I should have gone back to the gym this morning, but I didn’t.

Stupid daylight savings.

I’ll try again tomorrow.

I have decided to go back to 3x week, and I’m going to keep with a true BBB template and see how it goes for me. If I want to change up to something else, I’ll let things evolve back to that.

So this past week wasn’t just a deload week, it was a “do nothing” week.

If I did anything, it was keeping mind of my posture, and stretching, especially in the  neck/shoulder region.

I don’t feel great about taking a whole week away, but my body is physically happier.

I did step back and looked at some things.

Going 4x week I think is really good — if you can handle it. I think my body could take 4x week and make really good gains. I think the timing of when you lift against the recovery and “super-compensation” cycle is perfect here. However, if you are going to do this, you need to be fully dedicated to the process. This means eating a lot, and sleeping a lot. Recovery and all the other support structures really need to be in place. Given my schedule and life, I can’t always get the rest needed. No, not good and speaks to greater life issues to remedy. But for now it is how it is. So, I think I’ll be falling back to 3x and seeing how things go. And really, I think I’m more curious if 4x vs 3x, if it was putting a larger physical strain and demand upon my body and thus contributing to some stress and pressure in life. In part, just the schedule impacts, but more so the energy and recovery demands — if lifting drains me then leaves me with less to deal with the rest of my day, that’s no good. If 3x allows me greater balance in life, great.

Now, when I went to 4x I also simplified back to a true BBB template. I think that made sense given the frequency. But now if I’m going 3x… do I ramp it back up? Or do I keep it the same? I don’t know. I’m a little torn because I also want the assistance parts of my gym sessions to burn some energy. I’m decently in the Carb Back-Loading groove, tho I think that probably needs a re-read of the book and reexamination of my routine. But I’d like more effort towards burning things off.

What I keep gravitating back to is “5/3/1 bodybuilding“. Even Jim admits that deep down inside that’s what we all are — bodybuilders. I don’t want to abandon strength building (that’s still primary goal), but I think some more dedicated mass building is in order. I read about the Cube Method, and that has some dedication to mass building. I have been watching too many CT Fletcher videos. And I can’t help but expect that the increased workload would lend better to CBL. But then, it’s a LOT more work, and will it be too much to recover from, given what I wrote above?

I don’t know.

So I’m presently sitting between 3x BBB template, or 3x bodybuilding template.

Still thinking it through.

Well, still no gym for me today.

My shoulder/upper back/neck pain is still present and limiting movement. It’s a LOT better than yesterday due to sitting in what feels like exaggerated good posture and doing lots of stretching, but I’m not there yet.

I’ve been here before tho. It just takes time and stretching throughout the day.

I’m not.

It is deload week of cycle 17, and give my shoulder issues I was going to take things VERY easy this week and go twice. Something like on Monday do 5×10 squats with 50% weight, 5×10 bench with 50% weight, then maybe finish with 5×10 pendlay rows with lighter weight. And that’d be all. Then Thursday the same with 5×10 deads, 5×10 press, and 5xwhatever pullups. Or maybe I’d go Tuesday and Friday. I was going to wing it.

And wing it I shall…

Last night we were over at a neighbor’s house for dinner. They recently installed a zip line in their backyard for their kids, but it’s strong enough to hold an adult… so I gave it a run.

One run.

All I needed. 🙂

I don’t know exactly what happened… or maybe it started on the drive home from my in-laws earlier that day, sleeping in the car, and my head/neck being in a weird position, then the zip line just broke the camel’s back. I don’t know… but there’s some wicked pain when I try to move my head and neck in a certain way. Lifting isn’t going to happen.

But on the same token, I was stretching my head/neck/shoulder area in the car during the drive and finally got my neck to pop and turn in a way I’ve been needing for a while! I’ve just had some poor posture issues for a while, everything tightened up, and I’m slowly working my way back to being normal. I’m sure that is playing a part.

Anyways, I think today is going to be nothing but some stretching and rolling.

Time to start being nice to my shoulders

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 3

• Work Set – Press (working max: 150#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x60
  • 1x5x75
  • 1x3x90
  • 1x5x115 (work)
  • 1x3x130
  • 1x5x145
• Assistance – Pull-ups (band assisted)
  • 3 x 10/10/5 x BW
• Other stuff (see below)

Despite my shoulder aches and pains, I still Pressed. Getting 5 reps with 145 is acceptable, given I got 5 with 140 last cycle. Looking back over past history, it’s certainly not the best I’ve done, but it’s in line and is progress back to where I started.

