PR fail… because a tie isn’t quite a win. 😦

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 19, week 3

• Work Set – Press (working max: 160#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x65
  • 1x5x80
  • 1x3x95
  • 1x5x120 (work)
  • 1x3x140
  • 1x3x155 (PR-tie)
• Assistance – Press
  • 5 x 10 x 80
• Assistance – Lat pulldowns (pronated grip)
  • 1 x 100/25 x 50/60
• 100 rep work – Front plate raise, Rope Triceps Pressdowns, Hammer Curls

Changing my setup for deadlift is helping. But Press still alludes me because I continue to have the “get light-headed” issue. *sigh* That’s what played in here. I unracked, forced to take a breath, got out of sync with my breathing, paused too much at the bottoms, and well, things didn’t play out right. I tried to go for 4, tried to even push-press it out, but no go. So I tied my existing PR for Press, which is better than regressing, but still disappointing.

I ripped the assistance pressing hard, and then opted to go for 100 reps on everything else. Started too light on the lat pulldowns and 100 didn’t feel all that much… did 25 more with 60#. Still didn’t feel like much… but about 30 seconds after I stopped oh, I felt it. 🙂 Not against pullups, but no way I’ll get 100 reps doing pullups. Just felt like trying 100 pulldowns today.

Anyways… the upshot of this cycle? Again, every 5/3/1 session was a PR attempt, which is a situation I haven’t experienced in a long time. I did set (or here tie) PR’s, but the only one I felt good about was the deadlift (which I’ve always been pretty good at). I thought about what I should do next cycle…. is this a hint to reset? I’m not sure yet. I think it’s worthwhile for me to forge ahead. In part yes, it’s some ego and goal “blindness” because I’m really gunning for some particular milestones before the end of 2013 and I may well not hit them if I reset. But I also wonder… could it just have been a bad day? No question the bench press fail was a “bad day” and not fully indicative of things. Plus if I do reset, I have determined I won’t just do something simple like drop 20# or “fall back 3 cycles” or something like that. I will take whatever my last 5/3/1 success was, consider that my “true max” (because if it’s less than 5 reps, it probably is indicative enough… or at worst it makes me go lighter than I need to, and that’s not a bad thing), and fully recalucate based upon that. Point is, we figure out the max, then it’s up by 5 or 10# each cycle, which may not strictly follow the math. So then like today I only got 3 @ 155… but note that all the original numbers were calculated on a 5RM. No, I’d calc it based on the true numbers… which yes, will drop me lower, and while that’s probably good for me in general, it doesn’t help my goals.

So my plan for now? Keep weights the same on Press, Squat, and Bench Press, go for rep PR’s. If they are satisfactory, forge ahead. If they are not, then I’ll consider a reset.