5/3/1 Log: Cycle 1. Week 2. Pause Squats

Defranco hip mobility

Pause Squats -
BarX10
105X5
135X3
175X3
200X3
225X3

Deadlift -
135X5
215X5
250X5
280X3

GHR - 5 sets of 15

Hammer swings - 15 seconds on, 45 off; 20 minutes. 15-17 swings per round.

Weird session owing, almost surely, to all the holiday drinking the night before.  I think my form was loose on the squats as my low-back started feeling really worked, and I had a hard time holding my pause.  We'll see how it goes again this weekend.

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

Defranco Hip Mobility

Pause Squats -
BarX5
105X5
135X5
160X5
185X5
210X5

Front Squats - 135X5X5

RDL -
135X5
155X5
175X5
195X5
215X5

Hammer Swings - 15 seconds AFAP, 45 second rest; 15 minutes

Wow Pause Squats.  Paul Carter once said not to go above 5 reps with these because they are so taxing, and I definitely see what he was talking about.  I used 80% of my regular squat max for my training max here, and I don't know if I could have gotten much more than 5 reps on my top set if I'd tried, but frankly all the work sets felt hard.  I dropped a line to Carter about this to see if he thinks that's normal, or if I should drop the training max even more.  He said I should leave it for this cycle, and drop it in the future if necessary.  After the top set of 5, my heart was pounding like it did after my set of 20 at the end of my last cycle.  Crazy.

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 4. Bench

Defranco Shoulder Mobility

Bench -
BarX20
65X10
105X6
135X3
170X1
135X15, 5, 3, 3, 3, 2 (31 total reps)

Lat Pull-Downs - 5 sets of 8-10

Hammer & Tire - 4 rounds of 20 swings "per arm" with 30-60 second rests; 10 minutes

Accomplished what I wanted on bench here.  135X15 is a Rep PR.  20 combined reps for my first two sets is a best for the cycle, and getting 30+ in only 6 sets is also a best for the cycle.  Jefit says 135X15 is an increase to my projected 1RM, but the formula I use says it only matches my 1RM.  Still, pretty OK with that.

Now I have to consider what I want to do next week.  Last week, I backed off the first work-set to try and get more reps on the following sets, and get my 30+ in fewer total sets.  That worked somewhat, but then I came back this week and did great, and some of the credit should go to what I did last week.  I have two bench sessions left.  I'm considering backing off the first set again next week and seeing if I can get 30+ in even fewer sets, and then trying to blast out the last week and try to get 20 reps on my work-set (with a spotter, lol).  It may be a game time decision based on how the first work-set is feeling next week.

UB: Conditioning - Review

I've finished the 6-week conditioning block from Paul Carter's Ultimate Beastdom - How to get What Constitutes Strong (WCS).

This program calls for 3-4 days of hard conditioning a week, 1-2 sessions of steady-state, and only two sessions of weight lifting with the goal being to stimulate strength maintenance.

Here were my results for the 3 types of hard conditioning:
Timed Mile - 7:58; previous best was 9:12.
Hammer&Tire - 15 minutes Tabata-style (30 seconds/10seconds); previous best was 5 rounds of 40 swings with 45 second rests for 10 minutes.
30 yd. Incline Sprints - 20 sprints in 18:30; previous best was 8 sprints in 10:00.

In the gym, I didn't miss a single lift, although my last round of singles on OHP were very slow.  Additionally, I actually set a 1 Rep PR in the Squat, but that's due to having missed my one previous attempt with that weight due to form issues.  Still, it was nice to get the lift on the books.

Additionally, I actually set a Chin-Up PR with 12 reps at a gym BW of 205.

It took me a while to get in the correct mind-set for this cycle as I kept looking forward to my gym sessions, and leaving the conditioning as an afterthought.  Once I flipped that, I started having a lot more fun with the program.  Also, the 45 minute walks I did for steady-state were very nice.  I wake up much earlier on the weekends than my wife, and it was nice to just go for a walk in the morning once or twice a week in that time.

