5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 3. Week 1. Hill Sprints

LRB Diet* - Day 36

BW - ???

Hill-Sprints -
Five, 5-10 minute sets on various hills
interspersed with 5-10 minute walks from hill to hill
last 1.5 sets were superset with regular push-ups; 80 reps total
last 0.5 set was finished with supersets of planche-position (or "reverse grip") push-ups; 10 reps total
1 hour 15 minutes total time; sore as hell for 2 days following

I was out of town at a wedding, and to prepare for the influx of copious calories from unpredictable sources, I followed *Paul Carter's Holiday Diet.  Three days of low-to-no carbs with regular training leading up to the day(s).  On the day of the feast, you train your ass-off in the morning and then go binge on carbs+.  Paul calls for weight training here, preferably squatting.  I had no access to a weight facility in this tiny Wisconsin resort town, BUT the town is hilly as hell so Hill-Sprints it was.  We drove up that day, and I stayed protein only until we got up there.  Then I basically walked all over town, and whenever I found a good hill, I'd run it for 5-10 minutes then walk around until I found another good one.  The last two hills, I started doing 10 reps sets of push-ups at the bottom of the hill before sprinting back up.  On my last hill, my shoulders were getting a little sore, so I reversed my hand placement and did planche-position push-ups on the last two runs.  Then I walked back to the hotel, downed a protein shake, slept for an hour and a half, woke-up and pounded another protein shake, then went to dinner with the wife and destroyed cheese fondue, sauerkraut, Roesti (cheese-stuffed hash browns), assorted dry sausages, apple pie, and local beer.

The next morning, I woke up and went for a 45 minute, brisk walk around various hiking trails around the town.  I fasted all AM, then had a little bit of chicken and cabbage at lunch followed by another protein shake.  At the wedding dinner, I expected a buffet or some other situation where the food wouldn't be that spectacular and I could pick and choose just the low carb items.  That plan was torpedoed by the best goddamn wedding food I have ever encountered.  Nonetheless I tried to skew hard towards fat and protein, but with all the alcohol being consumed, it probably didn't matter. 

Still, the next morning came around and I looked about as trim as I did going into the weekend, AND I looked a bit fuller in my muscles.  Particularly, my shoulders and traps seemed to have really benefited from the extra work I've started giving them combined with the week's diet.  I didn't have access to a scale, so I have no idea where my weight was these last three days, and will have to find out what ballpark I'm in when I hit the gym this afternoon.  All in all, I'm pretty happy with the results, even if it was more of a pain in the ass than I would prefer. 

5/3/1 Log: Cycle 1. Week 2. Off-Day Training

Saturday AM:

fasted steady-state - 45 minutes

Saturday PM:

Band Pull-Aparts - 5 sets of 20

"Reverse Grip" Push-ups - 3 sets of 10

Band, One-Arm Curls - 5 sets of 15-20

Band OH Extensions - 5 sets of 12-20

Band Reverse Curls - 1 set to failure

UB: Conditioning Week 2. Squat, Deads and Sprints

Defranco mobility work

Squats -
BarX20
135X5
185X5
205X5

Deadlift -
135X5
225X2
275X2X3

BB Reverse Curls - BarX20, 35X15X2, BarX20

Incline Sprints - 10 sprints, 11 mintues

New addition to the gym, and I walked by, like, 5 times today before I noticed it:

A monolift, for God's sake!  I doubt I will ever use this unless all the squat stands and power racks are occupied.

Speaking of which Squats felt okay today.

Deads, however, felt awesome.  I know 135 is light, but it never felt as light as today.  It felt like nothing at all, and I'm wondering if that's partially due to the squatting beforehand.  It felt so light, that's why I decided to jump straight to 225 for just one more warm-up set.  That felt fast as well.  Then the first work-set felt heavy, and all the others felt pretty easy.  Not light, exactly, but I was still able to focus on speed and form because I had full confidence in my ability to pull the weight.  This is different from how my heavy sets of the other 3 movements have felt, but it could just have been a good day.  We'll see how it goes next time.

Sprints were interesting.  I got the programmed amount in, but it took a little more effort than I expected.  The idea is that the first week or two are relatively easy, and I hope I haven't programmed my jumps to big.  On the other hand, it was spring forward, and I was on less than 6 hours of sleep.  We'll just have to see how it goes next week.

UB: Conditioning Week 2. Press, Hammer & Tire

Defranco Shoulder Mobility

Press -
BarX10
95X2
115X1
125X2X3

Inverted Row, 45 degrees - BWX10, 7

Hammer Curls - 20sXAMRAPX4

Push-ups - BWX20

Hammer Swings - 30 seconds swinging, 10 resting (around 20 swings per round); 10 minutes

At home - Reverse Crunches (2 sets of 5) and Partial Planche Push-Ups (2 sets of 5)

80%er.  Wasn't sure how the 125 would move, as 2 reps is the most I've ever gotten with that weight.  First set of 2 was almost easy, 2nd set was harder, and the 3rd set was a bit of a grind on the last rep.  Probably all as it should be, and suggests my strength is holding steady 3 weeks following the strength phase.

This 30/10 second split of hammer swings is Paul Carter's recommendation, and not the way I've done these in the past where I would do at least twice that many swings and take a longer rest. This is kind of a pain in the ass because I have to keep a clock running that I can see, and keep doing the math in my head, which inevitably gets off as I start to get really worked. His idea is to try and get more swings in the 30 sec. each session, but this is seriously a lot of shit to keep track of, so I may just increase the time every week like I do with sprints.