Certainly my technique is getting better. “Tight” is the cue I live by here… everything needs to be tight: grip, wrists, torso, glutes, lats, quads, hams… you name it, everything. Helps tremendously.

But that all said, I didn’t do much else today. I did some pull-ups, then a couple very-high-rep sets of pressdowns and hammer curls.

The interesting part? I finished off with a couple high-rep sets with very light weight of lateral raises. Why? Well, again it’s a shoulder thing. I want a little more delt work. I adore upright rows; they’ve always been a favorite, since I was a teenager, because they produce so much in the medial delts and traps (and some biceps and grip too, what’s not to like, right?). But there’s no question that it eventually causes me some shoulder pains. So I’m going to have to give them up, again. And while lat raises haven’t always been friendly to me either, well… I have some greater posture issues that I need to improve upon. If I am standing in a solid and proper posture, the lat raises work out ok. If they start to be weird, it’s a reminder to correct my posture. I think I may well keep lat raises in for a while… just VERY light and VERY high rep.

Next week is deload. Again, I think I’m going to do a heavy-duty deloading. I really want to give my body a rest. I may go only twice, and do like a squat/bench and dead/press thing with maybe like 5×10 with a 50% weight or something… and that’s all…. if even that. Maybe 3×10 or 5×5. Just something for the blood flow and warmth, and keeping the groove. But otherwise, Ir eally want to rest up.

Diet wise too… I’ll be keeping carbs fairly low until the Sunday evening prior to starting cycle 18. I’ll have a little carb after any workout, and I’ll have “normal carbs” with supper. But no splurging or anything and doing “heavy backloads” or the like.

Enter. PR. Exit.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 3

• Work Set – Deadlift (working max: 365#)
  • 1x5x150 (warmup)
  • 1x5x185
  • 1x3x225
  • 1x5x275 (work)
  • 1x3x315
  • 1x5x350 (PR)

I have an early meeting this morning. So I did jack shit.

That’s a nice PR. Last cycle was 5 reps at 340#, so to get 5 reps and 10# increase? Hell yes I’ll take it. Plus, I’m really beat up. My left shoulder has been bugging me as it is, and I think when I dumped/rolled the bar off my shoulders/neck on Monday’s squat session, I must have aggrevated something because my body has been unhappy with me in the shoulder/neck region ever since. It’s better, but constantly aches and is tough to even lift my arm. Won’t keep me from deadlifting. 🙂 But tomorrow’s Pressing? We’ll see how that goes.

Given that, next week is deload week and I think I’m going to do a serious deload. I might hit the gym only twice, and do like a Monday squat/bench very light and minimal, Thursday deadlift/press light and minimal. Else rest rest rest and basic recovery work, like rolling, stretching, etc..

Oh… my new belt from BestBelts came in, and I used it this morning. It’s the Athlete belt, single prong, royal blue, 36″. Of course it’s a little stiff, but today was a good way to start the break-in. 🙂

I felt like I was in a Tex Avery cartoon. *sigh*

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 3

• Work Set – Bench Press (working max: 230#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x3x140
  • 1x5x175 (work)
  • 1x3x200
  • 1x5x220
• Assistance – Bench Press
  • 5 x 10 x 135
• Assistance – Pendlay Rows
  • 5 x 10 x 115

You ever watch those Tex Avery cartoons where you see the line of army men marching in precision? Then the camera pans down to their legs and it looks like a drunken octopus orgy? Yeah, that’s what I felt like today. 🙂

I just didn’t have my legs under me today, figuratively and literally. I thought I had figured out my leg position, but alas not. I did find myself pushing into the pad differently, mostly because I’m trying to have a good arch without lifting my butt, shoulders locked in, etc.. I thought this was foot position? Do a set… no, that wasn’t right. Tweak feet. Set. No. Tweak. Etc.. Finally on my last set, it felt like that Tex Avery cartoon with my legs not giving me anything: no stability, no drive, just flailing around on their own looking stupid.

WTF?

Back to the drawing board.

I will say I felt one thing. I have a little more external hip rotation than normal. Thus, I want to “point in” a little more to help leverages naturally negate that. Well, I think I took too narrow a stance, and in trying to point my toes forward to get better drive, I lost that natural negating and thus a bunch of stability. I may need to actually pigeon-toe myself slightly. Will have to play with this and see.

