Lets talk about periodization...

[BlkWS6]

My training has been horrible the last couple weeks or so. Almost every lift as gone down and it is depressing. I dont know if you guys/gals experience this. But I have a very specific trend in my lifting that I need to break, and Im hoping proper periodization is the answer. I will lift heavy for a while and continuously get stronger and stronger. This strength eventually plateau's, and then I begin to get weaker (the point Im at right now) I just don't get it, I always hit this same trend even when I try to majorly avoid it. I only lift 4 days a week now, and I try to avoid failure, but it seems that lifting heavy weights (5-8 reps) over a certain period of time just breaks me down and I get considerably weaker. Does anyone recommend some sort of periodization that may help me in avoiding these seemingly inevitable slumps? I appreciate all and any suggestions. I guess I would just like to know how everyone works with their heavy and light training. If I could train year round with heavy weights I would because I love it, but it just seems as though I cant do it. Well thanks again for the help.

 

[coolcolj]

well it sounds like your CNS is definitely overtrained.

You just need to back off periodicly when training heavy. A 3 week on and 1 week low intentisty works well.

Usually when your strength plateaus, its because your body is not recovering properly. You should have learnt from your mistakes by now. I hope your keeping a training log.

You should just drop the poundages way down and train light for a couple of weeks if its not too severe. Then you can slowly work back up again. Otherwise take 2 weeks off if your badly overtrained but stay active.

 

[BlkWS6]

Thanks Cool. You are right in that I should have learned from my mistakes, but it never happens. I mean technically a plateau does not necessarily dictate overtraining, or else people would be pushing thousands upon thousands of pounds (assuming one never plateaus) But I guess when the weigts start going backwards is when I should start to worry. Thanks for the advice man, I will definitely lighten it up for a couple of weeks or so. Any other advice out there?

 

[coolcolj]

take lots of glutamine and vitamin C to help recovery

 

[Lord_Suston]

by using heavy pundages so often you might have built up a lot of scar tissue which would inhibit strength. Try getting deep tissue massage to release all the crap in your system. also you need to look at your sleep cycles and diet, if either are not up to par your gain will be lost there....

 

[abc 1]

your body adjusts to rep ranges within 3 weeks. if you've been doing 5 to 8 reps for months, that's the issue. change rep ranges every 2 to 3 weeks.

 

[spatts]

I, of course, recommend conjugated periodization over linear, for the reasons you mentioned in your first post.

 

[Intenceman]

My training has been horrible the last couple weeks or so. Almost every lift as gone down and it is depressing. I dont know if you guys/gals experience this. But I have a very specific trend in my lifting that I need to break, and Im hoping proper periodization is the answer. I will lift heavy for a while and continuously get stronger and stronger. This strength eventually plateau's, and then I begin to get weaker (the point Im at right now) I just don't get it, I always hit this same trend even when I try to majorly avoid it. I only lift 4 days a week now, and I try to avoid failure, but it seems that lifting heavy weights (5-8 reps) over a certain period of time just breaks me down and I get considerably weaker. Does anyone recommend some sort of periodization that may help me in avoiding these seemingly inevitable slumps? I appreciate all and any suggestions. I guess I would just like to know how everyone works with their heavy and light training. If I could train year round with heavy weights I would because I love it, but it just seems as though I cant do it. Well thanks again for the help.

This is what Mentzer had been saying for years- you are overtraining! Back off the volume and frequency (try, say a 20% reduction to start) and you can avoid the plateaus. You don't need to periodize, and you should NEVER be getting weaker-it means decompensation is occcuring.

 

[spatts]

Linear Periodization

Conjugated Periodization

WSB is CONJUGATED periodization. It's is DESIGNED to create hypertrpohy, speed, strength, and to prevent the overtraining that can come with powerlifting...heavy traning in general. It's well rounded and friendly to your CNS.

 

[BlkWS6]

Great thanks so much for the help everyone!!!