Pivot Block. Cycle 1. Session B.

BW - 217

Tempo DL 5-3-0 - 225X4, 4 @6, 7

Single-Leg Elevated Hip Thrust - BWX12 @8

Tempo Bench 5-3-0 -
135X4 @7.5
125X4, 4 @6

JM Press -
85X8 @8
75X8, 8 @6

Pull-Downs - X9, 7 @9

Leg-Raise - X10, 15 @6,10

Tempo DL was even harder than I expected.  Thought the weight would be light enough that I could go double-overhand, but had to switch to mixed grip and that still ended up being a challenge.  In this case, 5-3-0 means a 3 second pause right off the ground, and a 5 second eccentric.

Haven't done these single-leg elevated hip thrusts since back my DeFranco training days.  Still feels like it could be a useful movement in this context.

Nothing really to note about anything else.  Video is just of DL, Bench, and JMs.

Hybrid Training. Week 6. Tempo Run and Light Upper

Saturday:

Tempo Run - 3 miles @ 00:37:00

Sunday:

BW - 225

Bench - up to 175X2, 2

CG Bench, TUT (5/0/0) - 155X4, 4, 4

Rope Face-Pulls - X20, 15, 15 (straight-weight)

super-set with

Rope Stiff-Arm Pushdowns - X20, 15, 11 (straight-weight)

BB Drag Curls - up to 70X5, 4

Hit my distance on the tempo run this weekend, which is great.  Next week I'll push to 3.5 miles, and then look to reset to 2.5 miles and start increasing pace.

Bar moved pretty well with 175 on speed bench.  Final rep was probably too slow.

Tried the TUT close-grips with an explosive concentric; similar to what I did in Columbus with Matt Wenning.  Felt good.  Final reps on each set were getting pretty hard.

Supersetting the facepulls with straight-arm pushdowns using the rope attachment for both and the same weight was interesting.  Pre-fatiguing the rear delts, I discovered I could "feel" them in the pushdowns, and with a slight alteration I could "remove" them from the movement which also made the movement more difficult.  I'll look to keep this one in the rotation and see what pans out.

I guess I did drag curls a couple of times in 2011.  That must have been when I first started and was doing the DeFranco program.  I found this a challenging movement to get down.  Focused on keeping the shoulders down so that I wasn't doing a shrug/row hybrid.  By the end, it started to feel close to right.

5/3/1 BBB: Cycle 1. Week 1. Bench

BW - 200

Bench-
BarX15
95, 115, 135X5
150X7

Inclines -
95X10, 10, 10
105X10, 10

Chins - BWX10, 6

Pull-Downs - 5 sets of 10-15

Disrupted session.  I only took bench to a rep where the bar speed slowed dramatically.  I could have gotten 1 or 2 more, and possibly ground out a 3rd.  I decided to just take the two extra reps and focus on the BBB sets.

There were a bunch of guys in the main bench area talking NBA when I went to do Inclines and I let myself get sucked into the conversation.  The incline sets were all "fine," but they all had 3-4 minute rest between sets because of talking.  I've never really talked to anyone in the gym before, and it was kind of nice to socialize, but I feel like I diminished my workout.

Also, I used the really steep incline bench, but I think I'm gonna try the curved one next time.  The steep angle just makes it feel a lot more like an overloaded OHP rather than a deficit bench press somehow.

Since this phase is so much about volume, and since I can't do 5 strict sets of 10 on chins, I've decided to just do 50% sets of chins and follow that up with 5X10 pull-downs for lat volume.  A little bit of a call-back to the Defranco programs that started all this for me.

