Not too bad.

Starting my 2nd week of the “prep & fat loss” program. I knew today wouldn’t be all that hard, given press day. But was it so much easier because it’s a “5 week” so everything’s as light as it can be? because my body is starting to adapt? Don’t know. The real trick will be seeing how next week goes. 🙂

One thing I’m thinking about doing on my pressing days is reducing my inter-set rest periods, to bump up the work. I’m not sure I want to, because I don’t want to impact recovery, especially in light of caloric restriction. We’ll see.

Speaking of, I’m a little frustrated that my bodyweight is hard to determine right now. Am I fluxuating because of water and other such things? Or am I starting to lose a little? Of course it’s only been 1 week so I shouldn’t expect too much, and I’m likely working at a slower rate than past times I went hardcore with Renaissance Periodization. So I need to be patient, but on the same token I don’t want to wait 3 weeks to start to see results because if I haven’t, then that was 3 weeks wasted. I’m just going to have faith and stick with it tho. Because if I’m hungry — which I am — that’s generally a good sign.

5/3/1 Prep & Fat Loss Program

Bodyweight: 244
Rest Period (seconds): 85

• Press – bar x whatever
• Press – 70 x 5
• Face Pull – 55 x 25
• Press – 80 x 5
• Face Pull – 55 x 25
• Press – 105 x 5
• Split Squat – BW x 15
• Press – 115 x 5
• Split Squat – BW x 15
• Press – 130 x 5
• Pull-up – BW x 5
• Press – 150 x 5
• Pull-up BW x 4
• Press – 115 x 5
• Pull-up BW x 3
• Press – 115 x 5
• DB Row – 60 x 20
• Press – 115 x 5
• DB Row – 60 x 20
• Press – 115 x 5
• KB Swing – 40 x 25
• Press – 115 x 5
• KB Swing – 40 x 25

Hopefully today is a good sign.

As expected, today was an ass-kicker, but not as much as the squat day. It wasn’t as physically taxing as squats because squats, but it was taxing because I do hope that I’m getting to a point of depletion so my body will be burning some fat. I’d like to think “how could it not?” given my work has increased (the session, plus cardio) and my food intake has decreased, but the body is a funny thing. It’s been hard because my bodyweight has been up and down all week, but I know to not mind daily changes much. What will be more telling is where I am in a couple weeks.

Still, today I peeded out pretty hard at a couple points. Changing plates on deadlifts takes longer than any lift, so by the time I finished the top set change, I had to start dips and my reps dropped pretty bad. The first rep I just collapsed on because I wasn’t recovered enough so I didn’t have the full-body tightness needed. And I stopped at the reps I did not because my pressing muscles were tired but my whole body trying to maintain the tightness was. I found that interesting. And same on that 1-rep chin-up set — I was just out of gas.

I recovered a bit, but the deadlifts themselves got hard. Again, it’s not a weight that I normally have issue with, but boy… just didn’t have it in me.

So I am hoping that running out of gas here is a fair signal that 1. the workload is high, 2. the calories are low (enough) and I should start to see some impacts to my bodyweight here soon.

Next week is a “5’s” week, so in theory it’s an easier week. ha ha ha. We’ll see about that. 🙂 But it will be good to see how my body is adapting to the work. So far yes, I am hating all of this (the gym sessions, the cardio, the restricted diet), but I know where I want to be — and it’s only 5 more weeks. 😉

5/3/1 Prep & Fat Loss Program

Bodyweight: 245
Rest Period (seconds): 90

• Deadlift – 165 x 5
• Crunches – BW x 20
• Deadlift – 205 x 5
• Crunches – BW x 20
• Deadlift – 250 x 5
• Crunches – BW x 20
• Deadlift – 290 x 5
• Dips – BW x 13
• Deadlift – 330 x 5
• Chin-up – BW x 4
• Deadlift – 375 x 5
• Dips – BW x 8
• Deadlift – 290 x 5
• Chin-up BW x 1
• Deadlift – 290 x 5
• Push-ups – BW x 20
• Deadlift – 290 x 5
• Inverted Row – BW x 12
• Deadlift – 290 x 5
• Push Ups – BW x 16
• Deadlift – 290 x 5
• Inverted Row – BW x 10

DOMS is real. 🙂

I continue to be fascinated by how the day after a new/intense workout I’m sore, but then 2 days after I’m REALLY sore. Going into today was just painful. Note: these sessions are basically full-body workouts, so everything was sore.

