varying strength levels

[dave12345]

What is causing my various strength levels?

I've been training for over 10 years now, and what i'm feeling is not as much a plateau , but these monthly phases that are worse. It's more like i'm taking many steps back rather than just being stuck at a certain leve;/

for example, 4-5 months ago, at about 165lbs, i was at my strongest ever. I was doing 295x2 on the bench, doing 120lb x6 dumbells on flat, and around that time was when i did 20 pullups. funny thing was, i told myself, "this ain't goin to last long, you kno you're never strong like this normally". this phase lasted for about a month.

now i jes came back from the gym, i struggled on bench getting 4 shaky reps at 245 bench, 8 reps of 100lbs. and the last time i did pullups i probably maxed out pullusp at 14 or so.

the weird thing is, i'm at about 171lbs, the largest i've ever been in my life. virtually every bodypart is bigger than it was 4-5 months ago, but my strength goes through these phases -- it's really really disheartening especially since now i am probably the weakest i have been in a year.

my workouts are always changing as well. most workouts are never the same and from a high level standpoint i change that up a lot too. i've done dog crapp training, higher rep, lower rep, and my exercises are always being interchanged.

anyone else experience this? result of bad rest? result of bad nutrition? the cold weather? god forbid... old age? (i'm 25).

[Dzoni]

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i've done dog crapp training

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Doggcrapp is not a "routine" you take up for a few weeks or few months.. most guys that are on doggcrapp now, have been on doggcrapp for about 10 + years.

One thing i recommend is strength training.

Take up 5x5 for a year or two, once you've come to a stall on that program, where no matter what you do, wont provide you with strength and size gains, take up doggcrapp again, only if you're willing to put 110% in to it with diets, cardio, supplements and training... it's a program that takes a long time to learn about, so while you're doing the bill starr 5x5, read up on everything and anything you can find about doggcrapp that has been written by Dante (DC him self, and few others like In Human, Massive G and few others that he has taken under his wing).

How can you progress in strength when all you're doing is changing up your volume, routines and programs around.

Stick with a program that is meant for strength training, progress on it, read up what to do when you stop progressing (restart, ramp up, de load what ever you need to do to be able to start progressing again).

What makes more sense, squatting in the same program for over a year gaining 100-200 lb on your squat, or changing up from low volume to high volume, low reps to high reps and your squat goes up bout 45lb a year?

Read this:

http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow...Linear_5x5.htm

All links, sub links and every bit of information you can get your hands on through that link.

Good luck

[FloridaTitan]

You've gotta decide on what you want in this. You want to be strong or big. You can't train like a bodybuilder and expect to gain strength on everything and keep that strength on a regular basis. You can't train like a powerlifter and expect huge muscles. You'll get a little bit of other when you train either way.

Your changing strength levels is probably just due to poor planning. You can't go super heavy past the 90% range on an exercise more than a couple times in a row before you plataeu and regress. You need to build a solid program where you can integrate strength training and bodybuilding in two seperate cycles. 12 weeks of strength training and 12 weeks of bodybuilding.

A big fancy 5x5 program will work but not for long. The gains are nice in the4 beginning but it doesn't last. 5 months is the longest I've seen anyone do it for.

[DirtbagDan]

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You've gotta decide on what you want in this. You want to be strong or big. You can't train like a bodybuilder and expect to gain strength on everything and keep that strength on a regular basis. You can't train like a powerlifter and expect huge muscles. You'll get a little bit of other when you train either way.

Your changing strength levels is probably just due to poor planning. You can't go super heavy past the 90% range on an exercise more than a couple times in a row before you plataeu and regress. You need to build a solid program where you can integrate strength training and bodybuilding in two seperate cycles. 12 weeks of strength training and 12 weeks of bodybuilding.

A big fancy 5x5 program will work but not for long. The gains are nice in the4 beginning but it doesn't last. 5 months is the longest I've seen anyone do it for.

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No, that's not true. If you want to get big, you MUST get stronger. As you keep using the same weight, sets, and rep schemes over and over, your body will have no reason to grow because it is not recieving a challenge! You'd be lifting the same weight your body is used to lifting over and over and over. The only highly effective method of gaugeing your progress is your in-the-gym strength gains. If you are going up in either reps, weight, or both, then you will grow! That's why programs such as Doggcrapp or Mentzer style HIT work so well!