UB: Reps Week 1. Squats

Defranco Mobility

Squats -
BarX15X2
95X10
155X6
195X3
225X1
195X8, 6, 7, 6, 5 (32 Total Reps)

GHR - 5 sets of 10 (on a medium setting)

You guys, these squats were no joke.  The last two blocks were relatively easy the first week or two.  This.  Was.  Not.  Now, I usually start cycles with some kind of pressing day because that's the way Defranco laid it out, and that's the way Wendler laid it out.  For the first two blocks of UB/WCS, I always ended up Squatting on Saturday or Sunday, invariably on not-enough-sleep and often a bit hungover.  I wanted to break that cycle up, and decided to start this block with Squats to make sure I was fresh going in.  Man am I glad I did. 

Squatting has never come easy to me, and yet I knew 195 projected to around my 15 Rep Max so I expected to get to those work sets and maybe start off with 10, and try to get the 30 reps done in 4 sets.  This was a complete brain-fart on my part because it didn't take into account fatigue from working up to the single.  With Deadlifts, a more natural lift for me, this wouldn't have mattered as much, but with Squats I new I was going to be in trouble right around the 155X6.  Everything felt heavy and hard.  By the time I got to the work sets, I had no idea what would happen.  Frankly, I'm kind of amazed that I got the reps I got, because I was afraid I might not be able to do even 6 sets of 5 to get my 30 rep total.  When I'd finished my 3rd set, though, I knew I'd be able to clear 30 with my last two.  Man.  I'm pretty excited to see how this goes with the other movements, and for the rest of the block.

UB: Strong Week 5. Press

Defranco Shoulder Mobility

Machine Lateral Neck Flexion - 20X20X3 each side

Press -
BarX12
70X5
80X5
90X5
105X5
115X5

BB Upright-Rows - 105X10, 5

DB Laterals - 35sX8, 5

Defranco-style Core circuit - 45lb. plate X2 (spread-eagle sit-ups, crunches, crunches w/ feet up)

Treadmill - 5 min. walk, 5 min. jog

I switched neck work to lateral flexion starting today.  Paul Carter down-played my notion that neck work could contribute to any of the big lifts saying it's just in the program because it's cool to have a big neck.  Nevertheless, I did some digging on exrx.net and it looks like the muscles responsible for lateral neck flexion play a bit of a role in the deadlift; at least more than the other neck muscles are involved in any of the other big lifts, so I might as well work on those if I'm gonna do neck work.

Pressing felt Hea.  Vy.  3 times I've lifted the equivalent of this weight or more in the Press, but I gotta say that I'm nervous I may miss my goal next week.  Maybe not though.  I know I've strained more to make this lift before, so hopefully I can gut out my little 5lb. 5 Rep PR next week.  Similar to my last Squat sessions, I may reduce the total weight of the warm-up sets to save more for the top set next week.

I've gone back and looked at my logs to try and figure out differences between when the press felt strong and when it felt weak like it kind of does now.  Of course there can be lots of factors that effect things, and I don't track diet and weight as closely as a lot of folks do, so I could be missing something there.  But the biggest difference I can see in the logs, is dropping overhead triceps work.  I've been relying on pressing movements and dips for triceps work for a couple of months now, and the press has felt heavier and heavier.  Back when it was shooting up and feeling strong, I was doing a lot of overhead BB extensions.  Hope this is a light-bulb moment.

UB: Strong Week 3. Bench

Defranco Shoulder Mobility

Machine Neck Extension - 15X20, 20X20, 25X20

Bench -
BarX10
95X5
105X5
125X5
135X5
155X5

DB Incline - 55sX12, 7

Dips - Gym BW 204+5lb.X12, 4

Defranco-style Core Circuit X2

20 minute, brisk walk home

Back of my neck felt a little sore coming into the gym, so I backed off the weight on the extensions.  I'm pretty sure it was just my traps from heavy shrugging the day before, but no point in killing myself on neck extensions anyway.

