Yesterday I wrapped 5 cycles/4 months of 531 - Full Body. I'm going to go over the way I set it up, and then the progress #'s.
Here's a comparison of the textbook version of this variation and what I did:
3-Days
Wendler:
Regular Squat every session; one 531, two with lower %/reps
Me:
Regular Squat on 531 day, Pause Squats the other two with the lower %/reps. Pause Squats help me keep my form in check.
Wendler:
Military Press with 531 sets/reps on Press/Deadlift day
Me:
I used Klokov presses instead just because I wanted to give the movement a good try. Also, every 3rd or 4th session I would use Paul Carter's Strong-15 scheme to understand where my top end strength on the movement was in comparison to the high-reps I was getting on my 531 top set (it was always lower than projected).
Wendler:
Puts out a lot of DB/one-arm/one-leg movements as potential options for assistance
Me:
Everything was done with a barbell, or lifting my body off the floor (chins and dips)
Wendler:
One Squat, One Press, One Pull movement per session.
Me:
That plus a few cycles where I threw in ONE additional accessory movement per day targeted to bring up one certain muscle group per cycle. So I would settle on a muscle group, and add one movement to each lifting session for that area. I did this for two cycles with shoulders/traps, and one cycle with legs.
That's it. I consider that directly in-line with the principals of the program as laid out by Wendler. The only place one might quibble is with the additional movement added to bring up a muscle group, however I always had enough energy to get a quality work-out on all the lifts, and my numbers never seemed to suffer from the added work.
On to my progress:
There are a few ways to look at this, but I'm going to start with progress on the individual lifts. One note on this: I reset my max on everything after the first cycle because I was stalling really quickly following the 2-day program I'd been on for the summer, and that's why the initial weights don't seem far off from the final weights. I also started pausing all bench reps on my chest, and this further reduced my initial #'s. With that out of the way:
Squat -
Best lift first cycle: 225X4, projected 1RM 250
Best lift final cycle: 225X8, projected 1RM 280
30 lb. increase
Bench -
Best lift first cycle: 160X4 (touch-and-go), projected 1RM 180
Best lift final cycle: 165X6 (all paused on chest), projected 1RM 195
15 lb. increase PLUS added pause at bottom
Klokovs -
Best lift first cycle: 70X12, projected 1RM 95
Best lift final cycle: 85X11, projected 1RM 115
20 lb. increase
Deadlift -
Best lift first cycle: 295X1 (awful); projected 1RM 305 (previous best was 345)
Best lift last cycle: 290X8; projected 1RM 360
60 lb. increase
Something else I started tracking, and another way to look at progress, is that I logged my projected "total" for each week, and then my average total for each cycle. So for example, in week 1, I projected at 240, 175, 305 for a 720 total, I found that number for each week, and then took the average of all 3 weeks per cycle to get my average total for the cycle. Progress looks like this:
Cycle 1 -
720, 735, 720 for Average Total - 725
Cycle 5 -
780, 835, 820 for Average Total - 810
85 lb. increase
Looking at it this way results in a very conservative number by which to judge my current standing. Rather than just taking my best individual lifts across the whole program and saying my final total is maybe 835, I can safely say that my total is at least 810.
So there are two different ways to look at my progress. I think the bottom line here is that progress was demonstrably made.
As to how I feel about the training like this? I loved it. I really did. It was hard to talk myself into transitioning into something else. This type of full body layout using only a compound barbell or bodyweight movements is the kind of thing I've wanted to try since I started reading Chaos and Pain, and it really worked for me mentally. Also, I've long felt that in addition to the Big-3, my long-term staples would be standing OHP, BB Rows, Chins and Dips. This program allowed me to ONLY to do those things for a long time, and it was awesome. I expect I will return to this from now on for a significant portion of each year's training.
Showing posts with label chaos and pain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chaos and pain. Show all posts
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Monday, September 17, 2012
5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 2. Carries
Sunday:
LRB Diet - Week 9
BW - ???
