I got this question recently and I’ve had to deal with it myself many times. What do I do when I can’t match the log book and strength is dropping on prep. We know that upholding training is going to be KEY to holding on to muscle tissue dieting, so we do need strategies in place to analyze the plan and take actions steps. At some point strength loss might inevitably happen, however upholding training performances is top priority for muscle retention. I’ve gone whole preps with zero drop off.
This can come down to too much training or not enough recovery or a combination of both.
The Log book is your diagnostic tool for a well designed training and recovery program. Performance drop of the log book is a red flag for you to look over all variables and assess the plan. One bad session can happen, but chronic sessions dropping over the week should be addressed.
What should we look at for recovery?
- Is sleep duration and quality adequate
- Nailing consistent routine (fluid, meal timing, sleep timing) or are you inconsistent
- Mental stress management (work/relationship stress will zap training ability)
- Too aggressive of fat loss rate (hard dieting leads to fast strength and muscle loss)
- Allowing too much glycogen depletion (point above, but lack of glycogen, will be a lack of performance)
- Diet set up too low in carbohydrate or calories in general
- consideration to implement Refeed days
- Hormone down regulation (drops in insulin, Igf-1, thyroid, estrogen, testosterone all lead to decreases muscle retention) get lab work!
What about training?
- Cardio modality and duration etc causing training interference (Are you doing sprints on the bike same day as leg day for example)
- Training volume too high (you can only train within what you can recover from)
- Effort level too high (failure sets, drop sets, etc are little extra stimulus but really zap the recovery stores)
- Exercise choice overly fatiguing (might be time to move from back squats to hack squats for less overall fatigue)
- Modify above variables if something is not set up right.
- Has the whole been dug to deep? Might need some extra rest days or a full deload week
- If enhanced a last resort tool is further AAS addition. This is LAST resort do NOT mask a shit set up with more AAS. If need we can implement fast acting orals until we resolve the big picture issues in the plan.
At some point load and reps may drop. I adjust load to stay within a rep target range and stick to my RIR target for the training session. Training harder to match the log book does not mean you are causing progressive overload you are likely just causing progressive fatigue and making the problem even worse.
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