Bench felt a little better today.  I've been focused so much on tinkering with my set-up, that everything had just felt hard.  Today I tried to just make sure and do the things I KNOW have been good, and not worry as much about other stuff.  That meant setting up high on the bench so that my shoulders end up just below the uprights, and getting into this position by setting my feet then sliding down the bench and then back up onto my upper-back.  The thing I had trouble with today was tucking-and-flaring my elbows through the movement, and pulling the bar apart.  Otherwise, I gave myself decent rests between the top sets, and things mostly felt good.  Next week the top set is my projected 5RM.

UB: Strong Week 1. Deadlift

Defranco Mobility and Stretching

Standing Calf Raises - 135X15, 195X15, 225X15

Deadlift -
135X5
155X5
185X5
205X5
225X5

Power Shrugs - 275X11, 6

Chin-ups - BW(205)X9, 5

Cable Crunches - 1/2 stack X25, Stack+40X20X2

Treadmill - Light jogging for 10 minutes

Similar to the shoulder assistance last session, this is the first time I have done direct calf work since I started training for strength.  I've always had big claves, so I kind of expected to work up to the full stack on these, but I only got about 3/4 of the way up.  Nice to have an easy target to work towards.

With the Deadlifts, it's funny that Paul Carter and one of his readers were just discussing that Deadlifting relatively light weights never "feels light" the way it does in other lifts, and that was my experience here.  135 and 185 always feel light, but once I cross 200 things feel "heavy" even if I can lift 50lbs. heavier in that rep range.  Nonetheless, I just tried to focus on form and getting some "pop" in the reps.

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

Bench -
BarX10
95X8
115X5
135X5
155X7

Squat -
BarX10
135X5
165X5
190X5
215X8

Pull-downs, Wide-grip, slow eccentric - 80X10, 12, 10
super-set with
GHR - BWX8, 8, 10

Push-Ups - BWX10X3
super-set with
Face-Pulls - 15, 15, 20

Defranco Core Circuit X2 (V-Ups, Hip-Ups, X-Body Toe Touches)

155X7 in the bench is a Rep PR.

215X8 in the Squat is a Rep PR and projects to an increased 1RM.  This was a weird session.  I felt out of it on this day until the last two work-sets.  All of a sudden the fog cleared and I felt focused, and kind of kicked ass on the set.  6 Reps would have been a Rep PR at this weight, however I want to show a much increased Squat this cycle.  Specifically I want to project 285-290.  That would let me know that my Squat is in better proportion to my other lifts than it looks right now.   To do that, I need to hit 230 for 8 next week so I wanted to get 8 reps this week as "practice."  If I get 230 for 8 next week, and then 240 for 6 after that, I will know I'm closer to the balance I want to strike.  This is balance is based partially on the idea of a Big-4 ratio of 1/1.5/2/2.5 for Press/Bench/Squat/Dead, and partly on the idea of having my Squat be VERY close to my Dead.  I know that sounds contradictory, but there is a way for it to work by striking a balance between those two ideals.  One of the reason to do this is that I'm a much better Puller than Squatter, so that is the reason to chase my Dead with my Squat.  Also, I only Squatted for 3 months while on Defranco's BLAB, and my Deadlift went up.  All of this adds up to plenty of reasons to focus on Squatting more than Deads.

5/3/1 Log: Cycle 1. Week 3. Squat

Defranco's Agile-8

Squat -
BarX10
135X7
175X5
195X3
225X5

Split Front Squats - 55X10X3

Front Squats - 95X8X2, 105X8

Defranco's BLAB Core Circuit #2 - X1

100 yard incline sprints - 10 minutes

Really successful squat session.  225 is a 5 Rep PR, and possibly projects to an increased 1RM as well.  Really focused this session on keeping upper body tight, and keeping my knees out on the way up.

