Had to lift a day early since the gym is closed tomorrow for Labor Day.

“Week 4” – Deload

• 5/3/1 – Squat (working max: 220#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 2x5x90
  • 2x5x110
  • 2x5x135
• Asst. #1 – Squat
  • 5 x 10 x 85
• Asst. #2 – Leg curls
  • 5 x 10 x 35
• Metcon – jump rope
  • 1 Tabata set – all single hop

Today marks the last workout of my first cycle of the Wendler 5/3/1 program. I’ll have some thoughts on that in another post.

Again, since it’s deload “week”, I just doubled up on the warmup weight/sets. I did go up on my assistant squat weight and my curl weight, and while they didn’t really kill me today, they did work ok and I will keep them as-is for the next cycle because it’s hard to know if the “non-work” today was due to being a deload week and so the work squats didn’t exhaust me enough, or if in fact the assistance weights are too light. But if I do go up, I’ll only increase 5# and see from there.

One cool thing? Since the weights are light it’s very easy to let form go out the door. But on the same token, it’s a great opportunity to ensure form is tight and strict. I focused on keeping my chest high (tho still drive with the hips) and my torso tight; in fact, everything tight (arms too). That made a huge difference and I was really feeling it in my hamstrings during the assistance squats. That was cool, haven’t felt them like that while I squat… because I know I can tend to tip forward and involve the quads too much.

The workout felt good. Really pleased. But I’m so looking forward to the next workout, starting cycle 2. 🙂