Sometimes you just clear you mind and the day goes well.

Things have been clearing up for me in life, a little less stress, and so I didn’t have tons of things weighing on my head going into the gym. So I just…. lifted.

A little Amon Amarth doesn’t hurt either. 😉

Pressing went well. I am still working to fine-tune my setup, but it’s getting there. For sure, reduction in “pressure” as I set up and press upwards is helping. It’s still a matter tho of finding the right balance so I can maintain tightness and balance and keep things moving. But so far so good. What seemed to help today was, as I said, just having a clear mind and doing it.

I was supposed to try those rack pull-ups today as a way to mitigate some issues. But given Tuesday’s experiment with doing pulldowns to warm up then pull-ups for work, I wanted to explore that a little more today. During the Press work sets I did slightly heavier pulldowns in a reverse pyramid: weights go up, reps go down. I did NOT push the reps hard, stopping well short of really feeling worked, because it’s just about warming up. Interesting is as I started I felt the same discomfort in the teres major insertion area, but no where near the same issues because I was moving half as much weight. Imagine that. 🙂 The discomfort went away quickly as things warmed up, then doing pull-ups during the close-grips felt just fine (tho I did lose a couple reps, but meh).

I’m actually digging this.

It got me to thinking… not just this, but a few other things, and then blending them all together.

I do need to do some sort of a cut. Even if it’s just 6 weeks (tho I may go 10-12), I got too free some months back and I need to remedy that. I won’t switch off 5/3/1, but the program will need to be modified slightly. Jim talks about it in the “5/3/1 for Powerlifting” eBook: do the main lifts with no extra reps, push assistance work with lower rest periods and higher volume, and push conditioning work. Pretty simple. So I’ll have to modify the assistance work, but otherwise I plan to just stay on the basic track about things. So, for all my other talks, this is where I really need to go for the next some weeks. No question. If I can drop at least 10 lb, I’ll be good.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 65 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
  • 80 x 5
  • 100 x 3
  • 115 x 3 (work sets superset with pull-downs)
  • 130 x 3
  • 150 x 8
• Close-Grip Bench Press
  • 130 x 8 (sets superset with pull-ups)
  • 155 x 8
  • 175 x 6
• V-Bar Pulldowns
  • 110 x 20
  • 110 x 18
  • 110 x 14
• Face Pulls
  • 90 x 20
  • 90 x 20
  • 90 x 16
• Lying Triceps Extensions (superset with curls)
  • 60 x 20
  • 60 x 18
  • 60 x 13
• Close-grip EZ-bar Curls
  • 55 x 20
  • 55 x 18
  • 55 x 13

Yesterday I sat in an odd chair all day, it messed with my posture, and my upper back was really feeling it this morning. I didn’t want to go to the gym because I wasn’t sure if it would help or hurt to do so. I foam rolled some, laid down, stretched a bit, and felt a little better. I figured go to the gym, deadlift at least (jack shit), and see how it goes.

So I deadlifted, it felt really good. But after that I bailed. This posture-induced issue isn’t unfamiliar to me, and the way it messes with my upper back, the way front squats stress the upper back, I just felt like being conservative here.

I did 30 minutes on the elliptical, which helped a little too. Just more movement. But even now as I type this my upper back still need some love. I’ll continue to foam roll it, stretch, and focus on my posture more.

Aside from that tho, the deadlifting itself was good. Felt very in the groove.

But I realize, it’s not uncommon for me to peed out on deadlift days. It kinda makes me wonder, given deadlifts do take a lot out, if I might want to adjust templates so that on my squat day I squat (including doing front squats as the big assistance), and on deadlift day I JUST deadlift. Just do the normal work, maybe add in something like a first-set-last, then leave it at that. i.e. try to do more with less, y’know? Something to think about.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Deadlift
  • 140 x 5
  • 175 x 5
  • 210 x 3
  • 245 x 3
  • 280 x 3
  • 315 x 10

That went alright, and I’m pretty sure the carb-cutback is kicking in.

In general this session went well. Pressing was fine, even went up on some assistance work.