5/3/1 Log: Cycle 1. Week 1. Squats

Defranco's Agile-8 plus some of the Simple-6

Squats -
BarX10
95X5
135X3
155X5
175X5
200X8

BB Split Front-Squats - BarX12, 12, 10

BB Front Squats - 75X10, 85X10X2

Core Circuit X2 (toe touches, bicycle, low side-plank)

No PR available for me on the Squat.  I think since the couple of weeks I had off from squatting my depth has increased.  I think this is psychological carry-over from doing some pause squats and realizing I was getting significantly deeper on those than regulars.  The issue is that my max is almost certainly lower this way than previously.  On a couple of reps in my last work-set, I had to force myself to go all the way down, because instinct started to kick in and cut them higher (probably where I used to cut them). 

I have two options here:  1)  I can continue to work at the new depth, and accept that I will probably top out relatively soon and have to reset my training max, or 2)  I can attempt to go back to the previous depth so that I can go longer without resetting.  Honestly, I think either is acceptable, and the most important thing is consistency.  I'm tempted to go with option 1, because I'm concerned about fucking around with option 2 and wasting time and possibly even fucking myself up mentally as well as physically.  This will require more thought.

As a side note, whatever was going on with my grip and bar placement issues last time has completely resolved itself.  Everything felt fine as far as that's concerned.

5/3/1 Log: Cycle 1. Week 1. Deadlift

Defranco's Agile-8 and Simple-6

RDL - BarX10, 95X5

Deadlift -
135X5
180X5
205X5
235X5
135X10X5

Full Hanging Leg Raise - BWX3, 5, 5

I had planned to do Bench this day because I wanted to keep my back fresh for my show this weekend, but I got to the gym and couldn't talk myself out of pulling. To be on the safe side, I did both Defranco warm-ups to try and make sure everything was ready to go.

Everything went fine with the work-sets. Because I'm trying to focus on Squats, I didn't try to go for additional reps on my top set. However, I did decide to try out Boring But Big for the assistance. Normally for that program, you rep out 5X10 at between 40-50% of your training max. Rather than think too much about it, I checked to see if 135 was in that range for my true max, found it was, and settled on that. No muss, no fuss. Guys talk a lot about how much BBB for DL's destroys them, but I didn't find that to be the case. Probably because I'm using relatively light weights, although I did feel a bit light-headed after the last two work-sets. I think I could probably go a bit heavier if I wanted, but again, I'm focusing on Squats.

5/3/1 Log: Cycle 1. Week 1. Pressing

Defranco's Simple-6

Press -
45X10
65X5
75X5
85X5
100X10
super-set with
Chin-ups - BWX5X5

Chin-ups - BWX5X5 (50 total reps for the day)
super-set with
BB Overhead extensions - BarX10X5

Push-ups Ladder - 13 to 1

Hammer and Tire - 2 sets of 25 swings "each arm"

100X10 is a PR for me.  Yay!  I think next week I may just try to get the prescribed 3 reps plus one or two and save my rep out attempt for bench.  I'm really trying to take the "pick your battles" mantra to heart on this program.  I just had a couple of folks on a message board I'd been frequenting for BLAB discussion bemoan that I'd decided to go with 5/3/1 because that community had a bad experience with it.  Based on what I've been reading on the T-Nation forums, I'm hoping some of that may be due to some of the apparent common mistakes people make on the program: going all out on all final sets all the time, not starting light enough, starting light but adding more weight between cycles than the program calls for, going crazy with assistance volume, and constantly over-hauling the program rather than plugging away.

5/3/1 Log: Cycle 1. Week 0. Pressing

Defranco's Simple-6

Press - 45X10, 65X5, 75X3, 85X3, 100X9
super-set with
Chin-ups - BWX5X5

Chin-ups - BWX5, 5, 3, 5, 4
super-set with
BB Overhead Extensions - BarX10, 65X6, BarX10

Push-Ups - X20, 15, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3

Hammer and Tire - 3 rounds of 20 "each arm", 60 second rests

So I'm starting 5/3/1!  Very excited.  However, testing my DL 1RM this last week really took it out of me, and I was a little nervous that I wasn't allowing enough downtime between ending one program and starting another, so I added what I'm calling "Week 0" to the program.