The Mile was something that had been in my programming for a few weeks when I was doing Defranco stuff, but since then had only been used for an occasional steady-state finisher after a lifting session.  It was really cool to come back to it for 6-weeks to try and bring it up.  I was able to plot a simple mile around my neighborhood with easy 1/4 mile markers, and it was great to be able to walk out the front door, and be back home with my conditioning workout done all in less than 15 minutes.  This will definitely be another tool that I try to incorporate several times a year going forward.

Sledge hammer swings have been a mainstay of my programming for awhile, as they always made sense as a way to get some good conditioning in while giving the legs a break, they fit in well after a Bench or Press sessions, and they make me feel like a badass afterwards.  However Paul's use of Tabata timing in this was very different from what I had been doing, and very kick-my-ass as well.  Prior to this block, I'd treated them more like core work.  By that I mean I would do sets of moderately high "reps," and then rest for 30-60 seconds before doing another "set."  The 30 seconds of swinging, 10 seconds of resting protocol on this cycle was much harder conditioning wise.  I do want to say, that it didn't seem to be as much of a grip workout as the longer rounds of swings however, and that is also good to know.

The sprints are something I'd been working to try and incorporate for awhile.  I hadn't really gotten serious about them because what I wanted to do were the holy hill-sprints advocated so heavily by Carter, Wendler, and others.  However being car-less, and living in the flat city of Chicago had made this un-feasible for realistically incorporating them into my life.  Both my gym and my home have stretches of street/side-walk nearby that are at a steady incline, so I finally opted to just do 30 yard sprints there.  They seemed hard enough to start out, and hard enough to progress on (I failed to make my goal on one week of this program), that I've decided they're acceptable.  They will continue to be a mainstay for me.

I had a lot of fun on this program, and I learned a lot about myself.  The only bummer is that I now have 3 different conditioning drills I really like, plus there's a Prowler at the gym now, and I'm going to have a hard time deciding which drills I want to include in non-conditioning cycles going forward.  Probably I will go with the Prowler next time since I haven't done any programming with it yet, and want to get a baseline set.  After that, it's going to be really difficult to choose!

One other thought:  I still look back fondly on 531, and plan to go back to that after I finish out the final block of this programming.  However, I don't see any reason that the template Paul uses here can't be used as another template for 531.  Top end strength, conditioning, rep strength, right?  I'm thinking it would be set up as such:

Top Strength - 4 days/week, Press, Dead, Bench, Squat.  531 sets/reps for those movements for 6 weeks with no deload, so a week of 5's, a week of 3's, 531 week, 5's, 3's, 531.  Only going for rep maxes the last weeks.  Assistance work would be as prescribed in the Ultimate Beastdom program.

Conditioning - 2 days of lifting a week.  You would set up like Paul does, but using 531 sets/reps.  So Week 1 would be 531 sets for Bench and Squats, and Week 2 would be Press and Deads with the only difference being that you would also do some light sets of Squats on Deadlift day, and no assistance on any lower body day.  Or, there are a variety of 531 2-day templates out there, so you would pick one of those, and just make sure you pick one with minimal assistance, and only get the prescribed reps.  Then you do the conditioning as Carter lays out in his program.

Rep Strength - This would be very similar to Boring But Big 531, 3 times per week.  The difference is you only get the prescribed reps on the 531 sets, and then you do as many sets as necessary to get 30+ reps with 63% of a reasonable target 1RM for the cycle.  Paul recommends your current max +5%.  Also, you would have to think about what you want to do with the Press and the Deadlift.  Paul only uses the Press as Bench assistance here.  Also, he has changed his mind about high-rep Deadlifting since he wrote the program.  I will talk more about this when I start the Rep strength phase next week, but basically you can do Deadlift just for the 531 reps, and then work on your rowing strength for high reps afterward .  For the Press, a good compromise might be to switch to incline for this cycle instead of doing separate days for Bench and OHP.  Of the 3 blocks, this one is that one that takes the most tweaking to use 531.

