Advice needed: PHAT Routine has left me broken

[Pywell89]

Have just started week 9 of my own PHAT routine and I am absolutely broken.

My left shoulder is injured, my right shoulder isn’t much better. My hips are sore, my right forearm/ hand feels strained and I haven’t been able to complete any of the last weeks workouts without making some sort of modification.

The first six weeks went unbelievable, I gained about 2.5kg whilst staying just as lean as when I started. A lot of my lifts went through the roof. I added significant weight that my squat, deadlift and Press (dB). I generally felt like an animal in the gym and once I included OL Re1gn as my pre workout at around week 3 I felt even better.

Started to feel a little bit sore after 6 weeks so made week 7 a deload week, thinking the break would get me back on track but I haven’t got back to where I was before my deload 3 weeks later. I’m more sore now than when I started my deload, I haven’t gained or lost any weight but I’m visibly less lean (this might coincide with me running out of Vector 3 weeks ago). This has also completely destroyed my motivation during my sessions.

Help! Have considered taking a full week off and doing nothing, is this the way forward? I’ve dropped my calories in the meantimeto just above maintenance to avoid unnecessary fat gain whilst my training is suffering. What else should I do to speed up my recovery and get back to training properly?

Really don’t want to lose all of the great progress I made over the first six weeks.

 

[BennyMagoo79]

Have just started week 9 of my own PHAT routine and I am absolutely broken.

My left shoulder is injured, my right shoulder isn’t much better. My hips are sore, my right forearm/ hand feels strained and I haven’t been able to complete any of the last weeks workouts without making some sort of modification.

The first six weeks went unbelievable, I gained about 2.5kg whilst staying just as lean as when I started. A lot of my lifts went through the roof. I added significant weight that my squat, deadlift and Press (dB). I generally felt like an animal in the gym and once I included OL Re1gn as my pre workout at around week 3 I felt even better.

Started to feel a little bit sore after 6 weeks so made week 7 a deload week, thinking the break would get me back on track but I haven’t got back to where I was before my deload 3 weeks later. I’m more sore now than when I started my deload, I haven’t gained or lost any weight but I’m visibly less lean (this might coincide with me running out of Vector 3 weeks ago). This has also completely destroyed my motivation during my sessions.

Help! Have considered taking a full week off and doing nothing, is this the way forward? I’ve dropped my calories in the meantimeto just above maintenance to avoid unnecessary fat gain whilst my training is suffering. What else should I do to speed up my recovery and get back to training properly?

Really don’t want to lose all of the great progress I made over the first six weeks.

Deload.

You probably should be deloading every 4 or 5 weeks.

 

[Pywell89]

Deload.

You probably should be deloading every 4 or 5 weeks.

For how long? Should I deload for another week? Last time I dropped all lifts to 60% of what I had been doing, should I just do this again? And what about cals? Should I stick to maintenance? I’ve heard some ppl suggest keeping them higher to aid in recovery.

 

[Jeremyk1]

Sounds to me like you need to learn how to lift. You shouldn’t be falling apart like this after only 6 weeks. You should probably spend at least a week just learning proper form for each exercise.

 

[BennyMagoo79]

For how long? Should I deload for another week? Last time I dropped all lifts to 60% of what I had been doing, should I just do this again? And what about cals? Should I stick to maintenance? I’ve heard some ppl suggest keeping them higher to aid in recovery.

If u r running PHAT you should be in caloric surplus. Deload should be 50-60% TOTAL VOLUME for 1 full microcycle (week usually).

 

[TheMovement]

DONT DROP CALORIES!!!!

Honestly I don’t think your wasting and sleeping enough. I went through something similar and sometimes you really need to go back and reprogram your working weights. Sometimes the total volume is just too much.

When you say your version of PHaT what does that mean? Have you ever done a program before? How long have you seriously been following structured training programs?

 

[Nac]

Yep, dont decrease Kcals. And deload, but dont decrease your weight lifted (intensity), but decrease overall volume. I tend to drop down to just one working set for each exercise. Again, dont decrease the load on bar.

 

[HIT4ME]

I agree with much of what has been said. But like JeremyK1 said, you may be so beat up because you are not lifting properly. Often this happens when trying to lift more weight as the major goal and your form breaks down.

One thing that a lot of people won't agree with but I feel has helped me keep my joints fairly pain free (I get injuries too...I am not perfect) is to lift really slowly. I do 3-4 second up, 2 second contracted pause, 3-4 seconds to lower. I am not always great about keeping this pace, but I try.

When I started, my ego took a major hit as I couldn't lift as much. If you are training for athletic performance you can make a case for explosive lifts, but I feel this is the best way to avoid injuries.

Of course you don't say specifically and maybe you have overuse injuries and more frequent deloads may be necessary. We all have different tolerance levels. Some people need to deload in shorter periods, others can get away with longer periods between deloads.

 

[jrock645]

As already mentioned, when struggling to hit targets- KEEP EATING.