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. 

UB: Reps Week 6. Squats

Defranco Hip Mobility

Squats -
BarX20
95X10
155X6
195X3
275X1
195X20

Leg Curls - 5 sets of 15; 10 partials at the end of the last set

V-Ups - 3X10

Prowler Pushes; High-Handles down and back - 90 lbs., 15 pushes, 15 minutes

275X1 is a Rep PR, 195X20 is a Rep PR, increase to projected max, and my target for the cycle.  Left me sweating hard, and with my heart pounding like crazy.  Great session, great cycle for squatting.  Don't know what else to say.

UB: Reps Week 4. Squats

Defranco Mobility

Squat -
BarX20
90X10
155X6
195X3
255X1
195X15, 7, 8 (30 total reps)

GHR - 5X10

Prowler High-Lows - 13 trips; 15 minutes

Great session.  195X15 is a rep PR, 15 and 7 for 22 reps between my first two work-sets is a best for the cycle, and getting 30 reps in 3 sets ties my best for the cycle.  And everything felt good.  I actually could have maybe gotten more reps on my first work-set, but I really wanted to beat 20 reps on my 2nd set, so I saved it.  Mental fist pumps after these squats.

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 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.

5/3/1 Log: Cycle 3. Week 2. Bench and Squat

Defranco Stretches

Bench -
BarX10
95X5
125X3
145X3
160X7

Squat -
BarX10
135X5
155X5
180X3
205X3
230X8

Chins (V-Grip) - BWX6, 5, 5, 5
super-set with
RDL - 85X10, 95X10X3

Push-ups - BWX10X4
super-set with
Face-pulls- 4 sets of 15

Defranco Core Circuit X2

Prowler Pushes for 10 minutes

Rep PR's and projected 1RM increases in both the Bench and Squat.  Bench was easier than the Squat, but as planned I set a bigger PR in the squat.  Great session.

5/3/1 Log: Cycle 3. Week 2. Press and Deadlift

Stretches from Defranco's Simple-6 (foam-rolling at home)

Press -
BarX10
65X5
90X3
100X3
115X5

Rollovers into "V" Sits from Defranco's Agile-8

Deadlift -
135X5
175X5
205X3
235X3
265X4
super-set with
Hanging Leg Raise - BWX6, 6, 6

Dips (Gym weight 201) - BWX5, 10X5, 20X5, 25X8

One-Arm DB Rows - 65X13, 15, 10

BB Bulgarian Split Front Squats - BarX10, 8, 5

BB Curls - 45X8, 65X5, 75X5, 55X10

Hammer and Tire - 40, 40, 30

Press was weak as hell today.  That's two crap sessions in a row.  May have to look at this lift next cycle.

265X4 is a Rep PR for the Pull.  Felt a little heavy, but probably could have gutted out one or two more.  Set-up felt weird all day.