UB: Reps - Review

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

This cycle called for lifting 3 times a week (I just went every other day, or 7 times in two weeks) with 1 hard conditioning session and the option to mix in some steady-state.  After consulting with Carter, I made a change to the original programming.  Instead of doing Deadlift high-rep work, I did maintenance deadlifts, and worked on my rowing strength with high-rep T-Bar work.

Here are my results for the cycle:
Squat - Several Rep PR's, projected increase to 1RM (15 lbs.).
Deadlift - Several Rep PR's, increased 1RM (15 lbs.).  All PR's were on the last day of the cycle.
T-Bar Rows - Several Rep PR's, increased 20RM (20+lbs.)
Bench - Several Rep PR'S, projected increase to 1RM (5 lbs.).

For Conditioning, I mostly did Prowler pushing on the weekend, with one session of sledge-hammer swings.  I did fasted steady-state in the mornings at least one weekend day a week, and often both Saturday and Sunday.

It's amazing what can happen in 6 weeks.

High rep Squatting is a whole other animal from anything I've done before.  On this movement, more than any of the others, Paul's "Over Warm-Up" technique of working up to a heavy-ish single and then backing off to your repping weight seemed to pay the most dividends.  I actually set a 1 Rep PR because my max last increased on the UB Strength 5X5 cycle, so the 90%X1 on the last week was with a weight I'd never actually had on my back.  On my last week, I took my previous projected 15 RM to 20 actual Reps.  I won't say those 20 Reps were easy, but at no point in the set did I doubt I would hit them.  I probably enjoyed squatting during this cycle more than I've ever enjoyed it since I started squatting a year ago.  AND it makes me excited to go back to heavier squat work, and see what that's like now.

I really, really love Deadlifting, and have always hated T-Bar Rows, so this cycle was a bit difficult for me because I constantly had to resist the urge to pull more and/or heavier deads instead of doing bare-minimum maintenance.  It helped that I went with unsupported T-Bars rows.  I just hate the chest-supported kind because it seems really hard to breathe, and fighting for breath always interferes with my attempts to push the reps.  I already mentioned that doing rows here was a modification to the program.  I made one additional modification in that instead of working up to a waved, heavy single, I waved a top triple before backing off to my work-sets.  This just made more sense for me because it allowed me to keep my form stricter without trying to pull a heavy-ass single on a movement I am/was not very good at yet.

Because I haven't done these kind of rows a lot, I made progress VERY quickly.  I twice hit 20+reps with my work weight, and had to increase it for the following sessions.  By the end of the cycle, I'd increased my work weight by 30 lbs., and was still able to take that final work weight for 15 strict reps.  I think this process has allowed me to fall a bit in love with rowing, and I will work on some DB rows for my next cycle, and then attempt to transition into strict BB/Pendlay rows.  Basically, I've given Chin-ups a lot of attention in the past, and I now see no reason why rowing shouldn't get an equal amount of my time.  Especially because...

...my Deadlift went up on this program.  On the final session of the cycle, I felt really awesome walking into the gym.  My top deadlift the week before had a been a ridiculously easy 1 Rep PR (remember, I'd been doing 5X5 and 531 for strength previously, so almost no heavy singles).  Not only did I feel great, but I wanted to know how much the rowing had helped my Pull, and didn't see any reason to have a separate testing day or start a new program/cycle without finding out the State of my Pull.  So I was supposed to pull 315 for a single (and a 1 Rep PR).  I decided I would pull it for a double, and I easily did.  I added 10 lbs. and pulled another single.  I added another 10 lbs. and pulled a difficult single.  I added another 10 lbs. and failed at lock-out.  I took a long rest, tried it again, and failed below the knees.  Okay.  So I had to settle for a new 1 and 2 Rep PR's, and a demonstrated increase to my 1RM.  Woe is me.

Benching was a mixed bag for me on this.  I really shouldn't say that because I hit Rep PR's, and twice hit projected increases to my 1RM.  That is success.  However, the last two sessions were real grinders, and the final session was a failure.  Shit happens, and it was probably just a bad day.  Also, bench doesn't mean as much to me as Squats and Deads so I'm not tore up about it.

An additional wrinkle that probably impacted my bench (although I don't know why it didn't effect my squat) was my diet on this program.  I'm not a diet guy, but I took some direction from Carter's Shake Diet, and had a MRS for breakfast every day, and one more either after a training session, or often as my lunch on non-training week-days.  I'd have one helping of whatever I wanted for dinner, and try not to eat anything late in the evening.  I also mostly switched from beer to bourbon when having drinks.  Again, I'm not a diet guy, so I don't hop on a scale very often, and then it's usually at the gym when I've got at least one meal in me.  Thus I can't speak to weight change, but I've certainly trimmed up quite a bit around my mid-section.  A loss in weight is classically accompanied by a decrease in bench performance, so I'm not very surprised to crap out on bench at the end of the cycle. 

I learned a great deal about myself as a lifter on this cycle, and there's a lot to carry with me into future training set-ups.  I still plan on basing the majority of my training for the foreseeable future around 531 for the main lifts, however nothing I did on this program is incompatible with that.  I've mentioned this before, but as an example, to take this program and adapt it to 531, I would simply hit the target reps on a 531 movement, and then back the weight off to attempt to increase strength in a higher rep range.  Not entirely dissimilar from Wendler's own Boring But Big template.