UPDATE:  I forgot to include one other aspect of the program that I added.  Paul once wrote a post wherein he discussed that you can bring up one, smaller muscle group on a conditioing/diet/cutting phase.  I decided to do biceps for balance and fun.  I did a 4 sets of high-reps on a curl variation at the end of every lifting session.  I alternated between BB Curls, Reverse BB Curls, DB Hammer Curls, and Rope Curls.  I don't take body measurements, but I would say my biceps definitely look larger after this program.

UB: Conditioning Week 6. Press, Hammer & Tire

Defranco Shoulder Mobility

Press -
BarX12
95X2
115X1
125X1X5

Inverted Rows (45 degrees at top) - BWX10, 10

Hammer Curls - 15sX20, 20, 15, 12

Push-ups - BWX26, 6 (50% set)

Tabata (30:10) Hammer Swings - 15 minutes

Press felt hea-vy.  Every rep with 125 was so slow...I don't think I've ever lifted anything so slowly before.  After each one I felt it a wonder that I made the lift, and thought for sure I'd fail on the next.  Got them all though, and that's pretty cool.

Hammer & Tire session was a steaming pile of bullshit.  All the tires at the gym are fucked up because they're mostly used to rest strongman equipment (atlas stones, and logs and farmer's handles that are ALWAYS left with the load on).  Also the tire scoots around all over the place, making you readjust your stance.  None of this is new, but today it was really causing me problems.  The tire I grabbed was particularly dead; no bounce back at all.  And I tried some different strategies for setting plates or DB's in it to hold it in place.  Nothing worked very well, and I ended up switching out tires 2/3's of the way through.  Bottom line:  I worked for 15 minutes which is by bar the longest sledge hammer session I've ever done, and that was my goal for this final session.  Ultimately, I don't know how much work I got done.  I may have gotten less work done per minute than usual, or I might have gotten MORE done with all the fucking around with the set-up during my 10 second rests.  By the end, I was sweating rivers, though.

UB: Conditioning Week 5. Bench, Hammer & Tire

Defranco shoulder mobility

Bench (always CG from now on)-
BarX15
95X5
135X1
155X1
175X1X5

Standing EZ Triceps - 55X18, 15

V-Grip Chins - Gym BW 205X12

BB Curls - 65X10, 8, 45X12

Tabata (30:10) Hammer & Tire - 12 minutes, 30 seconds; 15-21 swings per round

Felt pretty good going into the gym today, but the 175 sets on bench were pretty damn heavy.  I got 4 reps with this weight at the end of the strength phase, so the drop-off is apparent here.  Not to worried about it.

Man, these tabata sledge hammer sessions are a beast mentally.  Last session, I had to give myself a longer break 1/2 way through before continuing.  This session, I got about 1/3 of the way through and my mind was all "God, this is hard.  Maybe I didn't eat enough carbs or something today.  I'm really tired.  Yeah, I probably didn't eat enough.  I should probably just stop and call it a day, and remember to eat a PBnJ before I leave work next time."  Instead, I just kept swinging, never took an extended break, and added 30 seconds, or 1 round of swings to last time.  "We're playing these miiind gaaaames..."

UB: Conditioning Week 4. Press, Hammer & Tire

Defranco Shoulder Mobility + band pull-aparts

Press -
BarX10
95X2
115X1
125X1X5

45 deg. Inverted Rows to bottom of sternum - BWX10X2

Hammer Curls - 15sX15-20X4

Hammer & Tire - 30 sec. on / 10 sec. off; 12 minutes

Everything felt solid today, but for some reason I wasn't feeling push-ups and skipped them.  I think my arms just felt done after all those curlz.  I added some pull-aparts at the end of the mobility work.  I think if I settle on the right grip width it will be a good warm-up for my shoulders on pressing days.

Press was slow and heavy, but never had any doubt the weight was going up.

I took a longer break at the 6 minute mark of the Hammer swings.  My grip was feeling a little fried after all those damn curlz.

UB: Conditioning Week 3. Bench, Hammer & Tire

Defranco shoulder mobility

Bench -
BarX15
95X5
135X2
155X2
170X2X3

OH Triceps Extensions - 45X20, 55X12

Chin-ups (V-Grip) - Gym BW 204X10

BB Curls - 45(Bar)X18, 65X15, 45X15

Hammer&Tire - Swing for 30 seconds, rest for 10; 10:30 minutes; 20-23 swings per round

Reverse Crunches (with hip raise) - 10, 10

Solid Session.  The first set of 170 felt kind of hard.  The 2nd rep of the 2nd set felt really hard, and the last set felt easy.  My set up felt tight every time, so I don't know.  I got all the reps in without having to scream for help, and that's what matters.

