Into the second half of the first 6-week cycle. Yes, I’m happy to be back on 5/3/1.

Everything went fine. From the first half of the cycle I picked up a few things to improve upon. One is bringing my rest periods down during the assistance work — 1 minute between all sets and reps, just keep things moving along. So on paper, it looks like everything went down, but it’s because of that change. But it’s assistance work, so as long as there’s some work, fine.

Added in calf raises, because I want to round things out.

One thing I fell back to debating? Adding in unilateral work. I cannot deny that things like split squats really help with my knee stability, as much as I hate doing them. My knees haven’t been feeling so hot lately, and I’m wondering if it’s the removal of the unilateral bodyweight work. One way to find out. 🙂 That said, I’m thinking about keeping my changes light this time around and if I do add them in, let it be during the next cycle. We’ll see — all depends how my knees feel.

Otherwise, things were fine. On the 5+ set I just shut it down at 10 reps tho I could have done more. I do expect this is all good signs towards getting my strength back and being able to beat my lifetime PR’s before the end of 2016… and at this rate, hopefully not just beat but blow them away.

I played around with some stuff. Because of all the pains I’m feeling in my wrists and elbows and such, I played around with things like using that “eagle claw” grip — relieves pain on the wrist, but I don’t feel as stable. Plus I then pull my shoulders together more, which puts more stress on my elbows. Grr… can’t win. 🙂 I’m thinking about going back to full grip, keeping it wider, and wrapping my wrists (at least until the pain goes away).

Music: Black Label Society.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Squats
  • bar x whatever
  • 110 x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 165 x 3
  • 180 x 5
  • 205 x 5
  • 235 x 10 (shut it down at 10)
• Straight-leg Deadlift
  • 150 x 10
  • 175 x 10
  • 205 x 10
• Leg Curls
  • 30 x 20
  • 30 x 12
  • 30 x 10
• Hyperextensions
  • BW x 17
  • BW x 17
  • BW x 14
• Crunches
  • BW x 17
  • BW x 12
  • BW x 10
• Standing Calf Raises
  • 60 x 15
  • 60 x 14
  • 60 x 10

Finishing up my first 5/3/1 week after returning to the 5/3/1 program, and I’m generally happy.

My right wrist has been bothering me, a lot. So today I wrapped my wrists for every pressing set. That helped a bunch, despite not being used to wraps. Funny thing? My wrist feels great now! The chronic pain is all gone — the compression of the wrap did something I guess.

The 1+ set went well, about what I expected. I did have some balance issues — I think it’s the 45-wheel and how that just changes the feel of things. Will just need more work to get used to it. I am improving on my setup tho; Press setup has always been a weak point for me, so happy that’s coming to a spot.

Otherwise, things went well. Again, rest periods during the heavy work is maybe 3 minutes between sets, but on assistance it all drops to 1 minute of rest. Just get the work in and get out.

So that all said…. with this first cycle under my belt, let’s look back a bit.

I’m happy to return to 5/3/1. It’s simple, logical, and just works. It felt awkward at first, but all feels pretty good now. I do feel like I’m not getting enough (daily) volume, but I’m trying to balance that by remembering that I am feeling just a bit sore post-session AND then the overall volume is going up, so I am expecting this will lead to better things for me. Yes, I might try eventually upping it a bit per-session, but something minor like a “first set, last”. Right now tho, no such change.

I will roll into another cycle immediately (no deload). I may not always keep that, but I’m feeling very good so I see no reason to take a deload right now.

I am going to change up my assistance work a little bit. I realized that I’m getting a lot of lat work, and I’d like to change up a bit to drop a bit of that in favor of more upper-back work. So for instance, keep the chin-ups, drop the pulldowns, add face-pulls. I’ll also keep the pull-ups of course, but I’ll probably be less strict about the style of “up” that I do in favor of whatever aggrevates my elbows least. That sort of thing. I’ll continue to tweak this. I really don’t have any “weak points” to address (my weak point is everything), so assistance work really is just trying to be comprehensive; I feel like I’m missing a few things. So I’ll make some minor changes, keep the same approach of 3×10-20, and just roll on and see how it goes.

Very excited about it all. Happy to be back, looking forward to the progress to be made.

