[mrodock]

Mrodock,

I must tell you I haven't heard the word deload in a while and I would definitely not recommend a 75% reduction. I have some questions. I need to know how many sets and at what weight you build to your 5 rep max. Are these all of the exercises you are doing? Are you doing this workout three times a week? How much do you weigh? How old are you. Do you know your bodyfat percentage? Is this seven week beginning the only time you have done any ongoing strength training? Do you have a trainer? How did you choose your program? What are your objectives?

You hit the nail on the head, you are overtrained. The first sign I look for is apathy with regard to going to the gym or reaching your goal or even staying focused during the workout. Assuming you are over trained you have no choice but to take your workouts down a notch. Next week allow yourself two days between workouts. When I see your whole program I can advise you about your weight, rep, set orchestration.

Are you getting enough sleep? How is your nutrition? Are you doing cardio/aerobics also?

I hope you'll provide this information so I can give you an answer for the other viewers to see. So often people will ask questions that might help others but then we don't get the whole picture.
Most of our viewers don't train with this level of weight so they have no reference point.

I am a real believer in split routines and this includes compound motions. You should alternate between high intensity workouts and lower intensity workouts. This allows you to keep working but slips in some extra recovery. There is also some imbalance in your weight allocation. I don't see any lat or rhomboid work represented here. Hope that's an oversight.

Matt is very experienced but I must clarify that your fitness won't catch up with fatigue unless you change your training protocol. The purpose of training with overload is to raise your fitness level, the bodies ability to perform and recover more efficiently. Since your benefits from training don't happen in the gym but in the period of time afterward when the body heals the microtramas, you have to be sure that your rest period is sufficient and healing is complete before you begin tearing down the muscle again. [Not allowing enought time to rebuild is one of the main reasons people complain about not getting bigger or stronger. They tear down and start to rebuild but then tear down again before the new muscle response occurs. Robbing Peter to pay Paul] This enormous fatigue that seems not to go away and interfers with your workouts is a clear indicator of adrenal fatigue which is a precursor for excess cortisol production. (I still have to finish that part of my post). And taking off more than a few days means that you must reevaluate your program and your goal timelines. A five rep max, based on the information you illuminated, indicates to me that you are maxing out every workout. Nobody will recover from that, especially if they have a real life with work and family and sports.

Vik

Vickie,

I am doing the Starting Strength program by Rippetoe and Kilgore. It is a 3 sets x 5 reps program, 3 times a week. So I do not have a trainer, I am simply following the book. They do not talk much about what to do when it comes to overtraining or avoiding it altogether (there is no index so it is difficult to confirm). I do not have a trainer. I am 27 years old and I only started lifting any weights about 4 months ago and I just started with some upper body and then added some lower body exercises after a few weeks. I get an average of 7 hours of sleep a day during the week, and about 9 hours during weekends. I eat around 4000 calories a day. Taking about 150 grams of whey protein, 25 grams of BCAA, 20 grams of glutamine. I typically eat about 3 serving of fruit a day but not much for vegetables. I eat whole grains, steak, turkey, guacamole, peanut butter, eggs, walnuts, cocunut, etc. Almost all foods are organic. I would like to take fish oil but I've gotten the fish burps a few times and it is so disgusting I cannot continue to eat enough to gain the weight I wish to put on. I started at 150 pounds, probably around 12% body fat and am now 168 pounds 7 weeks later. I understand this to be pretty typical weight gain on the program if it is followed correctly. In the first 2 weeks I made huge gains on the big lifts but now I ry to go up a little bit of weight each week. I do 4 warm-up sets on each lift and 3 work sets on all lifts except for Romanian deadlifts and regular deadlifts where I do a single work set. I will outline my workout routine below.

To be honest I want to workout. But the workouts are taking so much out of me it is crazy. Plus, I think my generally negative attitude lately has to do with overtraining. When I am at the gym I am happy I am there it is just so hard to get through the workouts.

By 75% deload I meant lift 75% of the weight that I ordinarily do for a week.

The authors of the book claim that people can go 2 to 3 months on this program before they have to start periodizing their workouts.

This is my program in its entirety, I do not mix in any cardio. A typical cycle for me is as follows:

Monday:
Back Squat
Overhead Press
Romanian deadlift
Face pulls

Wednesday:
Front Squat
Bench Press
DB Snatch
Grip work

Friday:
Back Squat
Overhead Press
Deadlift
Face pulls

Monday:
Front Squat
Bench Press
DB Snatches
Grip Work

When I began having trouble adding 5 pounds to my back squat every workout I started with the front squats. That was after 4 weeks.

One other thing, my stomach has been more bloated in the past couple of days than usual. I am going to start taking a probiotic supplement in case it is gastrointestinal upset but it might be the result of excess cortisol as well. Related to that is the fact that I tend to store fat in my stomach which I think is indicative of someone that tends to have higher cortisol levels.

Any supplement advice or ideas for how to recover and not lose much of my progress and stay on this program would be most appreciated.

Thanks!

Matt