I downloaded a great new timer to my phone that helped with these Tabata-style hammer swings.  Now I can set the work AND rest periods, plus the screen goes green during work time, and red during rest time, so I don't have to get the phone close enough to read, I can just watch for the color change.  My swings per 30 seconds were up and down today, but generally 1 or 2 more than last time, and I did 1 more round of swings than last time.  Progression, y'all.

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.

UB: Strong Week 4. Squat

Defranco Mobility Work

Good-Mornings - BarX10X2

Standing Calf-Raises - 305X15, 365X15, 385X15

Squats -
BarX10
135X5
155X5
185X5
215X5
235X5

Front Squats - 125X11, 125X6

RDL - 175X10, 6

Hammer and Tire - 4 rounds of 20, 1 round of 15 swings "per arm."  10 minutes

I have some sort of strain or something in my mid-back on the left-hand side.  It's been bothering me for two weeks.  I've set Deadlift and Chin-up PR's with it, so it hasn't been interfering with my lifts so far.  However, I got the idea that it might interfere with my Squats today, so I did some empty-bar Good-Mornings with the idea that if a back-strain was going to hamper squats, GM's would be the best candidate for warming-up that part of the back before-hand.  If that makes sense.  Hard to say if it worked or not.  My back didn't bother me during squats, and the painful area felt the same after the work-out as it did before.  This may just be something I have to ride out.

For the calf-raises I again raised the weight on the first two sets, but not the top set.  So increasing volume but not top weight.  Next session I will go up another plate, and I think that will be the full stack.  I don't know how much of this increase is neural and how much is muscular at this point.  Calf training is kind of dicey anyway, as true gains seem to mostly come from being heavier, and weight-training is more of a topper.

I decided to break from plan with Squats a little bit, in that I didn't add weight to the warm-up sets the way I have been.  The way I laid out the program was 5X5 to a top set of 5, and that every week all 5 sets would be heavier than the week before.  All of a sudden this week I had the thought that as I'm working in PR range on the top sets, it might be a good idea to not be pushing as much on the lead-up sets.  So I worked up to, and set, a 5 Rep PR, but the total, accumulated weight for my Squat workout was less than originally programmed.  I feel totally fine about how this worked out as I hit my top-set goal.  It was certainly the hardest set of the cycle so far, but the reps moved smoothly.  That seems to be on target.  Next week will push me into projected increase to 1RM territory on squats.

UB: Strong Week 2. Squat

Defranco Mobility

Standing Calf Raises - 245X15, 305X15, 345X15

Squat -
135X5
155X5
175X5
205X5
215X5

Front Squats - 125X10, 5

RDL - 135X10, 145X9

Inline Sprints - 30 yard sprints X 9 minutes

Weird day at the gym cuz there was a PL meet happening.

Moving up the stack on the raises FWIW.  I think it tops out at 405.

Squats felt pretty good.  Not sure about my depth, though.

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

Defranco Stretches and Mobility work

Press-
BarX10
70X5
95X5
105X3
120X3 (failed on 4)

Deadlift -
135X5
185X5
225X5
250X3
280X3
super-set with
Hanging Leg-Raise - BWX5X3

Bench Dips - BW(206)X15, 15, 20

BB Split Squat - BarX8, 10, 8
super-set with
Hammer Curls - 25'sX15, 15, 10

Hammer and Tire - 2 rounds of 40 swings

Felt like crap this day.  Though I was hung over, but it turned out I was sick as I popped a fever later that night.  Originally wanted to go for 5 on my top set of Presses to close out this round of 5/3/1 with a PR, but I knew I felt weak so I went for 4 and failed.  It happens.  3 was still a Rep PR.

Deadlift was a little better, but I was only going for a small rep PR which I got.  Actually 2 would have been a Rep PR, so this might have been my best lift of the day.

