Less is more?

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 1

• Work Set – Press (working max: 150#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x60
  • 1x5x75
  • 1x3x90
  • 1x5x100 (work)
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x8x135
• Assistance – Press
  • 5 x 10/10/10/10/8 x 75
• Assistance – Stuff
  • Upright rows
  • Hammer Curls

So at the last minute I decided to try 4x week. I kinda like it… if nothing else, getting into the gym 4x a week is damn fun. More weights, that’s great!

And I just felt damn strong this morning. The 115 went up so easily. I think in part because I’m paying more attention to my Press form and especially breathing, and so I’m finding my groove better and so things are just moving. Heck, I was actually supposed to do 130 but I HATE 130… so many plates to fiddle with, and it’s just not as awesome as 135… I like the big wheels. 🙂 So fuck it, I felt good, I put 135 on the bar, and cranked out 8 reps. Looking back over my logs, I’m not sure if this really counts as a rep PR, but there’s no question my performance is improving compared to the past few cycles. So, awesome!

But with that, I started doing less.

I think it’s a combination of things.

First, if I am going 4x week, I think more volume and more work doesn’t serve me well. That’s more stress, more breakdown, more to recover from, and the frequency doesn’t lend to that, y’know? Second, my shoulder joints have been bugging me, and while I don’t think chins or anything like that caused it, I think they may not be lending to things healing up. So today I didn’t do chins, I didn’t do dips. Third, I’m finding that my assistance work and even my work sets are just more intense… maybe in part from CBL, maybe in part because I’m getting more mentally there into every rep that I squeeze more out, more intense, whatever. But it just feels like less is more. I only cranked out a couple sets of the rows/curls and didn’t really care much.

I might be falling back to a more strict BBB template.

I also think that I will not do chins on both pressing days. I’ll probably do chins on Press day and DB rows on Bench Press days. Kinda winging how this cycle evolves as I deal with my shoulder, CBL, and 4x week. As long as I’m seeing good progress on the main lift, that’s the key thing.