I had to run this morning so I couldn’t write much, but I’ve got some time now to write.

As much as I have enjoyed doing the Wendler 5/3/1 “Boring But Big 3 Month Challenge”, I’m going to have to shelve it. The workouts are taking longer, mostly due to the extended rest periods necessary between sets, and even reps!  With the new job I can’t be as leisurely with my schedule, time is more important than before, so I need to adjust in order to get my workout times down. I just can’t make my needed schedule with the workout length I presently have.

That said, I really have appreciated the challenge, and am bummed to not finish the last month. Being forced to make assistance work weights at ever-increasing amounts was a good thing. It really pushed me and gave me a different perspective on things. I’m sure 70% would have been very eye-opening for me. I’d like to try going back on the challenge sometime in the future, just have to wait until the schedule can handle it.

So what’s my plan?

Well, what’s my goal? I have no specific goal, like training for a meet. It’s just about getting stronger, bigger, and maintaining good health. So Boring But Big remains a good template. In fact, I’m going to mostly keep the template used by the challenge, just adjust it.

Here’s the layout:

Day 1

Press, superset with chin-ups (supinated grip)
Assistance press, superset with pronated grip lat pulldowns (grip width to be determined by what pleases my shoulders)
Triceps pushdowns, cambered bar

Day 2

Deadlift
Assistance deadlift
Hanging leg raises

Day 3

Bench Press, superset with dumbbell rows
Assistance bench press, superset with face pulls
EZ-bar curls

Day 4

Squat
Assistance squat
Something for abs… maybe just good old sit-up, over the swiss ball for better range of motion

So you can see, it’s still BBB, but the traditional style of doing the main lift then doing the main lift again with lighter weight. I’m wanting to see what difference this makes vs. the mixed approach the challenge takes. Volume, y’know? Plus the assistance work is essentially the challenge’s work, just shuffled around on the days a bit.

I’m also supersetting all upper body work. I need all that back work, so might as well compress things down with supersets. Wendler always said that every pressing movement should be superset with chins, so this is getting truer to his approach. I’m also trying to superset the exercises that seem most opposite/complementary to the main movement. This, plus trying to keep rest periods during assistance work to 2 minutes at most, is where I hope to gain some time improvements. I’m also hoping this might tax my aerobic system a bit more.

On weights, I’m going to stay at the same working maxes for cycle 9 as I used on cycle 8. I’m changing up enough other things, plus I’m going to add back in doing rep maxes on the final work sets. This should be enough to give me a good work this cycle, plus help me determine if I’m really at my max level and truly need a reset, or can keep going. Weights for assistance work will be somewhere in the 50-60% range. I’ll probably start with 60% and adjust as needed. I’ll be resting less, so 60% may be a bit much, but I’d rather let the first week miss some reps and then I’ll know better how to adjust in the following weeks. And yes, while I usually stick with a weight value during the whole cycle, I will adjust immediately on this to find where I should be, if the weights are too far off. I still want the assistance work to be hard.

I also opted to mix it up just a little more. I’ve been doing DB hammer curls for a while, so let’s try barbell and using the EZ bar to involve a little more forearm. I’ve also used the rope handles for a long time for triceps, so let’s try using the EZ bar for some variety. One exercise exception is ab work. I just can’t do the ab wheel… it makes my head explode in a bad way. So traditional sit-ups may have to suffice. But I’d do them over this swiss ball, since the gym doesn’t have anything like a Roman Chair.

Go to gym. Set PR. Leave.

“Week 3” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

• 5/3/1 – Squat (working max: 280#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x5x140
  • 1x3x170
  • 1x5x215 (work)
  • 1x3x240
  • 1x3x270 (PR)
• Foam Rolling

Need to get going earlier than usual this morning, so it’s a “jack shit” kind of day.

Went in, set squat PR, left. Well OK, I foam rolled some before leaving. 🙂

Comments.

I was falling forward on the last set, but it’s not too surprising for that to happen on “max weight”. Still, things to work on. The gym owner spotted me this morning and was mentioning keeping abs really tight. As I think back yeah, I’m not 100% sure where my Valsalva was regarding my belt and everything…. I was focusing so much more on 1. hip drive, 2. arm drive, that I think I forgot everything else. Rep 1 was bowling shoe ugly, but I cleaned up the other 2 reps; still not perfect, but better. So, things to work on.

I am also thinking that yes, I’m going to stop the challenge and switch up to a template that might make my workout more efficient. I’ll have to detail it later tho… gotta go.

Not feeding ego is the take-home from today.

“Week 3” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

• 5/3/1 – Bench Press (working max: 230#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x3x140
  • 1x5x175 (work)
  • 1x3x200
  • 1x3x220 (PR)
• Asst. #1A – Press
  • 5 x 10/10/10/10/8 x 95
• Asst. #1B – 1-Arm Dumbbell Rows (supersetted with the Press)
  • 5 x 10 x 70
• Asst. #2 – Rope Triceps Pushdowns
  • 3 x 12 x 50

I thought about doing 225# today. I’m “right there”, why not, right?

Well, why? It’s purely an ego thing. As I thought before, I might stop the challenge due to the new job situation and try a different workout setup that might get me in and out of the gym a bit faster. And I thought if I did that, I’d probably keep my weights the same that cycle as the cycle just prior. So that would mean if I did this next cycle, I’d keep benching at 220 and the “2 wheels” milestone would be put off for another almost 2 months.

But the reason for that? Nothing but ego… eagerness, impatience, and ego.

220 is still a PR for me. Why should I skip it and rush ahead? If there was a legit reason, like I was prepping for a meet and needed to work up for that, that’s one thing. But here? Nothing but ego.

Like Henry Rollins said:

Most injuries involving the Iron come from ego. I once spent a few weeks lifting weight that my body wasn’t ready for and spent a few months not picking up anything heavier than a fork. Try to lift what you’re not prepared to and the Iron will teach you a little lesson in restraint and self-control.

And I remember this… this very thing from Rollins kept going through my mind as a counter to my desire to rush into “2 wheels”. And it’s a good lesson… the restraint, the self-control, that far more important to have. Sure I WANT the 225, but it will come; maybe not when I want it, but it will come so long as I perservere.

PR days are always good, tho today didn’t start out the best. 🙂

“Week 3” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

• 5/3/1 – Deadlift (working max: 335#)
  • 1x5x135 (warmup)
  • 1x5x170
  • 1x3x205
  • 1x5x255 (work)
  • 1x3x290
  • 1x3x320 (PR)
• Asst. #1 – Squat
  • 5 x 10/10/10/9/9 x 170
• Foam Rolling

I have a lot of things on my mind, and obviously they were occupying me a little too much.

I left the house without my lifting belt.

I didn’t realize it until I was almost at the gym.

I walked home, got the belt, walked back. Yes I was annoyed with myself, especially for being so distracted and being too “future preoccupied” instead of dealing with the present. But… it was just a little more walking, more conditioning, more aerobic, more warm-up. 🙂 Gotta find a way to put a positive spin on it, right?

Deadlift was good tho. I really felt in the pocket and all the lifts felt good. The 320 didn’t even feel all that heavy… well ok, it was heavy, but it didn’t feel heavy-heavy. I felt I could have done a lot more reps, but the program says no. 🙂

Squatting… man, that kills me, but this has really been good for form improvement. I’m happy with that.

So apart from starting out on the wrong foot, things went well.

What was I thinking about? Well, lots of things, but one thing that’s really been on my mind is what to do after the challenge is over. I think I know how my plan will proceed.

But here’s the interesting thing.

I’m thinking about stopping the challenge.

Tomorrow starts a big change in my life, a change that affects a lot of things. The 70% month of the challenge will be very time consuming, and I’m not sure I have the time to do it. My workout time needs to tighten up. So that means more supersetting, that means dropping the weight on assistance work slightly and decreasing rest between sets. I need to really be able to get in, work, and get out, in as little time as possible while still getting a quality workout. The way the challenge is laid out? It just won’t work.

I am not happy about it… it feels like quitting. It’s not, in that I’m not quitting because things are getting tough and I’m wussing out. It’s a matter of my life undertaking a massive change, and I have to roll with the waves and adapt. I refuse to stop working out, so I just have to find how to make things fit. I’m not sure I’ll stop the challenge, as that particular thought only crossed my mind a few hours ago. But I do need to think about it and give it proper consideration. Once things settle down, then I’d like to revisit the challenge because I can’t say I’ve done the challenge and met the challenge, until I have. And I hate leaving things half-done…. that’s something that’s plauged me through enough of my life and in recent years have rallied against. So we’ll see. I don’t have to make the decision yet.

Interestingly tho, this might be alright in other ways. This 60% month has shown me a lot, especially in terms of how hard it hits me. That, plus less rest, that will be brutal… and might help me in the fat-loss department too. This big life change is going to bring some interesting issues towards sticking to diet, so I want that to afford me more opportunity to tighten things up more. Who knows…. it might be the better decision. Much to think about.

Set a PR, but it was downhill after that… 😦

“Week 3” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

• 5/3/1 – Press (working max: 160#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x65
  • 1x5x80
  • 1x3x95
  • 1x5x120 (work)
  • 1x3x140
  • 1x3x155 (PR)
• Asst. #1A – Bench Press
  • 5 x 10 x 140
• Asst. #1B – Chinups (supersetted with Bench Press)
  • 5 x 3/3/2.5/2.5/2 x BW
• Asst. #2 – Face Pulls
  • 3 x 12 x 65
• Asst. #3 – DB Hammer Curls
  • 3 x 10/9/8 x 35

Setting a press PR is cool to me. Yes, the bar speed is slowing down, but the lifts are solid. 155 for 3 reps is good to me.

But after that, things sucked…..

Bench press was OK, but I totally brain-farted and forgot to superset with chins…. so I did chins alone, but geez look at that! Regression. I don’t know what gives. Again the half reps mean that I got most of the way up, used my foot on a bench to get me all the way up, then a good long negative on the way down. I dunno… off day I guess.

I also notice that on curls I’m not progressing… not that big a deal, just an interesting observation point.

Today started to make me wonder if, after I finish the Challenge, I might want to reset. Wendler reports that most reset after like 5-8 cycles, and after I finish the Challenge it’ll be 9 cycles. But I don’t know, we’ll see what happens when I get there. One thought is I might not want to reset just yet… do one more cycle that allows rep maxes and really see if I need it, because if I’m cranking 3-5 more reps than prescribed, I don’t need to reset. Or it might be that I reset on certain exercises, like press and squat. A bridge to cross when I get there.

I’m happy for the PR, just wondering why chins sucked so badly.

I didn’t do jack.

“Week 2” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

• 3 reps – Squat (working max: 280#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x5x140
  • 1x3x170
  • 1x3x200 (work)
  • 1x3x225
  • 1x5x255
• Foam Rolling

Slept in, need to be somewhere this morning, so I had to do “jack this” this morning.

But it was good. I got to really concentrate on squatting, which I needed.

I’m really working on my form. Am I getting low enough? If it feels like “ass to grass” then I’m at least breaking parallel… it feels too deep to me, but no, it’s just right. What feels “right” is too shallow. Out of the hole, “hip drive”, like Rippetoe talks about. As soon as I start out of the hole with the hip drive, have to be careful about back angle, so the “tuck chin” cue comes in, and I repeat… that makes a HUGE difference to me. But the one that I’m now trying to get added more into the mix is arm drive.

Rippetoe talks about keeping your elbows back because that naturally tightens up the shoulder and upper back area, which is good. But all the powerlifters talk about getting your elbows under the bar and driving them up when you come out of the hole. On the surface, this doesn’t seem right to me… physics, “equal and opposite reaction”, and if my arms push up, isn’t that going to somehow cause downward force and thus work against my legs? I’m not arguing with the powerlifters because they know more than I do, but on the surface it doesn’t jive with me. Still, they say to do that so… I do it. And I can see a HUGE difference. What happens is I start out of the hole and think “hip drive”, then an instant after that it’s “tuck chin”, and now I’m on my way up and THEN I remember the arm drive…. and boy, it makes a difference. It really helps.

On the 255 today, it was tough, because I’m trying to not just move the weight through space, but maintain this better form, and so it’s harder! I start to bring it up, it starts to get heavy, remember to involve my arms, and that gives the boost needed to get up. It was cool.

I do need to work on the cues being simultaneous, not sequential… that I should be pushing with the arms right out of the hole. But I’m getting there. Things are coming together, slowly. 🙂

Oh, and since I knew I was doing jack, I opted to let myself “rep max” today and got 5. I was happy with that. I could have muscled out 1-2 more, but it would have required sloppy form and I wasn’t interested in that. I visualized 5 good reps, and I got 5 good reps.

Next up…. PR week. 🙂

A nice way to start the week.

“Week 2” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

• 3 reps – Bench Press (working max: 230#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x3x140
  • 1x3x165 (work)
  • 1x3x185
  • 1x3x210
• Asst. #1A – Press
  • 5 x 10 x 95
• Asst. #1B – 1-Arm Dumbbell Rows (supersetted with the Press)
  • 5 x 10 x 70
• Asst. #2 – Rope Triceps Pushdowns
  • 3 x 12 x 50

I like pressing. I actually think pressing is gaining more favor with me than bench pressing. I still suck at both, but I’m enjoying pressing more and more. Odd to say this on bench press day, but here we are.

I will say that I am getting excited to get closer to a bench press milestone of 225# (i.e. 2 wheels), which will happen next cycle. Oh I’m sure I could do that now, but why? Just keep doing the program, I’ll get there eventually.

I did something different today too. I bumped the pushdown weight. I normally don’t change weight on assistance work mid-cycle, but the 45# just wasn’t cutting it for me. 50# was a little tougher… still squeezed out the 3×12, but it was a bit more work and that’s what it’s all about.

Progress is always a good thing.

“Week 2” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

• 3 reps – Deadlift (working max: 335#)
  • 1x5x135 (warmup)
  • 1x5x175
  • 1x3x205
  • 1x3x235 (work)
  • 1x3x270
  • 1x3x305
• Asst. #1 – Squat
  • 5 x 10/10/10/10/8 x 170

Dang. Just realized I forgot to foam roll before I left the gym. Very important on days like today. I’ll do it a little later today, especially before bed.

Anyways….

Deadlifting felt so good today. I lift things up and put them down. It felt heavy, but not like I couldn’t move it. Was a little more in-tune with things mentally today, and that helped. I just keep looking forward to PR day, because I love setting deadlift PR’s.

On squat, I felt really good today… which is kidna crazy to me. I hate squats, but as is often the case… keep doing what you suck at, and eventually you won’t suck at it any more. Keep squatting until you don’t hate it. I still don’t love squatting, but I’m at least getting better. I tell you, that “chin in” cue is making a big difference in my form and how worked I get. Really keeps me from leaning forward and keeps me honest out of the hole.

I keep thinking about what to do after the challenge is over. I thought about it a bunch in between sets today. My present thinking is to stay the course, more or less. I don’t have a specific agenda, not working towards a meet, am not sure if I have any isolated weak spots because I’m just pretty weak all around. 🙂 So I think I’ll stick with the BBB template, but with some minor changes. First, I’m thinking about being “more boring”. That is, Jim said on the BBB challenge to mix up the main lifts and assistance work, so like instead of doing squat work then squat assistance, you do squat work then deadlift assistance… to make it less boring. I’m thinking about pulling back to doing the same in each day… kinda curious if that might make any difference, and if so what. Because, I’ll also be upping my assistance percentages, probably starting at 60%. I may also switch around the additional work (e.g. face pulls, curls, pushdowns, etc.) just depending how everything falls. The other big thing I’m thinking about doing is bringing back rep maxes on the final work set. Just have to see how this will all shake out.

Tho there’s a part of me that wants to try the Powerlifting template of 5/3/1. Why? I don’t know… variety, curiousity. I do think about doing a competition. Maybe nothing too serious yet but I keep thinking about the Hyde Park Gym’s push/pull event that’s coming up. I don’t think I’ll do this one, but it’s something like that for getting my feet wet that I might do. I dunno.

A good workout.

“Week 2” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

• 3 reps – Press (working max: 160#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x65
  • 1x5x80
  • 1x3x95
  • 1x3x115 (work)
  • 1x3x130
  • 1x3x145
• Asst. #1A – Bench Press
  • 5 x 10 x 140
• Asst. #1B – Chinups (supersetted with Bench Press)
  • 5 x 4/4/4/3/2 x BW
• Asst. #2 – Face Pulls
  • 3 x 12 x 65
• Asst. #3 – DB Hammer Curls
  • 3 x 10/9/8 x 35

What a good day.

I’m getting better with my pressing technique. Before lifting off, taking the deep breaths in through the nose helps a LOT towards ensuring not only enough breath, but a clear head and no dizzy feelings during the lift. My body is staying tight, it’s all working well. I also did some brief, but not rushed, visualization before the big lifts, just seeing myself in the 1st person pressing out all 3 reps. When I did the 145, it felt like cake, which hasn’t been quite the case in the past weeks. I figure it’s a combination of the better breathing, the better tightness, and visualization.

Everything else rolled quite nicely. I’m happy that my chin-ups are progressing well. I’ll get to 5×10 eventually. 🙂