AM:
Steady-state - 20 minutes
PM:
Wife Carries - 1/4 mileX2
When I started lifting, my wife would sometimes ask me what my goal was, and I would joke that I thought a man should be able to carry his woman for 2 miles over un-even terrain. I even did a cycle of farmer's carries once with that in mind, but that fell away as I tried to stay focused on the basics.
Recently, she asked me how far I thought I could carry her now, and partially inspired by a recent CNP article on Tom Hardy, I decided to try some piggy-backs. I have a 1-mile route in my neighborhood I often use for conditioning, and I thought I would go for a 1/2 mile carry. Luckily, the route is easily broken down into 1/4 miles, because that's all I could manage. We then walked another 1/4 mile until I felt recovered, and I did another 1/4 mile carry.
The good news/bad news is that no one part of my body felt much more fatigued than any other. This was a whole body effort, and pretty much everything was giving out at once rather than having one "weak link." That both reinforces my confidence that I'm keeping my training well-balanced, and that I still have loads of room for improvement in every area. With that said, it's now a day later, and my biceps are more sore than they've been in a long time, so this obviously provides a different type/degree of stress than all the rowing and chinning I do.
If the wife is willing, I may start alternating this with hill-sprints as regular conditioning. It's also pretty fun and pretty funny. There is a bar right where we stopped yesterday, and I collapsed onto a bar stool and treated myself to a giant ice-water, and a gin-and-tonic for my troubles.
LRB Diet - Week 9
BW - ???
AM:
Steady-state - 20 minutes
PM:
Wife Carries - 1/4 mileX2
When I started lifting, my wife would sometimes ask me what my goal was, and I would joke that I thought a man should be able to carry his woman for 2 miles over un-even terrain. I even did a cycle of farmer's carries once with that in mind, but that fell away as I tried to stay focused on the basics.
Recently, she asked me how far I thought I could carry her now, and partially inspired by a recent CNP article on Tom Hardy, I decided to try some piggy-backs. I have a 1-mile route in my neighborhood I often use for conditioning, and I thought I would go for a 1/2 mile carry. Luckily, the route is easily broken down into 1/4 miles, because that's all I could manage. We then walked another 1/4 mile until I felt recovered, and I did another 1/4 mile carry.
The good news/bad news is that no one part of my body felt much more fatigued than any other. This was a whole body effort, and pretty much everything was giving out at once rather than having one "weak link." That both reinforces my confidence that I'm keeping my training well-balanced, and that I still have loads of room for improvement in every area. With that said, it's now a day later, and my biceps are more sore than they've been in a long time, so this obviously provides a different type/degree of stress than all the rowing and chinning I do.
If the wife is willing, I may start alternating this with hill-sprints as regular conditioning. It's also pretty fun and pretty funny. There is a bar right where we stopped yesterday, and I collapsed onto a bar stool and treated myself to a giant ice-water, and a gin-and-tonic for my troubles.
Friday, August 24, 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 3. Week 1. Bench
LRB Diet - Day 30
BW - 201 (I fucking knew that scale was wrong the other day)
Hypers - 5 sets of 15-20
Pause Squats -
BarX10
95, 135X5
155, 180, 205X3
Bench -
BarX10
105, 125X5
140X7
super-set with
Chins - BW; 5 sets of 5
Press -
BarX10
95X8
85X5, 5, 8
super-set with
Chins - BW; 5 sets of 5
Chiro Crunches - 3 really crappy sets
I really don't think I put on 12 pounds since Thursday afternoon. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that commercial gyms don't have light plates and scales.
Pause Squats are jumping to the Phase 2 %'s from the 531 Full-Body program. From 60% up to 85% on the top set. Also worth noting, I've been increasing the training max by only 5 lbs. per cycle on this movement. 205 was a little slow here, but I'm gonna hope that's at least partially due to the big weight increase. We'll see how it feels again next session.