But you go through it, because doing the work will make things better overall.

Really, these press days are like a rest day, compared to the squat days (and I’m pretty sure deadlift days too). It’s work, but worlds apart.

Inclines were OK. None of my usual arm pain. I did notice on the heaviest sets that I had a weird pain in my left hand around my thumb — the sort of thing where thumbless grip would have alleviated the pain, but like hell I’ll bench thumbless. Using wrist wraps helped. Interesting.

But otherwise, it was just another day on the program. I expect tomorrow to suck. 😉

5/3/1 Prep & Fat Loss Program

Bodyweight: 244 (had salty Asian food last night, so I expect I’m retaining a bunch of water)
Rest Period (seconds): 90

• Incline Bench Press – bar x whatever
• Incline Bench Press – 90 x 5
• Face Pull – 55 x 25
• Incline Bench Press – 110 x 5
• Face Pull – 55 x 25
• Incline Bench Press – 135 x 5
• Split Squat – BW x 15
• Incline Bench Press – 155 x 5
• Split Squat – BW x 15
• Incline Bench Press – 175 x 5
• Pull-up – BW x 4
• Incline Bench Press – 200 x 5
• Pull-up BW x 3
• Incline Bench Press – 155 x 5
• Pull-up BW x 3
• Incline Bench Press – 155 x 5
• DB Row – 60 x 20
• Incline Bench Press – 155 x 5
• DB Row – 60 x 20
• Incline Bench Press – 155 x 5
• KB Swing – 40 x 25
• Incline Bench Press – 155 x 5
• KB Swing – 40 x 25

I still find it surprising how many people follow my workout logs (to Mitch’s chagrin). If you’re one of those fine people, you probably have heard me lamenting over the months about my arm/biceps/shoulder pain.

Over at Stronger by Science, Jason Eure published an extensive article on “Training with Biceps Tendinopathy”. Reading it hit very close to home – it’s my problem.

It’s been interesting for me to observe the things I do, the things I don’t do, what I vary, what I change, when pain arrives, when pain doesn’t. Reading more of the science behind it… well, it just gives me more questions, but also some better understanding.

For example, flat bench press caused the worst pain, but overhead pressing is no pain. I am trying incline pressing, but it’s been relatively light weights and only so much volume. In this new training program, even tho I recalculated my 1RM and took an even lower training max, incline pressing weights are going up for me – because I started so low. It will be interesting to see how this cycle goes with inclines, now using more weight and taking in more volume.

The article reinforces earlier thoughts I had as well, about switching the main movement to something else, like floor press. I guess I’ll see how it goes.

So, I’m not yet sure what I’ll do with this information, but the article was one I wanted to keep and share. I’m sure I’ll have to read it a few more times to fully digest it.

I knew today was going to hurt. 🙂

I mean, yesterday’s pressing gave me an idea of what this new program was going to be like, but I knew squat-day would be much more difficult.

Oh yeah.

By the time I got to the FSL sets (the 5×5@215), I was kicking into autopilot. Just do what I wrote down, just keep going, don’t bother thinking about it. Just do it. Just keep going. The brain is saying to quit, but only because it’s damn hard work. So no, that’s not a good enough reason to quit. Just keep pushing through it.