Do not evaulate your workouts by the way you feel, such as whether or not you achieve a pump, get sore the next day, or have a gut feeling that you're doing OK. Feelings as such tell you little or nothing about the success of a workout. In fact, feelings and gut hunches tell us very little about anything. John Little (the coauthor of the book High Intesity Training The Mike Mentzer Way) once responded to a muscle magazine editorial touting the superiodrity of gut feelings over science in this way: "If the editor has a gut feeling, how does he know it isn't gas?"

The only proper way to gauge your workout to workout success is by the standard of strength increases. If you're stronger the next workout... up in reps, weight, or both, then obviously a change took place in the muscle. Record the date of each workout, the exercises, the amount of weight, the number of reps completed properly. If you are not increasing the weight used and/or reps completed during each workout, something is wrong, and the number of possible explanations is far from infinite.

For those of you who disagree and say strength doesnt equal size, then ask yourself this... what are you supposed to do to get bigger? Get weaker!? And what is your body going to do if you get stronger? Shrink!? It's only rational and logical to know the relation between strength and size.

That's why everyone who follows Doggcrapp training or HIT to the T and properly, all of them, make regular continual progress without a doubt. Most bodybuilders don't know this, but, infact, a properly conducted bodybuilding program is essentially a "strength training" program. Train for strength and evaluate your progress interms of strength increases. Why do we use strength increases as a standard for bodybuilding progress, you might be wondering. Simply because there is a relationship between muscular strength and size. If you want to get bigger, in other words, you've got to get stronger.

I emphasize this point because there is a reluctance on the part of most bodybuilders to accept that idea. If you want to get bigger, you've got to get stronger. If there was no relation between strength and size (it would be concievable if there was literally no relationship at all), that people like Dorian Yates could curl only 25 lbs. when in fact he curled over 200 lbs. He got as big as he did, in part, because he got as strong as he did. I know many of you, if I don't mention this, will bring up the fact that he did steroids in order to counter my point about strength gains. Steroids give a slight amount of strength increase, however, they largely decrease recovery and growth time. The fact is, if you removed the steroids from the equasion, Dorian Yates would have still been lifting epic amounts of poundage on his weights! If you want to get bigger, you've got to get stronger.

Take a look at powerlifters. So many people call powerlifters 'unsymmetrical fatasses', but the truth is that when powerlifters cut down, they have near perfect symmetry and AMAZING size. Now, take a look at the best bodybuilders up in the Mr. Olympia, like Johnnie Jackson and Ronnie Coleman. They used to be powerlifters before they became bodybuilders. These guys are and were amazingly strong before they shifted into the bodybuilding world, and look at their strength! Now, i'm, not telling people here to do a powerlifter's strength routine. I am telling people here to do a bodybuilding routine (rep ranges of 6-12, etc.) but put your focus and emphasis on gaining strength in going up in reps, weight, or both each workout.

For us bodybuilders, lifting weights is the means NOT the end! Train for strength, and size will follow.

[FloridaTitan]

What don't you agree with?

[dave12345]

Florida Titan,

"You can't go super heavy past the 90% range on an exercise more than a couple times in a row before you plataeu and regress. "

--> This pretty much nails what i'm talking about. You said given a certain regimen, you can regress. Is this an overtraining thing? joints being worn down? and how does this have to do wtih 90% range on an excercise.

being a young guy, everything being stable, stress, mental health, proper nutrition, etc. how can i regress just because i do super heavy lifting at 90% range for a few times.

when we look at what is talked about on abc, breakdown of fibers, hypertrophy, getting stronger, etc, it doesn't really talk about a case like this.

at the very worse you would do the same number of reps, why go backward?

[FloridaTitan]

I've learned so much about strength development over the past 3 years that I honestly couldn't give you a source as to where this information could be found. In powerlifting this is a given, If you train multiple sessions with the same exercise past the 90% range for multipe reps and sets, you WILL plataeu and regress. Think of it as peaking. Less advanced lifters can probably get about 3 weeks in on a single exercise before they won't improve their performance the next time. In most cases, that fourth week going heavy you will see very decreased force output and low numbers.

The more advanced you get the less you get out of multiple sessions training a single exercise. Variations must be brought in to make progress. A competition grip bench press has a much different firing pattern and ROM than a close grip, wide grip, 3 board, or benches from the floor, or adding accomodating resistance via bands or chains.

Westside Barbell Club has popularized these methods and they have produced some of the strongest lifters on the planet.

If you want to see higher numbers on your bench perfect your form, and train smarter.

[dave12345]

"The more advanced you get the less you get out of multiple sessions training a single exercise. "

absolutely true.

[DirtbagDan]

Yes, which is why the more stronger, bigger, and advanced you become, the less training and more rest you need to take.