Analytical approach when a lift is in reverse

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Thanks for all the content—it’s been great and I appreciate the approach you all take.

Background: 45 y/o, 6’, 211, 36.5” waist, reasonably athletic w sports background, training seriously for 10+ years with some (too many) layoffs. Current E1RMs: Bench 300, Press 200, Squat 425, DL 450, all of which are ~5-10% off all time PRs. I’m in W4 of 12WS; ran GPP-Hyp and Bridge immediately before. Eating at maintenance at 220p/250c/70f.

Question: What is your order of triage when a lift is seemingly in reverse? I’ve liked the templates, and my DL has responded well. But my squat is going south recently and the others are flat. I’m tired or beat up frequently and I have days when even 315 feels like a ton on my back. While I recognize one need not be fully recovered each workout, the results are getting a bit concerning: While I was doing 365 x 5 x 3 a few months ago, my 1@8 last week was a tough 365 - down 20 pounds from W1. I noticed a similar phenomenon about halfway through the Bridge when I just fizzled. So, some potential options:

A. This reflects my diminished work capacity which will improve as I acclimate to the volume. (Seems at best a partial explanation as I’m not untrained and the increased volume is not a dramatic change for me).

B. This reflects accumulated fatigue, which is to be expected, and benefits will be reaped when I dissipate that fatigue. Carry on.

C. There’s a programming or form issue here (or you’re badly overshooting the RPE) - get some coaching.

D. I got old and weak overnight and should just order the pink and purple dumbbells and be done with it.

I’m sure there are other options. Realizing there is no one answer, what’s your order of analysis in trying to tease out a problem like this?

Many thanks.

2

If you have gone through all the templates you describe, A is somewhat unlikely. B is certainly possible, though if your trends are going down for 4-5 weeks in a row, even if you did manifest a huge rebound and crush PRs at the end of the program, it may suggest that the training approach needs to be modified for you. C is also certainly possible. How did you do in comparison on the other templates? Also, we need to be sure we’re making a reasonable comparison here. People will often take end-of-LP numbers like 3 sets of 5, with each set being an all-out RPE 10 effort, with 15+ minutes between sets … and try to compare that to their 4 or 5 sets of 5 @ 8 with 3-5 minute rests in between. Of course these are likely to be drastically different in the short term.

Additionally, we regularly talk about a very broad range of inter-individual variation in response to a given “standardized” intervention. We therefore cannot make guarantees or say things like “this program will work optimally every single time”. While we think these templates generally reflect sound programming principles, there will always be a wide range of responses, and some folks will do better with different approaches. Without knowing more about you, it’s certainly hard to say which we’re dealing with here.