Hello Drs,
I’ve had additional minor life stressors recently such as changing employers which involves a bit more travel than before (from being 100% at home to 2x/week office work), but still very tolerable in my opinion. I’ve only dropped a kilo since starting this new job about 2 months ago so I don’t think my diet is too bad either (no changes here). The job itself is not stressful.
That said, I haven’t had much success with PL II for benching. I felt pretty smoked heading into week 4. Motivation was really low to the point of me not wanting to lift so I just decided to deload (I only did 2 of the 6 bench movements that week). I think this is the first time that I haven’t wanted to bench/train in 3 years. I might have gone over the RPE targets by 0.5 a few times but nothing crazy. I previously did STR I three times with very good results (+26lbs on bench. status quo after the 3rd run).
Here’s what my current programming looks like (combined beginner template for squat/deadlift and PL II for benching. I only squat 2x/week since I hate squatting):
Day 1
squat
comp bench (PL 2 - Day 1, slot 2)
pull downs
Day 2
supplemental bench 1 (PL 2 - Day 2, slot 2)
accessory press 1 (PL 2 - Day 1, slot 3)
Day 3
squat
RDL
Day 4
supplemental bench 2 (PL 2 - Day 3, slot 2)
accessory press 2 (PL 2 - Day 3, slot 3)
Day 5
DL
supplemental bench 3 (PL 2 - Day 4, slot 2)
Is there a way to arrange the training or exclude certain push movements to help manage the fatigue a bit better? I want to do the program (i.e. PL 2) but I feel like it’s a bit much for me currently.