Powerbuilding Workout Week 4
I think I hit the overtraining wall this week! Here’s how it happened and how I plan to adjust my workouts.
In week 4 of the powerbuilding workout, I continued adding two more sets for all the hypertrophy muscle groups. However, one muscle suffered from severe delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), requiring a mid-week rest day.
As a result, I didn’t succeed in increasing my overall workout volume for all the hypertrophy muscle groups, although I did increase my weight for most groups.
Here are the weekly changes for the hypertrophy and strength muscle groups.
Powerbuilding Workout Week 4 Overview
| Training Goal | Volume | Load |
|---|---|---|
| Hypertrophy | -11% (12 sets) | +4% (2 lbs) |
| Strength | -4% (2 sets) | +5% (4 lbs) |
The missed workout decreased the total number of sets for the hypertrophy muscle groups from 112 back to 100. I also removed two sets from the strength groups, reducing the total to 50 from 52.
As a result, week 4 only included 150 working sets, short of my target of 162 sets.
The overview only tells part of the story. Let’s examine the individual muscle groups to see what actually happened.
The table below shows each muscle group’s total volume (sets), average load (weight lifted), and average reps.
Powerbuilding Week 4 Muscle Groups
| Training Goal | Muscle Group | Volume | Average Load | Average Reps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hypertrophy | Triceps | +10% | +0% | -1% |
| Hypertrophy | Biceps | -45% | +6% | +2% |
| Hypertrophy | Rear Delt | +0% | +1% | +4% |
| Hypertrophy | Side Delt | +0% | +1% | +4% |
| Hypertrophy | Calves | +13% | +6% | -4% |
| Strength | Chest | -9% | +7% | +2% |
| Strength | Back | -9% | +3% | +6% |
| Strength | Quads | -0% | +9% | -1% |
| Strength | Hamstrings | -0% | +5% | +7% |
| Strength | Abs | -0% | +0% | +6% |
As you can see, strength muscle groups faired very well this week. I added weight for everything except the abs and got more reps with the heavier loads.
However, the hypertrophy muscle groups were all over the place this week. I didn’t add volume to the shoulders and lost significant volume for the biceps.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that my biceps finally cried mercy. After all, I have doubled down on volume with two weekly workouts to elicit a response.
However, the surprising thing was that the debilitating soreness kicked in the morning after my shoulder workout! And it was so extreme that it was painful to straighten my arms out for most of the next two days.
I assume this was a combination of the added arm day volume and extra effort on the upright rows and face pulls on shoulder day. The fact that the soreness was in my outer bicep and upper forearm confirms this.
I decided to take a rest day on Friday before training my arms again on Saturday. But my biceps were still super sore Saturday morning, so I omitted bicep exercises and only trained my triceps.
The next logical step might seem like reducing bicep training volume. However, I know multiple factors led to the overtraining symptoms this week, and I would rather address those first.
What I learned from this is that I need to consider the work my biceps do during shoulder-day pulling movements. So, next week, I will use more isolation shoulder exercises to take some stress off my arms.
Check back soon to see how my muscles respond to the adjusted workout plan!
