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

BW - 203

Pause Squats -
BarX5
95X5
135X5, 5
185X3
210X3
235X1

Lunges - BW 5 sets of 10

Bench-
BarX15
95X5, 5
130X5
150X3
165X6

Deadlift -
135X5
185X5, 5
225X5
260X3
290X8

Tough session, but with some good results.  This was the last week of 531 Full Body.  I have a tight schedule this week with 2 public readings and rehearsals for same.  Also, I'm going to try and squeeze 2+ full cycles of 531 BBB in before I start rehearsing my next show after the new year.  Therefore, I made the executive decision to combine my last 2 Full Body sessions into one, so that I can start BBB this weekend.  The big loss here is that I had to drop my final session of Kolkovs.  Everything else that got skipped (chins, leg curls) will be present in the next phase.

Pause Squats felt solid.

My quads felt mega-pumped after the 5X10 lunges.

165X6 is a tiny, tiny all-around PR on the bench close-grip and pausing every rep on the chest.  I was hoping to go for 8, but 6 was a grind.  The 150X3 was the best feeling set of the bench session as far as tightness of set-up.  Feeling positive about the adjustments I've made, and the results.

290X8 is also a small all-around PR on Deadlift.  I started making a small adjustment here, which is basically just keeping my hips a tad higher.  The bar still banged the fuck out of my knees, but didn't tear up my shins at all.  The last couple reps here were also really tough grip wise, and the final rep BARELY locked out.  I still managed to hold the weight at the top for a second or two, but I could be beginning to see the upper limit of my double-overhand grip.

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

BW - 199

Pause Squats -
BarX10
95X5
135X5, 5
185X3
210X3
235X1

Klokov Press -
BarX10
65, 75X3
85X11

Deadlift -
135X5
185X5, 5
215X3
245X3
275X10

Leg Curls - 5 sets of 20

Great session.  +10%.

Pause Squats felt as solid as they have since I went to this top tier of %s.

85X11 on Klokovs is an all around PR.

275X10 on Deadlift is an all around PR.  Felt really good too.

Leg Curls are goddamn uncomfortable at just about any weight.

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

BW - 200

Pause Squats -
BarX10
95X5
135X5, 5
185X3
210X3
235X1

Klokovs -
BarX12
60, 70X5
80X12

Deadlift -
135X5
185X5, 5
200X5
230X5
260X11

Leg Curls - 5 sets of 20

Solid session.  80%

235 on the pause squats is still slow, but smooth as long as I'm focused.

Klokovs felt a little wonky.  Couldn't quite get in the groove.

260X11 on Deads is a Rep PR, and a tiny increase to my projected max.

Leg curls were murder.  5 sets of 20 was harder than the set of 100 I did on vacation.  Different machines, weights, etc., though.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 3. Press/Dead

Saturday:

Band Pull-Aparts, wide-grip - 100 straight reps

Sunday:

LRB Diet - Week 10

BW - 197

Pause- Squats -
BarX5, 10
95X5, 5
135X5, 5
160, 185, 210X3

Klokovs -
BarX10
55, 65X5
75X3
85X2
95X1
100X1
105XFAIL
85X5

Deadlift -
135X5, 5
185, 225X5
250X3
280X8

Shrugs -
225, 315X10
405X5
455X3, 3, 3, 3, 3
475X2, 2, 2, 2, 5

Band Pull-Aparts; Medium-Grip - 5 sets of 25

Brutal, balls-to-the-wall session.  Spent about 2 hours in the gym.  Goddamn pause squats still feel heavy as hell over 200 lbs.  One thing that did feel good was sitting down into the first set with the empty bar for a long, long time.  It just seemed to really stretch out my hips and allow everything to open up for the pause, and felt pretty awesome as well.  Regarding how heavy the top set is feeling, I don't think I'm ready to jump up to the next % tier of the program, and will have to stay here for a while OR just go ahead and take a shot at the next tier, and see if I fail or not...

Decided to do another "testing" day for the Klokovs using the Strong-15 #'s.  That 100X1 was maybe the hardest grind-out of a rep I've ever done.  The first few inches of this lift are just brutal, as even once you've broken the bar off your neck it still moves SLOOOOOOW for the next little bit.  I ground just as hard on that 105, but it would not break.  I upped the weight a bit for the back-off set to make it a bit more challenging.

280X8 on Deads is a Rep PR, and a tiny, tiny increase to my projected 1RM.  I was mainly focused on keeping my hips high, because my shins and knees have been taking a beating lately, and I think it's because I'm starting with my hips too low.

