Squats Getting Worse- HELP!!!

[anna5588]

Hi!
I’m Anna, 17yrs old, 5ft, 90lbs. I started lifting 3 yrs ago and now have a best squat of 185lbs, deadlift of 260lbs and bench of 125lbs.

Recently, I’ve been having a lot of trouble with my squat. I ran Candito’s 6-week strength twice. The first time, I increased my squat max from 175-185, but the second time, I actually failed 175! My bench and deadlift both increased both times. Now, I’m running a GZCL program to switch things up, but my squat is still weak ( 155x5 felt like a grinder even though I did 155x8 three months ago). My legs don’t feel too challenged, but I get a weird lightheaded feeling when squatting that makes me dump the bar. I've also recently found it hard to focus. 
What’s wrong?

Please help

Ps. I did not change sleep (8-8.5hr/night), stress(minimal school work) or nutrition(see below), but did loose around 3lbs over spring break

Last Training session (squats, GZCL week 2)
T1: Back Squat: 3x4, 1x3- was supposed to be AMRAP set but got lightheaded and lost focus, at 155lbs (supposed to be 85%)
T2: Lunges: 1x12/leg, 1x11/leg, 1x10/leg at 100lbs (65%)
HIIT: 4x(20sec pistol squats+20sec jumping lunges+20sec rest); 4x(20sec burpees+20sec high knees+20sec rest); 4x(20sec box hops+20sec mountain climbers+20sec rest)
Abs: same structure as HIIT but w/ 5 groups of 2 exercises
(I would usually include a glute exercise like pull throughs as T3 but I ran out of time)
 - I train 6x/week, 60-100min/session
Nutrition (rough estimates, my parents don't allow me to track:
Breakfast: 2 slices of Eziekel toast +2 boiled eggs + 1 cup almond milk
Snack: fruit
Lunch: large salad- huge pile of spinach+5-6oz chicken, on weekends lunch is the same as dinner
Snack: 1 scoop whey protein of a quest bar
Dinner: 1 cup black rice+ 5-6oz meat (usually stewed w/ a pressure cooker) + stir fried veggies (idk how much oil)

[Ryan]

Johnny Candito does some solid programming in general (even his free stuff is useful), so I recommend you not bail on that because your progress has stalled.

In 9.9 out of 10 cases similar to yours, strength stagnation or loss is due to not being in a caloric surplus. If you want to get stronger, you need to stay in a surplus, period.

Is strength increase your primary focus?

What's your bw?

[3speed]

Ryan, she starts out saying she is 5' tall and weighs 90lbs. That's a BMI of 19 which the WHO considers underweight. When you throw in the muscle she should have from training, there's more going on here than the obvious.

[Ryan]

Mar 19, 2018 10:33:41 GMT -5 3speed said:

Ryan, she starts out saying she is 5' tall and weighs 90lbs. That's a BMI of 19 which the WHO considers underweight. When you throw in the muscle she should have from training, there's more going on here than the obvious.

oops, missed that at the beginning....

I need to do a better job reading. lol

[anna5588]

Okay, thanks for the advice. Is there any possible reason my squats specifically have gotten worse while my other lifts improved? I honestly haven't changed form

[Ryan]

Mar 19, 2018 23:09:02 GMT -5 anna5588 said:

Okay, thanks for the advice. Is there any possible reason my squats specifically have gotten worse while my other lifts improved? I honestly haven't changed form

Likely due to diet, but feel free to post videos of your squat here and we'll have a look.

[anna5588]

Cool, is there anything wrong with my diet?

[Ryan]

Well, you need to be in a caloric surplus to add body mass (whether it's lean mass or not). Remember, nutrition at its core is just simple math.

But are you really only 90lbs? If so, then with all due respect, there's probably more wrong with your diet than you're letting on. Even at 5' tall, you should be in the 110lb range or so, taking muscle mass into consideration.

[anna5588]

Thanks for the help!

[vegasjon]

Agree with the poster above, would be hesitant to jump ship on the candito program as I've had a lot of progress there. Would focus on the diet