Bodybuilding Forums

Today was week 5 day 2 of THT 2.0 for me. My chest exersizes have dropped in both weight and reps. I am a both irritated and confused as to why. I have two theories as to what may have happened. Either I have hit the point of overtraining (I don't think this is the case). I was training pretty hard before I started this program and didn't really have a break before starting. My other theory has to do with rest. Last week I missed my Tuesday workout, so I had to make up for it on Saturday. This only left me Sunday to rest and start again on Monday. Then on top of this I didn't get my normal amount of sleep last night due to work, and tonight will be no different. Any thoughts?

lv2snwbrd wrote:Today was week 5 day 2 of THT 2.0 for me. My chest exersizes have dropped in both weight and reps. I am a both irritated and confused as to why. I have two theories as to what may have happened. Either I have hit the point of overtraining (I don't think this is the case). I was training pretty hard before I started this program and didn't really have a break before starting. My other theory has to do with rest. Last week I missed my Tuesday workout, so I had to make up for it on Saturday. This only left me Sunday to rest and start again on Monday. Then on top of this I didn't get my normal amount of sleep last night due to work, and tonight will be no different. Any thoughts?

I'm thinking insufficient sleep, insufficient hydration, or craptastic diet. Definitely try to sleep more, and definitely chug down your gallon a day of water, but can you give us an idea what your diet looks like?

I know my diet probably isn't the best, but it is a lot better than it used to be. I normally start my morning with a protein shake. Sometimes I add yogurt sometimes I don't. I bring an egg sandwich to work with me for breakfast every morning (two eggs). For a snack I bring about a cup of cottage cheese and a can of fruit (normally peaches or mandarin oranges). Lunch normally consists of leftovers from the previous nights diner. I will normally have a sandwich or some other snack after work. Dinner varies, but I try not to over eat and I try to stay away from sweets. Since starting the workout I drink hardly any beer at all. As far as water goes, I bring two bottles to work, and once I am home I normally have at least two more. On gym day's I have between two and three 28 oz bottles full of water. I have another protein shake after my workout and one before bed. I also take creatine and glutamine. The glutamine is taken with my morning shake and the creatine with my post workout shake. My vitamins consist of a generic multi-vitamin, fish oil, zinc, calcium and as of the last two weeks I have also started taking CLA.

I know exactly how you feel. When I switched from THT to HIT, my bench dropped 25 lbs. I was completely discouraged, I went from 200x7 to 175x4. I did my day 1 of 175x4, day 3 I was 175x6. The following week I went 175x12 and was back up to 200x8. Some times you hit the wall and have to push through it, it was a total piss off having to drop down that far (in my mind) but after a week of the lower weight I was right back to where I was.

lv2snwbrd wrote:I know my diet probably isn't the best, but it is a lot better than it used to be. I normally start my morning with a protein shake. Sometimes I add yogurt sometimes I don't. I bring an egg sandwich to work with me for breakfast every morning (two eggs). For a snack I bring about a cup of cottage cheese and a can of fruit (normally peaches or mandarin oranges). Lunch normally consists of leftovers from the previous nights diner. I will normally have a sandwich or some other snack after work. Dinner varies, but I try not to over eat and I try to stay away from sweets. Since starting the workout I drink hardly any beer at all. As far as water goes, I bring two bottles to work, and once I am home I normally have at least two more. On gym day's I have between two and three 28 oz bottles full of water. I have another protein shake after my workout and one before bed. I also take creatine and glutamine. The glutamine is taken with my morning shake and the creatine with my post workout shake. My vitamins consist of a generic multi-vitamin, fish oil, zinc, calcium and as of the last two weeks I have also started taking CLA.

OK, so I'm reading lots of carbs and high-GI foods, not enough dietary fat, and not enough water by a long shot. Pretty sure this is your issue right here. Study up on MANS and GLAD and pick one. In a nutshell, MANS is carb-cycling. You eat very low carb all week long, forcing the body to burn fat for fuel and preventing the sorts of insulin spikes that cause your body to build fat instead of muscle. You then at the end of each week have a carb-up period to create a controlled insulin spike, which both replenishes muscle glycogen and induces a growth hormone spike. GLAD is based on glycemic index. Glycogen levels never fully deplete, so they never need to be replenished, so the carb load and insulin spike don't happen because they aren't needed. Instead, insulin levels are kept a consistently low level, and the body gets just enough calories to add more muscle mass without so many as to trigger fat storage.

Your diet is as important as your training. You can't out diet poor training like you can't out train poor nutrition. You'll want to take the same level of control over your diet as you do your exercise routine. Track your intake, get sufficient protein, and mind your carbs, be it via glycemic index or simply restricting them altogether. Water-wise, training days, you want a gallon, literally. That's 128 fl oz.

Supplements wise, you're mostly good. I would swap out the zinc for ZMA - your muscles need the magnesium. I'm also curious as to what specific protein supplement you're using. You'd be surprised how many protein shakes are complete and utter garbage. I swear by Nature's Best, but there are other good brands out there - just want to make sure you're not on one of those garbage half-dextrose ones.