On the third week I am seeing muscle growth stalls and a bit of a reduction in size in the morning. After food, muscle size is the same from one day to the next. The stall began on Monday, which was the last time I expected to see problems, but as I said I have been waking up without as much bulk and have to build it back for some hours, and I haven't seen a difference since Tuesday.
So, I'm expecting a return to better mornings starting tomorrow, but I don't know if I've accidentally overtrained (in which case it takes 4-5 days to recover gains) or if it's something else.
According to Stronglifts 5x5, you can progressively overload every 1-5 workouts. I chose 4, and when I progressed with squats last Monday there were no problems. I'm assuming you progress per exercise and not just every rotation of A/B, since squats are performed every workout and need to progress almost every week. I progressed with each exercise this week at the appropriate times.
I am thinking it's possible the 3rd week is a stalling week, however I had other problems causing atrophy. Some guys on Reddit said beginners of a certain size stall much earlier.
I'm expecting Sunday will not be a growth morning (however I'm still hopeful), but Monday or Tuesday morning should reflect some kind of baseline progress. I have no experience with doing Stronglifts the right way until now, so I don't know where I should expect bumps in the road. For now, mornings are stalling but I benefit from my meals and anything that boosts growth throughout the day.
I'll continue with the top-down workout structuring and progressive overload plan unless week 4 is no good for gains. I didn't think week 3 would serve me stalls, but things could be worse.
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