[Closed] Strength training maintenance mode

I had a similar issue, bit I was trying to lift the day before a hard session on the turbo. I found bumping the turbo session back a day meant I felt fine whereas prior I was failing workouts that should have been fairly easy.

Could you change to Mon/Weds instead and see if the extra day recovery helps?

Once a week in the gym doing that kind of stuff is enough, deadlift and squat alternative weeks. A one rep max deadlift could take a couple of months to recover from if you're really on the limit.

I found the volume is too much to manage much else. Drop the number of sets and slow the increments of adding weight. Oh, and I found the food demands become tedious.

I think you should try and get an extra day between you weights workouts. If you are in maintenance mode go 3x5 instead of 5x5, and I take it you are doing warm up sets as well.

IMO deadlifts are a very beneficial movement for general health, but don't have to be pushed hard, I would keep them in your routine, but at a comfortable weight. Lose the hip thrusts and good mornings, if you want to add something to replace them do some kettlebell swings or dumbbell cleans.

Could be that it's not the weights but your food and rest that is lacking?

Thanks chaps. Some good points mentioned.

I had no idea that a one rep max can take so long to recover from. I can tell the deadlifts are tough going as I get that "Oh I need to sit down after that lift" light headed feeling.

I'll try dropping the weight and number of reps to see how that helps matters.

1) warm up set - yes I do do those

2) eating enough - always guilty of not eating enough, but that's because I've never had a big appetite. Have started taking protein shakes to try and combat that.

I have a different approach (not saying it's better by any means) of doing higher rep's and lower weights. I'm a few years younger and 15kgs heavier.

Typically i'll do weights every day that i don't ride, which means 3 or 4 weight sessions a week. And i haven't ever ridden indoors, so can't really comment on that.

I try to mix it up to avoid boredom, but:

Bench press and rows i'll do up to 14 reps at 70kg.

Squats, cleans, deadlifts 10 reps - but i keep the weight quite low (30kg) or my legs are wrecked and a good morning on the bike is 10 x the fun of a good weight session.

But... i've never been guilty of not eating enough 🙂

Im very similar to reeksy. I now do more reps and lighter weight.
I used to do a lot of power lifting but found it incompatible with cycling. 5x5’s are generally lifting heavy weights to failure. I also played rugby league so focused a lot on squats and cleans. My legs would be in bits for days. I couldn’t do any short steep climbs as my legs always felt dead.

If you are going to keep that style of routine I’d look at changing a few of the exercises with more cleans, maybe dumbell clean and press, single arm db clean and press and also barbell.

Also I’d find a week that included 5x5 squats at max effort plus 5x5 deadlifts would completely do me in. That’s a lot of stress on the body. I had to change to 1x5 on deadlifts. I’d use hand wraps to ensure I was getting maximum weight lifted, so it’s not the grip giving in.

Also based on the work your doing it might be worth adding some shrugs in. I don’t know you or your physique, but for me personally, when lifting heavy weights I always thought having stronger traps helped. Absolutely fully aware that deadlifts will work the traps, but the stronger traps will help you maximise deadlifts.

I’m no expert, I was coached for years but our training was very much focused on power and explosive movements. In fact we hardly did bench press apart from for “Willy waving” contests!

Also we would do more dumbbell work, just so it would work the stabiliser muscles more. Seated Arnold Press rather than military
Press for example.
I lifted for about 25 years, from 15 to 40. I’m now 48 and recently started again doing the more reps workouts. Let’s me ride twice a week, which is the most I can do, and most my body could cope with.

I would do your Thursday session on a Monday and your Tuesday session on a Wednesday. I would also only do 1 x 5 on the deadlift, as per the strongman 5 x 5 programme, as DLs are do taxing on the body. I would also drop the good mornings.

At your weight, you need to be eating about 175g of protein a day or more to recover from weightlifting like that.

My programme has a slightly different way of doing sets/reps, it might be something to consider too as it is less volume overall but works well for strength building.

2 sets per exercise.
1st set is 7 or 8 reps of max weight (i.e. it's a struggle to do the last lift or you can't actually do it)
2nd set is 9 or 10 reps of a slightly lower weight (e.g. take 10kg off the deadlift or 2kg lighter dumbbell)

Sometimes swap them around so do the lighter set first with the max lift second.

I occasionally do 15 or 16 reps on the lighter lift (with a correspondingly lower weight) - this is good if the big movements like deadlifts, squats or leg presses have totally taken it out of you. Add in some pauses too - like squat down, hold for 2 seconds at the bottom then push up. That's a good exercise and doesn't take it out of you quite the same as the higher weights.

This works well for me - I recover well from it

Some people do a four week block, with one easy week.

A week rotation is just too short: not enough rest time.

Form and technique is what matters with lifting

Higher natural testosterone helps recovery.
Sugar / carbohydrates can lower testosterone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPi3fFEtPu0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsBrQo9Oj14

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I can't deadlift 5x5 it's simply too much for me and I don't recover well, so I do just one working set but warm up well for it. I also struggle to deadlift when I'm doing any kind of cycling intensity or big hours in the saddle it's just too much.

For my lower body, when cycling lot, I prefer to to pair front squats with stiff-legged deadlifts on the same day and do them twice a week. I also find it easier to recover from high reps with two working sets than doing 5X5. I tend to follow a pattern of adding a rep a week and after five weeks increasing the weight by 2.5kg if I make all reps, if I fail just one rep then I repeat the cycle at the same weight. So something like

100x8 x2
100x9 x2
100x10 x2
100x11 x2
100x12 x2 then

102.5x8 x2
1025.5x9 x2 etc

Upper body I tend to bench, row, shoulder press, chin-ups and rear delt fly following the same reps. Again twice a week.

If it's proving a struggle to keep up then I'll drop to one working set or a heavy day and light day.

I can’t deadlift 5×5 it’s simply too much for me and I don’t recover well, so I do just one working set but warm up well for it

I was reading 'The Barbell Prescription' book which is for those aged over 40 and they too only do a single 1 * 5 set with a laddered warm up. They also state that the deadlift is a very taxing move.

It's strange for me as I can do 5 * 5 and don't feel completely destroyed afterwards so I just assumed that the load was ok.

On a different note does anyone just do power cleans as that is a move that I want to learn?

I tried to teach myself power cleans last year, gave up after a few months. I think at 50 I just couldn't generate the explosive speed to get it right, it was always more of a deadlift going into an upright row with a bit of a flourish at the end. I have always struggled a bit with the deadlift anyway, I think my limbs are just wrong for those movements.

I do dumbbell cleans quite often which I find the technique much easier. They might miss some elements of a barbell power clean, but being a non symmetrical exercise adds other benefits.