I’m expecting in a few weeks, when the work is harder and the diet has kicked in more, this is really going to suck. 🙂

Really tho, I realized why this sucks so hard — accumulation of oxygen deprivation. You do some set, holding your breath for each rep. By the end, you’re a bit deprived. While there’s 90 seconds of rest, it’s not enough to fully recover. Then you something else, maybe for 10, 15, or 20 reps — which leads to greater oxygen deprivation, again not because the work is necessarily hard in and of itself (5×5 @ 215 is easy), but because there’s deprivation, and you don’t fully recover, so each time is a little worse.

But, that will build up the ability to do work. The body will adapt.

All in all, today went well — just had to play the mental game and keep pushing through. To ensure even the last set of squats still was mentally all-in so things didn’t get sloppy.

Chin-ups did stress my elbows a bit, but I’ll keep going with it and see how it goes long-term.

I need a nap. 😉

5/3/1 Prep & Fat Loss Program

Bodyweight: 244
Rest Period (seconds): 90

• Squat – bar x whatever
• Squat – 125 x 5
• Crunches – BW x 20
• Squat – 155 x 5
• Crunches – BW x 20
• Squat – 185 x 5
• Crunches – BW x 20
• Squat – 215 x 5
• Dips – BW x 12
• Squat – 250 x 5
• Chin-up – BW x 5
• Squat – 280 x 5
• Dips – BW x 12
• Squat – 215 x 5
• Chin-up BW x 4
• Squat – 215 x 5
• Push-ups – BW x 15
• Squat – 215 x 5
• Inverted Row – BW x 12
• Squat – 215 x 5
• Push Ups – BW x 13
• Squat – 215 x 5
• Inverted Row – BW x 10

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

An excellent lifetime Press PR of 185×3 – but it’s much more than the paper number.

My previous best-ever press was 185×1 set back at the end of December during my big 1RM testing week. So today’s 3-reps of the same weight blows that PR away. So simply enough, that’s a great lifetime PR. But really, there’s more to it than that.

First, that 1RM testing day was geared towards maximizing my 1RM effort. That is, I did a light warm-up, then just took singles at semi-large intervals towards a 1RM. Basically aiming to have more than 3-4 1-rep sets towards setting that new 1RM. Everything to minimize fatigue and maximize energy conversation to ensure the best 1RM I could get.

But today? It was just another work day in the cycle. Just another 5/3/1+ week/day. My volume today was almost twice what I did back in December, so to have not just hit the same weight but for more reps, after doing a lot more work, after accumulating more fagitue? That makes it even better.

Also, the top-set went funky. I started the first rep, got half-way up, then stalled. fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckpresspresspress, but nothing. (more on this below). I reset (didn’t rack, just went back to the starting position), and started again. And hammered out 3 reps. Consequently I spent a bunch of energy and built some fatigue from that failed first rep. I know I could have gotten 4 today if not for that; 5 or more? unknown but doesn’t matter. Point is, there was more. Yet still, 3 reps today is quite in line with my progress.

Then, the down sets? Down sets are not a place for setting PRs, because of fatigue. But my 165 set? It went quite well. Looking at my numbers/sessions since December, 165×6 on a down set? That’s awesome! Part is being strong enough to do it, but the larger part was the mental push-through to do it. I dug deeper, made my whole body tight (crush-grip the bar, clench my ass like I’m making diamonds) and just push that bar up. I’m really happy about it.

So sure, on paper simply going from 185×1 to 185×3 looks good. But I care more about the greater context, and that makes it much better for me. Yes, building strength is a slow process, but you put in the work, and you get the results. It’s very satisfying.

That said, why did I stall on the first rep of the top set? Honestly, I don’t know. It all happened so fast and I was more concerned with getting the reps than figuring out why I had a problem. The best I can think? I rushed it.

See, the rack at my gym isn’t ideal. The pegs I have to use are a bit low; the next pegs up are just a hair too high. So it’s a little awkward to unrack the bar. Then given I have all the weird head-rush/dizzy issues while Pressing, I sometimes hurry through things. From what I can tell, I just rushed it too fast. I unracked, felt the weight in my hands, and wanted to get going. I was not in the best position, the bar was too far from the body, out of groove, out of mechanican advantage, and it just wasn’t going to go. But when I reset, the bar was back into me, close, better mechanical position, and up it went.

