[Vickie Lake]

Mrodock,

I must tell you I haven't heard the word deload in a while and I would definitely not recommend a 75% reduction. I have some questions. I need to know how many sets and at what weight you build to your 5 rep max. Are these all of the exercises you are doing? Are you doing this workout three times a week? How much do you weigh? How old are you. Do you know your bodyfat percentage? Is this seven week beginning the only time you have done any ongoing strength training? Do you have a trainer? How did you choose your program? What are your objectives?

You hit the nail on the head, you are overtrained. The first sign I look for is apathy with regard to going to the gym or reaching your goal or even staying focused during the workout. Assuming you are over trained you have no choice but to take your workouts down a notch. Next week allow yourself two days between workouts. When I see your whole program I can advise you about your weight, rep, set orchestration.

Are you getting enough sleep? How is your nutrition? Are you doing cardio/aerobics also?

I hope you'll provide this information so I can give you an answer for the other viewers to see. So often people will ask questions that might help others but then we don't get the whole picture.
Most of our viewers don't train with this level of weight so they have no reference point.

I am a real believer in split routines and this includes compound motions. You should alternate between high intensity workouts and lower intensity workouts. This allows you to keep working but slips in some extra recovery. There is also some imbalance in your weight allocation. I don't see any lat or rhomboid work represented here. Hope that's an oversight.

Matt is very experienced but I must clarify that your fitness won't catch up with fatigue unless you change your training protocol. The purpose of training with overload is to raise your fitness level, the bodies ability to perform and recover more efficiently. Since your benefits from training don't happen in the gym but in the period of time afterward when the body heals the microtramas, you have to be sure that your rest period is sufficient and healing is complete before you begin tearing down the muscle again. [Not allowing enought time to rebuild is one of the main reasons people complain about not getting bigger or stronger. They tear down and start to rebuild but then tear down again before the new muscle response occurs. Robbing Peter to pay Paul] This enormous fatigue that seems not to go away and interfers with your workouts is a clear indicator of adrenal fatigue which is a precursor for excess cortisol production. (I still have to finish that part of my post). And taking off more than a few days means that you must reevaluate your program and your goal timelines. A five rep max, based on the information you illuminated, indicates to me that you are maxing out every workout. Nobody will recover from that, especially if they have a real life with work and family and sports.

Vik