No real progress for months: programming issues?

Hello BBM-team,

First some info about myself:

  1. male
  2. 42 years young
  3. 1m74 / 91kg (~95cm waist)
  4. training age: 4 years (3x /week)
  5. 1RM (June): squat: 185kg / bench: 115kg / DL: 192,5kg (lifetime PR) / Press: 75kg (lifetime PR)
  6. Program: main lift of the day: 1x@8 + 4x5@7-8, second lift 3x5@8-9, assistance: variation on S,B or D. (every 4th week I lower the volume a little for 1 week)
  7. Omitting the press for now. So only training S, B and D.
  8. squat: 1x as a main lift/week, 1x as a 2nd lift
  9. Bench: 1x main lift/week + assistance, 2x second lift
  10. DL: 1x main lift/week, 2x 3rd lift (RDL + rows)
  11. Sleep apnea untreated for now (working on permanent solution involving surgery: MMA/Bi-Max) As you can see I tested my 1RMs last June. Before testing and since testing my training looks very similar. There’s no progress on any of the lifts. I could have pulled and pressed the PR’s a few months earlier and I think I can lift those exact 1RMs now if I wanted to.

My singles @8 vary very little from week to week if at all.
Only DL could be creeping up very, very slowly. … Or I just like deadlifting a lot lately … :wink:

I think I’m training too much at MRV or over my MRV since I never feel even close to recovered. For sure the sleep apnea is a factor there.
When I reduce the volume considerably for 1 week (It’s rare that I do this unplanned) I notice that my numbers go up by a few % for 1 week and then drop back to what they were before.

Things I’m considering regarding my programming:

  1. move 1 set from the main lift to the day I’m doing that lift as a second lift. (re-distribution of weekly volume) OR
  2. Just lower the weekly volume on the main lift by 1 set. (but not for DL?) OR
  3. Only lower the volume on squats, since that’s the lift that wears my out the most? OR
  4. Keep the programming for the DL and rethink all the rest. OR
  5. Since I love doing my own programming (yes, even if I know I make mistakes and sometimes it just doesn’t work like I planned): buy a template or 2, try it out, modify it to my needs and learn to make better programs that way. (I’m only coaching myself) Any help is greatly appreciated!

My first inclination was that you weren’t doing enough volume (unsure of average intensity here), but then seeing your comments about feeling like you’re over your MRV (you’re not if you’ve been able to do this for weeks on end) the psychology of adding more may not work at this time.

The variations of the lifts may need retoooling to be more specific and might need more volume to drive LBM improvements.

Hey there,

It sounds like you haven’t really changed much about your programming over the course of the entire year, despite not having any evidence of progress?

I can’t really predict which strategy would work best for you, but I do agree that you certainly need to do something here – and if I were in this situation, it would probably be a somewhat drastic change in the short term, even if you come back to something that looks like this approach in the future.

Maybe take a little break from hitting the singles all the time and swapping your supplemental lifts to ones you haven’t done before (for psychological reasons more than anything) would be a start – but I agree that you could probably try (or at least draw some ideas from) the templates.

Thank you both for responding.
To give you a better look at my programming , starting from February, you can have a look at my training log.

Almost all of my training is logged in there. It structured, I think, so it’s not too hard to figure out what I’ve been doing.
I’m aware that I need to make some drastic changes.

Regarding the MRV: I might have been able to do this for months, but honestly there hasn’t been any energy left to do much else besides work (no physical stress al all) and training.

Sorry Rho,

It’s difficult to commit to looking at your training log and teasing out the details here. We have commitments to our clients first and foremost.

I think the energy bit is more of a psychological manifestation than anything else.

No need to apologize. I understand. :slight_smile:

Last time they checked (few years ago) I was really over-exhausted. Surprisingly at that time my performance (I only did LISS at that time) also stayed the same for a long period (months) before I suddenly completely crashed.
They tested me in a sleeping-lab.
I’m a little worried I’m running into the same situation again.
Besides testing at the sleeping lab again, is there any other way to test this?

Who are they and what do you mean by over-exhausted and crashed? None of these things are medical diagnoses and they all relate some type of catastrophe that you seem to be experiencing.Add that to your present state of worry and I’d see a medical doctor if you need reassurance.

They: Medical staff at UZA. (see link in my previous post)

Exhaustion was measured with a test in the lab. They let you sleep for a night, wake you up at 7 AM and at 9 AM you go back to bed for 30 minutes. 11 AM: back to bed for 30 min. 1 PM back to bed for 30 min. … and so on, the whole day.
Every time you go to bed they check how long it takes before you fall asleep. (they monitor brain activity, heart, breathing, … )

Crashed … yeah, I know.
Lets say I wan’t able to work for about a month, felt quite depressed, had no energy whatsoever, …

I’m waiting for my Bi-max surgery to (hopefully) fix my apnea. I’ve slept with an MRA for a few years with quite good results.

I’m seeing medical doctors to help me with these issues. But none of them have any idea what it means to lift heavy weights and loving it.
They know that I like it and that it’s better to train than not to train. But they can’t give me nay advise regarding my training.
In Belgium sport = LISS. There is nothing else.