Frustrated with all these damn routines

[BiggerThanYou]

I've been sliding downhill for about a month now. At one point I was able to do a 5rm with 250 on flat bench, now I can barely push up 250 once. Same with incline, it's gone down about 4-6 reps on what used to be my 10rm. My diet is actually exceeding my previous caloric intake somewhat. I thought I had made incredible progress after an HST cycle. After about two weeks of a routine I started slipping. I've tried many different workouts, and NOTHING seems to stop my decreasing strength. This was my latest routine,
Upperbody
Bench pressx4
Barbell Rowsx5
Military Pressx2
Barbell Curlsx2

Lowerbody
DB Squatsx5
DB SLDLx5

Alternate each week
Monday=upper Wed=lower Fri=upper
Monday=lower Wed=upper Fri=lower

Do you think my back is getting worked 3 days out of the week because of db squats and deadlifts? I'm getting pretty frustrated with trying to construct routines. I've been lifting for more than 8 years, I have good mass built up, but now I seem to be slipping and cannot figure out what kind of routine to go on. My diet is greater than it used to be (but I'm now weaker), my hours of sleep are greater than they used to be (once again, still weaker). The only real difference is I'm now using db's for my leg work instead of a barbell now that I'm home from college. Don't know what to do. Any ideas of routines? Links? Suggestions? I really need some help.

[F1]

Hi there,

I'll give you my two cents worth:

1. If you're suffering a decline in performance even with extra calories and sleep, then maybe your overtraining. You should have about 4 weeks off a year of lifting no weights. This can either be in one go, or in say 1 week off every 3 months. So try taking 1-2 weeks off and then go back to the gym (although if you have full blown overtraining syndrome you may need alot longer to recover).

2. Your legs can take around a week to fully recover if you work them hard enough, so try only training them once a week.

3. Your routine depends on your goal: what do you want to achieve and for what. Personally my gym partner and I have started using a westside routine and found it to be really good.

www.westside-barbell.com
www.elitefts.com (esp. 8 keys articles by Dave Tate)
www.deepsquatter.com

Read as many articles as possible, cause its the only way I found to get my head round the program (something to do on your rest weeks!). Although a power lifting routine, you can modify it to suit sports improvement.

Hope that helps
mac