Ok,so after a few years layoff I decided to get back to the gym and rather than falling back into bodybuilding type workouts I decided ( at 46 yrs old )that I would focus on powerlifting instead.
After doing some reading and working out for a few months I decided on 5/3/1 (the original). I spent 3 months on it before having to quit to have an old hernia taken care of. After the recoup was done I jumped back into it.
My question is regarding “stalls” and what to do next…
I blew through the first 4 months pretty well. All my weights went up and I was able to continually set new PR’s each workout. I retested my maxes after 4 months and kept going.
However as months 5,6, and 7 progressed I found that I wasn’t able to set as many PR’s (which I expected…pretty hard to beat a PR with a heavier weight as compared to repping out a lighter weight) but I continued.
Month 8 (and now month 9) I am finding it difficult to even make the actual “5’s”, “3’s”, or “1’s” on a consistent basis from week to week.
I think I read that if I stalled I should repeat the weight next month and see if I make any progress. Nope…If anything I have been getting weaker. I am finding that even my lower weights are being performed for less reps than they were when they were my “heavier” weights from months earlier (which is frustrating to say the least)
Kinda at a loss and wondering how to proceed. I just saw a few posts regarding stalling and 5forward/3back and a couple other techniques. Is this something new added? (I have 5/3/1 …haven’t read “beyond” or any other variations…
like I said, I’ve stalled/regressed on 3 of the 4 lifts and need to get things moving forward again. thx
these were my numbers at the 4-5 month mark:
315 bench, 365 squat, 405 deadlift
and even though I’ve moved 3-4 months past those numbers by adding 5-10 lbs each month to my training max (because I’ve managed to hit the “5 3 1” at a minimum) I think I’ve actually regressed.
sorry, long post…