I’d rather take a long time to reach the goal, than never reach it at all.

I think I need to change.

Today’s session was essentially good. It’s 1+ week, and while the general rule is “prescribed reps only”, on 1+ week I let myself do 2 reps. And that went alright. In fact, the pyramid-down sets felt really good — it continues to reinforce in me that “over-warmups” are useful and good for me.

But that top set wasn’t too hot. I lost my groove on the descent of the first rep and had to spend time and energy recovering. Still chugged through, but still annoyed at the form loss.

Everything else was what it was. And finally I did remember to do burns at the end of the raises, but I did forget to so do on the curls. Someday.

But someday may not come. I’m thinking about 2 serious changes to programming.

First, going 3x/week instead of 4. It’s all about recovery.

Second, switching off this “off-season for mass” and more to something like from “5/3/1 Powerlifting off-season for strength”. But not that template specifically – the philosophy, but the specific work is more what I need and less of a template.

Key things are that 5/3/1 has always been good and productive for me, but at the cost of getting a little beat up. My recovery is not the best right now, and I’m working on that because really it doesn’t matter what I do in the gym if I don’t have recovery on point. So fix that first, but I do think part of that equation, at least in the short term, could involve going 3x week. Means a little more sleeping in, plus a little more time to recover from sessions — all should help. Current thought is if I did go 3x, it would be temporary until things are back in order. But, maybe, maybe not. TBD. Still thinking this over.

On the work itself, I want to get back to rep-PRs and other things more directly suited to my main goal. But in terms of assistance work, I need to get back to things that my body needs. For example, my right knee hasn’t been feeling the same the past some weeks. It started feeling beat up some weeks ago, and then after the Cecil Burch combatives weekend, it’s felt worse. I’m giving serious thought that I may have injury, getting an MRI done, etc. But I also know some directed PT-oriented work in that area has done wonders for my left knee, so I’d like to get on that. Things like just doing bodyweight squats, bodyweight lunges, split squats, and even stuff like leg extensions, higher-rep leg presses, etc.

I’m still thinking it all through — and if I don’t have a decsion by the end of this week I might even take next week as a deload to continue working it out. I enjoy following the pre-set templates because it’s no-brainer. But I have enough experience under my belt to know that there are things I need, and if I want to do this for the long-haul then well… I have to make whatever changes I have to that allow me to continue to progress, even if it means it takes me longer to reach my goals. Like I said, I’d rather take a long time to reach the goal, than never reach it at all.

Based upon 5/3/1 for Powerlifting, off-season for mass

• Press (superset with pulldowns)
  • bar x whatever
  • 70 x 5
  • 85 x 5
  • 105 x 3
  • 130 x 5
  • 150 x 3
  • 165 x 2
  • 150 x 6
  • 130 x 10
• Behind-the-neck lat pulldowns
  • 90 x 15
  • 100 x 15
  • 110 x 15
  • 120 x 15
  • 120 x 15
  • 120 x 15
  • 120 x 15
  • 120 x 12
• DB Shoulder Press
  • 55e x 10
  • 55e x 10
  • 55e x 10
  • 55e x 10
  • 55e x 8
• BB Curls (EZ-bar, shoulder-width grip)
  • 60 x 10
  • 60 x 10
  • 60 x 10
  • 60 x 10
  • 60 x 7
• DB Rear Raises (superset with lat raises)
  • 15e x 12
  • 15e x 12
  • 15e x 12 (end with partial burns)
• DB Lateral Raises
  • 20e x 10
  • 20e x 10
  • 20e x 10 (end with partial burns)