Oh my… this day is going to be a butt-kicker on this program. 🙂

“Week 1” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

• 5 reps – Deadlift (working max: 325#)
  • 1x5x135
  • 1x5x165
  • 1x3x195
  • 1x5x215 (work)
  • 1x5x245
  • 1x5x280
• Asst. #1 – Squat
  • 5 x 10 x 135
• Asst. #2 – Ab Wheel
  • 5 x 5 x BW (from the knees)
• Foam Rolling

Holy crap. 🙂

This day is going to be a killer day. All that heavy deadlifting, then into the squats. What got me was my glutes and spinal erectors, natch. As soon as I put the 135 on my back, oye! But, things actually got easier as the sets wore on, because those parts aren’t taxed as much in squatting as deadlifting. Still, I can tell this day is going to be a tough one. But that’s all good.

I have never done an ab wheel before, so I had no idea what I could do. Man, that’s hard. 🙂 I opted to do 5 across and see how that went. Was fine… need to get some sort of padding under my knees, but otherwise OK. I’ll probably go up to 7 reps across next time and just work my way up.

Happy with today, but man… this challenge is going to be well, challenging. I’m up for it.

Oh, I should add… I’m going to lay off the “Captains of Crush” hand grippers for a while. I seem to have something forming on the palm-side of one of my knuckles. Don’t know what it is, calcium deposit maybe? But it’s affecting my grip… it hurts, very tender. I’ve been living with it, observing things, but once I laid off the grippers things weren’t feeling so bad. I refuse to let my ability to deadlift or shoot a gun be curtailed, and I should be getting enough forearm and grip work in the program as it is. So for now, I’m going to lay off the grippers. I may come back to them later because it would be cool to crush a #2 or #3 (or even #4) someday. But they won’t be a regular part of my program for now.

Today begins not just cycle 7, but I’m embarking on the “BBB 3 Month Challenge”.

“Week ” – BBB 3 Month Challenge

• “5 Reps” – Press (working max:155#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x65
  • 1x5x80
  • 1x3x95
  • 1x5x100 (work)
  • 1x5x120
  • 1x5x135
• Asst. #1A – Bench Press
  • 5 x 10 x 115
• Asst. #1B – Chinups (supersetted with Bench Press)
  • 3 x 3 x BW
  • 2 x 1 full rep, 2 negatives 2 BW
• Asst. #2 – Face Pulls
  • 1 x 10 x 30
  • 1 x 10 x 40
  • 1 x 10 x 50
• Asst. #3 – DB Hammer Curls
  • 3 x 10 x 30
• Foam Rolling

I figured to go for it. I’m going to try the BBB 3 Month Challenge. I see no reason not to do it and every reason to do it. It’s simpler, it’s direct, and it’s going to kick my ass. However, it’ll take me 4 months to do it because I can only get to the gym 3x a week and not 4. Such is life.

I’m a little bummed that I can’t work to get rep maxes, but so long as there’s still strength growth, who cares. And if there’s some good muscle mass growth, all the better. 5/3/1 is about smart gains over the long haul.

As for today, the pressing felt OK but not great. My breathing was off, my head wasn’t feeling right, and I just didn’t have the tightness I needed throughout the movements. I figure if I actually tried for a rep max today on the 135 press I wouldn’t have done it. Couple weeks ago I did 135 for 7 and I actually am not sure I would have made that today. Just didn’t have the groove.

On bench, I can certainly do more than 115 and have been. But, I’m going to follow the program: first month is 50% of your working max, and so there I shall start. Thus all went fine. I of course supersetted this with chins and I am going for sets of 3 reps now. I didn’t get 3 full reps across all 5 sets, the last 2 sets getting 1 rep and then having to do 2 negatives. That’s OK in my book. I want to do “3 reps” no matter what it takes, and as each workout progresses I’ll work closer to 5 full sets of 3 full reps across. I’ll get there.

On face pulls… never done that exercise before so I had no idea where to start. I just picked 30 and that was WAY too light. Worked my way up to 50 and ran out of sets. 🙂 I’ll start at 50 next time and see where to go from there.

And I chose to do DB hammer curls because they work my grip and forearms more. Grip is more important than H000ge bicepts.

I didn’t feel mega killed by today’s workout, but this is only the beginning. I know I’m gonna be sore. 🙂

Squat, and nothing else. It helped me make up my mind.