I tried my first alternative towards helping with my pull-up pain: continue with band-pullaparts during warmup sets, then do “light” pulldowns during work sets, THEN do pull-ups during the big assistance set. It worked alright; I certainly did not feel the same level of pain and aggravation in my teres major (or whatever’s bothered in that general area). I did start the warmup pretty light, by choice, but I think it was too light. Jury’s still out on this approach, but what I think I shall adjust is starting with a slightly heavier weight and more reps, then invert pyramid (increase weight, decrease reps) to get everything used to the (greater body)weight to come. Not working to the point of exhausting things, just getting the area warmed up and feeling primed for the pull-ups. It wasn’t bad, just need a few more trials to see. But so far so good.

But by the end of the session, I just peeded out. That last set of arm work I just had no gas left. As I said before, I’m cutting back on carbs because I’ve been a little too loose with them and it shows. I’m not trying to cut (tho if I lose some I won’t complain), just restrain myself. 🙂 But I do think it’s affecting me some. I know what my goals are, I just have to find better balance here — it’s about the long haul (i.e. getting to my strength goals, and not bloating up to a giant fat-ass again).

Anyways, all in all, an alright day.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Bench Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 100 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
  • 120 x 5
  • 145 x 3
  • 170 x 3 (work sets superset with neutral-grip pulldowns)
  • 195 x 3
  • 220 x 10
• Incline Press
  • 130 x 8 (sets superset with neutral-grip pull-ups)
  • 155 x 8
  • 175 x 6
• Cable Rows
  • 120 x 18
  • 120 x 14
  • 120 x 11
• Shrugs
  • 225 x 20
  • 225 x 15
  • 225 x 12
• V-bar pressdowns (superset with curls)
  • 60 x 20
  • 60 x 20
  • 60 x 10
• Hammer Curls (alternate, across body)
  • 30e x 20
  • 30e x 12
  • 30e x 10

Using Paul Carter’s scale, today was an 80% day.

It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible. It was just what it was supposed to be. But, that’s better than how things have been.

I knew if I wanted to keep on the same progress train I’d need to hit at least 8 reps on the top work set today. I did that. I could have gone for a 9th, but knew that wouldn’t be wise. For sure, things are getting heavier, so all really does feel on track. Technically this is the middle of my 4th 5/3/1 cycle, and generally a reset ought to come somewhere in the 5-8 cycle range, so yeah, hitting 8 today seems about right. Looking back at my first cycle, on the 5/3/1 week I hit 250 for 8, so being here on 4th cycle on 3-week and hitting 265 for 8, strength is improving slow but sure.

Everything else chugged along as expected.

I was reading a bunch of Jim’s writings over the weekend. I’m going to keep on SST for the foreseeable future because it’s working well and I’m enjoying it. I like hitting the main movement, then a big assistance for strong but restricted sets/reps. Then just hitting some additional stuff that you put work into but not a lot of thought, just to round things out. The flow of the gym session feels… good. I don’t feel beat up, I am getting worked. I am making progress. But that said, I am thinking that when it comes time to reset my weights, adding in some sort of “first set last” variation. Why? Just to see if it helps or hinders. I’d like a little more volume because I had generally done well with a little more volume. By the time I have to reset, I’ll feel pretty well-adjusted to the routine, and will have had enough cycles to see what benefits and what doesn’t. Who knows. I may not do it. Or I may do different things, e.g. maybe bench press gets the 3-5 sets approach, maybe squats gets the 1xAMRAP approach. TBD. The bigger take-home here is 1. wanting to add a little more volume, 2. waiting until reset time before I make larger changes to the program.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Squats
  • bar x whatever
  • 120 x 5
  • 150 x 5
  • 175 x 3
  • 205 x 3
  • 235 x 3
  • 265 x 8
• Straight-leg Deadlift
  • 190 x 8
  • 220 x 8
  • 265 x 6
• Leg Curls
  • 30 x 20
  • 30 x 20
  • 30 x 15
• Hyperextensions
  • BW x 18
  • BW x 18
  • BW x 15
• Crunches
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 18
  • BW x 12
• Standing Calf Raises (superset with crunches)
  • 50 x 20
  • 50 x 16
  • 50 x 14

That didn’t go as planned.

