Thinking out loud

/ hsoi

If you don’t want to read about my training thoughts, leave now. 🙂

Cool timing with this article about “5/3/1 and 40“. Being on the older side of life, I can relate to what’s in there. A few things stood out to me.

First, it’s amazing how much 5/3/1 just works and works so well. Sure I read about other programs and try to see what I can learn from them. All this Dave Tate reading is Westside-based, but unless I opt to get truly serious about powerlifting, it’s not right for me. Bands? Chains? Well, maybe someday but I’m far from needing those. 5/3/1 is geared towards strength, but can easily be adapted to whatever you are trying to achieve — as long as it’s about being awesome.

Second, I too am finding 3x week works best. I don’t think my older body could handle 4x week, and 2x was just not working. While it’s only been this past cycle that I’ve been back to 3x, I can feel the difference and it’s certainly more my groove. And it’s not just the actual lifts, but also a very nice mental and emotional charge from doing something I like a little more often, and having a little more of it to balance out my life.

Third, Boring But Big? I’m all over it. The other day at the gym, some of the morning crew was talking about exercises and switching up often because doing the same thing all the time is boring and who wants to do that? Well… I do. Squat, bench press, deadlift, press. And while I do change up the assistance, that’s starting to settle down now as I’m learning more about myself, about what’s weak, and well… I think that’s the big part is really starting to understand weak points and focusing on them, instead of thinking I have something to go on and just stabbing in the dark hoping to hit something.

Anyways, a really cool article that resonated.

As for how things are going.

I’m happy to be back on a road of forward progress. Yes, I reset some lifts, but I think coming from where I was I had no choice. I put myself on a road to loss, and ultimately didn’t lose what I wanted to. But I learned a lot, and am still toying with diet to find what works for me. I’ll get there.

This will be my first cycle with a deload in a while. I’m kinda looking forward to it, but also excited to get back to the forward program.

My thinking is that I reset both my Press and Bench Press, and the reps I hit on the 5/3/1 last set are good enough, I am fine with going up 5# on those lifts. Plus, I am curious how all the extra high-rep shoulder and arm work at the end of the workout is paying off. Interestingly, I can tell it’s putting some size on my arms, which is nice. I hope it’s going to equate to some strength gains tho, especially in my triceps. We’ll just have to stay the course and see what happens.

Deadlift is going to go up 10#.

Squat is the hard one to call. I don’t really want to reset, nor do I want to keep static again. My thinking was to either stay at the same weights and go for a rep max, or only go up 5# and see what happened. Again, I’m curious if my assistance work is helping any here. Hrm. I just spent some time toggling the numbers in my spreadsheet. A lot of weights stay the same due to calculations and rounding, but of course some go up. I think I’ll go up 5# and see how it goes. I’ve got some motivation, and if in the end it kicks my ass then I take a step back so I can later take two steps forward.

Overall tho, the routine I’ve settled into this cycle I like and will keep with it. If I’m smart (and I’m not always smart) I won’t fiddle with the program much this cycle. The only thing I might experiment with are the wrist wraps. Don’t ignore my deadlift and squat form, just try to hold it steady for now. I need to make progress in bench and press. The biggest thing with press is to just hold my whole body tight. With bench, lots of things.

Here’s some articles I need to read again:

Those articles and videos were recently posted, and the timing is good.

Anyways, I’m happy where things are going. Actually if there’s anything I’m unhappy about it’s that I’m needing a new wardrobe. I used to wear XL shirts just fine. Now I have to get XXL. 🙂  Oh man… I just thought about the last suit I bought a couple of years ago. I don’t wear suits all that often, but I doubt it’s going to fit. Oh well. It’s good to be big and strong. Like Mark Rippetoe says, “Strong people are hard to kill, and more useful in general.”  I’ve still got a long ways to go, but maybe, just maybe, I’m finally on the road. I’m sure a year from now I’ll be saying that same thing again…. funny how the more we learn, we realize how little we know.