Starting a new program today.

My current long-term goal is “3/4/5 wheels, bench/squat/deadlift”. I know to get there, I have to eat well. However, I’ve been eating too well. I weighed in this morning a 245, and I am not happy with that, especially the last 10-or-so pounds. There’s no excuse; I’ve not had the self-discipline. I don’t want to derail from my main goal, but if I don’t get this under control I’ll be screwed over the long haul. So if I can take a few weeks and drop some bodyweight, great.

My plan? In the new “Forever 5/3/1” book, Jim has a “Prep & Fat Loss Program” that looks different and like it should do the trick. It’s 6 weeks (then a 7th week for deload). The plan is to keep the protein high, fats moderate-low, and carbs restricted — I can have carbs in the morning, especially around the workout, but by noon I need to cut them off. That should be sufficient to keep me going, but also provide enough caloric reduction. Then with this level of work, I expect I should be able to drop 10 lb. or so in the 6 weeks. If I can do that, or even more, great. I also wouldn’t expect this to impact my strength all that much. I don’t expect to gain any strength, but I don’t expect to lose any either.

If I stick to this plan, it should work. I just need to stick to it.

The Plan

I won’t fully rehash the program (buy the book), but the basics:

• Find 1RM. Luckily my weights from the last session’s 1+ week work well for calculations.
• Take 85% of 1RM for a training max. Yes that’s low, but it’s appropriate for this work.
• Runs on a 3/5/1 structure. 6-week cycle.
• Main work is 5’s PRO
• Supplemental is 5×5 FSL
• Additional assistance
• Rest periods are 60-90 seconds between every set.
• All work is interleaved. Set of press. Rest. Set of whatever else. Rest. Set of press. Set of other work. etc.

So you get 11 sets of main movement (3 warm-up, 3 work, 5 FSL), then all the other work.

And if you keep moving, all should be done in about 45-60 minutes. This does not count your warm-up, and some other initial work (e.g. 10 jumps or throws). Also there’s some cardio work, which for me will be at least 20 minutes on the elliptical right after the session completes.

It may look easy on paper, but from how Jim tells it, people hate him after the first week, and call him a fucking asshole after the second. 🙂

It’s work. It’s going to suck. It’s going to be hard — especially as my caloric deficit and carbs depletion take hold. But if I stick to it, I expect to be in a better position after 6 weeks. I’m looking forward to that.

Today’s Session

The pressing numbers are calculations. The assistance work is guesses, but pretty close. I’ll fine-tune a couple things, but all in all good.

To do 5×5 at 70% of 85% of my 1RM — it’s really easy for me. However, it’s not physical strength that is the issue here, but just being tired. Those last few sets of pressing were difficult because fatigue was building up. What gets you are the high-rep assistance sets — that starts to take it out of you. My conditioning isn’t all that bad, but it’s not as good as it has been either. I have been noticing some huff-and-puff lately, so for sure I can use this type of work. Towards the end, I wasn’t feeling dead and drained, but fatigue was certainly there. I am curious how week 3 will go, as that will be the “1 week” and 2 weeks of caloric reduction. Pressing wasn’t hard today, but you really have to pull it all together to keep pressing well, as fatigue grows.

Split squats I took a little easy. Instead of elevating the rear leg, I just put one leg forward and one back, both on the ground. My hamstrings are feeling sore for whatever reason, and it’s making my knees hurt and stiff. So elevated wasn’t going to happen. I’ll spend some time rolling them out. They should be better soon.

Pull-ups. I haven’t done these in a while and expected my fat-ass to struggle. Well, I got 4 reps, which I’m not happy about, but for fat-ass me I’ll take. Jim’s layout prefers chin-ups and pull-ups, and while I won’t avoid them, I am going to make sure to do more inverted-rows to get more volume. A lot of what this first week will be is fine-tuning what I do.

KB Swing. There is only 1 kettlebell at my gym, which is 40#, which just so happens to be a decent weight to use. It’s not too heavy, not too light, worked out well. And these are deceptive. Feels so easy, then when you stop you realize how taxing it was. 🙂

All in all, I felt good. Worked, with a good preview of what’s to come. Tho, I am expecting tomorrow — squat day — to be a LOT more painful. 🙂

5/3/1 Prep & Fat Loss Program

• Press – bar x whatever
• Press – 70 x 5
• Face Pull – 50 x 25
• Press – 80 x 5
• Face Pull – 50 x 25
• Press – 105 x 5
• Split Squat – BW x 15
• Press – 120 x 5
• Split Squat – BW x 15
• Press – 140 x 5
• Pull-up – BW x 4
• Press – 155 x 5
• Pull-up BW x 3
• Press – 120 x 5
• Pull-up BW x 3
• Press – 120 x 5
• DB Row – 55 x 20
• Press – 120 x 5
• DB Row – 55 x 20
• Press – 120 x 5
• KB Swing – 40 x 25
• Press – 120 x 5
• KB Swing – 40 x 25