I'm currently on month 1 of the PPL program (I've been doing it for almost 3 months though because I've been seeing progress, so I haven't moved on to month 2 yet). I've been seeing progress during all three PPL days every week so far.
Then this Tuesday during push day, I started off with the bench press as usual. I've done better on the bench press every week until this point, and expected the same this week. However, for some reason I did WORSE than last week despite using the same weight (I didn't increase the weight this week because I wasn't able to do the full 7,7,6,4,3 range with the current weight last week). And not just slightly worse...I did one rep less on set 3, one rep less on set 4, and six sets less on the AMRAP. So 8 total reps less over the course of the 6 sets. Then today during pull day, I did worse on the curls and reverse curls than last week, both of which I have also progressed on every week until today.
Why could this be happening? I know that it's normal to not see progress for a week or even a few weeks...but to actually do WORSE than the previous week...and on two different muscle groups? Is that normal??
My nutrition hasn't changed/gotten worse...I eat healthy food and track my macros/calories. If anything it's gotten progressively better. I don't think it's that my muscles are overworked because I only train each muscle group once a week.
I've been working out without time off for about 4 months...could it be that I need a deload week? Do I just need to change up the routine and move on to month 2 (if the issue is just that my muscles got used to the routine, I think I would just stop making progess, not start doing worse)? Or could it be something else? I'm very frustrated and disappointed. Help!