UB: Reps Week 3. Bench

Defranco Shoulder mobility

Bench -
BarX30
65X10
105X6
135X3
170X1
135X10, 6, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 3 (31 total reps)

Pull-Downs - 5 sets of 8-10

Standing Abs - 5 sets of 12

Because I failed to hit my target reps in Week 2, and then had to do a lot of singles on my way to 30+ reps, I decided to back-off the first work-set a little in the hopes of bumping up the following sets.  I had mixed results here, as you may be able to tell.  I got more reps on the 2nd set than I had the previous two weeks which is good, however it immediately devolved into triples and doubles.  Also the total reps for the first 2 sets combined isn't any better than the first two weeks, nor did I beat the total number of sets needed to reach 30+.  All in all it kind of seems like I just rearranged the deck chairs. 

I think there are two factors at play here:  1)  because I train alone, I just don't feel comfortable taking every set to the limit, and 2)  I seem to be trimming up.  I don't really weigh myself, but I pretty clearly look leaner in the mirror.  Some of this could be diet.  I haven't been paying any more attention to what I eat, but I think there's a chance I'm not eating as much as I have been.  This may be having the effect that I'm not getting growth in my pressing muscles due to a lack of nutrition.  Also, less mass means less area to distribute the load over, meaning the muscle I do have actually has to work harder to lift the weight.

All in all, I'm not super worried about this becasue I don't really care about the bench press that much.  As long as my squats and rows show improvement, that's the main thing for me, and I haven't stalled on those.  If my squat stalls out 2 weeks in a row, I will eat more going into the following week.  For now, I probably prefer being leaner to making a lot of bench progress.

UB: Reps Week 3. Back

Defranco - Rollovers into V-sit, piriformis stretch, lat stretch

Deadlift -
135X5X2
225X5X2
285X3

T-Bar Rows (unsupported) -
BarX30
30X10
50X6
75X3
60X20, 10, 5 (35 total reps)

Standing abs - 5 sets of 12-15

Deadlifts were okay.  I need to remember that just because it's not the main movement of the day, that I still have to focus and try to pull correctly.  I think my form went a bit to shit on the top set.

So my rowing strength is progressing very quickly.  That was probably predictable since I've never dedicated this much time or thought to progressing on them.  This might be one of the last worthwhile movements I ever see novice gains on.  So I have a dilemma here.  My original goal was to try and approach 30 reps with 60 lbs. on the bar.  Now that looks not only certain, but I might get it in week 5.  I could be wrong, but that set of 20 was pretty damn easy.  I could have gotten 2-3 more, but I wanted to make sure to get a quality 2nd set.  I've dropped Paul Carter a note asking for his input on this.  I have to decide whether to keep pushing the reps up with this work-weight, or up the work weight to something I'll have a harder time making 20 reps on over the next 3 weeks.

UB: Reps Week 3. Squats

Defranco Hip Mobility

Squats -
BarX25
95X10
155X6
195X3
245X1
195X13, 7, 6, 7 (33 total reps)

GHR - BWX12, 10, 10, 10, 12


195X13 is a Rep PR.  Some of the work sets/reps felt a little off, especially at the turn-around.  It feels like I  may be turning or twisting one way or the other or something.  Might bear more thought.

Upped the difficulty of the GHR bench settings by raising the cross-bar one notch.  Didn't actually seem to make that much of a difference, so next time I may drop it back down but move it forward one notch.

I worked out back to back days here, so I decided to skip the standing abs work.  Probably not the right decision, but I had an ab strain once before, and that shit makes all kinds of things difficult until it clears up.

UB: Reps Week 2. Bench

Defranco Shoulder Mobility

Bench -
BarX15X2
65X10
105X6
135X3
170X1
135X13, 4, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 4 (32 total reps)

Press -
95X5
85X5
65X5
BarX10
BarX11

Standing Abs - 5 sets of 8-15

135X13 is a Rep PR.  Bench was alright, but I wanted to get 14 reps on my first work set, and I had no confidence I would go back up so I stopped at 13.  Interestingly, after the single, the doubles were significantly easier as should be evident by my ability to get 4 reps on by final set.  I a;ls got more total reps than last session.  Possibly it would be worthwhile to try for a few less reps on the first set, in the hopes of getting more reps on the subsequent sets.  I might try this next week to see what happens.

