Where has my Strength gone??

[Silverback316]

Allright I am very frustrated to say the least. Last winter I went from 200 lbs to about 235 lbs naturally and my strength went through the roof with my added muscle weight. The only think I took was AST's Andro 250, but I did about 2 bottles of it halfway in. Anyways I cut down to 218 and ended up adding 18 lbs of muscle overall in about 4 months naturally. Now get this about 6 weeks ago I decided to do my first cycle and did deca and eq only. I had doubts about not adding test in with this but my dosages were low and a guy I trust a lot said it wasn't necessary for my first cycle. I went from 218 to 235 lbs in under 5 weeks with little if any fat gain, but my fucking strength has actually gone down. Why is this does anyone know? It has been bugging me a lot because I was fucking stronger when I was natural. I dropped the deca last friday and have since started fina at 37.5 mg ed, test enth. 250 mg. a week, and eq at about 300 mg. a week for a 10 week cycle. Will the fina and test get my strength up or what and how long will it take probably. I am 20 years old, 6'1, and weighed in today at 238 lbs. if any of you know of why this could be it would really be appreciated because I am not use to this decline in strength. Thanks

 

[str8manwithadickinhisass]

Strength loss can indicate overtraining.

 

[genarr3]

My last Deca/EQ cycle made me hella strong. I wouldn't blame the gear here. Look at your diet, maybe you're overtraining? Are you gettin enough sleep, that sort of thing.

You can't constantly hit it hard and expect to be at your strongest all the time.

Strength always will have peaks and valleys, the trick is to learn how to time them for when you want to be your strongest. Look to the powerlifting forum for tips on doing this.

 

[Silverback316]

Allright I know for a fact that it is not my diet as you will not find a 20 year old that is as consistent and dedicated as I am. I keep my training to 45 minutes to an hour tops and go 5 days on 2 days off usually. I even took a week off 2 weeks ago to see if maybe I was burned out and I am even weaker 2 weeks later. I feel great it is just that my strength is not where it should be. Could it be possible that the deca lowered my test levels which is why my strength has gone to the shits for me? Will the fina and test help on this or what?

 

[genarr3]

Allright I know for a fact that it is not my diet as you will not find a 20 year old that is as consistent and dedicated as I am. I keep my training to 45 minutes to an hour tops and go 5 days on 2 days off usually. I even took a week off 2 weeks ago to see if maybe I was burned out and I am even weaker 2 weeks later. I feel great it is just that my strength is not where it should be. Could it be possible that the deca lowered my test levels which is why my strength has gone to the shits for me? Will the fina and test help on this or what?

I understand what you're saying but that has never happened to me personally from the gear. I still think you're just looking at a low point in your training. I've been weight training for almost 15 years, and with me it's always about how strong I am this week. I can tell you from experience that strength is not something that's always on the upswing, you will always have peaks and valleys.

Of course if you do another cycle you will get stronger. But you'd be far better off solving this naturally. Taking a week off isn't going to solve every overtraining problem. It's a good start but what you need to do for the next month or two is forget about how much weight you're lifting, stop testing yourself. Just workout without the stress and I promise the strength will return.

 

[genarr3]

Try this, it isn't cutting edge powerlifting, but it's simple and will work.

Have you ever considered cycling your lifts? Powerlifters do this. The idea behind it is you're not going to be at your strongest every single day. Strength has peaks and valleys. So when they prepare for a meet they want to cycle their lifts so they will be rested and at maximum strength on meet day.

This is a very simple one that I have used with good results on my Squat; it'll work equally well on your Dead. I haven't had much success with these things on my bench however.

It's a 10-week cycle.
Every week you're going to do 3 sets of 5 reps. That's it, no more on the core movement. You can/will do other back/leg movements, but don't go crazy.

Pick the highest weight you can 5 clean hard reps. Let's say it's 400lbs on the dead.

Week one you will do 325lbs 5 reps - 3 sets. This will be very easy. So you make it harder by using perfect form, and practicing exploding the weight up. Faster bar speed then you usually do. Really try to learn the movement. Then you add ten pounds to the lift for the next week.

