5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 2. Week 2. Squat

LRB Diet - Day 8

BW - 197

Hypers - 5 sets of 15-25

Squats -
BarX5
95X5
135X5
155X3
175X3
195X5

Pendlay Rows -
BarX10
105X5
140X5
120X15

Dips - BWX7, 10, 14, 10, 7

Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 35-40

No energy for squats today, and my form was off on my first two work sets, and I kept getting on my toes.  I kept back on my heels on the top set, but 5 was a grind.  Regular squats feel less natural than pause squats to me right now.  Not sure what to think about that.

Pendlays just feel heavy over 10 reps.  120X15 is still in the range I've been working in however, so I'm not sweating it.

Set a PR on Dips last time, so just worked the ladder for volume this time.  This seems to be working very well so far, and I got a few more reps on each "rung" than I did 2 sessions ago when I did this.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 2. Week 1. Press/Dead

LRB Diet - Day 6

BW - 199

Pause Squats -
BarX5
95X5
125X5
145X5

Klokov Press -
BarX10
50X5
55X4
65X3
70X2
85X1
90XFAIL
65X4

Deadlift -
135X5
185X5
205X5
235X10

Hypers - 5 sets of 20

Wanted to see what my true upper range on Klokov's is, so I did Paul Carter's Strong-15 %'s and worked up to my heaviest possible single, which turned out to be 85.  I'd been projecting in the 90-95 range, but 90 just would not budge off my shoulders.  All good as it lets me know that I'm working in the right range on 531, and not selling myself short.

Came in looking for 6-10 reps on the Deadlift and got 10 which projects the same max as last cycle when I was only getting 1-3 reps on my top sets.  Also a Rep PR.  Another guy watched my top set, and came over and mentioned that it looked like I was losing tightness after the first few reps and that I had motion in my low back during the movement.  I was thankful for the note, and I will be more mindful of keeping a tight arch on the higher rep sets in the future.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 2. Week 1. Bench

LRB Diet - Day 4

BW - 199

Hypers - 5 sets of 20

Pause Squats -
BarX10
95, 125, 145X5

Bench -
BarX10
85, 105, 120X5
135X8

Chin-ups - BWX5, 12, 6, 4, 3

Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 30-40

Solid 80% session.  Pause squats were supposed to be 120 and 140 on the top sets, but I didn't see any trouble with going the extra 2.5 lbs. considering I'm looking to jump to Tier 2 next cycle where the top set is 205.  These all felt smooth and explosive.  In some ways, pause squats feel more "natural" to me right now than full squats, but I'm sure a lot of that can be chalked up to the lighter weights.

Bench felt really solid, but I didn't set a rep goal for myself and 135X8 turns out to project as the lowest 1RM I've registered in 6 months.  Again the set felt solid, and the reps all felt smooth down and up, even with the new pause at the chest.

On the other hand, a BW 199X12 on chins is a 4 month PR.  While they don't seem to be coming on as strong with the weight loss as dips are, it's nice to see they're not regressing.  During this diet phase I'm hoping to hang my weight room morale on dips and chins as they should appear to maintain or improve their rep ranges as BW decreases.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 2. Week 1. Hills

LRB Diet - Day 3

Hill-Sprints - 37 mintues

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 2. Week 1. Squat

LRB Diet - Day 2

BW - 200

Hypers - 4 sets of 15-20

Squats -
BarX5
95X5
135X5
165X5
185X10

Pendlays -
75X10
135X8
115X15

Dips - BWX7, 16, 8

Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 35

First day with the reset training max on squats.  I've lost the "feel" of going over 5 reps with this movement, and I'm happy to be getting back into it.  I didn't really know what I needed to hit for a certain max projection, so I just set my sights on 10 reps for the top set, and got it.  This projects a 1RM in line with what I was doing last cycle, but I'm confident the additional reps at this lower weight will help stimulate some growth to start building up to new, heavier weights down the road.  With 531, it will be several months before I get the opportunity to try and beat my parallel squat single rep PR with my new, ATG form, but I am very much looking forward to that and any other chances to break old PR's with the new form.