UB: Reps Week 2. Back

Rollovers, piriformis stretch, lat stretches

Deadlift -
135X10
225X5
275X3X2

T-Bar Rows -
BarX30
30X10
50X6
60X3
70X3
60X15, 8, 5, 6 (34 total reps)

Prowler High-Lows - 90 lbs., 14 sets, 15 minutes

Standing Abs - 5 sets of 10-15

My mind was off today, plus I didn't consult my programming close enough, and so and didn't do everything the way I was supposed to.

I should have done 225X5 twice and then 275X3 once.  I didn't realize my mistake until after my first 275 set.  Rather than be done, or go back down, I decided to just do another set of 275.  No big deal.  Besides, I like Deadlifting, heh.

Same on the rows.  the set of 3 was supposed to be at 70, not 60 as I'm waving a top triple instead of a top single like on squats and bench.  No matter.  I needed to hit 14 reps on my first work-set to be on track for my goals or this movement, and I got that plus one more.  Feels good.

UB: Reps Week 2. Squats

Defranco hip mobility

Squats -
BarX15X2
95X10
155X6
195X3
245X1
195X11, 9, 10

GHR - BWX10, 12, 12, 10, 10

Standing Abs - 5X10-20

Walk home - 20 minutes

195X11 is a Rep PR.  I'm pretty stoked that I dropped from 5 sets to get 30+ reps down to 3 here, even if I just made the 30.  Two psychological things that I think contributed:  1) I think the single being heavier this week made the work sets feel lighter, and 2)  I altered my set-up a bit.  Before, when I set up under the bar I'd always try to make sure my body was tight.  This session I found myself not just getting tight through my body, but also getting tight against the bar.  What I mean by that is, I pushed myself into the bar as hard as I could without actually lifting it.  Then when I inhaled and arched the bar out of the hooks, it felt lighter for some reason.  Maybe it's mental, and maybe I was just that much tighter as a result of this tweak.  Pretty cool, though.  I still sweat like Bobby at the reading of Whitney's will because I once again stayed up late drinking the night before a squat session. 

UB: Reps Week 1. Bench

Sunday:

Timed Mile - 10:38

Monday:

Defranco Shoulder Mobility

Bench -
BarX15X2
65X10
105X6
135X3
160X1
135X12, 4, 4, 3, 2, 2, 3 (30 total reps)

Chin-ups - Gym BW 210X7, 3

Presses - 95X5, 85X5, 65X5, BarX7, BarX10

Decided to do a light one-mile run between lifting days.  Just went for something easy; I even walked a bit after the initial quarter mile.  Had to keep my focus to keep my pace down though.  When I run by myself, my instinct is too just take off.

So the numbers Paul Carter lays out in this plan call for the work-sets to be 63% of your 1RM*1.05.  For my bench, that comes out to about 130lbs.  This is one of the rare examples where I have consciously made an ego-driven change to my programming.   It just seems dumb to put a 25, 10, 5, and 2.5 lb. plate on each side for this instead of just throwing full plates on there on working on that weight for this cycle.  Also, 135 projects as my 15 rep max, same as what I'm doing on Squats.

The results were interesting.  It was easier than the Squats (have I mentioned I'm a poor squatter?), but not as easy after the first set as the rows.  Could be because I upped the weight slightly over the recommended %?  I also cut those later sets shorter than I may have needed to because, ya know, the weight is hovering over my chest with no partner to catch it.  Anyway, with the 30 second rests (it's 60 for Squats) this was a bit of a romp.  Pretty fun.

UB: Reps Week 1. Back

Defranco warm-ups - Rollovers to V-Sits and lat stretches

Deadlift -
135X5X2
225X5X2
265X3

T-Bar Rows (unsupported) -
BarX30
30X10
50X6
60X3
60X10, 8, 6, 8 (32 total reps)

Prowler High-Lows - 90lbs., 8 trips

Since Paul Carter wrote the Ultimate Beastdom articles, his attitude towards high-rep Deadlift work has clearly changed.  After some consultation with him, I decided to replace the high-rep Deadlift work with high-rep Rows.  The idea I came up with is to start with some easy deadlift sets, and wave the top set through the 6-weeks to get heavy enough at the end to get some rep PRs, but not so heavy that I'm trying to increase my projected max.  Then I will use Carter's over warm-up method to work on my rowing rep strength with unsupported T-Bar Rows.  The only difference there is that instead of waving the top single on rows, I will wave a top triple.  I just think this makes more sense for rows.  This way I still get to have some fun with Deadlifts, including a shot at some low rep PRs, but most of the work is on Rows, which I need to do some work on anyway.