Music today: a mix of hair metal

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 65 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
  • 75 x 5
  • 90 x 3
  • 110 x 5 (work sets superset with chin-ups)
  • 125 x 3
  • 140 x 7 (7RM PR apparently)
• Close-Grip Bench Press
  • 135 x 5 (sets superset with chin-ups)
  • 155 x 5
  • 175 x 5
• V-Bar Pulldowns
  • 100 x 20
  • 100 x 16
  • 100 x 12
• Cable Rows
  • 100 x 15
  • 100 x 12
  • 100 x 12
• Skullcrushers (superset with curls)
  • 55 x 20
  • 55 x 18
  • 55 x 14
• Close-grip EZ-bar Curls
  • 50 x 20
  • 50 x 16
  • 50 x 12

Another good day.

Deadlifts went really well. I’m finding my groove again — and it’s a different groove than before, but I believe a better groove.

The 1+ set went mostly well. Around rep 8 my left knee opted to feel weird and buckled a bit — it’s whatever’s wrong with that knee, acting up. I took a few seconds pause then kept going. I hit 10 and shut it down. Very happy with hitting 10 reps, but the knee made me nervous. I still did my front squats but had reserves and was going to watch it, just in case. No problems tho.

I also realized afterwards that I did it all overhand grip. Usually when I get to my heaviest sets I go mixed grip whether I need it or not, to ensure I’m used to that positioning. But I’ve been doing other sorts of deadlifting for so long now and always overhand grip it that I just did that again here without a thought. I was really happy about how smoothly that went. I’ll of course stick with overhanding it as much as possible because getting stronger.

Most everything else went well, but I did make a change. I am stepping away from Good Mornings. They wind up putting some odd pressure on some cervical vertebrae, and I always wind up bruised there. I’ve got enough neck issues, I don’t really need to risk anything here. I would like to try to find a solution (maybe some really good pads?). But instead, I just did some leg curls. I saw something from Charles Polquin about varying leg curls by having the feet in flexion vs. extension. I realized some time ago that if I start flexing my feet then the movement is a lot easier, so I’ve been doing them in extension. I find I get more out of the movement with extension, but opted to try today in explicit flexion to see how it would go. Well, the muscles on the front of my shins got a good burn from the isometric hold, I cranked through the reps just fine, but the reps just weren’t as quality – that tension causes me to cut the range of movement short. I may play with it a time or two again before I shelve it.

Then for the glute bridges I put my feet up on a bench. Man, I was really feeling it in my hamstrings, especially after the work I had just given them. Quite interesting. I am going to progress on to the elevated feet and doing it one leg at a time, but who knows… this might actually prove to be a useful thing for me.

All in all, really good. Looking forward to Pressing tomorrow, and then kicking right back into the next cycle with no deload. Huzzah.

Music today: Amon Amarth, “Jomsviking” and “Deceiver of the Gods”.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Deadlift
  • 135 x 5
  • 160 x 5
  • 190 x 3
  • 240 x 5
  • 270 x 3
  • 305 x 10 (10RM PR)
• Front Squat
  • 145 x 5
  • 165 x 5
  • 185 x 5
• Leg Curls
  • 30 x 20
  • 30 x 20
  • 30 x 30
• Glute Bridges (feet elevated)
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 15
• Crunches (superset with the bridges)
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 15

That went quite well!

I continue to enjoy my first 5/3/1 week back on the 5/3/1 program. Setting an 8RM is great! Worked up, and the 8 felt strong and good. Left a little in the tank at that. It does tell me that I am pretty light, but again I’m good with that because things will go longer before I have to reset. So far all signs are pointing to progress. 🙂

I am firmer on how I’m going to make some slight modifications come next cycle.

First, I will remove the pulldowns from bench day here in favor of shrugs and we’ll see how that goes. I’m debating also removing the pulldowns from Press day in favor of something like face pulls, but we’ll see on that.

Second, I am going to add some basic calf work on my squat and deadlift days. Just the 3×10-20, one day standing, one day seated. No big deal. If I do any funny variations maybe one set will be toes forward, one toes out, one toes in. And I even thought I might do 2×10 then 1 all-out set. We’ll see. Nothing big, just something.

I also started to wonder today if I should up the volume a bit, like a “first set last” approach. Maybe, but that’s too early to consider. At earliest I’ll bring in that after this next cycle, but even then I may not. I feel like a little more volume would be good, but that could still be me being used to how my body feels hitting things 1x/week whereas right now I’m technically hitting everything 2x/week… so I don’t need to boost things too high. But if a little more might be more productive, I have to consider it. We’ll see.