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.

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

Defranco's Simple-6

Press -
BarX10
65X5
85X3
95X3
110X7
super-set with
Chin-ups - BWX7, 7, 5, 7, 6

BB Overhead Extensions - 65X8, 8, 6

Hammer and Tire - 5 sets of 40 (switching grip every 20 reps); 10 minutes

110X7 is a Rep PR, and a minor increase to my projected 1RM.  I wasn't even planning on going for that today, but it just kind of happened.  Although, the last rep was a grinder.  I lost some tightness trying to grind through the sticking point (right above my head), and took a step forward.  I didn't stop the press though, and managed to press it out.  I try to play things by ear, but I may just get in the reps, or go for a minor rep PR on Bench this week since I went all out on the Press.

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

Defranco's Simple-6

Press -
BarX10
65X6
80X5
90X5
100X7

EZ BB Overhead Extensions - 55X12, 65X8, 8, 7, 8

T-Bar Rows - 45X12, 60X10, 65X9

Push-Ups - BWX14, 13, 12, 10 (49 total)

Hammer and Tire - 4 sets of 50 swings (switching grip after 25); 10 minutes

Presses felt pretty good.  Still focusing on Squats and Bench, so not really planning on going for lots of PR's with these.  Still form is feeling pretty good.

5/3/1 Log: Cycle 1. Week 4. Press and Deadlift

Defranco's Agile-8 and Simple-6

Press (first rep cleaned to shoulders) -
45X10
85X5
90X3
100X3

Deadlift -
135X10
155X5
185X3
215X3
240X3

Hanging Leg Raise - 3X5

Hammer and Tire - 3 rounds of 25 swings "per arm" (7 minutes)

Deload week.  Decided to do everything at the Deadlift station, thus cleaning the fist reps on the Press.  I suck at cleans, but the bar got up so screw it. 

Top set of Deads felt heavy.  Have to see how that plays out next week when I do the same progression but with sets of 5.

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

Defranco's Simple-6

DB Shoulder Press - 20'sX10

BB Press-
BarX5
65X3
85X3
95X3
105X7
super-set with
Chin-Ups - BWX6X5

Chin-Ups - BWX6X4 (54 total chins on the day)
super-set with
BB Overhead Extensions - 55X10, 45X10X3, 50X10

DB Cleans - 15sX15, 12sX10, 10sX8

Hammer & Tire - 4 rounds of 20 swings "per arm"

Decided to add a set up DB Presses as my warm-up on Press day to get the joints good and warm with lighter weight and through a wider ROM.

Press was fine.  I didn't try to go for a projected 1RM increase, however 105 is a 7RM PR.  This is one of those things Wendler and other guys talk about, but I only realized the importance of this week.  I will talk more about this in my Deadlift post.

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. Bench

Defranco's Simple-6

BB Bench-
45X10
75X5
95X5
110X3
130X3
145X3
super-set with
Chin-ups - BWX5X5

Chin-ups - BWX5X3
super-set with
Dips - BWX10, 10, 6

T-Bar Rows - 1 PlateX12X3
super-set with
Chin-ups - BWX4, 6 (50 total reps of chin-ups on the day)

Face-Pulls - 60X20, 15, 40X20

Hammer and Tire - 3 rounds of 50 (25 "each arm")

It's funny.  This is called Bench Day, but it kind of looks more like Back Day, doesn't it?  I'd already incorporated super-sets of chins to 50 total reps on Press Day, but I was reading 5/3/1 for Powerlifting, and in that manual he advocates doing this on both Press and Bench days.  I've already invested so much time and effort into building my chins, I thought I would go ahead and incorporate that.  I guess I could have dropped the T-Bar Rows, but I suck at them and want to get better.  So this is now Bench and Back Day, I guess.

Speaking of the Bench, the work sets felt kind of heavy.  I'm not stressing it, though.  It's been 3 weeks since I set my max.  We'll just ease on back in as the program calls for.  Next week I'll do these same weights again, but 5 reps each on the work-sets.  Makes me glad I came up with the Week 0 idea.