I’ve been training for 8 months consistently (4x/week), gained 20 month of muscle (well mostly muscle), but i’ve stagnated in this area since 3 month. My objective is to lift 215 (1RM) on bench and 315 on squat before the end of my first training year.
One of the major torn in my side I face in training is fluctuating energy level. Like one week, I can squat 73 275 pounds and the next, I’m totally floored with 255 (at least there’s security bars)… Same with bench, one week, I benched 63 185 pounds and a few days later I was totally unable to repeat that. Same with weighted chins.
The thing is I can’t find a good explanation, I sleep 7½ every night of the week and eat on a similar pattern every day. I would like to find a way to keep energy level more constant from session to session, when I can’t repeat what I was able to do a week ago, that totally ruins my day :\
Do you guys have tips to achieve more constant performance? I’d like to avoid stimulant pills. I try to eat magnesium and zinc pill, but they make me vomit… What should be my pre-workout lunch? How can I favor neural recovery?
try Biotest’s beta-7. I used to be like that too. I usually take 2 in the morning and 2 around 3pm. That with Biotest’s creatine is a lethal combination!
Also make sure you eat before you go to the gym…maybe about an hour before. Drink gatorade or something like that too for some quick carbs…
are you overtraining? are you giving yourself some time off every few days? are you eating enough? do you eat before you workout? i actually eat about 800 calories, 50 grams of protien, and about 60 grams of carbs and hour before i workout.
never seem to run into depleted energy levels to that extreme. i might miss a rep that i did last session, but i never fluxuate that much.
its your body’s way of telling you to take a break. magnesium and zinc pills? why dont you just try zma before you go to bed. taking a straight week off might actually do you some good. during that time, keep your diet up to par and get plenty of rest. you should be back at the gym the following week with more energy.
I’d also recommend having a good solid warm up before each session in addition to all the above comments regarding eating a bit more and sleeping a bit more. Also a week off doing only warm ups, flexibility and foam rolling would also be great.
What is your warm up like right now? Is there a running track on which you can do a dynamic warm up? Do you have access to a skipping rope?
Warm ups can really help get your CNS firing and get those neural pattern “clicking” as it were. I find a shit warm up makes for a shit session. A good warm up makes for PR sessions. It helps put your body in action mode and gets your sympathetic system going to help you do work.
You have apparently never bought Biotest’s products…try Surge. It’s the only “MUST” supplement I take (other than fish oil, which is more of a necessity) and it’s definitely made a lot of my friends better off in the gym too. It’s really a huge help with this kind of thing.
[quote]conwict wrote:
You have apparently never bought Biotest’s products…try Surge. It’s the only “MUST” supplement I take (other than fish oil, which is more of a necessity) and it’s definitely made a lot of my friends better off in the gym too. It’s really a huge help with this kind of thing.[/quote]