Did the 475 for double on shrugs, because I think I can move up to that for the triples, but I didn't want to jump straight in.

Had a few minutes till the bus would come, so I hit some band pull-aparts.

This was my last regular session before I go on vacation.  I'll hit the gym once more to try my "birthday squats" idea, and I may also get in one more conditioning session once the squats are done.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 2. Press/Dead

LRB Diet - Week 9

BW - 198

Pause Squats -
BarX10, 10
95X5, 5
135X5, 5
160, 185, 215X3

Klokovs -
BarX10, 10
60, 70X3
80X12

Deadlift -
135, 135X5
205, 235X3
265X10

BB Shrugs -
225, 315X10
405X7
455X3, 3, 3, 3, 5
405X12

Ab Wheel - 3 sets of 5-10

Pause Squats still feeling heavy.

Klokovs were pretty solid today, and 80X12 is a Rep PR.

Deadlift felt great, and 265X10 is an all-around PR.  My 3rd of the year.  Started with 285X5 in February, then 335X1 in May.  Maybe I'll hit another before the year's out!

Bumped up to 455 for the triples on shrugs.  Felt tired as hell by the time I got here, and my grip was rough even with straps, so I did a back-off set of 405 instead of progressing to singles.  405X12 is an all-around PR.

Got 3 sets of nothin' on the ab wheel before I called it and went home.  Pretty good session, but I was beat down by the end.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 1. Press/Dead

LRB Diet - Week 8

BW - 197

Pause Squats -
BarX8
95, 135X5
160, 185, 210X3

Klokovs -
BarX10
55, 65X5
75X15

Deadlift -
135X5, 5
190, 220X5
250X11

Shrugs -
225, 315X10
405X5
425X3, 3, 3, 3, 3
455X1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 5

Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 40

Pretty satisfying session, and looking leaner than I've been in over a year.  That 210X3 still felt pretty heavy though.  Probably an 8 or 9 out of 10 on the ol' RPE scale.

Klokovs felt a bit back on track.  I approached them somewhat differently, in that on the first 3 sets I paused every rep on my back so that I would have to take them from a dead-stop.  Then on the top set, I paused every 5 reps for breath.  The hardest part of this lift is breaking it off the neck, and that's why I "trained" the pause/break on all the up-sets so that I would be prepared for the top-set.  As the weight increases on this lift, I'm going to try and incorporate more pausing.  The difference between attempting this lift from a pause vs. with the stretch reflex is pretty drastic.

250X11 is right in the strength range for my last session, is a Rep PR for the 9-11 rep range, and everything felt pretty good.  So that's a good session.

So with shrugs I really hemmed-and-hawed and decided to go up to 455 for singles, and then when I decided to do max reps on the last set, I got 5 which is hilarious.  So next time, I'll do 455 for my triples I guess, and do 475 for singles and see how many reps I get at the end with that.

Heavy, heavy back day so I did crunches for my core work.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 1. Bench

LRB Diet - Week 8

BW - 199

Hypers - 5 sets of 15

Pause Squats -
Bar, 95, 135X5
160, 185, 210X3

Bench -
BarX10
95, 110, 125X5
145X8

Press -
65, 85X8
75X8, 6, 5
super-set with
Wide-grip Pull-Ups - BWX1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3

Chin-ups - BWX5, 5, 5, 5, 6

Another decent session.  I guess this kind of thing can happen when you're only working one job, heh.

Pause Squat weight creeps up a little bit more for the next few weeks.  Getting gradually closer to PR range. 

Best bench session in a long while.  This is an all-around PR with close-grip and pausing every rep on the chest.  I really wanted this today, and I got it.  I'm thinking about dropping some or all of the overhead work in my program after I get back from vacation at the end of the month to try and get some real, steady progress on this lift by incorporating Incline Presses instead.  But I'm going to be patient, and finish out the shoulder volume programming I've implemented until vacation.

Speaking of Press, I had to remind myself to stop after a few sets here.  I'm only really supposed to be doing 4 work-sets, and I got 4-5 here and was about to start another before I snapped to my senses.  My Klokov's sucked ass last week, and I don't want that to happen again.

Pull-ups on a straight bar this time, whcih was a little harder than the bent bar.  Still got all my rungs done.  And then chins felt strong even though I ultimately could only get 6 on my all out set.

Not a lot of low-back work on this session, so I opened it with hypers for my core work.

