When is it time to move on to a new program?

Training Q&A [Moderated]
,
1

ChatGPT summery: A new lifter (23M, 137kg, 6’2") enjoying progress with Strength I Gen 1 is struggling with recovery, likely due to a calorie deficit or program intensity. Weighing options: continue powerlifting with a moderate deficit or switch to hypertrophy to focus on weight loss, fearing strength loss during the transition. Saving for a belt and sleeves for future progress.

Relatively new lifter here (5 months) nearing the end of a 2nd run of a the Strength I gen 1 template and so far I love the training and the strength gains but I’ve ran into a few issues I believe are specific to my case.

Background info:
Male, 23 YO, 187 cm / 6’2" tall, currently weighing 137kg (297lbs) down from the starting 165kg (360lbs)
Maintaining a weekly deficit of 0.5kg with the goal weight of 110kg (240lbs)

Official 1rm are S:185kg B:110kg D:195kg
Current estimates are S:200kg B:120kg D:210kg
*I dont use knee sleeves or a belt at all

Sleeping 8-10 hours a day but dont always go to bed at the same same time (i fall asleep between 10pm and 4am)

Recently I’ve been having problems recovering between workouts or even between sets. For example last sunday I did heavy deficit deadlifts which absolutely cooked my lower back. When I say cooked, I really mean it. 4 days later, which is a deadlift heavy day as per programming I felt fine but obviously wasnt since the expected 190x1@8 didnt budge at all and I had to drop down to 180x1@8 which, a week prior, I repped x4@9. Also important to mention, my knees feel stiff. They dont hurt but even days after heavy squats they feel stiff as if I need to do some bodyweight squats to warm them up. Does it sound like a cause for concern or do my knees need to recover same as my muscles?

My question is, is it more likely that the problem with recovery is somewhere else or even caused by my caloric deficit or did I progress as a lifter to the point where S/B/D essentially every workout is hard to recover from? Should I move on to Strength II?

I dont want to derail the thread dump all my problems here, but I am aware that I should focus more on the calorie deficit part and less on the strength but I like lifting too much hahahah. I was thinking about switching to Hypertrophy for 2/3 months and upping the deficit to 1kg per week to speed things up but I was very afraid of losing my hard earned strength and muscle.

Should I switch to hypertrophy/powerbuilding, increase the caloric deficit a bit, try to maintain as much muscle as possible and return to powerlifting in 2-3 months (would also be enough time to save up for a belt and sleeves haha) or should I continue powerlifting same as now, maintain the 0.5kg deficit and try to make progress. The only problem with the “continue powerlifting” option is that I REALLY need the belt as the core starting to become a limiting factor on heavy squats and deadlifts but it makes no sense to buy a belt now because Im going to lose weight and the belt is going to be too large. Im just no sure whats the optimal path to take

2

Hey Lukas,

Welcome to the forum. Good to have you here and congrats on the weight loss. That’s awesome!

To start, I am not sure you’re actually struggling with recovery. I’m not negating your experience of an episode of low back soreness or stiff knees, but rather pointing out that these things happen. I also do not expect people to recovery fully between workouts (by most measurable metrics), gain strength each week, etc.

Instead, I expect recovery to always be incomplete when people are training at a level that can actually make them better. I also predict performance improvements (like strength) to occur in irregular time intervals. At some point, these intervals will become longer than what could otherwise be achieved with a better program. Admittedly, it’s challenging to identify this early. I do not think a modest energy deficit is contributory to this in your case.

It would not surprise me if you were able to go up on a few lifts next week (without blowing the RPE out of the water), which would demonstrably prove your recovery is “fine” from a performance perspective. It’s also possible that the program has run its course for you and you won’t be able to go up next week, the week after, etc. We just don’t really know, you know?

So, what to do now?

If you’re ready to/prefer to move onto a different program, I’d favor the Push-Pull-Legs hypertrophy template. You’ll still get some exposure to strength training using double progression (great use case for you), some more hypertrophy-biased work than you’re used to, a good amount of conditioning.

I do not expect significant strength or muscle losses if someone is training intelligently, eating at a modest deficit, and eating enough protein. This makes most other templates viable if you have other preferences.

Hope this helps!

-Jordan