Bench felt a tad better. I was hoping to just get 6, but I was able to press out 7 with one in the tank. This is at least in line with my numbers from last cycle, and right now consistency feels awesome on bench as opposed to steady decline.
I'm adding in pressing on this day for the additional shoulder work mentioned in my last lifting post. I was hoping to do 4 sets of 8 with 105, but the 95X8 warm-up was a grinder after the benching, so I dropped down to 85, and 5's felt about right under that weight. On my last set, I got myself all amped up and ground out 8 reps with that. Next week, I'll start with the 85 and see what that's like.
I superset all my pressing with sets of 5's on chins. Chins continue to feel weak despite weight loss. I tried to go for more than 5 on the final set, but no luck. Hopefully reducing the reps per set like this, and going for more overall volume will see an uptick here. I'll keep going for it on the final set, and when I can knock out 7 or 8, I'll up it to straight sets of 6 and repeat.
Got my core work back in at the top and bottom, but the crunches were miserable and I aborted them after 3 sets. I think all the chins had taxed my abs a bit. Don't know how I feel about that.
BW - 201 (I fucking knew that scale was wrong the other day)
Hypers - 5 sets of 15-20
Pause Squats -
BarX10
95, 135X5
155, 180, 205X3
Bench -
BarX10
105, 125X5
140X7
super-set with
Chins - BW; 5 sets of 5
Press -
BarX10
95X8
85X5, 5, 8
super-set with
Chins - BW; 5 sets of 5
Chiro Crunches - 3 really crappy sets
I really don't think I put on 12 pounds since Thursday afternoon. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that commercial gyms don't have light plates and scales.
Pause Squats are jumping to the Phase 2 %'s from the 531 Full-Body program. From 60% up to 85% on the top set. Also worth noting, I've been increasing the training max by only 5 lbs. per cycle on this movement. 205 was a little slow here, but I'm gonna hope that's at least partially due to the big weight increase. We'll see how it feels again next session.
Bench felt a tad better. I was hoping to just get 6, but I was able to press out 7 with one in the tank. This is at least in line with my numbers from last cycle, and right now consistency feels awesome on bench as opposed to steady decline.
I'm adding in pressing on this day for the additional shoulder work mentioned in my last lifting post. I was hoping to do 4 sets of 8 with 105, but the 95X8 warm-up was a grinder after the benching, so I dropped down to 85, and 5's felt about right under that weight. On my last set, I got myself all amped up and ground out 8 reps with that. Next week, I'll start with the 85 and see what that's like.
I superset all my pressing with sets of 5's on chins. Chins continue to feel weak despite weight loss. I tried to go for more than 5 on the final set, but no luck. Hopefully reducing the reps per set like this, and going for more overall volume will see an uptick here. I'll keep going for it on the final set, and when I can knock out 7 or 8, I'll up it to straight sets of 6 and repeat.
Got my core work back in at the top and bottom, but the crunches were miserable and I aborted them after 3 sets. I think all the chins had taxed my abs a bit. Don't know how I feel about that.
Monday, August 20, 2012
5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 3. Week 1. Squat
LRB Diet - Day 26
BW - ?189?
Squats -
BarX10
95X7
135, 150X5
170X3
195X8
BB Rows -
BarX15
95X8
135X8
115X15
High-Pulls -
115, 135, 145, 155, 155, 155X5
Dips - BWX8, 12, 16, 4, 6
I was pressed for time getting ready to go out of town for the weekend, and had to settle for going to the L@Fitness (formerly B@llys) near my home. 189 seemed like such a drastic drop-off from my last weigh-in that I'm suspicious of the scale. However, when I set it down to Zero pounds, it counter-balanced correctly so who knows.
I need to be better about putting my head down and doing work when I'm in a strange gym; I always feel wound tight and get a little off my game wanting to get in and get out as fast as possible. For this session that was manifested by skipping mobility warm-ups and all my core work. I'll have to make up for all of that in spades next time I'm in the gym.
Nevertheless everything went pretty well. Squats felt solid, and the results are in-line with steady progress after I reset my form.
