Been doing the program for about 6 months now and it has been fantastic. Really meets my strength training needs and time constraints without gassing me too much for my primary sport training. Thank you.
Anyway, I did search the forum but couldn’t find an answer to my specific question. I understand that if I consistently stall at a certain weight on one of the lifts that I should bump down my max and take 90 percent of that and reboot.
But sometimes I miss lifts in one session because of fatigue or insufficient recovery. I travel quite often and find that this happens often when I am jetlagged. Once I have recovered I find that I make the same lift progression without any issue. So my question is this…in one particular training session if I miss a lift what should I be doing after the failed lift in that session? Just stop? Drop some weight and continue the progression. Or rest and try again at the same weight I missed? I guess I don’t understand what I am suppose to do after the missed set.
Hopefully, my question isn’t too confusing. I am a bit confused myself so may not be clear.
Hey Budoka,
How often are you traveling? If it is once a month for example, I would have my deload sessions the days where you are jetlagged, to ease back into it and prepare your body for heavier sessions.
How often do you miss minimum reps?
I would suggest (but that is my opinion, I am no expert), to still reset your TM if it happens too often. If you are worried that you will not be lifting heavy enough, you can always push the last set and try to beat a Rep PR if you feel you are having a good lifting day. If you have a bad lifting day, you can still do the min rep or slightly more if you feel like it, and still accomplish your target for that workout.
Most of the time, taking a step back is the answer on how to get stronger on the long term.
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Use a lower training max. I think one way to pick your TM is something that means you can get five clean, fast reps on your 1+ set in week three. Do that, and you’ll hit big rep PRs when you aren’t travelling and will be absolutely sure of hitting at least your minimum reps when you are.
Thanks for the reply. Once a month and long haul international. I’ve thought about doing the deload week on travel weeks but the travel doesn’t always fall on week 4 so to try to program the deload week to fall on those weeks was overly complicated.
I totally understand about taking a step back and have done it before with much success but I guess what I am trying to understand is what people are doing on their bad training days? Getting up and walking out of the gym when they miss a lift. Just seems like a waste of time and that there should be something that I am doing after the missed lift in that session.
Thanks MarkKO. My TM’s do allow for 5 fast clean reps on 1+ set in week 3. The problem is if I am fatigued or step off a plane that is when I will miss it.
Have you tried not lifting on a travel day or possibly the day after?
Maybe I should clarify a little. My TM is already lower than it probably should be but that is because I am using 531 to supplement my primary sport training which happens 6 days a week 15+ hours. No that isn’t an exaggeration. It has worked for me because of the start light mentality, low volume, minimum time required in the weight room, and the fact that I can space it over 4 days… which allows me to step out of the weight room and into my regular training session without being gassed.
So clearly recovery is critical in my situation and to date I have managed well enough that I rarely miss lifts. When I do miss lifts it is consistently when I step off an airplane into the weight room or if my recovery wasn’t adequate.
I have lowered my TM’s in the past when I see consistent fails outside of those two parameters I indicated with much success.
My confusion is about the one off bad sessions I may have. In those sessions, I rather still do “something” with the time, if I fail in one set of a lift. Or is that just not the way it is designed. ie: you miss rep 3 in set 2 week 3… so pack up and go home. Lower TM again etc.
Thanks, everyone. I’ve been lurking on this forum for some time now and it really is fantastic.
You could try one of Jim’s 3 Day templates and just rest on travel days?
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