This session came with only a one day break since the first high-rep squat workout, and my hamstrings were quite tight, and made it a little bit difficult to get into position for the deadlifts, but ultimately these pulls were fine.

The Row work was easier than the work on Squat day.  After I worked up to the set of 3, I pulled on lifting straps so that I didn't have to worry about my grip distracting from the quality of my rows.   I would say this went fine, but afterwards the mid-back strain that I developed during the strength cycle reared it's head.  I've been looking forward to getting some quality rowing done on this cycle, and I'm going to be righteously pissed if this strain gets in the way.  I'm gonna be foam rolling like a mother this week, and we'll see what happens next time.

UB: Reps Week 1. Squats

Defranco Mobility

Squats -
BarX15X2
95X10
155X6
195X3
225X1
195X8, 6, 7, 6, 5 (32 Total Reps)

GHR - 5 sets of 10 (on a medium setting)

You guys, these squats were no joke.  The last two blocks were relatively easy the first week or two.  This.  Was.  Not.  Now, I usually start cycles with some kind of pressing day because that's the way Defranco laid it out, and that's the way Wendler laid it out.  For the first two blocks of UB/WCS, I always ended up Squatting on Saturday or Sunday, invariably on not-enough-sleep and often a bit hungover.  I wanted to break that cycle up, and decided to start this block with Squats to make sure I was fresh going in.  Man am I glad I did. 

Squatting has never come easy to me, and yet I knew 195 projected to around my 15 Rep Max so I expected to get to those work sets and maybe start off with 10, and try to get the 30 reps done in 4 sets.  This was a complete brain-fart on my part because it didn't take into account fatigue from working up to the single.  With Deadlifts, a more natural lift for me, this wouldn't have mattered as much, but with Squats I new I was going to be in trouble right around the 155X6.  Everything felt heavy and hard.  By the time I got to the work sets, I had no idea what would happen.  Frankly, I'm kind of amazed that I got the reps I got, because I was afraid I might not be able to do even 6 sets of 5 to get my 30 rep total.  When I'd finished my 3rd set, though, I knew I'd be able to clear 30 with my last two.  Man.  I'm pretty excited to see how this goes with the other movements, and for the rest of the block.

UB: Conditioning - Review

I've finished the 6-week conditioning block from Paul Carter's Ultimate Beastdom - How to get What Constitutes Strong (WCS).

This program calls for 3-4 days of hard conditioning a week, 1-2 sessions of steady-state, and only two sessions of weight lifting with the goal being to stimulate strength maintenance.

Here were my results for the 3 types of hard conditioning:
Timed Mile - 7:58; previous best was 9:12.
Hammer&Tire - 15 minutes Tabata-style (30 seconds/10seconds); previous best was 5 rounds of 40 swings with 45 second rests for 10 minutes.
30 yd. Incline Sprints - 20 sprints in 18:30; previous best was 8 sprints in 10:00.

In the gym, I didn't miss a single lift, although my last round of singles on OHP were very slow.  Additionally, I actually set a 1 Rep PR in the Squat, but that's due to having missed my one previous attempt with that weight due to form issues.  Still, it was nice to get the lift on the books.

Additionally, I actually set a Chin-Up PR with 12 reps at a gym BW of 205.

It took me a while to get in the correct mind-set for this cycle as I kept looking forward to my gym sessions, and leaving the conditioning as an afterthought.  Once I flipped that, I started having a lot more fun with the program.  Also, the 45 minute walks I did for steady-state were very nice.  I wake up much earlier on the weekends than my wife, and it was nice to just go for a walk in the morning once or twice a week in that time.

The Mile was something that had been in my programming for a few weeks when I was doing Defranco stuff, but since then had only been used for an occasional steady-state finisher after a lifting session.  It was really cool to come back to it for 6-weeks to try and bring it up.  I was able to plot a simple mile around my neighborhood with easy 1/4 mile markers, and it was great to be able to walk out the front door, and be back home with my conditioning workout done all in less than 15 minutes.  This will definitely be another tool that I try to incorporate several times a year going forward.

