Do I just need my ass whipped!?!

[MrWalk]

Jeez. I'm stalling/deloading all over the place. My bench press is still good, but getting close, and I've always been strong on it anyway. I stepped up full of confidence and ready to go today. I'm on a hard deload on squats. Form and depth are great. Gonna break a plateau on the press and kick a PR on the dead lift today. I warmed up, and pumped out good, low squats with good form.

KISS is blaring and my wife and I had a fight this morning. These weights are mine! I moved to the press, ready to beat a plateau, Rere's words and inspiration in my head, and... boom, boom, fail -- again -- at 120lbs/64.5kg after deload. 5/5/3.

It's in my head, but I'm ok. The dead lift has been my saving grace. Wimpy squats, struggling against the damnable press, I can still pump out some good, hard dead lifts and feel good about my workout, right?

Mehhhhhh! Wrong answer.

Don't even get it off the floor first try. Risked injury trying 3 more times, getting it up to the knees and no higher, until serious knee wobble said I was done for the day.

I've been on maitenance calories for quite a while and just starting eating hard again. I believe that and still too little rest are my issues, but dang. As I sit here in the rubble of today's effort, I wonder if I don't just need a good ass-whipping. Maybe we could take a poll...

[herf]

I've been on maintenance calories for quite a while and just starting eating hard again.

Maintenance calories become cutting calories after any gains are made. Its very hard to make any gains while cutting. If you just started to up the calories, then you should see more increase. I notice a big difference on my lifting days depending on what I ate. Also as for the rest, try to get a good 8 hours in. If you're basing your bulking calories off your old maintenance calories, then you might think you're bulking, but you're really maintaining. Did that make sense? It did to me haha Try upping the calories another 250 on off days and 500 on lift days. Not sure of your weight, height, size or BF.

If eating, rest and deloading do not solve the problem, try taking a few days off and get some very good rest. Skip a day or 2 of lifting. Put the feet up and watch TV for a whole day. You might just need some very good rest time.

I believe that if you are cutting, you should deload because you will stall and fail alot. I remember reading that in the forums but not sure where. This may be what is happening to you.

[holvoetn]

Like you wish ... bend over ! I'll kick ...

Serious now.
I have been struggling with OHP already for quite some weeks (approaching months).
Got up to 52.5kg but never made that one, deloaded to 47.5, stalled AGAIN on 50kg (WTF !?), normally should make it tomorrow (last session was 5/5/5/4/4).
I even did a deload on bench some weeks ago to get form correct again (was up to 75kg when I realized I was not consequently touching my chest, so went down again to 60kg to get it 100% correct).
My luck was that squats and deadlifts did move on (ok, stalled twice the past 3 weeks on squats but hey, can't win every time, can we )

Rest is key. So is nutrition. Been there, done that
And yes, mental readiness is important too.

Now take your time to rest and feed your body, get things sorted out with your wife and make those sets day after tomorrow !

[MrWalk]

@ herf: Yeah, I think that is exactly it. And, yes, I've been basically cutting. After GOMAD and good gain I wanted to lose some fat. I'm eating again and just need to be patient. But it is hard. I hadn't meant to piss around until I stalled like this. I just recently took that week off to avoid it too. Cutting right when the weights were getting very challenging might have been ill-advised (read stupid). Hence, the general feeling that I should have my ass whipped.

@ H: Haha, thanks - kick hard! 'Preciate your experiences and encouragement. Yeah, it just plain sucks to hit the wall, but I'm gonna eat and eat, rest, and hit it hard Thursday. Trying to sort it out with the wife, of course, but that's harder than lifting is sometimes. And the anger didn't even help me.

[guru]

@ herf: Yeah, I think that is exactly it. And, yes, I've been basically cutting. After GOMAD and good gain I wanted to lose some fat. I'm eating again and just need to be patient. But it is hard. I hadn't meant to piss around until I stalled like this. I just recently took that week off to avoid it too. Cutting right when the weights were getting very challenging might have been ill-advised (read stupid). Hence, the general feeling that I should have my ass whipped.

@ H: Haha, thanks - kick hard! 'Preciate your experiences and encouragement. Yeah, it just plain sucks to hit the wall, but I'm gonna eat and eat, rest, and hit it hard Thursday. Trying to sort it out with the wife, of course, but that's harder than lifting is sometimes. And the anger didn't even help me.

Hi MrWalk, IMO no need to cut calories actually. You can just reshuffle your diet & get some results without cutting. Key points are -
Get your protein daily & let it be spread over the day more or less evenly.
Carbs & milk post workout only. (Carbs from veggies not counted in this)
Avoid sweets as far as possible.

herf & H have already touched the other important points.

Good luck with everything.

[MrWalk]

Thanks for sounding off here, guru. Good points. I've been getting better and better at limiting carbs to post-workout. I'll try to keep the milk there too this time. I puffed up a little gut on it before and nothing kills motivation like watching my squat video and seeing a gut hanging off me.

I can tell that I have been replacing fat with muscle while my weight has been steady. But, honestly, once I started stalling on lifts I stopped worrying about it.

[pagangoddess]

And the anger didn't even help me.

I actually find the anger to be a distraction. I lift much better without it. I like to clear my head of everything. It's just me and iron. Nothing else exists in that one hour.

As for the ass kicking . . . . my calendar is free anytime.

[holvoetn]

As for the ass kicking . . . . my calendar is free anytime.

For you or him ?

[pagangoddess]

As for the ass kicking . . . . my calendar is free anytime.

For you or him ?

Depends on the mood I'm in. You know how it is with us females . . . . always changing our minds.

[MrWalk]

As for the ass kicking . . . . my calendar is free anytime.

For you or him ?

Depends on the mood I'm in. You know how it is with us females . . . . always changing our minds.

Good thing I'm flexible.

Yeah, the anger didn't help at all - much better to be on top of my game and feeling like the man! I couldn't clear my head either because the argument went right up to lift time (I lift in my garage.) I just need to do a better job at managing my environment - or at least not pissing my environment off.

[pagangoddess]

I just need to do a better job at managing my environment - or at least not pissing my environment off.

Granted I don't know what happened but last I checked it takes 2 to have an argument.

[MrWalk]

True that!

But I come out the loser no matter what. First, it affects my attitude and lifts, and then I get to deal with a teenager's level of ... ah... frogginess... and an angry wife.

[pagangoddess]

I hope it improves soon.

[MrWalk]

I hope it improves soon.

Thanks! Me too.

That reminds me... I need to go use this effective and developed posterior chain to unload the dishwasher and load the clothes dryer.

[pagangoddess]

That reminds me... I need to go use this effective and developed posterior chain to unload the dishwasher and load the clothes dryer.

They call it functional strength training for a reason.