Finally, one change I started with today that I’m going to carry through — this assistance work is really light stuff, and I’m going to keep doing things to shorten but intensify the work. Basically, 1 minute rest between sets. I’ve been letting it be longer, like 2-3 minutes, because of some influence from Paul Carter’s “Inception” as well as some other things out there I’ve been paying attention to. And while there’s something to it for me, the reality is that the amount of work done on these Pressing days coupled with long rest periods just adds up to a long time in the gym and I can’t really afford that. So, while my numbers will look like they’re dropping, meh… it’s assistance work and I’m beefing it up.

So today, dropped the assistance rest to 1 minute in between. As well, I continue with supersetting. Here the extensions and curls, and the curls were alternating across the body.

Music: Slayer on shuffle (again)

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Bench Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 95 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
  • 115 x 5
  • 140 x 3
  • 170 x 5 (work sets superset with neutral-grip pull-ups)
  • 195 x 3
  • 220 x 8 (8RM PR)
• Incline Press
  • 135 x 5 (sets superset with neutral-grip pull-ups)
  • 155 x 5
  • 175 x 5
• Wide, neutral-grip pulldowns
  • 110 x 20
  • 110 x 13
  • 110 x 13
• DB Rows
  • 55 x 10
  • 55 x 10
  • 55 x 16
• Overhead Triceps Extensions (superset with curls)
  • 45 x 20
  • 45 x 20
  • 45 x 20
• Hammer Curls (alternating, across body)
  • 25e x 16
  • 25e x 14
  • 25e 12

Today was most excellent.

I’m going into the week very excited — it’s my first 5/3/1 week since returning to the 5/3/1 program. This is the fun week. 🙂 I’ve been very curious how things were going to go, and things started off well.

You really need to make your warmups count. Even when it’s just the empty bar, set up tight, do every rep as if it was setting a new 1RM. Sure, those first reps will be a little rough because you aren’t warmed up, but do them with that approach so when you get up there, the groove is greased. I mean, when I put on the belt and put the 200 on my back, it felt lighter than the 160. Confidence building for sure.

I did the 1+ set with the mentality of to just keep doing consecutive sets of 1 rep. That resets and allows things to go smooth, instead of smearing one rep into the next. Sure that’s fine on curls or whatever, but I like approaching it that way on these sets. When I got to 8 reps I finally felt the bar speed was slowing down enough that I should rack it — certainly the 1-2 left in the tank. What surprised me tho was afterwards looking in RepCount and seeing that last week I did 8 reps at 240 — same reps, 10# more weight. That’s a good sign. 🙂

So yeah, very good time.

Everything else was pretty much as per the SST.

On hypers, I am starting to approach them differently. Instead of thinking about raising my back up, I’m thinking about thrusting my hips forward. That does cause the execution to be different, and it’s more what I need. Going to keep going that route.

Anyways, very happy with things so far. Looking forward to how the rest of this 5/3/1 week works out. And yes, I’m strongly contemplating just diving into the next cycle with no deload — take it after that cycle). I feel very much on-track that I’ll be breaking my all-time 1RM’s before the end of the year (and probably sooner).

Music today: Slayer on shuffle.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Squats
  • bar x whatever
  • 105 x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 160 x 3
  • 200 x 5
  • 225 x 3
  • 250 x 8 (8RM PR)
• Straight-leg Deadlift
  • 185 x 5
  • 215 x 5
  • 240 x 5
• Leg Curls
  • 30 x 20
  • 30 x 15
  • 30 x 12
• Hyperextensions (superset with crunches)
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 15
• Crunches
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 15

Generally good.

Really, there’s not much to say here that was bad. On the PR set, at rep 2 I had a serious balance loss and it took a bit to recover and keep everything from crashing down; that cost me a rep or 2. But I still got 8 reps, which keeps me on track for things (tho I left at most 1 in the tank). Ah well.

Everything else continued to feel too light, but again that’s ok because I know it won’t be. I keep saying this because it’s my habit to want to bump things up, but I know that’s not going to be useful and long-term it’s better to just stay the course. So again, it’s all about the mentality shift.

And it’s a bigger one too because a few years ago I’d have gone ahead because I wanted every pound I could get. But now I know there’s no rush — it will come, and it’ll be better to just bide my time and keep putting in the work.

That said, I did think about 2 changes today.

First, I’m going to get shrugs in here somewhere. Still thinking of where, but probably bench day instead of pulldowns. Why? Because more direct trap work (vs. the lots of lat work I’m doing).

