Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below I have been trying a 1 on 4 off training schedule to bulk up. I am a clean lifter and on lifting days eat 5500 calories with about 1000 carbs and the non lifting days follow a CKD with about 3300 calories and 230 protien. I do the big compounds every 5 days..3 sets squat...3 sets bent row...3 sets flat DB bench....2 sets overhead press...2 sets deadlift...2 sets calve raise. I have been increasing weight every exercise for 7 straight sessions. I am putting on 1-1 1/2 pound every 10 days. here is my problem. I am losing strength in my benching. I have been lifting for almost 2 years but now I am really trying to get bigger and stronger. I really feel the bench in my front sholders. I used to do alot of lateral raises and stuff for sholders and now I do not. Vould my shoulder strencth be going down in turn hurting my bench? Please help me. On lift days I do a depletion workout in the morning and the big lift at night, then 4 days total rest with 1 30 min. cardio session. i know I am getting proper rest because I have went up 20 pounds on squats in 5 weeks and 15 pounds on my bent rows, its just this damn bench problem I cannot figure out.
Overtraining...Undertraining? Bench problems
- Thread starter kingmike
- Start date
CKDisforme
New member
Ok Big Mike,
I will try and take this on. I myself am 285 (currently looking to lose) about 20 (less) bf, with about 11yrs of expierence, clean for a long time (5yrs). I say this so you can at least appreciate my sediment, So here goes:
1. what is your weight - currently - and what would you like it to be?
2. Do you consider yourself a meso-morph, endo/ecto-morph, or meso-endo/ecto morph (just do a search to look up the terms if you do not already know them).
3.I need goals... what are you goals I can tell you it sounds like you are trying to 'light the candle form both ends' so to speak in other words - it sounds like you are training for mass/power yet with cardio and frequency of training you mentioned, it looks like you could be training for weight loss/lean body mass. You need to stick with one concept- either mass/power or weight loss/lean body mass - now you can do a split program like I know some members do here - like train for mass a certain amount of months and then change it around a bit for another period of months - capishe?
4. As far as diet goes it is going to greatly depend on your answers from my above questions. Let me know
Conclusions: your situation to me sounds like indeed you are not only overtraining but you may have hit a plateau (workout/frequency) - just from the sound of it you gave up shoulder work because of shoulder pain asscociated from (i assume) heavy presses. The bottom line is that while you may feel like you can mentally do the workout (say if you were using stimulents) it is completely different from being physically ready and/or recovered for the impending workout.
Let me know some answers from those questions and i will do my best to help you out.
I will try and take this on. I myself am 285 (currently looking to lose) about 20 (less) bf, with about 11yrs of expierence, clean for a long time (5yrs). I say this so you can at least appreciate my sediment, So here goes:
1. what is your weight - currently - and what would you like it to be?
2. Do you consider yourself a meso-morph, endo/ecto-morph, or meso-endo/ecto morph (just do a search to look up the terms if you do not already know them).
3.I need goals... what are you goals I can tell you it sounds like you are trying to 'light the candle form both ends' so to speak in other words - it sounds like you are training for mass/power yet with cardio and frequency of training you mentioned, it looks like you could be training for weight loss/lean body mass. You need to stick with one concept- either mass/power or weight loss/lean body mass - now you can do a split program like I know some members do here - like train for mass a certain amount of months and then change it around a bit for another period of months - capishe?
4. As far as diet goes it is going to greatly depend on your answers from my above questions. Let me know
Conclusions: your situation to me sounds like indeed you are not only overtraining but you may have hit a plateau (workout/frequency) - just from the sound of it you gave up shoulder work because of shoulder pain asscociated from (i assume) heavy presses. The bottom line is that while you may feel like you can mentally do the workout (say if you were using stimulents) it is completely different from being physically ready and/or recovered for the impending workout.
Let me know some answers from those questions and i will do my best to help you out.
How much do you weigh? working out once every 5 days, averaging 3,740 cal per day, and gaining 1.5lbs every 10 days sounds to me like you're probably putting on a good deal of fat. No way you could add 4-5 lbs lean mass in a month without chemical help. Some bf can help significantly with getting stronger in many compound lifts like squats but bench probably not so much. It could also be that you started your bench weights closer to max and had less rome built in for improvement so you weren't necessarily getting a whole lot stronger in the other lifts but just taking up the slack. Just some thoughts.
JoBu
JoBu
Sounds like undertraining to me. Youre only training once a week? What are your goals?
EDIT: fixed typo.
Interesting program. I've trained that way and liked it.
I would say, however, that it'd probably be beneficial to break that workout into two sessions. That's a lot of HEAVY stuff for one day...it can be done, but then, training isn't a test to see how much you can endure.
Part of that's undoubtedly the CKD.
I'm 99.99% certain no, that's not your problem. Bench presses are probably the best front delt exercise there is (inclines and militaries are close seconds). And you are doing overhead presses, so that's a decent order of work for the front delts.
I suggest you not fret too much about it; chalk it up to the CKD, and/or the inherent difficulty in improving DB presses. Getting them into position, that first low momentum rep...it's a hard exercise to improve rapidly on, even in small increments.
That's especially the case if you're not doing them first in the workout!!!!!
But that's not to suggest you've no recourse. I think what I'd do instead is concentrate on parallel dips. Performed with a slight lean forward (tuck your chin into your upper chest), it's an incredible chest exercise. It'd also allow you to progress more easily...whereas adding even 1.25 lbs./DB could be too much, adding 5 lbs. to your dips every 10 days would be relatively easy.
That, or you could go to your standard barbell bench, which has similar advantages. I like dips better but that's a personal preference...I could never quite divorce my ego from benching, and wound up hurting as a result.
And as I previously suggested, you might want to break your workout in half. I don't know how that'll jive with your CKD, especially the depletion phase, but we'll figure that out later.
Let me know what you think of that and we'll talk some more Mike.
kingmike said:
Interesting program. I've trained that way and liked it.
I would say, however, that it'd probably be beneficial to break that workout into two sessions. That's a lot of HEAVY stuff for one day...it can be done, but then, training isn't a test to see how much you can endure.
Part of that's undoubtedly the CKD.
I'm 99.99% certain no, that's not your problem. Bench presses are probably the best front delt exercise there is (inclines and militaries are close seconds). And you are doing overhead presses, so that's a decent order of work for the front delts.
I suggest you not fret too much about it; chalk it up to the CKD, and/or the inherent difficulty in improving DB presses. Getting them into position, that first low momentum rep...it's a hard exercise to improve rapidly on, even in small increments.
That's especially the case if you're not doing them first in the workout!!!!!
But that's not to suggest you've no recourse. I think what I'd do instead is concentrate on parallel dips. Performed with a slight lean forward (tuck your chin into your upper chest), it's an incredible chest exercise. It'd also allow you to progress more easily...whereas adding even 1.25 lbs./DB could be too much, adding 5 lbs. to your dips every 10 days would be relatively easy.
That, or you could go to your standard barbell bench, which has similar advantages. I like dips better but that's a personal preference...I could never quite divorce my ego from benching, and wound up hurting as a result.
And as I previously suggested, you might want to break your workout in half. I don't know how that'll jive with your CKD, especially the depletion phase, but we'll figure that out later.
Let me know what you think of that and we'll talk some more Mike.
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Thanks for the info! I have read that 8-10 days rest could bring great results in mass gains. I was thinking of working half my body 1 day and the other half 5 days later. That would be a bodypart every 10 days. I was thinking like 5-6 sets for bigger muscles and 3 for smaller. I would probably work calves for 2 sets every workout, or every 5 days. What do you think?
