Rapid drops in strength, no bounce back

Disclaimer: I have used anabolics, “beginner doses” if you will, and this still happens to me.

Hey coach, appreciate if I could get your input. I go through these periods where I will make rapid gains in size and strength and then I will drop off sharply. Resembles overtraining, but sometimes may only take three weeks to hit me even though overall volume is relatively low (120 reps per muscle per week, legs a bit less, reps no less than 5).

An example: after recovering from a long term back injury, I managed to bring my squat from 185 3x5 back up to 275x10 in about 2 months. Then I hit the wall and felt like shit for about 2-3 weeks with no symptoms of any illness. When I came back, I could squat 225x6.

I will be lethargic, strength is pathetic, lose size, look fatter, brain fog, etc. Thing is, after a week or so, there is no bounce back. There never is. I just have to work at it again and pray I get back to where I was before I “overtrain” again. I sleep between 7-10 hours a night, eat enough to put on a couple pounds a month and my protein is about 150g-200g and I’m about 6’ 200lbs 14% bf right now. Goal is strength, but I have noticed bodybuilding training (light weight, infrequent training) does not give me this shitty feeling, but strength is gained at a snail’s pace for me.

Any suggestions?

This may sound overly simplistic but do you know your Vitamin D level? I had some of the same “symptoms”. My vit D level was 26. The minimum normal is 30 but ideal is 60-80. After getting into the 60-80 range it takes 2-4 months for problems to go away. Small thing to check and easy to remedy

Not a clue on the vitamin D levels.

I know I’m not CT, you really don’t need and shouldn’t be using anabolics at that strength level, that can be obtained naturally with good training and nutrition.

[quote]sput79 wrote:
I know I’m not CT, you really don’t need and shouldn’t be using anabolics at that strength level, that can be obtained naturally with good training and nutrition. [/quote]

Of course. Like I said, I wasn’t able to do legs other than extensions and curls for a long time because of the injury. Tack that onto these periods of huge drops in strength with not being able to squat at all and you can see why my squat strength dropped to absolutely nothing quite fast. I have squatted in the mid 4s and pulled in the low 5s, I eventually hit the wall and regressed quite a bit.