I hit a wall everytime I work out! I lock up! HELP! plz

[no_oops]

I don't understand what's going on with me. For the past year, I've had this problem. When working out, I hit a certain number of reps, and then I'm done. I can't go any further. I can't even half-ass a last rep. Everytime I see someone working out and really pushing themselves, lets say they hit 10 reps without much strain on their face. Then they get 2 more with good form with a lot of grunting and strain on their face, and then maybe 1 more rep with their face red, and maybe shaking a little bit. Me . . . I do 10 reps 1-9, easy, on the ninth rep I feel like I have a good 5-6 left in me. I do the tenth rep, no problem, nice and easy up and down. And then I go for the next one, and I can't do it. No warning, no leading up to it, no pain, no trouble breathing. I just lock up. I'm really hoping that there is a solution for this because I'm at rock bottom right now. Please help!!!

 

Thanks everyone!

[no_oops]

One more example, slighly different but just as annoying. I did 20 bench press reps 2 days ago. Today, I added a itty bitty 10 more pounds. Couldn't do a single one! I just don't understand why this isn't incremental. It's just such a huge jump in reps (20 reps . . . 0 reps) considering it's a small jump in weight. Is this "normal"? Can anyone relate to anything I've been saying?

Thx

[thendanisays]

Workouts vary a HUGE amount from day to day due to a lot of circumstances: time of day, pre workout meal, stress, distractions, amount of sleep the night before, etc.

 

Are you stuck at the same number of reps on exercises? Like have you been doing 10 reps of the same weight forever? Either way I suppose, a good way to "squeeze out a few more reps" is to do negative when you hit failure. This is easy with things like db bicep curls, once you fail, use your other hand assist your lifting hand back to the top and then slowly bring it back to start. For moves like bench press and squats and other moves that are more physically demanding, having a workout partner is perfect. If I didn't finish out sets with negatives on my bench press for a while, my gains would have been much slower.

 

Also, when you threw the extra 10 on the chest press, did you warm up with a lighter weight first? This can help.

 

I hope this helps!

[AVOJAMACADA]

Goos points above!!^^

 

I know alot of guys whove had the same/similar prob and a bigfactor is diet man.Make sure you have mad carbs before your workout.Huge factor in energy/muscles endurance.

[VeganEssentials]

It's tough to diagnose, but based on a few things -

 

1. Benching with only a day in between is probably too often for you to have fully recovered. Benching doesn't just hit the chest, it taxes your triceps and front delts as well, so you're also incorporating arms and shoulders in with benching. When you tax multiple muscle groups with a single movement, most people need more recovery time between hitting those parts again, particularly if they're doing the same movement each time. Try giving yourself more time between chest workouts and not doing them every other day (perhaps put 3-4 full rest days between them, maybe more) and see if that helps.

 

2. Try changing up your exercises every 2-3 months if you haven't been doing that already. Nobody continually makes linear progress year after year doing the same thing - eventually, you will adapt to doing the same single exercise for a body part and get diminishing returns. If you've only been doing flat benching with a barbell, try doing either incline benching, or, change to dumbbells. Or, take a month and do some machine work just to really throw your body for a curve. You didn't give a lot of history regarding whether or not you've just been doing flat benching with a bar continually, but if so, it's time to mix thinngs up!

 

3. In addition to the things above, make sure you change rep schemes periodically as well. Don't always go for, say, sets of 10 or 20 - every so often, try lower rep work, or, an occasional day of really high reps with light weight. It's not super-productive to go really high with reps other than for conditioning, but it is a diversion that occasionally can help you get through sticking points. Just as well, don't be afraid to do lower rep sets of 1-5 reps for a while, too. My strength and size gains were best when I trained low rep style for a long time, so some of us are just meant to get our best results that way.

 

4. If you aren't getting at leats 7-8 hours of sleep before your days of weight training, you'll want to fix that because it WILL affect your performance to some extent. Not to say I haven't had some great training days on 5-6 hours, but it's not ideal, and the more you get a full sleep the better off you'll be, both on training days (for recovery) as well as the night before.

 

5. Are you eating enough? Fact is, you can't get much size OR strength if you aren't eating enough to repair the damage you do in the gym. Too many people train hard but have terrible eating habits for not consuming enough calories, then they wonder why they never see any progress. If you don't put enough fuel in your car, you won't get where you need to go. Your body is no different - if you want to get bigger, stronger or both, you need to be eating enough to make progress.

 

6. Lastly, getting back to the carb issue, it's a good idea to have some good carbs about 45-60 minutes before training to make sure you have optimal performance. Some people can train hard with no food for hours beforehand, but not me - I need to eat something before I lift, otherwise, I crash and burn early. Even just a few pieces of whole grain bread or a big apple will do some good, so you don't have to gorge yourself, but eat some good carbs before training so your body is fueled effectively. I usually keep a sports drink handy with me while I'm lifting, sipping between sets to keep myself hydrated and energized. It definitely helps me on my toughest days in the gym.

 

Lots of potential changes could be made for you to progress more - see how many of the things posted here are areas that you need to correct, and if it's more than one, then it's pretty well assured that neglecting these important points has been a factor in your progress slowing down. Hope this helps!

[Octopussoir]

^^^^^ VeganEssentials is spittin' da truth!

[no_oops]

Thanks for the responses everyone. They are all very helpful and I really appreciate it. It sounds like I'm doing just about everything wrong, so hopefully, the correctioins you all recommend will "fix" me. lol. Would you mind looking at my food intake for today and telling me what you think? I'll post it as I finish each meal/snack. I just finished breakfast and I had . . .