It’s hard to work on that at lower intensities, but hey… this is the sort of thing that makes me think about doing templates like “Boring But Big”, to get in a LOT of work and reps on the main movements.

But that will have to wait for another day.

I am taking next week off — totally off. I expect to do some cardio, but that’s all. Giving my body some much-needed rest. Then into the new “Prep & Fat Loss” program. I must say, as I see the numbers come together, oh lawdy lawdy… the next 6 weeks are going to be a bitch. But hey, the way to get better in life is to do the hard stuff, to do the things you suck at, the do the things you hate — because you know it’s what makes you better.

Remind me I said that around the end of week 2. 😉

In other news… front plate raises all the way above the head with a 25# plate? I hate these things, but by gawd they are awesome. I think I’m falling in love with it.

Also, since I won’t be doing any direct arm work for the next 6 weeks (the bro in me dies a little), I did some drop sets at the end of my curls.

• Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 80 x 5
  • 100 x 5
  • 115 x 3
  • 145 x 5
  • 165 x 3
  • 185 x 3 (3 rep PR, lifetime best)
  • 165 x 6
  • 145 x 9
• Lat Pulldowns (pronated grip, to chest)
  • 110 x 12
  • 120 x 12
  • 130 x 12
  • 130 x 10
  • 130 x 7
• Front Plate Raises (all the way above head)
  • 25 x 29
  • 25 x 20
  • 25 x 13
• Skullcrushers
  • 80 x 10
  • 80 x 10
  • 80 x 10
  • 80 x 10
• Hammer Curl
  • 45e x 10
  • 45e x 10
  • 45e x 10
  • 45e x 7 (then a couple cheat reps, then drop sets to 35e, then 25e)

Some days you’re happy to just PR and move on.

I’m really happy with the change in deadlift form. It doesn’t feel as strange to me any more (i.e. not as much “leg pressing” going on — but more on that shortly). I am really liking how that “step 3” where I push the chest out really gets my whole body tight and pre-loaded for the pull. I don’t think I’d be pulling as much — or as safely — if I didn’t have this. It really makes things solid.

That said, I did find as the weights went up today that I would think and cue myself hard with “pushing the floor away from myself”. While I may not move as much leg, there’s still a drive there, there’s still a push there.

That was especially helpful because yes, the 430# was pushing. 🙂 I’m happy with that rep PR. It’s a good PR in and of itself, and it’s solid and continual progress. Yes progress is slowing, but the graphed trend line continues upwards.

I opted to drop hypers and just superset the leg curls and crunches to get out of the gym. I felt good with the work done, so just a little polish and off I went.

As I think ahead to the next programming routine, I found something interesting. The spreadsheet I use to keep track of everything? A few of the sheets are based around some spreadsheets I found ages ago. One sheet has a nice matrix for figuring out the 5/3/1 sessions. I’ve used this for all my 5/3/1 work since I started. Well, with what I’m about to go into, instead of taking 90% of the 1RM for a training max, I am to take 85%. So I went to modify the spreadsheet to facilitate that calculation and I noticed — it was calculating 1RM differently. It was different than how RepCount does it; it’s even different from the 1RM esimator formula that Wendler himself gives. I forget the names, but there are a few diffent formulas for 1RM calculation. Here’s the thing. The one used by the spreadsheet? It calculated low. In general, that’s actually fine. One of Wendler’s principles is to “start too light” and this certainly worked out that way. However, with all the approaches in “Forever 5/3/1”, I think it’s more important to have things calculated closer to the way Wendler is drawing up numbers and percentages. Especially since it’s not a long road, but now with Wendler’s notions of “leader and anchor” templates and how it may just be 3-ish cycles before you’d recalc for another program well, I think it’s more important to have “more correct” calculations — whereas if it was just picking a template and going until you had to reset, then continuing to go again, being “too light” really wouldn’t matter so much.

