Lifting steady for 2 months..all lifts increasing except for SQUATS!

[kid5er]

Since I started doing squats about 2 months ago I went from 25lbs on each side to 35lbs on each side, going all the way down on each rep, till im on my haunches, but the past 2 weeks I've noticed that my legs are getting weaker.

Now I can barely get 115lbs up 5 times for my first set, and each subsequent set I actually have to switch to 25 on each side otherwise I could barely get 1 rep out. I alternate upper and lower body on each day, legs on one day, chesticles and tris the next day , and so on and so forth, and train 6 days a week.

Am I overworking my legs here? Not getting enough protein? I take muscle milk, 2 scoops after the work out and I have just begun (literally today) a ketogenic diet. I never really trained legs in the past and so its a body part that I'm sorely lacking.

 

[EZ_E]

1st off; 6 days a week is over training.

2nd; depending on what your training before leg day could impact your squat.

3rd; are you trying to go big? (it sounds like you are) if so then I don't recommend Keto. I love keto and I'm on it now but I wouldn't use that diet for bulking up

 

[kid5er]

Thanks for the response, I train upper body three days a week, and Legs 3 days a week. Is this still over-training? Before leg day I do chest (5x sets flat bench, 5x sets dips, 5x flys) and shoulders(5x shrugs, 5x military press).

I'm trying to gain some size and strength while at the same time cutting body fat, but more importantly seeing how I feel on a no carb diet, I suffer from some depression and anxiety and I have heard that keto and paleo diets can actually help the cause better than a lot of anti-depressants. I've been on and off paxil and other shit for years and its always stopped helping within months of me starting taking it(<-- fuck that noise), so I am trying to drastically change my lifestyle both physically and spiritually.

 

[WhoDey937]

12 weeks ago I made it a point in my training to take my leg workouts more serious than any other body part. I was squatting 350-400 pounds, which is no record, but I was not happy with my form and how low I was going. I was also doing 5-6 reps with 5-6 sets. Since I was not happy with my squats I decided to try something out and I'm very happy I did. My squats are continually increasing every week, my legs are getting leaner and bigger at the same time and I'm making gains in all my other workouts. I dropped the weight from 350-400 pounds all the way down to 95 pounds and I started doing 3 sets of 20 reps, ass to the floor. I then follow that with 3 sets of 10 reps of what I call Z squats. This is where you put the bar in the crease of your bicep and forearm and squat down as low as you can go. So, with a warmup of 10 reps, followed by 3 sets of 20 reps ass to the floor, followed by 3 sets of 10 of the Z squats this gives you a total of 100 reps of squats. Do this once per week and strive to increase the weight by 10 pounds every week. The first time you do it do only the bar and make sure you are going all the way as low as you can go. Give it a shot and see if your legs don't explode.

 

[kid5er]

I'm sure that the case is that I'm over-training, I go to failure on every set and do squats 3x a week. I like your suggestion, that sounds good to me, and fucking intense too! but is once a week really enough? I know for a different body part that probably wouldn't be enough, but since legs are the biggest muscles I'm assuming they also take longer to recover?

 

[WhoDey937]

I can promise you, after that workout you will never want to squat again. I workout all body parts once a week but that's what works for me. I'm up to 160 ass to the floor for 100 reps and it has been working wonders for me. Don't forget to train your hammies just as hard.

 

[EZ_E]

Thanks for the response, I train upper body three days a week, and Legs 3 days a week. Is this still over-training? Before leg day I do chest (5x sets flat bench, 5x sets dips, 5x flys) and shoulders(5x shrugs, 5x military press).

I'm trying to gain some size and strength while at the same time cutting body fat, but more importantly seeing how I feel on a no carb diet, I suffer from some depression and anxiety and I have heard that keto and paleo diets can actually help the cause better than a lot of anti-depressants. I've been on and off paxil and other shit for years and its always stopped helping within months of me starting taking it(<-- fuck that noise), so I am trying to drastically change my lifestyle both physically and spiritually.

Six days a week is over training
Six days a week is over training
Six days a week is over training
Six days a week is over training
Six days a week is over training
Six days a week is over training

TRAINING ONE BODYPART 3 X WEEK IS OVEERRRRRRRRTRAAAIIIINNING

2-3 on, one off

You've stalled because of overtraining

 

[Hulksmash4]

3 times a week doing legs or any other body part is too much. I train every day, but 1 body part a day. It is what works for me. So, 6 days is too much for some, not too much for everyone. You got to find what is right for you and your body. You want your legs to grow, go heavy. Ass to the grass is silly. Get you a box or go parallel. You get to my age that saves your knees. I have been squatting heavy 20 plus years. Box squats or parallel.

 

[kid5er]

thanks! I figured that might have been it, but for some reason if I'm not in the gym every day I feel guilty like an idiot. I'm going to cut back to doing upper body twice a week and legs twice a week and see how it goes for me. I've also had some ac-joint trouble lately, it seems to get worse when I use the chest fly machine. dont know if its my positioning or the starting/stopping point, I bring my arms back kind of far, and even if they are parallel with my chest I feel a lot of strain in my shoulders, especially in the beginning and end of the movement. So I'm going to switch that out and just do incline dumbbell presses, those flys never really seemed to do much for me anyway.

 

[EZ_E]

Rest = results

We have a vey big problem in gyms everywhere where guys are NOT getting the right amount of rest.

OP, you may wanna try training hams & quads on different days...I adopted that protocol a few years ago and it works (for me)