Second, I am strongly leaning towards doing a 6-week cycle this time around. I’m feeling great, and I know it’s in part because of the lighter weights. I’m not feeling a pressing need for a deload, so I may just forge ahead. Again, when the weights get heavier and things get more taxing, I may revert back to the normal 4-week cycles.

Anyways, good session.

Music was a bunch of Sunset Strip hair band stuff. 🙂

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 65 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
  • 75 x 5
  • 90 x 3
  • 105 x 3 (work sets superset with chin-ups)
  • 120 x 3
  • 135 x 8 (which according to RepCount is an 8RM PR)
• Close-Grip Bench Press
  • 125 x 8 (sets superset with chin-ups)
  • 145 x 8
  • 165 x 6
• V-Bar Pulldowns
  • 90 x 20
  • 90 x 20
  • 90 x 20
• Cable Rows
  • 100 x 20
  • 100 x 18
  • 100 x 14
• Skullcrushers (superset with curls)
  • 55 x 15
  • 55 x 13
  • 55 x 13
• Close-grip EZ-bar Curls
  • 45 x 20
  • 45 x 20
  • 45 x 15

Had to make today a Wendler “jack shit” day — well, almost. I deadlifted, I front squatted, and that’s it. Just a matter of time.

Deadlifts went well. Again, since I’ve been away from conventional deadlifts for so long, technique is really rusty, but I’m getting it back. Today felt very in the groove. The 10 reps was pretty easy and I certainly left a few in the tank — if anything, my grip was just starting to fade so I went ahead and shut it down.

Front Squats I know are supposed to be a quad-emphasis movement, but man… I reall feel it in my glutes and hamstrings. Not sure if that’s a statement on my technique, or just weakness, or that I’m weird, or what. But there you go.

Anyways, things went just fine. In, out, gotta move on.

No music today. Something’s on my mind and I was thinking about it the whole time.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Deadlift
  • 135 x 5
  • 160 x 5
  • 190 x 3
  • 225 x 3
  • 255 x 3
  • 290 x 10
• Front Squat
  • 135 x 8
  • 155 x 8
  • 175 x 6

Still getting used to this rhythm.

The set/rep scheme… doing pull-ups between the presses… not going to failure. It takes some getting used to because when you’re working you’re just thinking about that current rep, then you rack and think about the next set, so I’ve got to remind myself the flow is different. 🙂

It does feel weird, but good, to just be doing things like 3-reps. And then to stop 1-2 reps short of failure — get the work, but don’t push it all the way. I think that’s the hardest part. Like on my first set of pull-ups, I cranked it. Last week I did probably closer to what I should do, out of trying to keep it light and ease into the program. So today I pushed a little harder, because it’s hard to incrementally load bodyweight exercises. But I took it to a point of failure on that first set, and then every pull-up set thereafter was tougher. Stands to reason, but it really shows some things. So the rest of the session’s assistance work was a push to get work, but ensuring to leave 1-2 in the tank no matter what on every set. I know I will still progress, and I know I’ll last longer if I do this. It’s just a big mental shift.

That said, the PR set of benches is one of those “5-8” types of things, but I went to 10 because 8 just felt too far from done. 10 still left 1-2 in the tank. Things seem on track, so no real complaints.

Everything else continues to feel light, but again start too light because it will get heavier.

I’m trying to speed up the sessions too. I’m taking about 2-3 minutes between all the heavy work, and that’s consuming a lot of time. So when I get to assistance stuff, I still want to take more rest because I’m finding that’s helpful to me, but not too much. I want to get things squeezed in better. So say on the 10’s of the DB rows, I can take less rest. On the extensions and curls, I superset. Little things add up.

All in all tho, felt I got good work today but didn’t walk out trashed. In a way, I’m already looking forward to the end of next week and start of the next cycle to see how things are dialing in and progressing. I’m getting pretty excited for being back on 5/3/1 and feeling like I’m making progress again. I know it’s only been 1.5 weeks, but still… can’t deny happy.

