Strength drop

So today my workout was disappointing. The leg press was occupied, so I started with pulldown and row, which were about normal. On leg press, on my last workout with legs five days ago I managed 12 reps with 230 pounds for each leg. I got 7 reps with my left leg and couldn't budge any more. On the shoulder press I managed 5 with 175 on the machine (I could never manage near that weight free weight), instead of the 6.5 I did last time - but maybe that was from fatigue from doing the pulldown and row first.

I see a few possibilities. I wasn't feeling totally energetic this morning. Maybe I have some disease temporarily slowing me down. I did full workouts Tuesday and Thursday last week and a wrist and grip workout Thursday and Saturday. Maybe I am slightly overtrained. And of course, maybe I am not training frequently enough.

I'm going to assume overtraining or sickness and take off until next Tuesday. I may do some wrist and grip work between now and then, but that's all. If I keep hitting a wall, I will drop the leg press, shoulder press, and a few other exercises down a few pounds and start again with more frequent workouts.

12-17-09: I skipped my strength workout for the day, the grip workout Tuesday (the 15th) and today, and just tried 3x6 on shoulder press with a 5 minute break between sets.  I managed 55 pounds in each hand, not bad.  (Not super, but not bad.)   Next time I try shoulder press, I'll attempt 56.  I see no reason to hurry, not hurting my wrist is top priority.

12-19-09 Tried shoulder press with 56 pounds, got 1x6 and 1x5.  Take a few more days off (maybe six or seven because of other upcoming workouts) and try again.   I may decide that two sets is plenty.   I'm also contemplating a switch to a seven or eight rep target per set instead of six.  It will slow down my progress, but presumably the longer sets will fatigue the muscles more - which hopefully is better for mass growth.