 

1 soy yogurt: 28g carbs/ 6g protein

24 raw almonds: 6g carbs / 6g protein

1/4 cup oatmeal: 15g carbs / 2g protein

 

Thanks again for the responses. I appreciate it more than you all realize. I'll post my lunch around 1pm.

[chewybaws]

1 soy yogurt: 28g carbs/ 6g protein

For the "alpro" brand soy yoghurt we have in UK, the flavoured cartons have a similar carb/protein ratio to yours there. After checking out that the unflavoured (not tasteless, just unflavoured) stuff had higher protein than carbs, I switched over. You should check out what you have on offer, it would be an easy way to add extra protein without eating more.

 

I don't bother with it now though, I just use the milk.

[AVOJAMACADA]

It's tough to diagnose, but based on a few things -

 

1. Benching with only a day in between is probably too often for you to have fully recovered. Benching doesn't just hit the chest, it taxes your triceps and front delts as well, so you're also incorporating arms and shoulders in with benching. When you tax multiple muscle groups with a single movement, most people need more recovery time between hitting those parts again, particularly if they're doing the same movement each time. Try giving yourself more time between chest workouts and not doing them every other day (perhaps put 3-4 full rest days between them, maybe more) and see if that helps.

 

2. Try changing up your exercises every 2-3 months if you haven't been doing that already. Nobody continually makes linear progress year after year doing the same thing - eventually, you will adapt to doing the same single exercise for a body part and get diminishing returns. If you've only been doing flat benching with a barbell, try doing either incline benching, or, change to dumbbells. Or, take a month and do some machine work just to really throw your body for a curve. You didn't give a lot of history regarding whether or not you've just been doing flat benching with a bar continually, but if so, it's time to mix thinngs up!

 

3. In addition to the things above, make sure you change rep schemes periodically as well. Don't always go for, say, sets of 10 or 20 - every so often, try lower rep work, or, an occasional day of really high reps with light weight. It's not super-productive to go really high with reps other than for conditioning, but it is a diversion that occasionally can help you get through sticking points. Just as well, don't be afraid to do lower rep sets of 1-5 reps for a while, too. My strength and size gains were best when I trained low rep style for a long time, so some of us are just meant to get our best results that way.

 

4. If you aren't getting at leats 7-8 hours of sleep before your days of weight training, you'll want to fix that because it WILL affect your performance to some extent. Not to say I haven't had some great training days on 5-6 hours, but it's not ideal, and the more you get a full sleep the better off you'll be, both on training days (for recovery) as well as the night before.

 

5. Are you eating enough? Fact is, you can't get much size OR strength if you aren't eating enough to repair the damage you do in the gym. Too many people train hard but have terrible eating habits for not consuming enough calories, then they wonder why they never see any progress. If you don't put enough fuel in your car, you won't get where you need to go. Your body is no different - if you want to get bigger, stronger or both, you need to be eating enough to make progress.

 

6. Lastly, getting back to the carb issue, it's a good idea to have some good carbs about 45-60 minutes before training to make sure you have optimal performance. Some people can train hard with no food for hours beforehand, but not me - I need to eat something before I lift, otherwise, I crash and burn early. Even just a few pieces of whole grain bread or a big apple will do some good, so you don't have to gorge yourself, but eat some good carbs before training so your body is fueled effectively. I usually keep a sports drink handy with me while I'm lifting, sipping between sets to keep myself hydrated and energized. It definitely helps me on my toughest days in the gym.

 

Lots of potential changes could be made for you to progress more - see how many of the things posted here are areas that you need to correct, and if it's more than one, then it's pretty well assured that neglecting these important points has been a factor in your progress slowing down. Hope this helps!

 

 

 

 

 

THIS!!

[Jason X]

That's definitely one issue. 1/4 cup of oats?!? Double it. At least. If you're aiming to bulk, servings sizes on the packages are your enemy. When I do oatmeal in the morning I use between 1/2 and 3/4 cup oats, and add a 1/2 of an apple, raisins, craisins, peanut butter and 2tbsp of flax seed.

 

Try that for a bit and let us know how you feel. (For bulking, eating should be just as hard as lifting. You gotta eat big to get big.)

[no_oops]

That's definitely one issue. 1/4 cup of oats?!? Double it. At least. If you're aiming to bulk, servings sizes on the packages are your enemy. When I do oatmeal in the morning I use between 1/2 and 3/4 cup oats, and add a 1/2 of an apple, raisins, craisins, peanut butter and 2tbsp of flax seed.

 

Try that for a bit and let us know how you feel. (For bulking, eating should be just as hard as lifting. You gotta eat big to get big.)

 

Yeah, I hear ya. The problem is I'm never hungry. You're going to love lunch I bet

 

1 Boca Veggie Burger on an onion bagel

 

Also, so far to drink today . . .maybe a cup and a half of "vitamin water". Thats another big problem with me. I'm never thirsty so I foget to drink water.

[Jason X]

Pretty sure we found the problem. You're doing it wrong.

 

But in seriousness, boca burgers on bagels isn't all bad. Load it up with a ton of spinach and veggies! Bagels are all sorts of calorie dense.

 

But yeah, I'd say we found your big issue.

 

It's 2:30 (at least where I am...) And you've eaten a 1/4 cup of oatmeal, a bagel, and a boca burger. And very minimal water consumption to boot.

 

Your recipe for success involves more food.

[no_oops]

Part of my problem is that I take medication that effects my hunger, and I can't go off my meds because there is no way I'm going back to prison. Just kidding But I really do take meds for ADD, which means that I have small windows in which to eat. But, I'll definetly try eating and drinking more, starting now.

[no_oops]

My kitchen is pretty much empty . . . so I just ate a block of tofu

Tofu: 30g protein

[Jason X]

Yes! Now you're thinking!

 

Tomorrow is just another chance to do today better. Make it happen!