I love 5/3/1 week. 🙂

“Week 3” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

• 5/3/1 – Press (working max: 155#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x65
  • 1x5x80
  • 1x3x93
  • 1x5x120 (work)
  • 1x3x135
  • 1x3x150 (PR)
• Asst. #1A – Bench Press
  • 5 x 10 x 115
• Asst. #1B – Chinups (supersetted with Bench Press)
  • 5 x 3 x BW
• Asst. #2 – Face Pulls
  • 3 x 10 x 60
• Asst. #3 – DB Hammer Curls
  • 3 x 10 x 30

I haven’t been feeling it so much lately, but 5/3/1 week always gets me up because it’s time to set some personal records.

Today, 150# for 3 reps was a new PR. Technically on this “BBB 3 month challenge” you’re supposed to only do the prescribed reps, so I should only do 1 rep. But damnit… it’s PR time and I’m allowing myself on just this week to do more than the prescribed reps, up to 3. And so I did. 🙂 It felt good! Not just to hit the PR, but the pressing itself. I’m starting to find a better groove with heavier (overhead) pressing, getting the full body into it (e.g. clench your butt), and just a better overall groove when pressing. It’s hard! But nothing worth having in life is easy. 🙂

I also sat there thinking how it felt like “just yesterday” I was thrilled to be breaking the 135# barrier, and now 135 is just another work weight for me. In some regards, progress is its own reward.

Speaking of progress, getting 3 chins for 5 sets across felt really good! OK, the last chin was a bit of a struggle at the top, had to throw my chin up there, but still… it wasn’t like the last weeks where there was no way I could even pull myself up and just had to do a negative instead. My goal? I’d like to work up to 5×15, and once I can do that, I’ll start adding weight. I also figure once I get to 5×10 I’ll try varying up my grip. I will get there.

On face pulls, 60 isn’t doing much for me but I’m getting better with form, engaging the shoulder more, not “pulling” so much. Think to pull the elbows back, not the wrists/hands in. But I’ve read that this movement works better with higher reps, so instead of bumping up to 70 for 10 I think I’ll try 60 for 15, then move up from there.

I also started thinking about the “BBB 3 month challenge” so far. I have mixed feelings on it, but generally positive. I miss hitting rep maxes, but I understand why that’s how things are done… and I’m sure I’ll appreciate it a lot more when my assistance work goes to 60% and 70%; I’m cool with it. I really like that it took me back to a simple program: just press, deadlift, bench press, and squat, and then a little extra to round things out (e.g. back work). So simple, so effective. I am not sure about the alternating of main lift and assistance. That is, on normal BBB you do your main lift, then follow it doing the same lift again with a different weight and set/rep scheme. On “BBB 3 month” you do the main lift, but follow it with the “other related lift” for assistance, so main press assist bench, main bench assist press, main squat assit deadlift, main deadlift assist squat. Jim said it was to make things not quite so boring. 🙂 I’m of mixed feeling on it, and this is probably something I’ll have to give a verdict on much later. I like doing a lot of the same exercise because there’s a lot of volume in that specific movement. But then, the movements you alternate with aren’t that much different from each other (it’s not like you press then squat). And I might be getting more out of it because I am switching it up a bit, able to lift heavier and better by mixing it up, or that I’m getting more out of it because of the stagger. Or maybe it all doesn’t matter one lick and it’s all in my head. I’m thinking the latter.

I was thinking what to do post challenge, and my present thinking is I will probably stick with this template, but not do it challenge style, just go to 60% on the assistance lifts because I reckon that’s going to be difficult but not exhausting taxing. We’ll see… too early to make a decision, but yes I like to think ahead.

Right now, let’s just think about the next workout. 315 Deadlift PR. That’s going to rock.