5/3/1 Log: Cycle 1. Week 0. Squats

Defranco's Agile-8

BB Squat -
45X5
95X5
135X5
155X3
175X3
200X3

BB Split Front Squats - BarX10X3

Front Squats - 55X10, 75X10X2

Much like Bench Day is now Bench and Back Day, this is now Squat and Quads Day (although I'm feeling it pretty good in my Glutes as well).  Seriously, I was rubber-legged on the trip home, and the front of my thighs are definitely making their presence known today.  This is good as I chose this accessory work for this day specifically for this purpose.  I'll get my back and hamstring work on Deadlift day.

Trying to adhere to the deload week 0 idea here so I didn't go for reps on the last set of squats.  Few notes here though.  I watched a Rippetoe video about squat grip, and it totally fucked up my session.  This was killing my shoulder and I was having trouble keeping the bar on top of my delts.  When I tried to abandon this and go back to my regular grip, I couldn't remember how to do it!  Really frustrating.  I had to take a break a do shoulder-dislocates to try and loosen my shoulder back up.  It's been months since I've had problems in my left shoulder, so this made me none too happy.  Also my wrists felt beat to shit as well.  In fact, my wrists took a beating all day.  On the bright side, I was getting great depth all day!  Don't know why.  I'd been worried after my last heavy set on BLAB that I'd cut the last couple of sets high.  Maybe just having that in my mind got me down into the hole more.  A really funny thing happened too me.  After my first work-set, I heard a voice behind me saying "Do you have to go so low?"
The only person over there was one of the more experienced/muscled guys at this gym (although since I'm the least experienced/muscled guy in this gym that could be anybody else), so it didn't occur to me that he would be saying anything to me.  "Hey, buddy!"  I turned around and he was looking at me, "do you have to go so low on those?  You're making me feel like I'm cheating over here."  This guy was repping out 225 while I was doing sub-200 triples.  I was so surprised that I was speechless, and all I could do was chuckle and grin.  Next time I see him, I'll have to remember to say "hi" so he knows I'm not a douche.  Nevertheless it was a nice compliment.  The work-sets felt smooth and light like they should...as opposed to how they felt on DL day.  Still hoping those are easier next time.


Split Squats with just the bar were challenging enough for starting the program.  I thought it would be based on the lunges in some of Defranco's complexes.  Also I'll need some time to dial in the form, as the back foot feels very awkward, and seems to want to scoot out (I think).  The front squat grip is awkward with light weight as I'm having to actively work to keep it in place.  I've mentioned before that because I suck at single-leg work, I'm making that a staple of my lower-body assistance work.  I decided for 5/3/1 that I wanted to work up from relatively easy BB movements to harder ones.  I reached out to Ben Bruno for advice and this is what he told me:

Me:  I want to incorporate barbell single-leg work as assistance on Squat day in between Back Squats and Front Squats (for training economy).  For the single-leg work, I would like to do two-week mini-cycles moving to progressively harder movements every two weeks.  I figure to start with BB split squats and finish with BB speed-skaters.  My initial thought is to go Split Squat, Lunges, Reverse Lunges, Bulgarian Splits, Speed Skaters.

Do you see any issues with that, or would you recommend any changes, whether of movement selection or order?

Ben Bruno:   would not bother with lunges or reverse lunges if your ultimate goal is speed skaters. It is a very different movement pattern without much carryover. Instead, I would do:

 

1- Split Squat

2- Bulgarian Split Squat

3- Bulgarian "Speed Skater" Split Squat

 

Good luck, and let me know if I can be of any more help.

Taking that to heart, I initially decided to do three-weeks for each, but now I think I'll just do one per cycle, with the option to skip them on deload week.  Speed Skaters are hard as hell, and I don't mind taking my time to work up to them.

Jefit says that 75X10 on Front Squats is a PR for me, but that's because I only did them once before so wank-wank.  I totally didn't do Rippetoe on these as I went with a super-narrow stance that allowed my elbows to come down outside my knees.  Got good depth this way, however as I get heavier I may have to switch to a wider stance as I can't get depth that way AND keep my belly full of air.

I was going to do my first round of hill-sprints today, but we had plans to go to some friends' house for hang-out time and I didn't want to keep everybody waiting.  It's Deload Week 0, so I'm fine with that.

Starting next week, I will also restart the Core work-out progression from BLAB.