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

LRB Diet - Day 46

BW - 198

Pause Squats -
Bar, 95, 135X5
155, 180, 205X3

Klokovs -
BarX5
60X5 uh...heavy
70X3 heavy, da fug
80X6 WTF?!

Deadlift -
135X5, 5
215X5
240X3
270X8

BB Shrugs -
225, 315X10
405X3, 3, 3, 3, 3
425X2, 1
445X1, 1, 1, 3

Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 40-45

Pause Squats felt a little heavy today, but not as heavy as...

...Klokovs.  As you can see from the notes above, I was completely baffled and caught off guard here.  I even "got up" for the top set because I was concerned by how heavy the other work sets felt.  3 weeks ago, I hit 75 for 15, and 2 weeks ago I hit 70 for 20.  It's inconceivable to me that a 5-10 lb. jump can cut my rep range down from the high-teens to the mid-single digits.  I'm gonna chalk this up to fucking astrology or fatigue from Bench Day or something, and I expect to rebound next time.

Deadlifts went really well however.  270X8 projects to a # 2 all time 1RM, and is a Rep PR.  What's more, the set was more about focus than straining, and I didn't walk away feeling gassed, nor do I feel wrecked today.  All good signs that my favorite lift is in pretty good shape at the moment.

Wanted to start flirting with increased weights on the shrugs so instead of hitting a back off set in the 300's after my triples, I started adding 10's and doing singles.  My form/ROM felt a little shitty, but I was able to get 3 on my last, all-out set.  Next time I may go with 425 for the triples, and bump up to 455 for the singles.

Skipped hypers at the top of the session to make sure my back was super fresh for Deadlifting, and so finally made myself get some ab work in the session.  I think that since I added in the additional shoulder work, the sessions just feel to damn long with both hypers AND crunches, so I'll have to start alternating.  I'll probably settle on crunches on Squat and Deadlift day since they've got heavier low-back movements, and do hypers on Bench day.

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

LRB Diet Day - 40

BW - 197

Hypers - 3 sets of 15

Pause Squats -
BarX10
95, 135X5
155, 180, 205X3

Klokovs -
BarX10
55X5
60X4
70X3
75X2
90X1
95X1
100XFAIL
70X5

Deadlift -
135X5
135X5 (RDL)
200, 230X3
255X8

BB Shrugs -
225X10
315X10
405X3, 3, 3, 3, 3
315X14
315X15

Chiro Crunches - 20, 30, 40, 45

Decided to do the Klokov's LRB/Strong-15 style again to see where my top strength is with the lift.  When I did this 3 sessions ago, I failed on 90.  Solid progress.

8 reps with 255 was getting pretty close to my limits.  Probably 1 more rep, 2 would have taken everything I had.

Added an extra set of 405 on shrugs, and then hit two back-off sets with 315.  So more of a volume day.  I raised the pins one notch, and it made getting into position significantly easier.

Also getting back on the wagon with the core work at the beginning and end of the workouts.

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

LRB Diet - Day 38

BW - 195

Pause Squats -
BarX12
95X5
135, 155, 185, 205X3

Press -
BarX10
75, 85, 95X8
85, 85X6
super-set with
Chin-Ups (V-grip) - BWX7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 7

Clearly I did not bench today.  I had to hit a commercial gym, and get in and out to make a social engagement, so I opted for the old "I can do this whole session in this one rack" workout.

Everything felt fine for the most part.  After the last two pressing sessions, it seems like I may have had a touch of a drop-off since I was alternating it with Incline at the beginning of Summer.  Not really sure what to make of it right now, and I think I need a few more sessions to see where it's really at.  The fact is, I've been doing a press movement every session for 8 weeks now including Dips, Bench, and Klokov.  That's a good variety of pressing planes, and to have my strict press drop off in that time is confuddling. I'm not gonna go back to the drawing board just yet, though.  I got good volume here and hopefully that will help stimulate some bounce back in the next couple of sessions.

7's on chins felt pretty good, but the more neutral grip usually results in a few more reps in my experience.

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

LRB Diet - Day 33

BW - 197

Hypers - 5 sets of 15; 30 second rests

Pause Squats -
BarX10
95, 135X5
155, 180, 205X3

Klokov Press -
BarX10
55, 60X5
70X20

Deadlift -
135X5
135X5 (RDL)
185, 215X5
240X10

BB Shrugs -
225X10
315X5
405X5 (add straps)
405X3, 3
405X5
365X5, 5
315X12

Full-bore, balls out session for me.  +10%.