“Week 4”

• Deload – Squat (working max: 260#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 2x5x105
  • 2x5x135
  • 2x5x160
• Asst. #1 – Squat
  • 5 x 10 x 135

And that’s all I did. Squat.

I’ve been giving some serious thought to my future direction, and the more I think about doing the “Boring But Big 3 Month Challenge” the more it appeals to me.

It’s simple.

It’s pretty much all big movements. I’m finding I hate things like Good Mornings, Leg Presses, Leg Curls, and other such stuff. Give me the big movements and I’m pretty happy.

Assistance work is there to help with weak points. Where are my weak points? Everywhere and nowhere. I can’t isolate out much that is specifically weak, e.g. trouble locking out on bench press. But I just need to get overall strong (and big). So let’s just revert back… gravitate back to where I started, but with a bit more oomph.

The more I look at BBB/3Mo, the more I like it. The more I think that’s just what I need. If I want to get better at the squat, I should squat.

I did wonder if it ran counter to my fat-loss issues, but I don’t think it will. I think I will still lean up some. When I look at the food intake that Wendler suggests, it’s pretty much what I’m doing now, just a lot tighter. Between the ZMA forcing me to not eat after supper, plus a Lenten effort to stick to eating only what I’m to eat (i.e. can’t shove anything in my mouth between meals, even if it’s good for me), that ought to work out alright for me. I might try to see about upping my “cardio” some by changing my walking route to add a little more time/distance to the mix.

And so today? It was an effort to see if I really wanted to do it or not. So all I did today was squat. Granted it wasn’t quite like the program would be, but just squatting the whole time showed me that 1. this is going to kick my ass, thus I must do it 2. I actually enjoyed this a lot more than all the other crap I’ve been doing, thus I must do it.

So there we go.

Onwards.

This post is really just me thinking aloud. Trying to sort out what I really want, what my goals really are, and trying to figure out the best path to get there.

If this is of no interest to you… well, you probably already stopped reading. 🙂

I’ve been lifting weights for under a year.

I’ve lifted on and off since I was a teenager, but it’s really sticking this time I think in part due to having better knowledge and programs. I started on the old “bodybuilding” routine because that’s what I knew. But then I got laid up, discovered Jim Wendler, went backwards and found Mark Rippetoe. I started doing a Starting Strength like routine (more along the lines of his Practical Programming Novice) and after a couple of months on that switched to the Wendler 5/3/1 program.

I’ve been really enjoying it. Never have I lifted such weight. Sure my weights aren’t anything major in the grand scheme of the history of lifting, but they’re all personal records to me.

What makes programs like SS and 5/3/1 work is the linear progression and focus on the basics. SS’s linear progression is great and certainly served to get me off the ground by keeping it uber-simple. The downside of the program is it’s better suited for young bucks, or those who can really focus on recovery. If you can do nothing but eat, sleep, and lift, you’ll do fine on SS for a good while. The impact was just more than growing-older-fart-me could recover from. So that’s where 5/3/1 comes in. It allowed me to progress at a slower pace, but it’s been a steady and solid pace with good gains, made possible by allowing for recovery. For some more logic and detail behind all of this, read Rippetoe and Kilgore’s book, Practical Programming for Strength Training.

Now that I’ve done 6 cycles on 5/3/1, what do I think about it?

Overall, I like it. Progress is steady. Progress is solid. You certainly have to stick with the program for a while before you’ll see results. For some that’s good — it’s a marathon, not a sprint. For others, they won’t see results quickly and will switch. That’s fine, there are other things out there for them.

To that end tho, it’s somewhat a downside: progress is slow. But that’s how it goes… you can’t keep up massive gains forever. I’m not sure how I would have taken to this rate of progress as a younger me… probably would have driven me crazy. I’d probably have gone from SS to something like the Texas Method. But older-fart me is finding this to be just fine. That isn’t to say 5/3/1 is for advanced lifters or old farts, but rather that’s the reality of the program: slow gains, but steady gains. You’ve got to be in it for the long haul.

But that all said, I keep thinking about changes to the program towards meeting my goals.

There’s no question I’ve gotten stronger. You can look at my logs and see that.

But I’ve also wanted to get bigger.

Sure, I’ve gotten somewhat bigger. There’s more muscle on me, but being as tall and lanky-framed as I am, I really would like to fill it out more with some meat.

I’ve struggled this whole time to shed the muffin-top. I see a glimmer of hope with my current plans, but it’s just hard to try to gain muscle/strength and lose fat at the same time. You really can’t do both. So I’ve generally let the gut hang and continued with strength.

