3 week blasts?

[nordan]

After 3 weeks do you feel like if you went to the gym you'd be unable to hit PRs?

Still hitting PR's, not regressing based on the log book.

Are you looking at any other symptoms of over reaching beyond a desire to take a rest? Sleep disruption or loss of appetite, etc? In addition, how bad are your joints hurting after 3 weeks?

No sleep disruption and I do pretty well here, if I didnt set an alarm I can easily hit 11-12 hours lol . I have always been someone who sleeps a lot, even prior to training which was 8+ years ago. Joint wise it has only really come to my attention this week, doing a lat pulldown on warm up, my joints felt a little meh so I took it upon my own to avoid back on that particular day (upper MR's). I really injured myself at the latter end of last year by not listening to my body and adopting that "suck it up, no one cares, work harder" mindset. I think we talked about it in a post a while back about having a bad rebound as I lost a tonne of muscle and put on loads of fat as it was just after a contest prep. Lost around 2 years worth of progress lol.

There could be an issue with the lifts you are choosing, and they do not work bio mechanically for you.

You could be right on this one, my shoulders suck so much.. I've broken them, torn them, you name it, they've done it. After the most recent injury, and for the last 10 months I haven't really done much overhead work, purely because I don't feel confident pressing in case I injure myself again. I simply cannot progress after a certain point (weight), its not a mindset issue its just my shoulder joints and tendons feel strained at said weight, so because of this I really don't train much overhead work and have stuck predominantly to side raises in all forms, cables, db's etc.

Or possibly, the method in which you are lifting may be too ballistic or loose in nature, and would benefit from some form adjusting.

I could see this being an serious issue but it isn't applicable as I have a standardised form which is strict. Soon as that form breaks down the sets over.

Do you have any additional indications about this "subconsciously lost desire to train, or do things only for fun" besides a hunch? This I'm not sure anyone can help you with besides your own internal gut check. From your post it seems like you are really training damn hard. But might be a personal question you need to really ask yourself. As well as what your goals are. If you are getting out of training what you want, then what you are putting in may be wholly and completely appropriate.

Could be down to the lack of exercise selection, with my said issue above I obviously have a limited amount of exercises to choose from in regards to loading, no heavy shoulder work (pressing, upright rows), bench just feels off and my mind to muscle connection is so shit its embarrassing and this is reflected on my chest development. For this reason alone I stick to the chest press (machine) as I feel 8 times out of 10 I can engage the chest properly, not only this but everything seems to tie in with one another.. weak shoulders = weak bench, db pressing etc

As far as food goes, hard to tell without knowing exactly what your food is between day to day. Is the gap big? small? Do you feel like you are really hungry on off days? Do you feel like you are more or less recovering between days. I know I am personally experimenting with a reverse diet where I am adding in food only around training right now, and at times it for sure is a challenge, but I can say soundly, that maybe 12 hours after training I feel VERY hungry, and not so fresh, but 36 hours later I'm feeling much more sated and better.

So I am around 163lbs, contest prep ended at 154, lost around 4lb's due to injury and have slowly added the 13lb's over 8 months, slow and steady in order to keep fat gains in check. Calories have been 3200 training and 2400 rest but felt fat was piling on quicker than desired so dropped back to around 2700-2800 training and 1800-2000 rest days. I guesstimate maintenance to be around 2400 approx.
I measured myself the other day and have gained absolutely nothing in terms of muscle, maybe half an inch on quads and the like elsewhere, possibly some more on chest but for the amount of fat gained I think it has been around 50:50 ratio at a push, possible 40:60 in favour of fat. So this certainly disheartened me a little bit.

For this reason alone I embarked on a small mini cut, which was around 3-4 weeks. I dropped down to 158 but my appetite is just unmanageable and still is as we speak, 3 weeks post mini cut that I am back to 163 and probably in worse condition, I would say that it has resulted in me bingeing, eating shit, and tbh its worse now than it was post contest, not good. I am cruising now so have brought my calories up to maintenance but again tonight I've fucked it and eaten a slice of cheesecake, dipped my hands into a box of granola, which we all know is ridiculously moreish. I would say this alone has added 300-400 calories just today.

All of this being said, given that recovery is on a personal and on a sliding scale. Cruising at 3 weeks may be just what you need. I also know a host of people who train one on, one off for FT and found that really helps. So a day off in between every training day, instead of two days being back to back has helped them sustain a blast longer and feels more productive.

I actually do do this, train 1 on 1 off with the exception of MR's where I have to do both days back to back.. I prefer this as I have done both loading days back to back and just haven't recovered in time for the second session, it also leaves me written off as expected.

I used to do exclusively 6 week blasts and cruise for two as that what is kind of what to aim for based on the book, I like you mention struggled to come back at a 9-10 out of 10 effort wise and desire wise upon returning to the blast so the rebound was non existent and again I just couldn't really be arsed, felt that the cruise didn't do a lot in the grand scheme of things and could quite frankly take another 2 week cruise lol.

Your answers and questions have been pretty in depth and I totally appreciate the effort you took to write all this out. Hopefully this will give you a better picture. Also, everyone else that commented, thanks for the input, I will reply in due course!