Strength improving slowly despite gaining weight

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi BBM,

I’m currently starting week 5 of the powerbuilding I after running the beginner template before my current one.

I’ve been struggling to gain strength on pretty much all of my lifts during powerbuilding I and wanted to ask for some guidance as to whether there is anything i’m doing wrong / should improve. For example, my comp style (1ct pause) bench press has remained at 80 kg × 5 reps @ RPE 8 since week 1 of powerbuilding I, and my OHP went up from 35 kg × 8 reps @ RPE 8 to 37.5 kg × 8 reps @ RPE 8. The only lift that has been improving at a steady rate is the deadlift, where I went up from 115 kg × 5 reps @ RPE 8 to 125 kg × 5 reps @ RPE 8.

The only thing I could think of that might be harming my progress is lack of sleep (I get on average 3-5 hours of sleep during the week and 7-9 hours on weekends). The lack of sleep is not something I can change due to other commitments outside of the gym, but I do feel that it may be affecting my mid-week training due to having less time to sleep than on the weekends and feeling extremly tired throughout the day and during workouts due to the lack of sleep.

I would like to add the i’ve had all my main lifts reviewed via the form check service, and except for a few minor tweaks in form here and there I was told that my form was overall good. Also, I’ve been on a “lean bulk” since december and have been gaining weight at a good rate (I went up from weighing 70 kg @ 13% bf to 75 kg @ 15% bf currently).

Thanks in adcance for any help!

2

Nice job on the 10kg improvement on the deadlift. That’s great!

I would agree that your sleep is not helping your case, but I think you’re on track for getting stronger. I wouldn’t necessarily expect strength gains to happen week-by-week -though sometimes they do when you’re on a roll. Rather, I expect your week-to-week performance to remain about the same - sometimes up and sometimes down- as the strength gains develop over time and come on board. Keep plugging away and pay attention to how you’re feeling during the warm ups. That’ll tell you if you get to move up that day, keep things the same, or temper the load.

-Jordan

3

Got it, i’ll keep tracking my workouts and will pay attention to the warm up sets as you said. Thanks for the advice Jordan!