But I want to pick it up. I started with the “Boring But Big” template, and that actually works nicely. I like how it’s simple and no-nonsense. But I realized something. It’s not laid out in the plans, but it’s frequently talked about: chin/pull-ups matter. The way to get enough back and bicep (i.e. upper body pulling) volume is that you HAVE to do chins after you pressing movements. It’s not one of the 3 exercises you pick for each day, but it’s there… secretly wedged in. I’m seeing that now as I’m finally able to do chin-ups.

I thought about the 5/3/1 bodybuilding template. That should help with strength and also mass, but you know one reason I don’t want to do it? That’s a MUCH longer workout. I like getting in the gym and getting out. This would keep me in the gym for a long time. Plus, some say it’s a LOT of volume, so I thought if I did do it I might trim it back by an exercise or two for a starting cycle then in later cycles add them back in. But still, I don’t know.

Then Jim recently came out with what he calls the BBB 3 Month Challenge. It’s taking BBB to a different level. It ups the weights, it mixes up how you do the assistance work.

I can see by how I’ve been changing the assistance work, keeping the spirit of BBB, merging in a bit of Triumvirate, wanting to round out the assistance work to bring up the volume and work a bit to see about more muscle… well… I’m starting to think BBB 3 month might be where to go. It keeps things simple and straightforward, but it’ll kick your ass hard. The only thing that I have to wuss out on is doing it 3x week instead of 4. Yeah yeah yeah, I know. So it’ll probably take me 4 months to finish it, and maybe there’ll be some loss in gain for doing it that way. I’ll live.

And I’m wondering if I should go ahead and change it up for this upcoming 7th cycle or not. I was kinda set to stay the course, but… maybe I’ll call an audible here.

I do wonder tho. I’m kinda expecting myself to reset soon. I’m seeing where my numbers are going. Will there be a problem if I have to reset while doing the challenge? I don’t know. But who cares. This is a journey, so just make a decision, forge ahead, and take things as they come. Who knows… the way it works me I might actually blow through any walls. 🙂

It’s deload week. keep it light, even if it means changing it up a bit.

“Week 4”

• Deload – Bench Press (working max: 220#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 2x5x95
  • 2x5x110
  • 2x5x135
• Asst. #1 – Bench Press
  • 5 x 10 x 135
  • Supersetted with chin-ups: 5x2xbw
• Arm work
  • DB hammer curls: 3x8x30 (each)
  • supersetted with
  • Triceps rope pushdowns: 3x10x40

I’m loosening up about deloading, because yeah… just deload. Do basic movements, take it easy. I also think I’m getting all excited about chin-ups, so I opted to just do them today and skipped the db rows. Kept the light arm work in too, just because.

No big deal today. Just get in, get out.

Normally deload week is nothing to write about, but today was different.

“Week 4”

• Deload – Deadlift (working max: 315#)
  • 2x5x135
  • 2x5x165
  • 2x5x195

• Deload – Press (working max: 150#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 2x5x60
  • 2x5x75
  • 2x5x90
• Asst. #1 – Press
  • 5 x 10 x 75
• Asst. #2 – Chins
  • 5 x 2 x BW

First thing, I forgot my iPhone. I keep track of what TO do and then what I DID do in an iPhone app, and forgetting it well… I basically knew what the numbers and routine should be. I was slightly off on deadlift (5# more than I needed). But it all was good enough.

Then after finishing the last set of assistance pressing I realized I forgot to superset with chins! Ugh. Then I figured why not? this is deload week, no need to kill myself. I opted to just do chins but this time go for 2 reps each set. I managed to do it, tho the last rep I got my chin to the bar and had to work to get it over the bar. Good enough! And that’s all I did today. Rest was very minimal… I was in and out of the gym in about 40 minutes.

So I had to really wing it today, but today is always an odd day since it’s deload week and since I’m doing 3-days-per-week Wendler you have to double up deads and presses on the same day to ensure an even cycle.

Whatever tho. I’m actually happy about the chins. I decided next cycle that I’ll strive for 5x3xbw with chins, and if I can’t get 3 reps then somehow I have to. If say I get almost up there, struggle for it but then let myself do a negative on the way down. If I can’t get up at all, rest 15 seconds then get back on the bar. I will get 3 reps regardless of how I have to do it, with the goal being of course 5×3 smooth and happy sets. Due to that, I’m not going to change my pulldown weight because the chins will already be adding an increased workload.