StrongLifts A

Squat: 5×5 @ 270 lbs.
Bench Press: 5×5 @ 152.5 lbs.
Barbell Row: 5×5 @ 172.5 lbs.
Power Clean: 5×5 @ 115 lbs.

Body Weight: 197 lbs.

Notes

The idea of squatting 3×5 when I was able to do 5×5 @ 295 lbs. didn’t sit well with me. I was worried that if I didn’t keep up the volume, I might de-train and find myself unable to do 5×5 @ 295 lbs. Perhaps that is not something I should worry about, as I am trying to increase my squat intensity by breaking through my 300 lb. plateau, but reducing my total squat tonnage just made me feel bad. Of course, the point of deloading and reducing volume is to give more time for your body to fully recover so that it can push through a plateau since one reason why we plateau is that we have accumulated more stress than we can recover from before out next workout. So, reducing the total stress reduces the time needed for recovery, which hopefully means you will be recovered enough to go beyond wherever you got stuck.

But de-training during deloads is also a problem and not something you want to let happen. So, I had an idea: stick with 5×5 early on in the deload, and then switch to 3×5 as I approach 300 lbs. We’ll see how that goes.

Wish me luck!