Prescribed reps

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 20, week 1

• Work Set – Deadlift (working max: 395#)
  • 1x5x160 (warmup)
  • 1x5x200
  • 1x3x240
  • 1x5x260 (work)
  • 1x5x300
  • 1x5x340
• Assistance – Deadlifts
  • 5 x 6 x 225
• Assistance – Side Bends
  • 3 x 20 x 45
• Foam Rolling

Is it recovery? Is this pushing me? Am I nearing a need for a reset? I don’t know.

I did the prescribed reps and felt good about it. I certainly had some left in the tank. I also felt because I put everything into just hitting the prescribed reps that I did it better (form, technique, etc.). I was reading something the other day about someone that did 5-3-1 for a long time then switched to Cube Method. What stood out in his comments were feeling really beat up from going “all out” on that last set, that it really taxes you over time, and if he did things again he’d just hit prescribed reps. When I think about variations on 5-3-1 (even by Jim himself), about other things I read from other elite powerlifters, and just feeling my own response — especially since I’m not 16-25 years old any more, that well… maybe I should just fall back to prescribed reps. I did this for a while and I didn’t feel hampered by it.

If I did it, it’d be like on 5 week, 5-6 reps striving for 5 (6 if I really felt awesome about it). On 3 week, 3-4 (striving for 3). On 5-3-1 week, 1-3 reps, striving for 3. Yeah, still try to push it, but keep it regulated. Conversely, I also wondered about doing more of a 3-5-1 approach (the powerlifting approach) and letting myself push it a bit on the 3 and 1 weeks, but take it easy on the 5 (and deload) weeks. I’ve been thinking about that for some months now, and while I can’t really switch now, maybe next cycle. And meantime, maybe just stick with prescribed for now. Or to put it another way, don’t really sweat PR’ing on any week but the 5-3-1 week, y’know? Yeah, maybe I’m paying a lot of attention to Cube right now.

Anyways…. today did suck a lot out of me. I went up for that 4th set of assistance deadlifts, grabbed the bar, then stopped. I just felt out of gas. But I stepped back, collected myself, and proceeded to bang it out, and the 5th set too. It was mental, not physical, that was in my way (tho I was honestly feeling physically drained… but I could tell I wasn’t out of gas yet).

We’ll keep on keepin’ on. Got the long weekend ahead. I’m sure I’ll be thinking.