Sledge hammer swings have been a mainstay of my programming for awhile, as they always made sense as a way to get some good conditioning in while giving the legs a break, they fit in well after a Bench or Press sessions, and they make me feel like a badass afterwards.  However Paul's use of Tabata timing in this was very different from what I had been doing, and very kick-my-ass as well.  Prior to this block, I'd treated them more like core work.  By that I mean I would do sets of moderately high "reps," and then rest for 30-60 seconds before doing another "set."  The 30 seconds of swinging, 10 seconds of resting protocol on this cycle was much harder conditioning wise.  I do want to say, that it didn't seem to be as much of a grip workout as the longer rounds of swings however, and that is also good to know.

The sprints are something I'd been working to try and incorporate for awhile.  I hadn't really gotten serious about them because what I wanted to do were the holy hill-sprints advocated so heavily by Carter, Wendler, and others.  However being car-less, and living in the flat city of Chicago had made this un-feasible for realistically incorporating them into my life.  Both my gym and my home have stretches of street/side-walk nearby that are at a steady incline, so I finally opted to just do 30 yard sprints there.  They seemed hard enough to start out, and hard enough to progress on (I failed to make my goal on one week of this program), that I've decided they're acceptable.  They will continue to be a mainstay for me.

I had a lot of fun on this program, and I learned a lot about myself.  The only bummer is that I now have 3 different conditioning drills I really like, plus there's a Prowler at the gym now, and I'm going to have a hard time deciding which drills I want to include in non-conditioning cycles going forward.  Probably I will go with the Prowler next time since I haven't done any programming with it yet, and want to get a baseline set.  After that, it's going to be really difficult to choose!

One other thought:  I still look back fondly on 531, and plan to go back to that after I finish out the final block of this programming.  However, I don't see any reason that the template Paul uses here can't be used as another template for 531.  Top end strength, conditioning, rep strength, right?  I'm thinking it would be set up as such:

Top Strength - 4 days/week, Press, Dead, Bench, Squat.  531 sets/reps for those movements for 6 weeks with no deload, so a week of 5's, a week of 3's, 531 week, 5's, 3's, 531.  Only going for rep maxes the last weeks.  Assistance work would be as prescribed in the Ultimate Beastdom program.

Conditioning - 2 days of lifting a week.  You would set up like Paul does, but using 531 sets/reps.  So Week 1 would be 531 sets for Bench and Squats, and Week 2 would be Press and Deads with the only difference being that you would also do some light sets of Squats on Deadlift day, and no assistance on any lower body day.  Or, there are a variety of 531 2-day templates out there, so you would pick one of those, and just make sure you pick one with minimal assistance, and only get the prescribed reps.  Then you do the conditioning as Carter lays out in his program.

Rep Strength - This would be very similar to Boring But Big 531, 3 times per week.  The difference is you only get the prescribed reps on the 531 sets, and then you do as many sets as necessary to get 30+ reps with 63% of a reasonable target 1RM for the cycle.  Paul recommends your current max +5%.  Also, you would have to think about what you want to do with the Press and the Deadlift.  Paul only uses the Press as Bench assistance here.  Also, he has changed his mind about high-rep Deadlifting since he wrote the program.  I will talk more about this when I start the Rep strength phase next week, but basically you can do Deadlift just for the 531 reps, and then work on your rowing strength for high reps afterward .  For the Press, a good compromise might be to switch to incline for this cycle instead of doing separate days for Bench and OHP.  Of the 3 blocks, this one is that one that takes the most tweaking to use 531.

UPDATE:  I forgot to include one other aspect of the program that I added.  Paul once wrote a post wherein he discussed that you can bring up one, smaller muscle group on a conditioing/diet/cutting phase.  I decided to do biceps for balance and fun.  I did a 4 sets of high-reps on a curl variation at the end of every lifting session.  I alternated between BB Curls, Reverse BB Curls, DB Hammer Curls, and Rope Curls.  I don't take body measurements, but I would say my biceps definitely look larger after this program.

UB: Conditioning Week 6. Squat, Deads and Sprints

Defranco Mobility

Squats -
BarX10
135X5
185X3
205X5

Deadlift -
135X5
225X3
275X1
295X1X5

BB Reverse Curl -BarX10, 12, 10

BB Curl - BarX15, 12, 12

Incline Sprints (30 yds.) - 20 sprints, 18:30 minutes

Last day of the conditioning cycle.  Squats were fine.