Week 0 is basically a deload before the program week.  For my regular 5/3/1 deloads, I'm using the updated %'s that Jim posted on his blog.  The thing I noticed when I started plugging these into my spreadsheet is that these numbers (using the MROUND function in Excel) are the same as those in the 5X week at the beginning of the following cycle. The effect is 5/3/1/3, which makes sense because a lot of people reverse the 5 and 3 weeks as a variation on the program.  This incorporates that into the deload week, you just don't go for reps on the last set.  I decided to give myself a week to ease into the program by doing 3X's at the same weight I'll start my 5X's.  Also gives me a chance to make tweaks to assistance work, and get used to the way this program "feels" in the gym.

With that being said, the presses felt good so I decided to go for reps on my last set!  Ha.  I think I was within the philosophical boundaries of the program to do so.  The 100X9 was probably the most I could have done, and that projects to be around my 9RM so fine.

Max Test: Deadlift

Defranco's Agile-8

DL Warm-up - BarX10, 95X5, 135X3, 185X2

Deadlift - 225X1, 255X1, 275X1, 295X1, 315XFAIL


My previous best of 225X5 projected to a 260 1RM.  So roughly a 35lb. improvement on the Built Like a Badass program, even though I didn't Deadlift for 12 cycles.  Luckily, Defranco's lower body assistance work is designed to benefit both the Squat and the Pull.  Also, there must be some carryover from the Squat.

Anyway, now I have all my numbers needed to start 531.  I'll have my first Press day on either Saturday or Sunday, and we'll go from there.  Like all the big lifts, I won't see this weight on the pull again until around month 5 of the program.  I'm scheduled for a 300lb. pull at that time.  Meet me there?

BLAB Log: Week 12.Day 2

Agile-8

DB Jump Squats - 10sX5X5

Low Box Heel-Touches - BWX12X2

Press Warm-Up - BarX7, 65X5, 85X3

Press - 95X1, 105X1, 110X1, 115X1, 120X1, 125X1

Elevated Single-Leg Hip-Thrust - BWX12X3
super-set with
DB Side-Bends - 75X15, 75X15, 80X15

Because the last lower body day of the program inexplicably has no ME movement, and because I was feeling great half-way through the session, I strapped on my Chuck's, cranked up the iPod, and set a new 1RM in the Press.  The 120 and 125 were both PR's for me.  I would venture to say that all the bench and chin accessory work in the Built Like a Badass program have gone a long way to building my Press as well.  Good on ya, Joe Defranco.  Looking forward to testing my DL on Wednesday to see where it's at as well.

BLAB Log: HYBRID Week 11.Day3 / Week12.Day 1

Simple-6

Chins - BWX7, BWX6

Bench Press - BarX5, 95X5, 135X3, 165X2, 185X1

BB Overhead Shrug - 185X15ish, 145X15, 145X15

One-Arm Pulldowns, slow eccentric - 50X12, 40X12 each arm

BB Curls, cheat-up, slow eccentric - 75X5X2

45lb. plate Core circuit X2

BB Push-ups - Ladder down from BWX17-1

My rehearsal schedule prevented me from getting to the gym on Saturday, and will prevent me from getting there for the next week, so I decided to combine the next 2 days into one session.  Truthfully, I just couldn't wait a week+ for my bench test.

For the main movements, the chins were fine I guess.  6 might actually be a record for my 2nd set now that I look at it.  For the bench, my target was 185X2 which would have raised my projected max.  I got the first rep, but failed on the 2nd.  I'm totally okay with this because that makes this my first ever true 1RM attempt!  Kind of exciting until I realize that I won't see that weight again for months.  It almost makes me want to run BLAB again.  Defranco's program would have me attempting more reps on that weight in weeks 4 and 9, and trying to lift heavier in week 11.  But I miss pulls and presses, so I'm still going to go over to 531...where it will be 5 months before I see 185 on the bench again.  Fuuuuuck.  Whatever.  Novice results, law of diminishing returns, marathon not a sprint, training to get stronger rather than powerlifting, etc.

