[Joey]

If your 7 weeks in and have been struggling to progress from week 3 I would say you either need more rest or you need to consider your exercise selection and potentially look at getting hormones checked.

I would first set up training so you are day on day off repeat and see if this helps but your volume is pretty low with just 6 sets per session and if nothing is progressing and hasn’t been for the last 4 weeks of a 7 week spell there is an issue some were IMO

Will definitely implement the extra rest days, thanks for the suggestion.

I should have specified my full upper body day in case that means anything. I do 2 sets of each of the following:

Chest press

high incline press

tricep press/dip variation

lat row or pulldown

upper back row or pulldown

tricep extension variation

bicep curl variation

lateral raise

As for an unknown issue, I am not sure what it could be. I am very obsessed with managing my variables and checking my boxes

[Joey]

Some suggestions that might help –

You mentioned having 3 pressing movements per session. Would be possible to reduce this to 2.

Having a rest day in between the training days. In this case, I would might advice just use 2 rotations, as 12 days between doing the same excercises might be a bit too long.

All things considered, 4 days is relative high frequency. I would go for a rest in between the training days – then from there access progress

Hope this helps bud

Thanks for the advice. I’m doing a chest press, high incline press (upper chest/shoulders), and a tricep press. I suppose I may be able to cut down on any redundancy (e.g. doing an incline chest press and a higher incline shoulder press in the same session). Will definitely play around with rest days. Another reply suggested resting an extra day before the upper session, so will have to try both recommendations and assess progress. Overall, thanks for the thorough response.

[Joey]

I would take a purple of days deload to start with , then I’d add an extra rest day before upper .

Thanks for the advice, makes sense. I suppose I should also change from 3 rotations to 2 rotations, as I’ll be waiting longer between rotations.

[Joey]

If you’re already tracking and happy with the rate of gain with the calories you’re currently eating, then stick with this. The diet planner is useful for people who haven’t been tracking and need a starting point. It’s not designed to be followed blindly. You would still need to adjust the amounts over time, depending how your own body responds. You already have a starting point, so keep going as you are.

Thanks for the response, makes sense. Will stick to what I’m currently doing.

[Joey]

More information: My last deload was 7 weeks ago, right before I started training upper/lower. On one of my upper body days, I reduced my chest and shoulder press from 2 sets to 1 set. The next time I repeated this session, I did not see any improvement. I am training with 3 rotations (A/B/C).

From my understanding, I am not recovering enough between upper body sessions in order to progress my pushing movements. Should I reduce my working sets to 1 for all upper body sessions? Should I add an extra rest day before each upper body session (Rest/Rest/Upper/Lower repeat)? Or Should I rest every other day (Rest/Upper/Rest/Lower)?

I know I need to make a change to be able to push progression, but I am unsure how to go about doing so. If I add more rest days, I’m also reducing my training frequency, which means It takes 1.5 weeks to make it back to Upper A again, as I do 3 rotations.

I’m checking my boxes, but I am struggling to figure out how to specifically go about implementing this much-needed change. Advice is appreciated, I can provide any information needed.

[Joey]

Some things to consider –

More restdays

Overall push volume through the week, this includes tricep work.

Work you are doing for the other bodyparts / lower day in the split, they will have an effect on your recovery capabilities.

Since you have stalled this early, there is likely a need for adjusting your programming – i would look to reduce volume per session / take more restdays – considered you are nailing every variable in the first place

Thanks for the response. You mentioned more rest days, I’m wondering how I should go about implementing that. Should I do R/R/U/L repeat? Or U/R/L/R?

As for reducing volume, currently I do 2 sets per exercise, so 2 for chest, 2 for shoulders. Would I change it to 1 set per pushing exercise for all three upper sessions (A/B/C)?

[Joey]

When was the last time you deloaded?

7 weeks ago, right before I started upper/lower. Took a whole rest week