Keep doing this for 10 weeks. By the end hopefully you'll now be able to do 425lbs for 5 clean reps. the next week try a new personal record.

Try it, it works.

 

[g-dogg]

Try this, it isn't cutting edge powerlifting, but it's simple and will work.

Have you ever considered cycling your lifts? Powerlifters do this. The idea behind it is you're not going to be at your strongest every single day. Strength has peaks and valleys. So when they prepare for a meet they want to cycle their lifts so they will be rested and at maximum strength on meet day.

This is a very simple one that I have used with good results on my Squat; it'll work equally well on your Dead. I haven't had much success with these things on my bench however.

It's a 10-week cycle.
Every week you're going to do 3 sets of 5 reps. That's it, no more on the core movement. You can/will do other back/leg movements, but don't go crazy.

Pick the highest weight you can 5 clean hard reps. Let's say it's 400lbs on the dead.

Week one you will do 325lbs 5 reps - 3 sets. This will be very easy. So you make it harder by using perfect form, and practicing exploding the weight up. Faster bar speed then you usually do. Really try to learn the movement. Then you add ten pounds to the lift for the next week.

Keep doing this for 10 weeks. By the end hopefully you'll now be able to do 425lbs for 5 clean reps. the next week try a new personal record.

Try it, it works.

Good post Genarr--I train with this kid and he is more dedicated than anyone I've met

 

[ded_prez]

its in your head....it is a mental game...and u must beat it.

 

[FILtheman]

mee too

last year i also was doing fine with my strength and then began a cycle along with my friend. well to our surprise we began getting cut and losing strength. that made me worry quite a bit and discontinued my cycle but my friend didnt .
I continued using creatine and protein and other vitamins and about a month later my strength was returning but my friend did not increase his strength. this was unaceptable to me, In previous cylces of sustenon and dbol strength and size were always present about 3 weeks into it. BUT I DONT UNDERSTAND WHY THIS TIME ONLY I only saw fat reduction and cuts. it is weird and it leadds me to think that some steroids out there are not what we would want them to be. I think they are waterred down or substituted with something cheaper. And based on what I read here there are many who have experienced this as well.
I have gone through 4 cycles now aand all I have to show for it is an empty wallet. I am not a begginer and do know how to eat and train and only train 4 times a week and train my body in two weeks in order to recover and grow. Until I come across a reliable source I will not spend any more cash.
I rather stick with the basic building blocks which are high protein and creatine for now.


good luck on your cycle

 

[Beezers]

genarr3's post is very good and practival. Strenght increase or even maintnace for that matter is not linear. If flutuates, sometimes drastically, from day to day. Pure strength is far more reliant on mental power than physical power. It is always nice to see the poundage move up on your lifts, but stagnation is a fact of this game. If everything in weight training were continuous and linear we would be deadlifting and squating 5000 pounds at a bodyweight of 500 pounds. As you can imagine the body has to place a "leash" on these things for the well being of the body. If you get too strong too fast you will get seriously injured, hence the body's response to keep muscle growth and strength increases under tight control. These plateus can last for months, however, often times the main impediment of your mentality. Just think about how much more mental power it takes to step under a bar loaded with 495 for squats as opposed to 225. Half of the exhaustion experienced in that workout, or even that set, is mental fatigue. If you think you're weak, or getting weaker, then you will be weak. If you're training for physique goals then the numbers on the bar or dumbell are irrelevent. We must progressivly overload our muscle for muscle hypertrpohy to occur, but again this takes time and there is more than one way to do it. If you're at a low point with higher poundages use lighter (not light) weights and foccus on form and intensity techniques (ie. drop sets, rest pause, forced reps, neggatives, partials). You can make any weight heavy as the muscles are not scales and don't count pounds. They know no numbers; only stress placed upon them. If you're a bodybuilder strength isn't the objective. If, on a particular day you can't handle your normal weights use a different trainnig technique. Use slower, tighter form. Do intensity techniques to increase the demand of your muscles. WHatever you do you have to get your mind fully into it. You may not be physically overtrained, but you very well may be mentally overtrained.