I got side-ways in my head, and went too heavy too fast on the Pendlays, but still hit a nice 15 reps on the back-off set.

BW of 200 for 16 reps on Dips projects a new 1RM PR.  Yayee.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 1. Week 3. Press/Dead

This was on Saturday, day before new diet starts
BW - 201

Hypers - 3 sets of 15-20

Pause Squats -
BarX5
95X5
115X5
135X5

Klokovs -
BarX5
55X5
60X3
70X12

Deadlift -
135X5X2
185X5
235X5
265X3
295X1
275X1X5

Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 30-35

Well that's it.  Deadlift stuck in the mud just like bench and squat, so time to just reset everything for the next cycle.  Fuck it, it coincides nicely with the start of the diet anyway.  I'd hoped to pull 295 for a tough triple today, but I had to grind out the single.  I was frustrated, so I pulled a 10 off each side, and hit 5 more singles at that back-off weight to try and get some more volume in.  Did the same thing last week, but I guess it didn't make a lot of difference, heh.

Klokovs are still fine, and 70X12 is a Rep PR and projected 1RM increase, but it is still a very new movement to me, so no real matter.  Still a lot of fun.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 1. Week 3. Bench

BW - 201

Paused Squats -
BarX5
95X5
115X5
135X5
superset with
Chin-ups - BW, 4 sets of 5

Bench -
BarX11
95X5
135X5
155X3
170X1
superset with
Chin-ups - BW, 3 sets of 5, 1 set of 2

Pause Squats felt great.  Smooth and explosive.

I was in a rush this session because we had company coming over for dinner.  I skipped the hypers and crunches, and instead superset a ton of little chin-up sets across the workout.  By the time I got to that last set of 2, it felt like I had tweaked my mid-back a little on the left-hand side, so I did full-stop, feet on the ground reps with an overhand grip, and could only get those 2 reps.

Bench is what it is right now.  Much like adjusting my squat to go full ATG, and having to reset my training max for the next cycle to account for the lower strength curve, pausing the close-grip bench on my chest has significantly lowered my top weight on this movement.  I'm resetting my training max for the next cycle, so that I can finally get some reps in.  That being said, my form felt as tight as it has in a while, and these sets were all smooth, even if 170 was quite slow.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 1. Week 3. Hills

Hill-sprints - 32 minutes; sprint-up, walk-down; no rest at top or bottom.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 1. Week 3. Squat

BW - 201

Hypers - 5 sets of 15-20

Squats -
BarX5
95X5
135X5
185X5
210X3
235X1

Pendlays -
BarX10
95X5
115X3
135X3
125X15

Dips - BWX7, 9, 12, 9, 7

Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 25-35

Continue to like the hypers over the reverse hypers for now.  Interestingly, in the first few sets I feel the muscles really getting worked, and then for the last few, they just feel warm and "capable" for lack of a better word.

Squats actually went pretty well, and I possibly could have gotten another rep or two at the end, but I'm lowering my training max after this without a deload, so I didn't want to grind this out beforehand.

Tried something a little different with the Rows, and that was going back to something I did on Paul Carter's UB - Reps Strength program where I over warmed-up on rows and then did my rep-out set as a back-off.  Went great, and 125X15 is a Rep PR and projected 1RM increase.

For dips, rather than try to push a new projected 1RM, I went back to the ladder I ran 2 weeks ago, and tried to run it with 2 more reps per set in order to push the overall volume for the session up.  This worked very well, as I got all the reps on each set, but the last reps on the last two sets were all out efforts.

New diet starts on Sunday.  I broke it out into a table for myself yesterday, and will do the grocery shopping for the first week soon.  This will take a lot of pre-planning and vigilance to pull off over the next 2 months, and I'm excited about it.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 1. Week 2. Press/Dead

BW - 201

Hyper-extensions - 3 sets of 15-20

Pause Squat -
95X5
115X5
135X5

Klokov Press -
50X3
60X3
65X10

Deadlift -
135X5
215X3
250X3
280X3 (Fail on 4)
280X1X3

Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 30

I like doing the body weight extensions instead of the reverse hyper right now.  I feel the muscle working a lot more, and I suspect it will be better to build the mind/muscle connection this way so that I can get more benefit out of the reverse hyper down the road.

