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Brian Carroll
Hello again PRS friends
In my almost 2 years of using 10/20/Life my lifts have increased by quite a bit. Thank you Brian!!!
However when I get sick or get rundown and can’t train as hard as I normally do I feel like my bench & deadlift strength stay fairly stable (within 80-90% of my best) but I feel like my squat seems to take a huge nosedive.
I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions for how to help with that as I don’t want to have to “dig myself out of a hole” on a regular basis.
If it helps my usual training for it is set up in this fashion…
Tues – Squat/DL: Squats, Deadlifts (sumo or conventional stance block pulls), Leg Press, DB (or Chest Supported) Row
Fri – Squat/DL Assistance: McGill Chins, Piston Squats (or Bodybuilder style Front Squats), BB Row, BB (or DB) Shrug, Bulgarians, Single Leg RDLs, GHRs (or Back Raises w/ neutral spine)
My hamstrings are a lot stronger than my quads and I find mid range-lockout gives me the hardest time when squatting. Due to some long-standing patellofemoral issues (which are good now) that I got some initial bad advice on treating my quads are somewhat deconditioned still. As much as I want to push them harder I know I can only do so much quad work before the knees get cranky. Technique is stable and hasn’t really changed.
I hope that helps give some insight. If you have any suggestions that would be mucho appreciato.
Thanks
Eric Bowman
You’ve got to remember that strength doesn’t deteriorate as quick as it might seem when you get sick. Sure, it might take a nose dive but it should make a fairly quick rebound. It all depends on how quickly you can get over being sick or whatever. Being that it can take a considerable amount of time of complete inactivity to see true muscle loss, a couple days down won’t have a significant impact on permanent strength.
Don’t feel compelled to try to push it. Squats might just take a larger toll your system. You’re a tall dude. Those leverages might make it so that the squat will always be slightly more difficult for you than deadlifting. Hence, the squat will require more “work”. I can notice that squatting takes a week post deload before it snaps like it did pre-deload. Bench and deads feeling amazing post-deload. One thing to try is post sickness (or whatever) focus on deadlifting first on the combo day and then squat/squat accessory. Give it another week or 2 before really pushing it. If you’re far enough into the offseason think about running 3 weeks up, one week deload. Make that first week back post deload more deadlift oriented then move back to squatting first for the next 2 weeks before deloading again.
Eric,
Detraining takes time. From a physiological standpoint, you’re going to be dehydrated and depleted when you’re sick. This will affect fitness, not only from a substrate standpoint, but from a neurological standpoint. You need electrolytes to contract muscle tissue AND send neural impulse. This is all said to convey that RPE will be significantly high for the same absolute load.
As we know, RPE correlates better to long term gains than absolute training loads, as it provides the desired stimulus without compromising recovery. I advise you to be honest with your RPE’s when fatigued/ sick/ run down and to reduce volume in the accessory work. Get the important work done and then don’t tax the body’s reduced recovery potential during those times.
From a reconditioning standpoint, you need to start slow and ramp up over time. If you do it right, the decreased workload for a a short period should lend itself to a nice rebound in strength when you get back to your typical schedule, energy levels and training loads.
When you’re fatigued/ sick/ run down, keep up on your hydration, salt your food, and try to eat normally. This will help attenuated the negative impact of your lifestyle.
I’ve been right where you’ve been before getting sick often and starting from scratch. I was sick with mono off and on for 9 months, and only really healthy for 3 of them. The biggest thing I learned from that is that you don’t have to make PR’s to get better. Everyone has a lift of body part that loses it quicker than the others. For me it’s my chest and arms, they deflate well before my back and legs do, and my bench suffers before any other lift.
even though I’m still not as strong as I was a year ago, I’ve made really good progress in other ways. Because I wasnt focused on weight, I’ve dialed in my form much better on all of my lifts. No ego attached to the session meant all I did was feel the muscles and notice every little thing I was doing wrong. Along with that, because I knew I didn’t want to over stress my body with hard Big 3 work, I took a lot of time to do machine and DB work with the hypertrophy movements and focus on developing the muscle. If your quads are weak, and your CNS is tired from being sick (and you’re healthy again now), take some time to do leg extensions and light leg press and stuff like that. Feel all 4 muscles of the quad and don’t stop until you do. This is going to be way less taxing on the body, and it’ll be fun and engaging, and whatever you learn from those sessions will carry over to the heavy sessions… I bet after working on those quads a couple times in a row you’ll feel them contract way better when you squat, and you’ll be able to push more weight and recover back to what you were at on the squat faster.
Neural connectivity in a muscle group isn’t just luck of the draw, you can influence it yourself too by focusing and choosing to work that muscle instead of leaving it up to nature to give you a lift that suffers when you get sick.