Music today: The Pretty Reckless

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Bench Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 95 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
  • 115 x 5
  • 140 x 3
  • 160 x 3 (work sets superset with neutral-grip pull-ups)
  • 185 x 3
  • 205 x 10
• Incline Press
  • 125 x 8 (sets superset with neutral-grip pull-ups)
  • 145 x 8
  • 165 x 6
• Wide, neutral-grip pulldowns
  • 110 x 20
  • 110 x 14
  • 110 x 12
• DB Rows
  • 55 x 10
  • 55 x 10
  • 55 x 22
• Overhead Triceps Extensions (superset with curls)
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 20
• Hammer Curls (simultaneous; I usually alternate)
  • 25e x 12
  • 25e x 10
  • 25e x 10

Things continue to move along. It’s good, but still not used to it.

So this starts my first “3’s week” back on 5/3/1. Everything went as I would expect it to. I worked up to 8 reps, which is about where it should be. A couple were left in the tank, and 8’s about the cutoff (if one wants to) for the 3’s week. So I do believe I’m where I should be, a little lighter, so good deal. Things all seem on track.

I’m getting used to the stiffs, and am thinking they’re doing me good. I’ve been having some weird lower-back issues and this sort of bending over and rounding my lower back has been really good. I was doing it before, just as a stretch, and so now under a little load should be alright for me. Things aren’t to heavy here, but enough to give me some work. Again, these will just get heavier over time, so no big.

Hypers are kinda fun for me right now, which is weird to say. 🙂 I’m really working on just contracting muscles here, like my hams and glutes — trying to minimally involve the lower back. I know you can’t totally take it out of the equation, but I can shift my mental focus. And yeah, it’s working out alright. Kinda interesting.

And again, no hanging raises — just did crunches. It’s simpler. I’ve been away from dedicated ab work for ages, so I think just sticking with simple crunches for a while until I work myself back up should be good. Then I’ll hit things like raises or even ab wheel. I’m starting to think that ab work each week may be “whatever I feel like, just do something”.

Anyways, feeling good. Not feeling too beat up, and even started to have feelings where I might actually try the 6-week cycles here… might. Depends how I feel when I get there, and I also expect that it may only be feeling good/possible right now because things are generally light. After a few cycles and upping the weights, it may be a little more on my body and I may revert back to the normal 4-week cycle. We’ll see.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Squats
  • bar x whatever
  • 105 x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 160 x 3
  • 185 x 3
  • 210 x 3
  • 240 x 8
• Straight-leg Deadlift
  • 170 x 8
  • 200 x 8
  • 230 x 6
• Leg Curls
  • 30 x 18
  • 30 x 14
  • 30 x 12
• Hyperextensions
  • BW x 12
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 15
• Crunches
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 13
  • BW x 10

Yeah, it’s nice to be Pressing again.

Pressing went well. I really did miss it. I felt more in the groove today than last time — tight tight tight all the way from head to toe.

I’m still not used to supersetting all the “pulling” work in between the “pushing” work — I’ll just go into my groove of changing the weight and then remember “oh yeah, I need to do some chin-ups”. But I am enjoying it for sure.

Well, almost didn’t enjoy it today. I started with “normal-width” chins and my arm joints, especially my elbows, did not like the torque. So I played around with grip width, and a narrow grip — about 1 palm’s width apart — seems to be workable. It’s funny how almost everything I do on this Press day winds up being a narrow grip width.

I felt that some weights were a little too light, but I’m not going to worry about it too much — start too light, it’ll get heavier later.

And that’s really more the comment today: the first week back on 5/3/1 felt really good. I expected to be really sore, but I wasn’t. A little, but not crippling (which is what I expected). I think the per-day volume is good but not killer, thus I expect that hitting each “major group” 2x/week ought to work out then. I do have to remind myself to leave something in the tank, to not go to failure, “stimulate, don’t annihilate”, and all that stuff. That said, I did start to have a wonder about adding in just a bit more pressing volume — like a “first set, last” sort of thing. Not sure, and not going to bother for now.

Very much looking forward to the next week as I hit the 3’s. 🙂

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 60 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
  • 75 x 5
  • 90 x 3
  • 95 x 5 (work sets superset with chin-ups)
  • 110 x 5
  • 125 x 10
• Close-Grip Bench Press
  • 105 x 10 (sets superset with chin-ups)
  • 125 x 10
  • 145 x 10
• V-Bar Pulldowns
  • 85 x 20
  • 85 x 20
  • 85 x 20
• Cable Rows
  • 100 x 20
  • 100 x 15
  • 100 x 12
• Skullcrushers (wound up supersetting with the curls)
  • 45 x 20
  • 45 x 20
  • 45 x 17
• Close-grip EZ-bar Curls
  • 45 x 20
  • 45 x 18
  • 45 x 13