Pause Squats still feeling fine.  Because I'm squatting all the time now and yet it's still the first cycle, it feels like I should be upping the weights already.  At least one more cycle at these lower weights, before I jump to the next % tier.  Although, I guess if I feel good I could jump next cycle...

My shoulders seem to be acclimating to the Klokov presses pretty quickly.  I could have gotten a couple more reps here, but just wanted to bump my 1RM a tad.  Next week I will probably go for AMRAP.

Well, as my weight had been inching downwards, so has my strength.  Bench was the first to go, and it fell of a cliff about a month back.  Pretty quickly into the diet, actually.  Then I suspected that my squats weakened a bit as well, but it was hard to say for sure, because I also switched to Paused for a few weeks, and then came back doing ATG instead of parallel, so it was hard to say for sure.  However, not being able to pull this 4th rep with 280 was a real surprise.  I pulled 285 for 5 in February, and 290 for 3 last month, I intended to get a solid 5 reps on the top set today.  4 stopped just off the ground.  I was pissed, and so I pulled a few singles with it to try and make up the volume.  I held the last single at the top for a couple of seconds, and thought I was going to pass out when I sat it down.

I can't help but think I've lost more muscle than is optimal for a diet over the last month.  I'm not going to panic, though.  In fact, after this week, I'm hoping to implement a very regimented diet for August and September, but I've got to sit down and plan it out.  I'm hoping that if I plan well, and execute, that I can lean up a lot more, and maintain strength levels wherever they are.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 1. Week 2. Bench

BW - 197

Pause Squats -
BarX10
95X5
115X5
135X5

Bench -
BarX10
95X5
115X3
145X3
160X4

Chins - BWX5, 10, 5, 4, 3

Couldn't get to my regular gym today, so I ponied up $10 to hit a World's Gym I was nearby.

I did a few of my reps on the top set on bench touch'n'go just to see.  It really is amazing what a difference the pause makes.

Got 10 chins which was nice.  Still have a little ways to climb back up to where I've been with them, though.

No low back or ab work.  Looked around the gym for a back extension bench or something but didn't see one.  Just decided to pack it up.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 1. Week 2. Hills

Hill-Sprints - 25 minutes; sprint up, walk down, no rest in-between

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 1. Week 2. Squat

BW - 200

Hypers on the GHR - 2 sets of 15

Squat -
BarX10
95X3
135X3
175X3
205X3
225X4

Pendlays -
BarX10
95X5
120X15

Dips - BWX6, 15, 6

Chiro Crunches - 3 sets of 30

Didn't feel like setting up the Reverse Hyper today, and really just wanted to get to the squats, so I only did a few sets of extensions on the GHR.  I did use some form tweaks that Paul Carter discusses in his new book, and I felt them in my back more, and my glutes less.

Squats were good.  Everything felt solid form-wise, and I probably could have gotten a 5th rep on the top-set.  I think my training max is still too high for a starting cycle, though, as I should be contemplating a 10th rep rather than a 5th at this point.  Now that I'm going ATG, the strength out of the very bottom just isn't there for many reps at this weight, BUT it's feeling better all the time.  One thing I found today is that, if I control my descent a bit more then I feel a tad more explosive on the turn-around.  I suspect this is a by-product of increased stability.  Still plan to finish out this cycle to establish a revised max with my new depth, then reset my training max for the next cycle. 

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 1. Week 1. Press/Dead

BW - 204

Reverse Hyper - 5 sets of 10

Pause Squats -
BarX5
95X5
115X5
135X5

Klokov Press -
BarX5
55X5
60X12

Deadlift -
135X5
205X5
235X5
265X5

Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 25-30

Really nice session.  Seems like the best in awhile.

Doesn't seem to matter how little weight is on the bar, full, ATG pause squats just feel like they don't want to go over 5 reps.  Weird.  These all felt good though.

Just my second time ever trying these "Klokov" presses.  No matter, I went ahead and based by 531 training max on the lone, other session and predictably got a lot of reps on the top set and projected an increased 1RM.  The way Squat and Bench day went, it was nice to feel like the first week of a 531 movement was easy for a change.  Shoulders were smoking after that top set, though.  It was great.