I've shortened the rest on the hypers and lowered the reps a tad because I like the "pump" feeling I get in my low back.  It seems to help me keep my arch at the bottom of the pause squats to have my low back warmed up this way.

Going into my last set of pause squats, I thought about trying to rep it out a bit, but reminded myself that this is still kind of part of my warm-up, and that I still had a lot of lifting to do.  I'll put that idea on the back-burner until next cycle.  Not talking anything crazy; just going for 5 on the top set.

Continuing to PR on Klokov's in the higher rep range.  This was an all-out effort to get the 20.  Looking forward to what happens with this lift as the numbers continue to climb.  I assume that at some point the rep range on the top set will start to spiral down.

I'm renewing my focus on form with the deadlift a bit.  I'm trying to stay tight and almost motionless at the bottom of each rep so that the only  movement is taking a breath and/or taking the slack out of the bar before I start the next concentric.  This felt really great today.  I probably left a rep or two in the tank, and my low back didn't feel taxed at all after the top set.  It was actually my legs that seemed to be getting fatigued this way.  Front squats may return in my near future if that continues.

On to CNP shrugs!  OK, I made sure to note which level I stuck the pins in this time, because I'm positive it was lower than last time.  I was pulling these off just above my knee, and it was fucking hard to get up into position, yet kind of awesome at the same time.  I have zero illusions that pulling 405 from above the knee will help me pull 405 off the floor, but it was still a grind at the beginning of every set, and I'm sort of proud of them in context.  Rather than hit a high rep back-off set on 315 after the 405's the way I did last session, I decided to up overall volume by dropping to 365 for a couple sets and then hitting a modest back-off set.  I just wasn't ready to be done shrugging, but I was done with 405.

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

LRB Diet - Day 23

BW - 197

Pause Squats -
Bar, 95, 125, 145X5

Klokov's -
BarX10
60X5
65X3
75X15

Deadlift -
BarX5
BarX5 RDLs
205X5
235X3
260X8

BB Shrugs -
315X4
405X5, 3, 3, 5
315X20

So used to going straight from warm-ups to Squat, I keep forgetting to do hypers.

75X15 on Klokov's is a new projected 1RM.

260X8 matches my 1RM projection from last session for Deads.  I think I could have gotten the 10 I wanted to try for, but the 7th rep was off and I felt a slight strain in my back so I took one more rep and shut it down.  Everything feels OK now, though.

I'm going to try throwing a bit more shoulder and trap volume in through a trip I have planned at the end of September.  CNP inspired.  I can't vouch for how good my form was on the 405 sets, but 315X20 was to my ears and a personal best.

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

LRB Diet - Day 16

BW - 196.5

Hypers - 5 sets of 15; 30 second rests

Pause Squats -
BarX6
95, 125, 145X5

Klokov Press -
BarX10
55, 60X3
70X15

Deadlift -
135X5 RDL
135X5X2
190, 220X3
245X10

Plowed through the hypers to make-up time so that I could get to a show tonight.  Also skipped abs at the end.

Felt good walking into the gym today, and pause squats accordingly felt a lot stronger even holding a strict 3 second pause at the bottom.

After 10 reps of 70 on Klokov's I was literally seeing stars dance around.  I took a deep breath, pulled everything tight, and hit 5 more to obliterate my previous projected 1RM.  Shoulders are really feeling it, too.

Deadlifts felt good as well.  245X10 is a Rep PR, and my highest projected 1RM since May.  That's with a big grain of salt knowing that I failed to pull 295 for more than a hard single just 3 weeks ago.  It's nice to see my projected max staying above 300, but it's killing me to not be pulling actual weight above that number right now.  Gonna keep on with the plan though.

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 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 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 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 Log: Cycle 1. Week 3. Incline

Defranco Shoulder Mobility
Incline -
BarX10
95X5
120X5
135X3
150X3
125X10

Klokov Press -
45X5
65X3
75X2
85XFail

Chin-ups - BW(206)X10, 4

Cable Rows - 3 sets of 10-12

Swiss Ball Crunches - 3 sets of 15

Not a bad session for having been out of the gym for over a week with a low back strain.  I used a different incline bench that's a little less vertical, and my pressing was predictably stronger.  I guess I'll just have to start tracking which bench I use in a session.  Still, because my incline was weaker than anticipated in my first week, for the next three weeks, I'm dialing back my training max in the hopes to get more reps on my top set.  Because I could only get 3 reps on my top set here, I decided to do the back-off set with 125.  Both the 150X3 and the 125X10 projected to increased maxes on this movement, but again, it was a shallower bench.