Had planned for today to try hit some new p.r’s
Started of fine
But struggled to hit even 95% on deads
Wtf happened!
What is the best way to deal with this?
Not every day is a homerun, you deal with it by looking at what went wrong and trying to fix it. You can’t go back and redo that training session but you can make adaptations now and try to get better. Everyone has bad days, its just a part of lifting.
Have you been successful with planned PRs in the past? If so, what did do differently?
i my PRs usually just come spontaneously. so my first planned PR day so to speak.
i had tried nose tork for the first time. but noticed no difference, felt it through me way of mentally.
just very disheartening
In that case you should take notes of what lead up to the spontaneous PRs, as well as the failures, because similar conditions could bring about similar results. If you see the same patterns over and over then you’ll know what works and what doesn’t.
some days are just off. ive had training sessions like this aswell. and it usually happens with deads or squats. it seems to me that the slightest thing off can cause a problem. did you eat pre workout? were you hydrated? and how were your warm up sets? these are usually things i have to look at after an off day
“Bad WORKOUT” LMFAO. dude I’ve had BAD months! Literally MONTHS and MONTHs of no PR’s. Part of the game if you’ve been lifting any real length of time. I would LOVE to only have a bad workout. Ebbs and flows homie. If lifting was easy, we’d all be squatting a grand and benching 6 bills. Get out of the instant gratification mindset and know that PR’s are EARNED not given. Someday this will mean more to you than it does now. TRUST ME.
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
“Bad WORKOUT” LMFAO. dude I’ve had BAD months! Literally MONTHS and MONTHs of no PR’s. Part of the game if you’ve been lifting any real length of time. I would LOVE to only have a bad workout. Ebbs and flows homie. If lifting was easy, we’d all be squatting a grand and benching 6 bills. Get out of the instant gratification mindset and know that PR’s are EARNED not given. Someday this will mean more to you than it does now. TRUST ME. [/quote]
I was thinking the same damn thing. It’s a grind. One sub-optimal workout means nothing.
To be a bit more pleasant: that bad workout was probably something you would have been ecstatic to hit in the past. Your shitty day is now better than what was once a great day.
I am fully aware I’m going to have to grind out my pr’s, being relatively new to powerlifting I was hoping to have my beginner gains coming for a bit longer. I guess it’s time to start the grind.
Trust me, this is normal. Especially with Deadlift and Bench.
For example, I deadlifted 465x5 last week, this week, I couldn’t even get 475 off the ground.
Somedays are just off, and here are a couple of things to take note of that affect me at least:
- Did I start any new lifts previous to the day I was weak? For this week, I did shoulders for the first time in like 8 months, my lats were killing me, hence, crappy dead day
- Sleep is huge for me, if I’m tired, I am weak
- If I eat light before my workout, it suffers. I force food down
- The approach to the PR is huge for me also. I can’t expect to do 5 sets of 550 on squat, then just toss on 625 and expect it to go up according to a 1rm calculator, I have to ease myself into it with doing a heavy triple, double, singles, up to my PR. It gets your body used to the heavier weight and mentally ready.
[quote]jbo616 wrote:
Had planned for today to try hit some new p.r’s
Started of fine
But struggled to hit even 95% on deads
Wtf happened!
What is the best way to deal with this?[/quote]
Here’s the real question: How did you prepare yourself to “hit some new p.r’s”? If you are seriously planning to test your 1rm’s then your best bet is to taper and deload like you would for a meet. If I just say, “hey, let’s hit some pr’s tomorrow”, then I can almost guarantee I will be disappointed. The odds of hitting pr’s in all three lifts on one day with not preparation are very low.
The other thing is that it sounds like you maxed out on all three lifts in one day, how long did you give yourself between lifts? Even in a meet where you will have several hours from your first squat attempt to you first deadlift, there is a good chance you will be tired once you get there because you will likely have had a few grinding attempts. In my opinion, to do a real test day you need to deload in the days leading up to it and either give yourself an hour or so between lifts or deadlift the next day if you don’t have the time.
I spend a the week before focusing more on speed work at about 55-60% with bands. Nothing to heavy. Ate far more food than I would usually. I’d had it planned for the week as it was my aim to hit new PRs on my birthday.
I did get some new gear that I’ve never used belt, wraps etc. which I guess has had some effect. But a huge improvement in what I was lifting with before.
I’ve written a 6 week program that I aim to start after a deload week. Where would the best place to post it for advice be. On this thread or start a new one?
Did you reduce volume as well? There are different ways to taper of course, but the more standard way of doing things is to cut volume and just do some heavier work the week before. The week of the test/meet, some people will take the whole week off, some will hit openers at the start of the week and just do a light warm up a couple days out. As you can see, testing too often can take away valuable training time so don’t do it too often.
If you’re doing speed work the way that Louie says to do it with 1 min. breaks between sets then it will be more fatiguing than hitting 90% for a single. It also sounds like you are lifting raw (are the wraps for your knees or wrists?) so bands shouldn’t be a big part of your training. They are good for equipped lifters because of the similar strength curve. For raw lifters they are good for overloading the top end of the movement, it will help you by making you feel some heavier weight and will teach you to hold your form, but you don’t want to overdo it because you will become weak at the bottom of the lifts.
And on the topic of speed work, you know Louie has updated his recommended percentages for raw lifters. Look up Jordan Syatt’s site for more details.
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
“Bad WORKOUT” LMFAO. dude I’ve had BAD months! Literally MONTHS and MONTHs of no PR’s. Part of the game if you’ve been lifting any real length of time. I would LOVE to only have a bad workout. Ebbs and flows homie. If lifting was easy, we’d all be squatting a grand and benching 6 bills. Get out of the instant gratification mindset and know that PR’s are EARNED not given. Someday this will mean more to you than it does now. TRUST ME. [/quote]
this pretty much sums it up
i didnt really turn the volume down. rookie mistake i guess
had a look at his website lots of great information thanks for the heads up on that one
In the words of Jim Wendler:
“If you trained only on your good days you’d only train two times a year.”