I couldnt' really do Pendlays here because I didn't have access to bumper plates at this gym. So BB Rows trying go keep my low-back parallel to the ground and using a brief dead hang at the bottom of each rep to try and simulate a dead-stop row as much as possible. The results were predictably slightly off from previous sessions.
For the 2nd month of LRB Dieting, I'm adding in some additional shoulder/trap work inspired by a CNP article. One of the reasons for choosing now to take my first ever stab at strict dieting, is because I'm going to a sort of weekend camping reunion of college friends at the end of September. While I'm trying to trim up, I thought I'd also take a stab at building some "movie star" shoulders. Kind of silly, but also fun. So for this day, I'm adding in High-Pulls, a movement I've never done, but always wanted to try. These are done incredibly NOT as a textbook version of the Olympic accessory, but more as an explosive, cheating upright row. One cool bit of synergy here, is that it seemed to work out very well to use the weight from the back-off set of bent rows as the warm-up weight for the high-pulls. I worked up to 155, where I was having to really use explosiveness and much face-scrunching to get the 5th rep, and knocked out 3 of those sets. I used straps on this movement as well. I really liked this movement, and my delts felt really sore the next day.
Dips were a bit wonky because this gym has a weird, trapezoidal dip apparatus. Again, getting past this sort of thing is something I need to be able to do. It's dumb to only be able to have good workouts in my regular gym. Regardless, my target was to ladder up to, and back down from 16 reps. I got that top set, but the back off sets were completely crap.
BW - ?189?
Squats -
BarX10
95X7
135, 150X5
170X3
195X8
BB Rows -
BarX15
95X8
135X8
115X15
High-Pulls -
115, 135, 145, 155, 155, 155X5
Dips - BWX8, 12, 16, 4, 6
I was pressed for time getting ready to go out of town for the weekend, and had to settle for going to the L@Fitness (formerly B@llys) near my home. 189 seemed like such a drastic drop-off from my last weigh-in that I'm suspicious of the scale. However, when I set it down to Zero pounds, it counter-balanced correctly so who knows.
I need to be better about putting my head down and doing work when I'm in a strange gym; I always feel wound tight and get a little off my game wanting to get in and get out as fast as possible. For this session that was manifested by skipping mobility warm-ups and all my core work. I'll have to make up for all of that in spades next time I'm in the gym.
Nevertheless everything went pretty well. Squats felt solid, and the results are in-line with steady progress after I reset my form.
I couldnt' really do Pendlays here because I didn't have access to bumper plates at this gym. So BB Rows trying go keep my low-back parallel to the ground and using a brief dead hang at the bottom of each rep to try and simulate a dead-stop row as much as possible. The results were predictably slightly off from previous sessions.
For the 2nd month of LRB Dieting, I'm adding in some additional shoulder/trap work inspired by a CNP article. One of the reasons for choosing now to take my first ever stab at strict dieting, is because I'm going to a sort of weekend camping reunion of college friends at the end of September. While I'm trying to trim up, I thought I'd also take a stab at building some "movie star" shoulders. Kind of silly, but also fun. So for this day, I'm adding in High-Pulls, a movement I've never done, but always wanted to try. These are done incredibly NOT as a textbook version of the Olympic accessory, but more as an explosive, cheating upright row. One cool bit of synergy here, is that it seemed to work out very well to use the weight from the back-off set of bent rows as the warm-up weight for the high-pulls. I worked up to 155, where I was having to really use explosiveness and much face-scrunching to get the 5th rep, and knocked out 3 of those sets. I used straps on this movement as well. I really liked this movement, and my delts felt really sore the next day.
Dips were a bit wonky because this gym has a weird, trapezoidal dip apparatus. Again, getting past this sort of thing is something I need to be able to do. It's dumb to only be able to have good workouts in my regular gym. Regardless, my target was to ladder up to, and back down from 16 reps. I got that top set, but the back off sets were completely crap.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
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.
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.
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