On the 4th rep of the last work set, I felt a bad twinge pain in my neck, along my upper trapezius. I tried to keep going, but I couldn’t. Not just from pain, but because there was something else… hard to describe, but I just couldn’t move well. So after 6 reps I racked it. Then I turned my head and got quite a pop/crack out of my neck. Hrm.

Since then, my neck/upper-trap has been quite sore. This has happened to me a few times in the past, so it’s not totally foreign. It still sucks, because I’ll be dealing with it for about a week.

I tried to keep going, but things just weren’t having it. So I did my close-grips, then did some light DB upright rows just to get a little movement and extra blood flow up in the area.

In other news. I tried a variation on the pull-aparts that I got from Swede Burns. What I found was his approach really worked my rear delts. Looking at the differences, I can see why. In my normal pull-aparts, there’s scapular retraction, so there’s more back muscles doing work and the rear delts are almost just stabilizers. But in his, he has you with the scapula retracted and in thoracic extension (just like bench setup), so it’s all rear delt. I can’t say if one is better than the other, at least at this point just different.

I also saw something the other day from Paul Carter about rack pullups. Since I expect to get back to pull-ups next week, I think I may actually give these a try. I suspect they could be a little less problematic for me. But I have 2 days of pressing, so I think one day I’ll try the aforementioned warm-up/work-up approach with pulldowns, then the other I’ll try these rack pull-ups. See how they go.

Anyways, today was not the day I wanted, but it’s the day I got.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 65 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
  • 80 x 5
  • 100 x 3
  • 105 x 5 (work sets superset with more pull-aparts)
  • 125 x 5
  • 140 x 6
• Close-Grip Bench Press
  • 110 x 10 (sets superset with even more pull-aparts)
  • 130 x 10
  • 155 x 10

Didn’t want to, but you do the work anyways.

I did not want to go to the gym this morning. Just drag-ass all the way. But you still drag your ass there and put in the work, because it’s consistency over time that gets you there. Why not? Got to bed late. Plus I wasn’t feeling it. I’m not sure if it is the lowered carbs, or heck, it could simply be that finally the weights are getting heavy and hitting the 10-rep threshold all the time is finally coming to a close. Probably a combination of factors. I do expect that the 10-rep stuff is going to be ending here soon, maybe even during this cycle. Of course I’m still going to strive for as much as I can neatly do, but things had to get heavy sooner or later. 🙂

That said, overall the session went well. Deadlifts almost felt deload-ish. 10-rep front squats… oof.

In other news, I’ve been cutting back on the carbs a few days now. My weight is down a bit, but I know that’s just depletion and not tissue loss. But you need to deplete before tissue loss will happen. For sure I don’t feel bloated any more, which is good. Thing is, some months ago I stopped the 1-on-1 with Renaissance Periodization and went with their templates. I picked massing, because that’s my current plan. But because of what? 16-18 months of strict dieting took a toll, I needed a break. I just happily ate carbs, with some regard for the plan, but not much. And so I have put on a little more than I should have. So in this “return to form” what I’m doing is going back to the templates, lowest level of things to (re)establish a base. I expect I’ll lose a little bit of weight, and the goal is to just stay on this set of “base” templates, shed whatever sheds, and get to a point of stabilization. It may be that I drop just like 5-7 lb. or something, and that’s fine. Just get things back into a realm. Then I can go from there.

I don’t really want to do a straight up cutting cycle, but I’ve contemplated it. I don’t want to derail my main goal of the “3/4/5”, but there may be a way to work it in. For example, do the above, get things back in bounds, and just keep working until it’s time to reset my lifts. Once I reset, do a 6-week (or maybe 12-week) cut cycle. The weights should still manage OK, I might change the lifting program a bit to support it (e.g. Jim often recommends just going for prescribed reps, then upping the assistance work to get a little more volume and stave off muscle loss). I just refuse to get fat again.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Deadlift
  • 140 x 5
  • 175 x 5
  • 210 x 3
  • 230 x 5
  • 265 x 5
  • 300 x 10
• Front Squat
  • 125 x 10
  • 150 x 10
  • 175 x 10 (10RM PR)
• Elevated Glute Bridges (superset with crunches)
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
• Twisting Crunches
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
• Seated Calf Raises
  • 35 x 20
  • 35 x 17
  • 35 x 14

Not hot, but alright.

