and has yet to return.
I got acne, which I haven’t had since adolescence.
I felt like a God for the first four weeks. Seriously, I felt like I could break through walls, tear bears apart with my bare hands (see what I did there?) and overall was plowing through the workouts. Libido was off the charts. Rest times between sets were going down each workout. I felt great. [I was on no drugs, and no unusual supplements - just creatine, BCAAs, and protein powder].
The 5th week came, and I hit a wall. I could barely move. I made it through the first workout of the 5th week, but felt like I was going to puke. I had no energy, and could barely function. I couldn’t make it through the second workout of the 5th week. I had to call it off.
Anyway, no real questions. Just wanted to share my experience. I may revisit it again in a few months, when I feel I need to break through a plateau again. We’ll see, I guess.
I usually do a “deload” or “off” week every 5th or 6th week in my training, depending on the cycle, so the “hit the wall” on my 5th week may have been my body expecting a deload and not getting it.
I don’t think your body can choose how fatigued it’ll be.
Maybe stressors e.g. training or life stress and not enough fatigue management to make up for it probably pushed you over maximum recoverable volume. Any idea how much work will mess you up the next week?
For example personally I find around about 20-22 weekly working sets in a hypertrophy block, maybe 6-10 reps at 70-80% will do me. I use this info by building up over a couple of weeks and then purposefully exceeding recovery capabilities the last week followed by a deload.
This way I dissipate fatigue for all the previous weeks and am able to recovery properly from my overreach/overtraining week. Coming back in i’m supercompensated /feeling like a god.
That’s one reason I tried it - it scared me and seemed impossible: two complexes each time, a full body workout 4 days a week! But I decided to give it a try, and it worked great for 4 weeks.
I can’t think of anything that was unusual around the 5th week. I have been getting more sleep than in the past, thanks to a good work schedule change, but there may be stressors I am unaware of that happened.
4 weeks on it is what most people should do. 6 weeks is doable if you have a stress-free life and are in your early 20s, which was the crowd the original program was used with.
Other people might do better doing only one complex per day