Muscle memory in effect - Skip SD and/or 15s?

[MaFi0s0]

I have came back from a layoff from training and now just finished up 3 weeks of training where I quickly went from about 10 reps for a week to 5 reps for 2 weeks increasing load each workout by about 5% and going to failure each workout on the last set.

My strength gains have now slowed downed or stopped but I am strongly suspecting this is simply due to CNS fatigue and overtraining as I have been going to failure every 2nd day this week without 2 days break on weekends.

From what I have read I should now start SD but I have doubts as I believe I still have a lot of growth potential in the next 2 months if I just give my CNS a break. I dont believe my muscles are conditioned and represent the sensitivity more of someone on a light AAS cycle.

I am wondering if I should skip SD and let the submaxial workouts be the break for my CNS or if I should skip 15s or maybe just do 1 week of 15s.

 

[Lol]

If you are using loads around your 5RM you will be recruiting all your fibres from the get go. So forget about going to failure for a while; it'll spare your CNS and still allow you to trigger a PS response. I would do a partial deload to allow your CNS some time for recovery - try using 80% 1RM and doing 5 sets of doubles for a couple of sessions. Then go back to 3 x 5 for your work sets (or 4 x 5, whatever, depending on your target rep total).

Doing a reasonable amount of volume with these heavy loads and increasing the load whenever possible (5lb every session or every couple of sessions) in typical linear progression fashion, should keep the growth stimulus high enough for a good while and allow you to claw back a good amount lost muscle tissue. Just be sure to take in plenty of food to support this growth.

When you eventually get to a new 5RM load, keep using that for triples for a few more weeks (say 5-7 x 3). If you can increment again during that time so much the better.

If you can keep that going productively for four to five weeks or more, that'll give you a good place to stop for SD and then restart a more usual HST cycle.

Don't forget to eat, eat eat! If you are a young guy and have no problem drinking milk, drink lots of it!

 

[MaFi0s0]

Thanks, so pretty much do about 1 week of 5x2 with my 8RM.
then what would otherwise be my 1st 2 weeks of 5s.
then do 2-3(or 4-5?) weeks of 5x3s with my 5RM trying to gain strength(I would do this with .25kg(magnetic plate mates) increments each workout or every 2nd workout).

 

[Lol]

Yup, that'll do. Make the cycle last as long as you can keep making progress. When you stall out or when your joints tell you to ease off, stop for SD; enjoy the break and then start a new regular HST cycle.