I could be wrong, but I changed the formulas and I’ll see how it goes. Besides, in the future nothing stops me from using 85% and being “too light” to start with anyways.

• Deadlift
  • 185 x 5
  • 225 x 5
  • 270 x 3
  • 340 x 5
  • 385 x 3
  • 430 x 4 (4 rep PR)
  • 385 x 4
  • 340 x 4
• Leg Curls
  • 55 x 12
  • 55 x 12
  • 55 x 12
• Crunches (superset with the curls)
  • 25 x 15
  • 25 x 15
  • 25 x 12

Pretty good day.

I find it interesting how a few weeks ago when I opted to switch to incline pressing, I hit 225 as a 1RM. But today? 195 for 10 (calculated 1RM of 260). I can’t recall why I set it so low. Was it the arm pain flaring up? For sure it’s not as bad a problem now, and I am hoping that after the coming program change it’ll be better. I really want to get back to flat bench pressing, but for the next program it’s going to stay with inclines.

That said, a nice rep PR today. All in all things are ok.

I am doing a lot of thought towards the next program for aforementioned reasons. One thing was starting to lay out the spreadsheet to track my progress, filling in the numbers to use. Good grief, this is going to suck. 🙂 But it will be good for me.

• Incline Bench Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 80 x 5
  • 105 x 5
  • 125 x 3
  • 155 x 5
  • 175 x 3
  • 195 x 10 (10 rep PR)
  • 175 x 9
  • 155 x 9
• Flies
  • 25e x 12
  • 25e x 12
  • 25e x 12
• Cable Rows
  • 115 x 12
  • 125 x 12
  • 135 x 12
  • 135 x 12
  • 135 x 12
• DB Upright Row
  • 45e x 12
  • 45e x 9
  • 45e x 8
• Seated French Press
  • 60 x 15
  • 60 x 15
  • 60 x 15
  • 60 x 13
• EZ Bar Curl
  • 35 x 100

Well, whether it’s a PR or not, I reckon there’s progress in here.

I’m feeling better about my descent, keeping tight, keeping the groove, reversing out of the hole, all of that. I also felt more confident regarding depth and just dealing with this weight. I wasn’t sure about going for 3, but doing 2 better than I did last cycle? I’ll take it.

That all said, I’m thinking about how the next some cycles will be. I’m actually thinking about derailing for a bit and doing something I need — which isn’t something I want. I’ve put on more bodyweight than desired, and I need to get it back under control. I’m thinking that I finish this cycle, take a deload week off, then starting the “prep program” out of the new Wendler “5/3/1 Forever” book. I’ll take the numbers from this week, calculate out a theoretical 1RM then use 85% of that as a training max. Then into the program for 6 weeks. In conjunction, stripping a lot of carbs out of my diet, to get into caloric deficit. The goal? In the 6 weeks of the program to drop 10 pounds of bodyweight. It’s certainly do-able. What will I do after that? TBD. If I’m feeling good? I might go another 6 weeks. If I’m not, or am itching to get back to “normal” lifting, then I’ll do 3 weeks “anchor” (maybe like 5/3/1 FSL Jokers) to get back into that swing. Then 7th week to rep max test to ensure my training max is proper, then back into normal cycling.

Basically, it’s driven by my bodyweight. But I’m also at a point of “almost time to reset”; not quite — I debate if maybe I want to go 1 more cycle, especially since I’m so close to setting flat out new PR’s on squat and press. But my bodyweight isn’t where I want it to be, and I’d rather derail before it gets any worse.

We’ll see. I have time to think this through, but that’s where my mental process is going.

• Squats
  • bar x whatever
  • 145 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 215 x 3
  • 270 x 5
  • 305 x 3
  • 340 x 2
• Pause Squat
  • 270 x 3
  • 270 x 3
  • 270 x 3
• Bodyweight Squats (superset with crunches)
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 15
• Crunches
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 12