Deadlifts felt solid.  My top strength has certainly dropped off a bit since I pulled several PR singles to push up my 1RM a couple months back, but that seems to be expected, as top end strength peaks and drops off again.  The cool thing, looking back at my progress over the last several months is that my "baseline" pulling strength seems to have shifted permanently from an average max range in the high 200's to the low 300's.  Roughly from the 285-290 range to the 310 range.  The good thing here is that 531 seems like the perfect format to sit back a tad and, hopefully, allow that average to creep up slowly.  Of course, if I'm feeling awesome one day, I will go for extra reps.  In the meantime, I'm doing hypers, rows, and chins together with tons of squatting, so there's plenty of work for the support muscles of the pull, without having to push the lift itself very often.  That's the plan anyway.  Starting with this session, I'm also holding the last rep at lockout to test/increase my grip strength.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 1. Week 1. Bench

BW - 200

Pause Squats -
BarX8
95X5
115X5
135X5

Bench -
BarX8
95X5
115X5
135X5
155X4

Chin-ups - BWX5, 7, 6, 5, 4

Reverse-Hyper - 100lbs.; 5 sets of 10
super-set with
Chiropractor Crunches - 5 sets of 20-25

My gym isn't air-conditioned, but thank god it's in a basement.  Hot as hell this week.

Pause Squats were fine as they should be at this light weight.  Still, good opportunity to work on my form.  Kept well back on my heels on all reps.

Bench stalled out on me.  Couldn't get the 5th rep.  This is a bit of a bummer after all the OHP and Inclining I've been doing the last several weeks.  However, my weight is down at least 5 lbs. since I set my last 1RM PR, and that was almost 2 months ago.  I'm not happy about it, but my max may just be predictably dropping with my BW.  I suppose that's the best case scenario unless this was just an off day.  I will keep my training max the same through this first cycle, and then drop it if necessary.  Along with this, I'm also starting to track my current max vs. my all-time PR's so that I can be clearly aware of where I'm at in that regard.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 1. Week 1. Hills

Hill-Sprints - 20 minutes; 97 degrees HOT!

It's goddman hot in Chicago right now, and my hill is in full sun.  I shut it down after 20 minutes and walked home.  Slowly.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 1. Week 1. Squat

BW - 201

Reverse Hyper - 5 sets of 10

Squat -
BarX10
95X5
135X5
160X5
185X5
210X5

Pendlays -
BarX15
95X8
110X8
120X8

Dips - BWX5, 7, 10, 7, 5

Chiropractor Crunches - 5 sets of 20-30

Now that my show is opened and my parents have left town, I'm finally sliding into the program I've been eyeing for a few months.  Namely 531 Full-Body.  Because I'm being an asshat, and not doing exactly the movements laid out by Wendler, this will probably take some calibration.  Case in point, I programmed Pendlay Rows and Dips instead of DB Rows and DB bench for squat day as you can see here.  The dips were fine, however I was going to try and do 8/5/3 for the Pendlays in the spirit of the 5/3/1 lay-out, and that just didn't feel like the way to do it after this first session.  If I had to do this again, I would have repped out 110 instead of working up to 120.  Some of this will be re-acclimating myself to the movement, and some just tweaking for what is going to work best.  Just because Jamie Lewis does heavy sets of 3 on that movement, doesn't mean it's going to work for me.  At least, not yet.

Also, this happened

Two of them, in fact.

5/3/1 Log: Cycle 2. Week 2. Incline

BW - 198

Incline (steep) -
BarX10
65X5
95X3
110X3
130X3
145X3

DB Rows - worked up to a heavy set of 20

Lying Leg Curls - 5 sets of 10-15

Swiss-Ball Crunches - 5 sets of 20-25

1 mile run - 9:30

Used the steep fixed incline bench today.  So  much more like an overloaded front press than the shallower bench.  Hoped to get 5 reps on the top set, but 3 was a grinder, but projected higher than my previous session on this particular bench so all good.