I really enjoyed this setup too that I've used for about 5 months = start around 15/20 reps and drop down to 4 reps during every menstruation cycle. It took a while before I had finally dropped enough volume to not overtrain.. the first few months I was constantly on the brink of overtraining. So a few more rest days, less sets and viz. cardio not trying to do HIIT/interval cardio every single time...
Not work harder, but smarter... it also paid off for weight loss as working too hard makes me overeat all the time as a 'kneejerk' response.
Apparently I am now finally learning how not to overtrain by cutting down on volume of the lifts by doing less sets. Concentrating on ramping up the weights instead of ramping up the reps as well as smarter warmup sets with overloading (a heavier warmup set preceding the workset) has done wonders for my results.
For bench pressing though, which doesn't have my attention like DL or squatting I do need more sets before attempting that 55 kg press.
Tomorrow (Thursday) there's a rest day. Originally I'm supposed to do cardio, but I'll be away most of the day and probably will not have time. So be it. Saturday I'll try that 55kg bench press again right at the start when I'm still fresh. And for the rest it'll be a depletion training with 15-20 rep sets. Originally it is always on day 22 of my cycle as this traditionally is my natural 'binge' day. Tracked about 35 cycles and it's not just the week preceding TOM that leads to overeating but it's very specific days, especially ovulation and approx. 1 week out from TOM. Not even as much the 4 days preceding TOM so it can happen that I drop water weight right before TOM instead of right after TOM.
Did you know that women tend to have a higher glycogen storage capacity before TOM? Read that somewhere recently and it now makes perfect sense because the body thinks it's about to 'give birth' .. at least the hormonal status is quite similar. Progesterone is higher pre-TOM and is a 'binge' hormone it seems.. Estrogens OTOH are very similar to leptin and suppress appetite, which explains the lack of appetite in the first part of a cycle.
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