Learned a few things.

First, Pressing overall is going well. I do look forward to more pressing with the 45’s because it does certainly affect the movement. Pressing 130 vs 135 isn’t much difference in terms of weight, but it is in terms of feel. That said, again I hit the threshold of 10 reps and shut it down. But whereas in other lifts I keep hitting 10 and have more in me, with Pressing I feel I’m right where I should be; that 10 felt like I only had 1-2 in the tank.

Second, chin-ups. I continue to experiment with grips to find what will be least stressful on my joints. So today I tried that really wide set of pull-up grips that every gym has. Took about half a rep to say “hell no”. I was surprised at just how much stress that put on my shoulders, in a bad way. So I just reverted to close-grip chin-ups. Second set I tried throwing a towel over the bar. That was ok, but no question my grip is my weak point. So I may not make these the staple, but maybe after a few sets of normal chin-ups I might throw these in. But for now, back to normal chins.

Third, just for the record, the face pulls were done on the cable crossover apparatus, thus pulling through 2 pulleys and so the weight value is deceptive vs. the mechanical advantage 2 pulleys give you.

Everything else went generally fine. Nothing exciting to report. 🙂

That said, there’s a bit of unexcited. Since I stopped The Defattening Project, I’ve been enjoying the freedom to eat — a little too much. I’m gaining weight faster than I should, and I can see it around my gut. I’m very unhappy with myself. So, I need to dig in about it. It’s been a combinaton of a few factors:

1. I upped my carbs
2. I didn’t up my fats
3. I dropped my workload

Upping carbs was a natural and necessary thing. Trouble is, I upped it too much. Just enjoying a few too many things.

I didn’t up my fats either. I mean, after almost 2 years of almost no fat in my diet, I’m just not in the habit of seeking out and consuming fat! To eat an avocado, to eat whole eggs, etc.. Not only would this help with my calorie levels, but it would add that level of satiation that I need — that’s also causing me to graze. Sometimes instead of getting an Oreo or two, a spoonful of peanut butter would work better. Gotta change some habits.

Finally, I dropped my workload. No more cardio? Yea! But really, even that light amount of cardio burned enough calories over the course of the week to add up and be beneficial. Plus, my lifting style is different and it’s not the same volume of work. So I need to bring my workload back up. I’m going to start doing this by adding 20-30 minutes of brisk elliptical work on my gym days after I’m done lifting, before I leave.

We’ll see how this goes.

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
  • 100 x 5 (work sets superset with chin-ups)
  • 115 x 5
  • 130 x 10
• Close-Grip Bench Press
  • 105 x REP (sets superset with chin-ups)
  • 125 x REP
  • 145 x REP
• V-Bar Pulldowns
  • 100 x 20
  • 100 x 20
  • 100 x 14
• Face Pulls
  • 100 x 15
  • 100 x 15
  • 100 x 15
• Skullcrushers (superset with curls)
  • 55 x 20
  • 55 x 20
  • 55 x 15
• Close-grip EZ-bar Curls
  • 50 x 20
  • 50 x 18
  • 50 x 13

Oh yeah… I started really light. 🙂

I just keep hitting the 10-rep threshold, which isn’t a bad thing really. I’ll just keep taking the reps. Plus, I find that it’s been good for me to really get my technique and groove back to something, since I’ve been away from conventional deadlifts for so long.

That said, front squats are where they need to be. I’m finding that I really don’t like them that much, but I do find the new approach more workable (the wider stance). And again, when I get down in the hole, it really seems to do a number on my glutes. I’ll keep doing them tho, because it’s good for me.

The other “don’t really like, but is good for me” are the bodyweight unilateral stuff. I’m not going to change up with that yet (to work them back in), but I will say the glute bridges are curious to me. I found myself today focusing a little different as I did the movement, and I actually got more work on the hamstrings than the glutes. I’m going to keep playing with them, and eventually I will go to one leg. I hate this stuff, but I cannot deny it’s good for my aging frame.

No music today. Had bunch of stuff on my mind.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Deadlift
  • 135 x 5
  • 165 x 5
  • 195 x 3
  • 215 x 5
  • 245 x 5
  • 280 x 10
• Front Squat
  • 115 x 10
  • 140 x 10
  • 160 x 10
• