Had to modify things slightly.

“Week 3 – 5/3/1”

• 5/3/1 – Deadlift (265# working max)
  • 1x5x105 (warmup)
  • 1x5x135
  • 1x5x155 – should have been 160#, but couldn’t find the 2.5# plates. Also accidentally did 5 reps instead of 3.
  • 1x5x205 (work) – should have been 200# but again, 2.5# plates
  • 1x3x235 – should have been 230#, but again, 2.5# plates
  • 1x5x255 (PR)
• Asst. #1 – Deadlift
  • 5x10x95
• Asst. #2 – Hanging leg raises
  • 5x6xbw
• Metcon – jump rope
  • 1 Tabata set – single hop

A cool workout.

First, deadlift. The calculated/programmed weights couldn’t all happen because I couldn’t find the 2.5# plates at the gym. Well, I could find one but not the other. Meh. I just shifted the weight slightly and moved on.

Hitting 1x5x255 is a personal record. Last “heavy” deadlift I did was 1x5x240 on the PPNP program, so this is well and beyond. I also felt like I had a few more in the tank, so yeah, I’ll take that progress!

On the deadlift assistance work, I think it’s time to move that to 105# at least because I’m not really feeling it any more. But that said, I did measure my heart rate. I had recently read an article on startingstrength.com called “Death by Prowler”. There was a lot of discussion on conditioning, heart rates, and how particular target zones and interval training can lead towards better conditioning. There are many purposes for my assistance work, but one thing is to have it work at such a rate where my heart rate gets and stays up there… at least 150 bpm. It seems with 1 minute rest and a reasonable but not “heavy” weight, I get there. But, the 95# is feeling just too light and not stressing me much any more. Next “week” is the deload week so I’m not going to sweat things, but certainly next cycle I’ll bump up.

On the leg raises, I opted to try 6 this time and that was good. I’ll go for 7 next. As I thought about it today, I wondered if there might be another exercise that might better suit me until I’m stronger (e.g. like how I switched to doing the chin-up-style lat pulldowns instead, to help me build volume and strength). But I realized no, nothing else is going to get me there on this because nothing else involves as much body… like my forearms really felt good after this exercise because I had been using them so much between all the deadlifting and then the leg raises for grip! And yes, increasing grip strength is part of the equation and what else is going to attack it like this will? So, it remains… and if that means I just have to keep swinging and adding a little momentum to get me there, so be it.

On jump rope I remembered to do an important thing all the way through – breathe! But not just any breathing. Making sure to draw in through the nose, out through the mouth, and that each breath was deep and full, from the diaphragm, and took about 2 seconds in and 2 seconds out. So I sound really funny to someone standing nearby, all this fast, deep, heavy breathing. But it helps to better get oxygen into the system which really helps with energy production and lactic acid issues (either delay of creation and/or helping to remove it). I know to do this, in fact it stems back in a lot of ways to Kuk Sool ki breathing and even back to my K-12 schooling days when I played trumpet and french horn. It’s just making sure I do it. 🙂

Anyways, quite a good workout. I feel great physically since it was a good workout. I feel great mentally and emotionally because I set a great personal record. I don’t feel beat up, I don’t feel worn out. Still fine-tuning the program for myself, but that’s alright… that just takes time.

Ah, the first 5/3/1 week, and it’s full of changes.

“Week 3 – 5/3/1”

• 5/3/1 – Press (working max 110#)
  • 2x5xbar (warmup)
  • 1x5x45
  • 1x5x55
  • 1x3x65
  • 1x5x85 (work)
  • 1x3x95
  • 1x8x105 (PR)
• Asst. #1 – Press
  • 5x10x45
• Asst. #2 – Close-grip pulldowns
  • 1x10x100
  • 1x10x110
  • 1x10x120
  • 1x10x110
  • 1x10x100
• Metcon – jump rope
  • 1 Tabata set, single hop

Look closely. Something’s different.

First, this marks entry into “week 3” of the program, which means the work sets are done in a 5/3/1 manner. While in theory you can be setting PR’s every workout, truly it’s the last work set of this week that is the PR setter. While the last heavy Press workout I did was on the PPNP and I did 3x5x107.5, today I did 1x8x105. Which is more? Well… I’m going to call 1x8x105 a PR because I couldn’t get 107.5 up for 8 reps (if I remember correctly), but of course I did more volume overall. So… whatever. No biggie. I’ll just say it felt good pushing out 8 reps. 🙂

But that said, I’m back to wondering if I underestimated my working max weights. Maybe I have the wrong impression but, that last set is supposed to be 95% of your working max (which is 90% of your 1RM), and you are to do at least 1 rep but hopefully more. So given that weight and intention I would have the feeling I should be moving a weight heavy enough to only crank out like 4-5 reps. But I got 8. It’s this stuff that’s making me think my weight bump for the next cycle will be slightly larger than normal.

The big change for today tho? I dropped chin-ups… because I’m not doing chin-ups, at best I was doing just a few sets of a few reps of negatives. The reality is, I’m not getting enough work volume this way. I’m just not strong enough yet (and I’m still too heavy). Part of my goals in this routine is for my assistance work to be “fast and intense”, so it’s 5×10 for the most part with a minute of rest in between sets. I want to work those muscles but also get my heart rate up and keep it up the whole time… from the time I finish my main lift until I’m done with the entire workout, I want my heart rate up. Doing just a few reps of negatives with a long rest? I’m not going to get there. So, I’m going to move to close-grip pulldowns so I can get the volume but also build up the strength I need throughout the range of motion.

When I do the pulldowns I’m working to mimic chin-ups as much as possible. Underhand (supinated) grip, close together, keeping up chest up, eyes looking at the bar/ceiling, when the weight goes down ensuring it pulls my shoulders as “up and out” as possible (as if I’m dead hanging), then when I pull down that I pull all the way down to my chest and pull my shoulders as far “down and back” as possible. I also want to lift as heavy as I can while still getting the reps in, even if it means on the last couple reps of the last couple sets form goes a bit, I have to cheat a bit, rest a couple more seconds between reps, or whatever. Today I just picked a weight and went with it. I think next time I’ll try 5x10x105 or 110 and see how that goes.

I know I wanted to stick with chins, but the reality is I don’t feel like it’s going to help me reach my goals, so why continue down that road merely to be stoic? Is that really the discipline? or is the discipline to identify what’s working and what’s not, what’s holding me back from goals or will get me there, and being willing to change as soon as a better path is known? 🙂

Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program has, at its heart, doing main lifts according to his 5/3/1 progression (to way over-simplify things). Assistance work is a strong part of the program to help you better meet your goals be that addressing strength weaknesses, building mass, or whatever.

But Jim also realizes that sometimes life’s other goals get in the way. So while my primary program template is his “Boring But Big” template, there’s one called “I’m Not Doing Jack Shit”. In short, you walk in, do your main lift, and walk out. There are plus and minuses to this variation, and at my level it’s nothing I really want to do regularly. But if it has to happen now and again, it has to happen.

Today, it had to happen.

Week 2 – “3 reps”

• 5/3/1 – Squat (working max: 220#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x90
  • 1x5x110
  • 1x3x135
  • 1x3x155 (work)
  • 1x3x180
  • 1x6x200

And that’s all she wrote today. I went in, did my main lift, and left. I just don’t have the time today… a bunch of things came up late last night that are going to make today difficult. As well, I should be finalizing the sale of my motorcycle today, and with that taking a few hours out of my work day well… I had to trade-off somewhere. So, I’m not doing jack shit. 🙂  (tho, shouldn’t that be “I’m doing jack shit”?).

I’ll admit tho… a small part of me was not looking forward to today’s workout. Squats. I hate them. But funny thing. Once I finished my work set? I wanted to keep going. The squats felt good; I didn’t hate it. Yes, I think my hate for squats came from the overwork the Rippetoe approach gave me. I’m happy I did that program, but I’m happier to take on a more long-term program that allows me better recovery because hey… I’m not 18.

I wanted to push out at least 1 more rep… I felt I had 2-3 left in the tank, but I noticed on that last rep my form wavered just a bit (bent forward slightly) and I figured not to push it. Upon looking back? I should have pushed it, especially since that would have been the last rep for the day. Oh well, live and learn.

“Week 2 – 3 reps”

• 5/3/1 – Bench Press (working max 180#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x75
  • 1x5x90
  • 1x3x110
  • 1x3x130 (work)
  • 1x3x145
  • 1x7x165
• Asst. #1 – bench press
  • 5x10x75
• Asst. #2 – dumbbell rows
  • 5x10x35
• Metcon – rope jumping
  • 1 tabata set, all single hops

Shot a bunch of skeet yesterday with a couple buddies, so my right shoulder was kinda beat up. I thought it might slow me down today, but after the warmup I didn’t feel it.

As usual, I felt strong on the bench press and could have done more. I’m strongly thinking that while the general recommended weight increase for bench is 5# per cycle, I’m leaning more and more towards a 10# bump on the next cycle.

Even the 75# assistance felt way too light to do much good.

The 35# rows was good, left arm feeling a little weaker than the right. I’ll stick with 35# and get the form tightened up a bit across all sets (form deteriorated on the last reps of the last sets).

Rope jumping hurt! Because I’m getting better at it, there’s less tripping and thus less “micro rests” during the set. Because there’s more jumping and less resting, that adds up to more intensity. My quads, calves, and feet were really feeling it. 🙂

Decent workout, but it just doesn’t feel like the poundages are where they should be. But again, no decisions will be made until the cycle is over.

I like deadlifting!

• 5/3/1 – Deadlift (working max 265#)
  • 1x5x105 (warmup)
  • 1x5x135
  • 1x3x160
  • 1x3x190 (work)
  • 1x3x215
  • 1x6x240
• Asst. #1 – Deadlift
  • 5x10x95
• Asst. #2 – Hanging leg raise
  • 5x5xbw
• Metcon – jumping rope
  • 1 Tabata set, all single hop

I’m starting to wonder… this is “week 2”, meaning “3 reps” on the work sets. On paper I’m not doing as much volume as I did “last week”, and I don’t feel like I’m working myself as hard. I mean, I do feel work, I just don’t feel as “worked out”… as drained, as exhausted. Is that a good thing? Could it be because of the lower volume? Maybe adapting to the routine? I’m not sure. The question is, should I perhaps be bumping up my assistance work a bit? like instead of 95# on the assistance deadlifts do 105# or something? I’m not sure, but I’m not going to. Assistance work is just that: assistance. I don’t need it to interfere with the main lifts and work, and recovery is still paramount. So, I’m going to leave things alone for now. There’s no hard, fast rule here that I’m aware of — do what works for you, do what you need. But, its my first time on the Wendler 5/3/1 so, I’ll just ride things out and see how it all goes. Long term steady progress is more important.

Anyways, deadlift did feel good. On the last set I have to do at least 3, but do as many as I can (tho not to failure). I told myself to do 5… and then I did one more. That felt about right, certainly left 1-2 in the tank. Very good. I like deadlifting.

On the leg raises, I added a small swing to allow me to work through a greater range of motion, and that was good, but it also didn’t feel as difficult — my abs didn’t feel as worked, tho they did get a greater range. What I think I may do, if I keep the swing (and I likely will), is slowly increase the reps here, so like next time instead of 5×5 do 5×6.

Rope jumping is getting smoother. I’ll keep up the single hop and now work to get my body adapted to that, then increase 1. the speed/intensity, 2. eventually add a second Tabata set.

Good stuff! Feeling good. No where near as drained as I was on the Rippetoe program.

You just keep pressing through the pain.

• 5/3/1 Press (training max 110#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x45
  • 1x5x55
  • 1x3x65
  • 1x3x80 (work)
  • 1x3x90
  • 1x7x100
• Asst. #1 – Press
  • 5x10x45
• Asst. #2 – Chinups
  • 1 x almost 1 x bw, then 3 negatives
  • 4 x 3 negatives x bw
• Metcon
  • 1 Tabata set, jump rope — all 8 reps single hop

This was an interesting workout. First, it’s “week 2” of the 5/3/1 cycle, so the working weight goes up and the reps go to 3. Overall work volume is lower, of course, but strength feels good… 7 reps at the max work weight for today wasn’t too shabby for me, and as always a couple were left in the tank. Going to the assistance press work, certainly the 60 seconds of rest this time around was better than 30 last time but… is it perhaps because of the longer rest period? is it because the work volume wasn’t as intense? because I’m getting used to things? stronger? Hard to tell for sure right now. Point is, should my assistance weights remain the same during the entire cycle? or should they also increase as the weeks progress? Not sure. I don’t think there’s any formal rule here, just what works for me. My feeling is, it’s assistance work, I don’t need it to exhaust me and impact recovery, so just keep it stable for the cycle then up it next cycle. But we’ll see as we go along… probably need numerous 5/3/1 cycles under my belt before I can say for sure.

Chins… geez… I am a wuss. But I know my shortcomings and am willing to work on them. 🙂 I worked to hold myself up at the top a little longer, at least for a count of 1 before I started my descent… hold myself up high! then lower for a count of 7. But that’s a big bump from last chin session and I’m not sure if that was more stress or what but on the last rep of the last couple sets I just couldn’t… I’d step off the bench and immediately start a controlled drop to the ground, maybe 2 seconds… resisting as best I could but I couldn’t resist much… the muscles were tapped. I’ll keep this up for the rest of the cycle but I am thinking that since my weak point seems to be the last half of the eccentric motion that next cycle maybe I’ll move to using the lat pulldown machine but in a chin-style grip and work it hard to ensure that last half of the motion is worked… I might even only do partial reps from the half-way point to the “chinned-up” point to just work that part out. Don’t know, we’ll see. But if there’s a weak point, that’s what needs to be specifically addressed.

Jump rope was cool. Previously I was thinking to bump this session to alternating single and double hops on each rep, debating if I should start with single (i.e. fresh) or double (i.e. end with a single when I’m pooped). I opted to start with a single so I got things pumping from the get go, but then changed my mind — I did all 8 reps as single hop. That pumped things up for me for sure… my feet and calves and lower quads were hating it (the quads and adductors and such are sore as heck from Monday’s squat workout). My body wanted to quit but no…. I just kept pushing, because it’s all in my head.

That’s really the big thing that’s coming out of so much of this: keep going. There’s so many reasons I want to quit, be it my mind saying “the body is tapped” but knowing that I’m still physically able to — because if I’m truly tapped then my body will stop on its own — to ego things, because hey… when the gym is packed this morning with a bunch of the strongest guys in the gym and you can’t do a fucking chin-up and your muscles are tapped and you don’t want to do that last rep…. you do it anyways, because you have to. Because you know you won’t get stronger, you won’t overcome the obstacles, unless you forge ahead. Like anything in life.

My first squat day on 5/3/1 and it went alright.

• 5/3/1 Squat (training max 220#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x90
  • 1x5x110
  • 1x3x135
  • 1x5x145 (work)
  • 1x5x165
  • 1x7x190
• Asst. #1 – Squat
  • 5x10x65
• Asst. #2 – Leg curl
  • 1x10x30
  • 4x10x25
• Metcon
  • 1 Tabata set, jump rope.

(Aside, I see why my indented lists are getting screwed up… the WordPress.com editor is inserting the /li after the li line, instead of after the nested /ul… I fixed it manually but let’s see if the editor retains it. And they still keep inserting a div after finishing a ul…. *sigh*)

Anyways, the workout was my first squat day since I started 5/3/1. I wasn’t looking forward to it because I’m not really looking forward to squats right now. Burnout? Relative unhappiness? I don’t know, mixture of things. But I figured this being the “5” week it would work me well but not kill me. In the end, it did feel alright. The weight felt appropriate, enough to make me work but not kill me. I was able to get 7 reps out on the last work set and left a couple in the tank, especially since I could feel I’d only do them if I sacrificed form. The assistance set of squats wasn’t heavy-hard, but it really drained me because that’s a lot of body and muscle involvement… gets you breathing and your heart pumping, especially with a strict 1 minute rest between sets. It’s kinda cool to see the quad and ham pump in the mirror. 🙂

On the leg curls, I had no idea where to start for a weight, so I just picked 30# and figured we’ll see from there. That first set wasn’t bad, but I wanted to make sure I could get through all 5 sets and 50 total reps without really killing myself. Every workout, being as it’s new and higher volume, has left me rather sore. I didn’t want to be so sore I couldn’t walk (Wife still cracks up at the time I worked my calves so hard they were sore for a week and for a couple days I couldn’t walk straight), but I just wanted to be worked. Wendler says to really start light, so I dropped down to 25# and was happy I did. That gave me enough work, the last few reps of the sets required some extra squeeze, but nothing was just balls-out killing me. I wanted to ensure the curls went through as full a range a motion as I could move. So, 25# is good for now.

Rope jumping… ha ha. Hard to do when your legs are tired. 🙂 But you press on because you have to. Certainly wasn’t a glorious session, but I’m trying to amp it up some. Tried to have every 3rd “rep” be a “single hop” set, with the 8th also being single hop. The goal is to add a single hop every rope session or two, so I can work my way to have every rep be single hop. Once I get 4 (single-double, 4x), I’ll start to add the single hops at the rear. So if I have reps 2, 4, 6, and 8 being single hop, then next it’ll be 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, then 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and so on. Put them back when I’m tired, to push me more. For a giggle I tried doing the “jogging” technique on my 8th rep today and just failed hard. 🙂 Not quite ready for that.

So “week 1” of Wendler 5/3/1 is down. Next up, the “3” week. So far, I’m liking the program.

That was easy….

Oh, and I need to find a new format for my data here… either WordPress or this theme or something isn’t rendering the nested lists correctly. *sigh*

• 5/3/1 – Bench Press (training max 180#)

• 2x5x45 (warmup)
• 1x5x75
• 1x5x90
• 1x3x110
• 1x5x120 (work)
• 1x5x135
• 1x11x155

Asst. #1 – Bench Press

• 5x10x65

Asst. #2 – Dumbbell Rows

• 5x10x30

Metcon

• 1 Tabata set, jump rope

This workout was easier than I expected. Maybe I needed a higher training max? When I ended the PPNP my squat had been reset and my press was feeling close to a max, but my deadlift was still going very strong and I felt like I could still move up a bunch on my bench press. So my Monday Press workout felt good. When I was setting up weights for deadlifting I went ahead and ratcheted up the weight and calculated from there. But Bench Press I bumped just a tiny bit. So, this workout didn’t feel all that hard to me… not even a little bit. I mean, 11 reps with 155 and I had more in the tank… but I left them there because I know this isn’t supposed to be a “work to failure” sort of program. In doing the assistance work, 30% would be 55# and that was just going to be silly. I incorrectly remembered my work max at 170 so I refigured a 40% @ 65#…. but even that didn’t make me twitch. Still, I kept good form and worked to dynamically explode the bar off my chest (65# but put in 165# of force, if you will)… but even that wasn’t that great because it still felt way too light, not enough resistance. I thought to myself that next workout I need to go to 75# and yes… now correctly figuring 40% of my actual work max (180#) that ought to work out a lot better.

Nevertheless, if I calculcate “work volume”, today’s work set volume was greater than the total volume (work+warmup) of my last PPNP bench press workout. So, there’s still a gain.

On rows, I had no idea where to really start, but looking at weights I was using some months ago on barbell rows I figured 30# would be a good start. I want to be strict: arched back, back parallel to the floor, no twisting of the torso to get the weight up, go from dead hang (shoulder pulled forward) all the way until the dumbbell is touching my torso and my shoulder is pulled all the way back… pull back as far as I can go… as complete a range of motion as possible. Plus, only about 30-60 seconds of rest between sets since I have to alternate arms and the other arm gets a “rest” while the one is working. And with all that, 30# wasn’t bad. I’m thinking about going to 35# next workout and that ought to be a good work weight.

Rope jumping felt better. I’m thinking less about jumping and I believe that’s helping… as it usually does. Don’t try, just do. I’m trying to put more “single hop” sets in to bump up the intensity level. Next workout is squats so we’ll see how jumping goes after that, but otherwise I’m thinking I want to get more intensity so I might do something like pairs of two: light double-hop set followed by more intense single hop, and repeat that pair 4x.

Not a bad workout, just didn’t feel as worked as I thought I would. But, the program has only begun. We’ll see where I actually end up. I did have the passing thought that if benching even on “week 3” is too easy even with 95% of my working max that instead of bumping 5# I might bump 10# just this once. I don’t want to overdo it for sure, but just keeping myself open to the possibility.