Personal Record Drought

How about those times when every 2-3 months you were setting at least one new personal record (PR)? Can you remember those times in your training life? Or even further back, the times when it seemed like every month you seemed to be increasing something compared to the previous month? If you’ve been strength training or weightlifting now for 2-3 years chances are you’re now in the midst of your first PR drought that’s 6 months long or maybe even longer. The longer you train the longer the time between PRs is going to be, and the smaller the increase as well.

I want to talk about how these periods of no PRs are normal, and I want to talk about how you can train through these times without losing all excitement. I believe there are ways to motivate yourself and build confidence that will encourage you through the drought making you expectant for the drought to end.

First, periods of time where a 1RM or PR single stays the same for maybe 1 year or so can be a normal experience for a lifter. Why does it happen? Well, we can’t all keep getting stronger in a smooth linear fashion because at some point we reach our potential since the human body can only get so strong, and the closer we get to this the harder it is to make progress. Aches and pains might creep up making training difficult and limited. We might actually pull a muscle that requires full rest for 1-2 months, or a surgery where we are forced to take an even longer rest. So, just right there if you’re out or very limited for say 3 months then best case scenario it takes 3 months to build back up and maybe make a new PR, and you’re looking at 6 months between the last PR and the new one. Maybe life picks up in a way that makes you unable to train consistently for a few months and progress slows. Maybe you decide to eat in a caloric deficit to lose weight for a couple months and progress slows. There are many factors that can contribute to progress slowing down aside from just ‘it gets harder the stronger you get’. My main point here is it’s normal for progress to slow, and not making a new PR or even successfully making a lift at your PR might be a year or more apart from the last PR.

Don’t spiral out of control and think you’re pathetic or that you’ll never get back to your best or surpass your best. Yes, there will come a time when you’ve reached your ‘peak’ and you’re not going to beat it; this article isn’t about that. I have seen a masters athlete of mine start weightlifting with me April 2019 with a PR Snatch of 41kg at the age of 47-48 and after a couple years of PRs she hit a drought and went over 2 years before a PR Snatch. I believe she started weightlifting 6-12 months before joining with me, so maybe 3 years in by June of 2020 she had brought her Snatch up to 53kg (12kg increase in 2-3 years), but then it wasn’t until December of 2022 that she added 1kg to her Snatch again. That is over 2 years of being unable to surpass 53kg, but here’s something exciting about her fighting through that 2+ years rough patch: she came out the other side! Since that 1kg PR in late 2022 she has PRd again first at 55kg, and made 55kg a few times, once even at Masters Nationals on the competition platform! Then she has brought her Snatch up to 56kg by mid 2023. All of this in 1 year. So, 2 years of no PR in the Snatch followed by 1 year of multiple PRs: 54kg, 55kg, and 56kg. And, let’s not forget this is at the age of 52 years old; it gets even harder to make PRs as we get older.

So, there’s just one success story of someone fighting through a PR drought and coming out through it to make awesome progress after over 2 years of no PRs. I have other athletes I could use as examples and I have my own stories after weightlifting now for 10 years, 7 of which have been as a masters athlete. But, now I want to switch to ways in which we can motivate ourselves and stay encouraged through these periods of seemingly no progress.

Let’s be clear, it might seem like you are not making progress, but that’s not necessarily the case. Perhaps there is a limiting factor in your lifting that can be improved and that will indirectly improve your Snatch and Clean & Jerk, so you spend time honing in on that. Not matching your best or beating your best doesn’t mean you’re not training towards that day where all things will lead to a new personal best. Maybe improving overall strength is what’s needed to see a bigger Snatch and C&J so you go through a few training cycles (6-9 months) where your programming is really pushing you with squats and pulls and presses and rows and volume in the classic lifts. You might not have the energy for a big Snatch or a big C&J during this phase, but once the volume is pulled back for 3-4 months you begin to express new strength that was built and then the PR is there! And this is where you need to be aware of what the goal is. In this scenario the goal is strength, so don’t make Snatch and C&J PRs the goal in your head because then you’ll be disappointed. Motivate yourself by having proper expectations: gain strength which will then lead to the ability for a bigger Snatch and C&J. So, let this belief drive you to complete your squat volume or push for your upper squat range. Let this encourage you that it’s not worth skipping your pulls because you feel tired and you want to go home. And let this keep your head in the proper mindset: you are working on getting stronger, not maxing out a new Snatch PR.

Besides being motivated by the appropriate goals or focus of a program, a lifter should be looking for small wins on a weekly basis or within a 4 week block timeline. Here’s a list of many that I will use for myself:

Take note that Week 2 beat Week 1 and be motivated by that or vice versa

When given the opportunity to do a couple heavier reps/sets have realistic expectations and goals that lead to surpassing something you’ve done recently rather than only wanting an all time personal best

Be aware of certain volume records from recent past or maybe all time history and seek to surpass that volume if programming looks like it could lead to that

Take note of the frequency in which certain heavier weights are being executed in training and be motivated about how that could mean bigger lifts are on the horizon

Try to build complexes and variations into heavier than you’ve done that training block by Week 3 or 4, or if feeling great try to do a personal best in that variation or complex

Have access to your good training videos and look back on those periodically to remind yourself what you’ve done and what you can do when feeling good

Set realistic minimums that equal training success and if those feel good and you do better then you have bonus success

All of the above are basically ways of appreciating success in training and are ways to help motivate you to push hard in training. They can help you acknowledge that things are moving in the right direction, keeping proper perspective, and they are ways to form building blocks of confidence that lead to genuine expectancy. We don’t want to hope for PRs we want to expect them.

So, when you have come to that point in training when it’s been 6 months or more since a PR don’t panic. Start looking into recent training success, and start to think of ways you can aim to feel more successful with training based on how current training is going. Talk with your coach about what the priority of the training cycle is and then fix your focus on that. Become motivated to do your best with what your coach said the main goal of current training is. Start to look at those aspects of current training and begin to aim for targeted success in the areas the coach has designated as the primary focus. Try to accumulate small win after small win because over time these add up and almost always lead to a big win.