For accessory work, I chose one movement for each area from the two days.  For back, I chose to do the one-arm pulldowns since it is specifically in there to help my feeble chin strength.  For shoulders, I went with the OH shrugs.  Tried to go even heavier this time, but it got dicey.  After I dropped the weight, I discovered that using a split-stance, and starting with my elbows locked, my knees bent, and "squatting" the weight up to the starting position helped my balance a great deal.  For biceps, I went with the cheater curls, and they were fine.

Core circuit was the most successful I've had in a while.  Again, I plant to keep the core portion of this program in my 531 programming.  It's got a lot of variety that I suck at, so might as well get better at it since I need to do core something anyway.

I chose to only pick one of the finishers, for what I hope are fairly obvious reasons.  I went with the push-ups, because I'd rather be good at push-ups than complexes.  Very satisfying results.  That's two good push-up sessions in a row, so I fully expect to crap the bed on next week's rep test, so that I can get good and depressed about my push-up ability once again.

Only two days left in the program.  Can't believe it.  Since those are no-squat lower body and chin-up days, I might try to see if I can find a gym near the theatre to sneak in and finish this up.  I tried doing that on Saturday, because my gym closed before I got out of rehearsal.  There's another gym on the way home, and I stopped in, looked around, and saw that they probably had everything I needed.  I walked up to the desk and I asked the guy "What's your daily rate?"  "Fifteen Dollars."  "Fifteen Dollars?!  For one workout?"  "Yes."  "Bye."  No way am I paying $15 to go use the lat-pulldown machine in a treadmill factory.

BLAB Log: Week 11.Day 2

Agile-8

DB Squat Jumps - 10sX5X3

BB Squat Warm-Up - BarX5, 135X3

BB Squats - 165X4, 185X2, 195X1, 205X1, 225X1, 250X1

Elevated, Single-Leg Hip Thrust - BWX10X3
super-set with
DB Side-bends - 70X10, 75X15, 75X15

Low Box Heel Touches - BWX12X2

So there's my new max in the squat.  I had to depart from the %s Defranco outlines in the program.  The prescribed weights for the day determined as %s of my projected max at the beginning of the program would have been 165, 180, 190, 200, 210.  I knew I was going for 250, and thought I better take bigger jumps getting there.  After the 250, I stared at the bar long and hard, but finally talked myself out of loading 265 to try and beat my projected max of 260.  I showed up for 250, and 250 showed up for me so I walked away.  It's still 25lbs. more than I've ever loaded on a bar. I think I'm good with the decision.

After that, talking about the accessory work seems silly.  While Defranco is right about the heel touches being harder than they look, a lot of that is just balance.  Once the form is there, it's just another solid single-leg movement.

BLAB Log: Week 6.Day 2

Agile-8

Kneeling Jumps - BWX5, 5X5X3

BB Squat Warm-Up - BarX5, 65X5, 95X5, 135X5

BB Squats - 150X8, 160X6, 170X10

Hip Thrust - BWX12X3
super-set with
Stability Ball Plank - 30sec.X3

DB Reverse Lunge, front foot elevated - 30X10X2

Kneeling jumps made me nervous, but lo and behold the YouTubes don't lie and they are possible.  I'd still hesitate to do them with a BB on my back as suggested by the program, but you never know.

Jefit says 170X10 is a PR for the Squat.  My first since early June.  Yay!  This was the first opportunity the program afforded for me to PR in the squat and I'm glad I did.  Hopefully I can continue that through the end of the program.

The reverse lunges were odd.  I'm going to search for video of this EXACT exercise being done to see if I am on the right path.

Program called for Tabata jump-rope at the end, but the gym doesn't have one.  I did a one-mile run instead.