I’m not unhappy with 5 reps @ 220, but I had problems. Must do better.

A PR, a miss, and I think I learned more from missing than PR’ing.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 3

• Work Set – Squat (working max: 295#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x120
  • 1x5x150
  • 1x3x180
  • 1x5x225 (work)
  • 1x3x255
  • 1x2x285 (PR)
  • Hold 315 for 10 seconds
• Assistance – Squat
  • 5 x 10/10/8/8/8 x 150
• Assistance – Leg Curls
  • 4 x 12 x 60
• Foam Rolling

I PR’d. I hit 285#, for 2 reps. Never done that weight (or reps) in my life. How cool! 300# is within reach, and 315# before the end of the year looks do-able.

But I only got 2 reps.

255 felt heavy. I think it started there… in my head. Seeds of doubt sown. *sigh*

I told myself all I need is 1 rep with 285.

I put the bar on my back, deep breath, tighten everything, lift out of the rack…. shit, that’s heavy — another seed.

I go down, and stand up. It was tough, but it was there. Yes! Set a PR. Everything else is gravy.

Go again… but this was much harder to get up. It was a struggle. But I got up. Stood there, got my wind. Fuck it… let’s try for 3, what’s the worst that can happen? I don’t come up.

And sure enough, I go down, and I didn’t come up. I tried, instant-fail. Couldn’t get out of the hole.

The only thing that caught me? How to get this off my back? Roll down my back or over my head? Well, gravity and the physics of my position dictated over my head. So I dropped down as much as I could, curled myself into a ball and let the bar roll over my head onto the rails.

And I didn’t care.

In fact, one thing I’m starting to do, at least at the end of my 5/3/1 work sets, is to put a larger weight on the bar and then just hold it. Just put it on my shoulders, unrack, walk out, hold it for like 10 seconds, then rack it. Just feel that weight, and realize that the weight you just did was lighter, and the weight you’ll do next is also lighter.

And I made sure I still did this. Still get up. Still get back under the bar. Keep moving forward.

It’s interesting to me because squats have been my least favorite movement. I still can’t say I love them, but I cannot deny I’ve spent the past few days looking forward to today’s effort. There’s been a lot of baggage to overcome, fears, stupid shit in my head… of getting hurt, of failure, of whatever. But some months ago I started to realize it didn’t matter because the worst thing is that you miss… and so what? And that’s exactly how it happened today. I missed, so what. It was truly no big deal. I didn’t quit, I didn’t give up, the bar was just too heavy, it didn’t happen.

Oh sure, I think I wasn’t quite in the mental groove, but even then I’m sure I would have only gotten 3, maybe 4 if I really was on fire. And that mental is something that will take nothing but time under the bar to improve upon.

But today’s miss was my first squat miss — ever. I never allowed myself to miss in the past, for whatever reason…. fear of failure, fear of injury, fear of pushing myself that hard, fear of the opinions of others, whatever reason. But today? I missed, and it didn’t matter. All it means is for cycle 18 I’ll stay at this work weight and work towards rep PR’s. No big deal.

OK… there is one big deal. My ribs hurt, from when I got bent over so much and my belt dug into me. It might be a 2-Advil kind of day. 🙂 and yes, I really would love it if the gym would buy a proper power rack and not what it has… could have set the catch-pins at a proper height (for me). Oh well, I won’t complain too much.

Otherwise, just continuing my “regression” back to a pure BBB template and enjoying that.

Already starting to plan out cycle 18.

Less continues to be more.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 2

• Work Set – Press (working max: 150#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x60
  • 1x5x75
  • 1x3x90
  • 1x3x105 (work)
  • 1x3x120
  • 1x8x135
• Assistance – Press
  • 5 x 10 x 75
• Assistance – Pull-ups (band assisted)
  • 5 x 7 x BW

Less is more. Continuing the pullback to a strictly BBB approach. I like it… tho I still cranked out just a single high-rep set of the shoulder pulls and tricep pushdowns at the end… like 20+ reps, just to get some blood in there. But otherwise, pull back to BBB strictnesss.

So with that, I felt fun about getting the 8×135. Last week I did the same, tho I was only supposed to do 130. But these reps were better.. a little less “body english” on the last couple reps, and I just felt technique and form locking in place here. Full body, all tight, all pushing… my form is starting to come together here.

So all is good. Just enjoyed the workout today.

I am looking forward to next week… PR time!