OK, lifters - how did you get through a plateau to even heavier lifting?

[Dolorabelle]

My training has been interrupted by travel & illness - a 4 week cold/cough/bronchitis (yuk!)

I just reached a new PB with back squats (62.5kg) although I need to improve my form - use my legs & glutes even more (tendency to hinge too much & get my back involved).

I train at around 60kg deadlifts, pushing it up to 75kg for a few reps. My PB there is 85kg but I haven't done that forever.

So how do I get through this plateau? What are your strategies. I think I need to set myself a regular lifting day at the gym, in between the other exercise I do. I have a PT session once a week, when we do a mix of stuff - some lifting, a lot of metcon work and I'm strong on the Prowler (pulled 350kg there).

Any tips or ideas?

I am not very experienced but what has worked for me is reps reps and more reps.

Volume at about 60% is what I was advised just last night re deadlifts.

I find focussing on one lift for a few weeks at a time helpful too.

I found Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 programme very effective. It finally got me to a very comfortable double body weight deadlift of 120kg after being stalled at 100kg for a year. So quite a big jump!

Thanks all. I'll follow your tips. I've bee training now for 2 years but sometimes wonder if my age is against me. And I tend to just do what my PT kicks my arse into doing.

Slightly deloading & sporting my nutrition seems to give it a kick up the arse.

So I'm trying the 60% volume on squats. My 1 RM is 62kg (my bodyweight is 70k) so I was training at 35kg then 40kg last night - 3 sets of 10 at 35kg and 2 sets of 10 at 40kg. With proper rest breaks. It puffed me out, but it didn't feel too heavy.

Now to sort out deadlifts - my 1RM is 85k, so my training weight should probably be around 50kg, which always feels very doable - may have to push it to 60kg. I get keen & do sets of 10 reps, but might pull it back to 5 reps a set.

How's it going? I'm in a similar situation - had to take a 3-week break due to illness, and it's frustrating that I've had to drop some weight now that I'm back.

I'm currently deadlifting 60kg for reps but my squats are only at 35kg due to disability issues (but I'm getting proper depth now, which is a big improvement!)

I'm impressed by everyone doing sets of 10! My usual is 5 or 6, dropping to 3 if I need to after a weight increase.