BW - 200
Pause Squats -
BarX10
135X5
Squats -
135X5
180, 205X3
235X6
Front Squats -
105X10, 10, 10, 10, 10
Leg Curls - 5 sets of 20
Again, I came in and got the reps I was looking for on my top set. 235X6 is my 2nd best squat since I reset my form.
Fronts are still gassing me. I keep telling myself I want to go for AMAP on the last set, but by the time I get to 10 I just want the damn thing back in the rack. We'll see if that trend continues. Still, 5 sets of 10 is the program.
Leg curls suck.
Monday, November 12, 2012
5/3/1 BBB: Cycle 1. Week 1. Press
BW - 202
Press -
BarX10
70, 80X5
90X12
Upright Rows - 85X10, 10, 10, 10, 10
T-Bar Rows -
BarX20
25X10
50, 75, 100X5
75X20
Not a bad return to front pressing. 12 reps of the top set was what I was looking for, and what I got. Can't complain. I took these off of a stand, but I cleaned the first rep of each set.
Uprights were heavier than I'd hoped, but I chose the correct weight for the day. Didn't have to use straps.
Hit 20 reps with my work weight on T-Bars, now I will up it for my next session, and work to 20 again.
Press -
BarX10
70, 80X5
90X12
Upright Rows - 85X10, 10, 10, 10, 10
T-Bar Rows -
BarX20
25X10
50, 75, 100X5
75X20
Not a bad return to front pressing. 12 reps of the top set was what I was looking for, and what I got. Can't complain. I took these off of a stand, but I cleaned the first rep of each set.
Uprights were heavier than I'd hoped, but I chose the correct weight for the day. Didn't have to use straps.
Hit 20 reps with my work weight on T-Bars, now I will up it for my next session, and work to 20 again.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
5/3/1 BBB: Cycle 1. Week 1. Dead
BW - 199
Deadlift -
135, 185, 185, 205, 235X5
265X10
RDL -
185X10, 10, 10, 10, 10
BW Lunges - 5 sets of 10
Pretty solid session. I've been hitting a lot of project 1RM increases with my pull the last couple of months, so I thought I'd take the opportunity of starting the BBB phase to just hit a solid 10 reps and then move on to the accessory stuff. As always, I held the last rep at the top for grip.
185 was a tad ambitious for me on the RDL's right out of the gate. I probably could stand to back off to 155-165 so that I can focus on the muscle contractions rather than just making each rep. Also, I had to add straps after the 1st set. Going forward, I will keep my straps handy, and try to delay using them as long as possible.
5X10 lunges were pretty easy all the way through. I'll up it to 5X12 for the next session.
Deadlift -
135, 185, 185, 205, 235X5
265X10
RDL -
185X10, 10, 10, 10, 10
BW Lunges - 5 sets of 10
Pretty solid session. I've been hitting a lot of project 1RM increases with my pull the last couple of months, so I thought I'd take the opportunity of starting the BBB phase to just hit a solid 10 reps and then move on to the accessory stuff. As always, I held the last rep at the top for grip.
185 was a tad ambitious for me on the RDL's right out of the gate. I probably could stand to back off to 155-165 so that I can focus on the muscle contractions rather than just making each rep. Also, I had to add straps after the 1st set. Going forward, I will keep my straps handy, and try to delay using them as long as possible.
5X10 lunges were pretty easy all the way through. I'll up it to 5X12 for the next session.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
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.
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.
Monday, November 5, 2012
5/3/1 BBB: Cycle 1. Week 1. Squat
BW - 203
Pause Squats -
BarX10
95X5
Squats -
95, 135, 170, 195X5
220X8
Front Squats -
95X10
105X10, 10 10, 10
Leg Curls - 5 sets of 20
Decent session to kick off the new phase. And my legs were KILLING me the next day. Woke me up in the middle of the night it hurt so bad. Just brutal. 2 days later, I'm all good.
220X8 on the Squat is in the ballpark of my best lifts the last couple of months.
Front squats felt pretty solid. I've settled back on a pretty standard 3-fingers under the bar grip, only with my wrists rotated slightly inward. This weight feels "light," however I kept feeling gassed towards the end of the sets. Don't know if that's diet, sleep, or just need to get used to the 5X10 protocol on these. Plenty of time to find out.
Leg curls suck.
Pause Squats -
BarX10
95X5
Squats -
95, 135, 170, 195X5
220X8
Front Squats -
95X10
105X10, 10 10, 10
Leg Curls - 5 sets of 20
Decent session to kick off the new phase. And my legs were KILLING me the next day. Woke me up in the middle of the night it hurt so bad. Just brutal. 2 days later, I'm all good.
220X8 on the Squat is in the ballpark of my best lifts the last couple of months.
Front squats felt pretty solid. I've settled back on a pretty standard 3-fingers under the bar grip, only with my wrists rotated slightly inward. This weight feels "light," however I kept feeling gassed towards the end of the sets. Don't know if that's diet, sleep, or just need to get used to the 5X10 protocol on these. Plenty of time to find out.
Leg curls suck.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
5/3/1 Full-Body: In Review
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.
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.
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.
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.
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