[mrodock]

While we wait for Vickie to give you a more informed answer, I'll hazard a guess....you are over training. The workouts you are describing are pretty rigorous for a 1st year powerlifter. I wouldn't do max effort every workout, I'd get on a cycle training type of workout until I've given my body some time to adjust to heavy lifting. Limit myself to 3 work sets (as many warmups as necessary) and cycle from light to heavier every 6 to 8 weeks. Max effort maybe once every 3 months. Westside is absolutely great but you need a better base and some training history before you jump deeply into it.

I'll share some personal issues. In college (I'm 61 so that was before anyone knew what training was like) I assumed more was better and worked out like a fiend...every christmas break I'd come back having lifted nothing more than beer for 2 weeks approx. and my bench would pick up 25 lbs. magically ...squat about the same. But I never picked up on it. When I was in my early 50's and benching 250-260, down 100+ lbs from my college best days (I weigh 180) I spoke to Kevin Farley, who trains natural power lifters and competes himself. I described my workouts (at the time included roughly 6 sets of very heavy lifting for each exercise ) and he said Whoa! you're an injury looking for a home. When I did less I got up to 315 in 2 yrs. after being stuck at the same wt. for about 10. Your body, or at least my body needs rest and when you are lifting near max effort your NERVOUS system needs rest, since what you are doing is training the central nervous system to simultaneously fire all the muscles involved. Listen to your body, it is giving you a warning....'work that intensely and I'll make you miserable, keep it up and I'm just gonna hurt you.'

All very good advice. By the way, huge bench!

I am gaining in strength every week so I really don't think I am doing way too much. I might back off on the maximum effort work a little and take every 4th week easy. I have read some more on post-workout recovery and also on mineral deficiencies in negative mood disorders. The big glaring one is magnesium. I am taking in a shitload of calcium from the whey protein (calcium gets in the way of magnesium absorption) and I'm not taking in nearly enough magnesium to combat this, my multi-vitamin contains only 25% of the daily value. Plus, athletes tend to be low in magnesium so I have quite a bit of faith that increasing my magnesium will help a lot. Christian Thibaudeau of t-nation recommends taking an epsom salt bath (to increase blood magnesium) a couple of times a week to help recover from high-intensity workouts. I think I'll give this a try and see if it helps. Also, instead of a weekly cycle of workouts (4 times a week) I will do my 2 speed and 2 maximum effort workouts every 8 days. That will give me 1 day between each workout which working out on back to back days really kills me. Another thing I read is that supplementing with tyrosine right after the workout can really help after high intensity work. I'm also going to give this a try.

I am confident that I am on the right track. What I am doing now workout wise is quite a bit easier on the body than what bodybuilders do (high volume has much quicker burnout than high intensity according to the research noted strength coach Eric Cressey has seen). A lot of the lighter weight powerlifters use a much higher volume program than I am using but lower intensity. I think I just need to take it a touch easier, and use better supplementation.

From what I can tell, I handle high-intensity work better than high volume work.

Either way, I am going to keep pushing myself to see what I am capable of and be certain not to back off too far and become complacent. I am very new to the sport and have one opportunity to make huge gains and that time is right now. The body can adapt to huge amounts of stress if given the chance and the proper tools it needs. I'll keep changing the variables around until I figure it out. I'm not arrogant enough to think I can be extremely competitive in this sport while doing a lot less than the best.

Matt