Deadlifts were still fine.  No appreciable drop-off on this lift throughout the conditioning cycle.

For the sprints, I just started a stopwatch I went for 20 which I got.  The most I'd done before was 14, and I still got it at a pace better than 1 per minute.  Good day.

UB: Conditioning Week 6. Timed Mile

Defranco Mobility

5 minute walk

Timed Mile - 7:58

40+ seconds better than my best time for that distance.  I even had to stop for a second at a red light to wait for traffic to clear.  This was pretty much an all-out effort; as much mental as physical.  These last two runs, I've seen that once I get past the first 1/4 mile my brain starts telling me it's not in the cards, and I have to push past that.  Once I'm almost 3/4 of the way through that passes, and it becomes a matter of sustaining the pace.  So the middle 1/2 mile is the mental hurdle for me.  Anyway, this feels awesome.  Come the end of May, I'm going to have a period where I can only get in the gym 2-3 times a week for about 4 weeks, and I might revisit this then.  Or at least one or two of these conditioning drills.  Not sure which yet.

UB: Conditioning Week 6. Press, Hammer & Tire

Defranco Shoulder Mobility

Press -
BarX12
95X2
115X1
125X1X5

Inverted Rows (45 degrees at top) - BWX10, 10

Hammer Curls - 15sX20, 20, 15, 12

Push-ups - BWX26, 6 (50% set)

Tabata (30:10) Hammer Swings - 15 minutes

Press felt hea-vy.  Every rep with 125 was so slow...I don't think I've ever lifted anything so slowly before.  After each one I felt it a wonder that I made the lift, and thought for sure I'd fail on the next.  Got them all though, and that's pretty cool.

Hammer & Tire session was a steaming pile of bullshit.  All the tires at the gym are fucked up because they're mostly used to rest strongman equipment (atlas stones, and logs and farmer's handles that are ALWAYS left with the load on).  Also the tire scoots around all over the place, making you readjust your stance.  None of this is new, but today it was really causing me problems.  The tire I grabbed was particularly dead; no bounce back at all.  And I tried some different strategies for setting plates or DB's in it to hold it in place.  Nothing worked very well, and I ended up switching out tires 2/3's of the way through.  Bottom line:  I worked for 15 minutes which is by bar the longest sledge hammer session I've ever done, and that was my goal for this final session.  Ultimately, I don't know how much work I got done.  I may have gotten less work done per minute than usual, or I might have gotten MORE done with all the fucking around with the set-up during my 10 second rests.  By the end, I was sweating rivers, though.

UB: Conditioning Week 5. Squat, Deads and Sprints

Defranco Mobility

Squat -
BarX10
135X5
185X2
225X1
265X1X5

Deadlift -
135X10
225X5

Rope Curls - 4 sets of 20

Incline Sprints - 14 in 13:00

I was nervous about these Squats.  I'd only tried 265 once before, at the end of the UB Strength cycle, and I got on my toes and had to dump the bar over my head.  So having "failed" to do it on a strength cycle, attempting it near the end of a conditioning cycle was a little worrying.  But I felt confident that the strength should be there, and that it was just a form issue.  When 225 felt a lighter than usual, I started to perk up a little.  I still took a lot of time to make sure my set-up was good.  If I got under the bar and my hands felt wrong, or the bar felt like it was against my shoulders instead of on them, I would pull out and reset.  Got all 5.  They were a bit slow, but so have all the singles been on this cycle.  Because I train alone, I also can't completely vouch for my depth on all 5, especially that first tentative attempt, but as a non-competitor I'm confident that they were low enough to demonstrate my ability to squat this weight.  Nice feeling of calm contentment after these sets.

I mis-read my damn program log, and did last week's programmed sprints.  Whatever; I got done with a minute to spare, and felt like I could have run more.  I did NOT feel like that last week, so I still call this progress.  In fact, I'm thinking that for the last week, instead of setting my timer for 15 minutes or what-not and trying to get X amount of sprints in that time, I might just start a stopwatch running, and see how long I can run sprints before I'm face down on the sidewalk.  Might depend on how I feel that day, though.