Yesterday wasn’t the best of days. Today was OK. I mean, I hit everything I expected to hit, but I just didn’t feel like setting the world on fire. Could it still be the sleep? The reduced carbs? Or… the kids seem to have come down with something, so could I be starting to get something? Hard to say. Public school systems start up this week, so I do expect the petri-dish-of-fun to be starting. You know… kids all go back to school, germs, no one washes hands, all the kids get sick, bring it home, parents get sick, they take it to the office, and for about the next month everyone is or gets sick to some degree. Hooray for the start of the school year!

But whatever…. just plow through it.

Biggest thing of note was pull-ups. Because of the aforementioned irritation of my teres major (or something in that area), I’m laying off the pull-ups this week. I need to do something, so I actually threw the band over the bar and did band pulldowns. Nothing intensive, but it’s something to give everything a rest and get a little pump in that area to help with recoup. Next week I’m going to try graduating things a bit, doing warm-up-level pulldowns during the main movement, then doing pull-ups during the big assistance movement. We’ll see how that goes for me.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Bench Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 110 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
  • 120 x 5
  • 145 x 3
  • 160 x 5 (work sets superset with band pull-downs)
  • 185 x 5
  • 210 x 10
• Incline Press
  • 110 x 10 (sets superset with band pull-downs)
  • 130 x 10
  • 155 x 10
• Cable Rows
  • 110 x 20
  • 110 x 20
  • 110 x 12
• Shrugs
  • 215 x 20
  • 215 x 18
  • 215 x 14
• V-bar pressdowns (superset with curls)
  • 60 x 20
  • 60 x 18
  • 60 x 14
• Hammer Curls (alternate, across body)
  • 30e x 20
  • 30e x 15
  • 30e x 10

They can’t all be good days.

Today wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the greatest either.

Squatting started out OK, but when I put the 250 on my back, it felt like a ton. Coming out of rep 5, I truly lost balance and took a step forward to regain it. When I got to 8 I just racked it. I probably could have ground out 2 more reps, but why? Things just weren’t going well, it felt so heavy. I was over the required reps so… meh.

Why exactly? Hard to say. I did go see Alice Cooper last night, so I only got a few hours of sleep, and that may be part of it. I also didn’t eat many carbs over the weekend (apart from a couple Miller Lite’s at the show), because I have been bulking too fast and frankly I want to see if I can regress a little in weight.

Whatever tho… it’s what it is. I plan on resting as much as I can today and seeing how the rest of the week goes.

Apart from that tho, the session went fine. I was kinda expecting the deadlifts to peed out as well, but they went pretty strong. So, it was what it was.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Squats
  • bar x whatever
  • 120 x 5
  • 150 x 5
  • 175 x 3
  • 190 x 5
  • 220 x 5
  • 250 x 8
• Straight-leg Deadlift
  • 160 x 10
  • 190 x 10
  • 220 x 10
• Leg Curls
  • 30 x 20
  • 30 x 20
  • 30 x 14
• Hyperextensions
  • BW x 17
  • BW x 17
  • BW x 15
• Crunches
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 17
  • BW x 13
• Standing Calf Raises
  • 50 x 20
  • 50 x 15
  • 50 x 13

Another day, another PR. But the good wasn’t without some bad.

Press has been the hardest movement for me to progress on, but I am making progress. I hit 150 for 8 reps today, which is a 8RM PR. And with a lifetime 1RM of 165, I feel pretty confident I could exceed that right now. So I’m getting stronger, which makes me happy (positive progress towards my goals). It’s also interesting for me to reflect on how during my big defatting project, I lost a lot of strength in my squat and deadlift, but only a little in my pressing (bench or overhead). And my pressing strength has come back faster. Not entirely sure what to attribute it to, but here we are.

I think that I may be finding a better setup approach. So that whole dizzy/light-headed thing while pressing, I tried it again today that just before I unrack the bar I take a mostly-full breath and go from there. I also found if I exhale on the press (after about halfway up), that helped a lot too. Breathe at the top, and kinda just let my body do what it needs to do — instead of pure Valsalva, allow myself to breathe as I press. For sure this is helping. I still think I can refine it, e.g. maybe I take a full breath but let it out as I press. Because for certain, the less-than-full-breath doesn’t allow me to start off as strong as I need to. But I’ll take a little less strong over passing out. 🙂 Anyways, this is a good sign so far, but I’ll have to keep playing with it.

