About three months ago I was finishing up BOM and towards the end of the program I was bench 170 for 6 reps. At the time, I just started cutting. Now, three months later I am still cutting (I am now towards the end of my cutting phase), and I have three weeks left with Super Strength and the Limping Series.
Today is about the first time since the second phase of SS I've went heavy. For the first set, SS calls for me to do 4 reps, so I figured I would able to be do 170 easily, and I would work up from there. I put up 170 once. And aside from that, I thought my form could have been better.
The funny thing is, my deadlift and squat have been soaring since I've started Limping. My max deadlift is over 280 lbs. and my squat is about the same.
Also, on other upper body lifts my strength has gone up, although not to the extent of my leg exercises. My military presses, rows, pulldowns, have all increased since starting SS.
I eat at maintance level on days that I work out or do HIIT. On off days I eat at roughly 500 cal. below maintance. I've been eating at a 40p/30c/30f ratio. So I know my diet has been in check.
Oh, and I'm just coming off a rest week. This was my first rest week since finishing BOM, so I went 9 weeks of lifting straight. I also have a tendency to go to failure more often when training my chest, than other body parts.
Basically, I need some feedback.
Does my body just not respond well to once a week routines? Should I switch to either a split routine (and judging from my gains on the beginner BOM, my body responded well too) or should I go to a full body workout routine (not sure how my body will respond)? I've been cutting for almost four months now, so should I start bulking? I've wanted to do HST for awhile now, but wanted to hold off until I had a lower body fat that would give me a better ratio of muscle gain versus fat gain. I don't like the idea of quiting SS, but the main purpose I started the program was to increase my bench, which obviously hasn't happened.
I know this was kind of long, but I wanted to give out as much as detail as possible, thanks for reading and replies.
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No, it didn't go down in one day. After I benched 170, 6 times, I just started cycling off of creatine, so obviously a little strength was lost there. Since that time I have started using creatine again, so I figured any strength I've lost since cycling off, would be regain (BTW, I started using creatine again about a month ago), but since this is the first time I've went heavy in the past three months, on creatine, I just noticed this dramatic drop off from where I was three months ago. So I have been losing strength in my press during the past three months.
Normally my chest is sore the next day, but usually by the following day, I feel fine. I know soreness isn't a great indicator, but maybe my body doesn't respond so well to once a week routines.
Also, just to add I don't have the resources available to me to check by body fat, but I'm guessing I'm in the neighborhood of anywhere between 9-13%. I have a decent six pack. The lower abs aren't as visible as the top ones. When I stopped bulking I was around 203, and today I weigh about 183. I dunno, maybe I should start bulking? I wouldn't be opposed to starting HST, since I've been looking forward to it for the past six weeks or so.
__________________
"If you don't want to be the best, why bother?"
Hey cloudy - first point, stay upbeat - I can tell you're a bit frustrated, which is understandable - let's try to analyze this.
You've got improvement in everything except benching on the first day of SS phase 4. How did you do on phase 2 benching? I did that program, and phase 2 calls for sets of 6 bench presses - what weight did you use for those reps in phase 2?
Thanks for the support. I am a bit frustrated. The bench press is my favorite lift, and I was progressing nicely before SS.
I looked at my old logs. During phase two I estimated too high in weight (the first week that is) and only could get 165, four times. Although, at the time I was off of creatine, so I figured the strength loss was due to that. Although, in my last workout I used 160 and could only get that up four times. So I don't know what the deal with the weight loss there is about.
Maybe today was just a dramatic off day, I'm not sure. But I am seriously reconsidering finishing SS.
__________________
"If you don't want to be the best, why bother?"
The bench press (normal) is basically the only chest exercise I have done in the past several months. Phase one and three did have flyes, however it's hard to judge the weight I used on them, because the flyes were in the middle of a chest superset, which was at the conclusion of my workout. So by that time my muscles were exhausted.
__________________
"If you don't want to be the best, why bother?"
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