As for the bad….

Something in my back is hurting. I can’t say exactly what, but it seems my Teres Major or thereabouts. It happens when I do pull-ups (or chin-ups, whatever). That first set, that first rep, it just hurts. After I do a few, after I get warm, no real issues. But it remains pretty sore. It was pretty bad today, so much that I only did like 3 reps per set and even dropped the last set entirely. I also cut my back work in half, just something to get a little work, a little pump/blood in the area, but not to stress anything.

I am pretty sure the problem is because I hit it with the pull-ups pretty cold. That’s 200+ lb. to suddenly pull, and it just has grown to hate it. I say this because it’s always on the first rep, first set, and over the sets things feel better.

What to do about it? I’m not sure.

My current thinking is next week no pull-ups at all — just do more band pull-aparts (to keep with a pulling movement between each set of pressing; and that doesn’t really stress the teres major much). Just give things a rest. See how I feel at the end of next week. If I need it, do this rest/deload on it another week. Just take it as it comes.

But then when I get back to it, my thinking is that I want to try a way of warming-up to it. It’s hard to do warm-ups with bodyweight like that. So my thinkinng is to do the same movement in pulldown form. So like if I’m doing pull-ups, take that same overhand grip, hands same distance apart. During my main movement sets, warm up, maybe pyramiding up — like first set is 100×10, then second is 120×10, third is 140×10 or something. Start light, ease into it, but work up to a little heavier to get used to that. Then during my big-assistance pressing, do actual pull-ups. I’d be curious to see if that might help me — a warm-up into it.

If that doesn’t do it then well, I’ll assess with that new information and go from there. Who knows. I may just have to drop “ups” for a while until things feel better, and do other back work instead.

Anyways, happy for the PR, and will be seeing how things go for my back.

Oh — and the music choice today was spinning the new Metallica track, “Hardwired”, like 10 times in a row. I’m digging it.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 65 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
  • 80 x 5
  • 95 x 3
  • 120 x 5 (work sets superset with pull-ups)
  • 135 x 3
  • 150 x 8 (8RM PR)
• Close-Grip Bench Press
  • 140 x 5 (sets superset with pull-ups)
  • 160 x 5
  • 185 x 5
• V-Bar Pulldowns
  • 110 x 10
  • 110 x 10
  • 110 x 10
• Face Pulls
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 10
• Lying Triceps Extensions (superset with curls)
  • 60 x 20
  • 60 x 18
  • 60 x 14
• Close-grip EZ-bar Curls
  • 55 x 20
  • 55 x 18
  • 55 x 12

A PR a day is just… fun. 🙂

I think that’s one reason I’ve enjoyed switching back to 5/3/1 – there’s no question setting PR’s (rep PR’s whatever) is motivating and just fun. I haven’t had this much fun lifting in some time.

So deadlifting went well. Main thing I had to focus on for myself was mixed grip. I’ve been forgetting to go mixed grip, which has actually been cool because I’ve been doing well with double-overhand. But I knew it’d be a bit of a stretch today, so I made sure on my first work set to go mixed to get myself used to it again. The only problem I had was about 2/3 of the way through the top set I had to take a moment to reset the grip because of how skin was getting folded up in my palms/fingers. Otherwise, things went well.

And so setting a 10RM PR was quite nice.

Front squats also went well. I continue to work on their technique too, trying to “lean backwards” — not really, but it’s a cue towards helping me keep my torso as vertical as possible, that on the descent I drop down instead of back, etc. Really get what you’re supposed to get out of front squats.

All in all, a good day.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Deadlift
  • 135 x 5
  • 170 x 5
  • 205 x 3
  • 255 x 5
  • 285 x 3
  • 320 x 10 (10RM PR)
• Front Squat
  • 155 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 205 x 5
• Elevated Glute Bridges
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
• Twisting Crunches (superset with bridges)
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
• Seated Calf Raises
  • 35 x 20
  • 35 x 15
  • 35 x 14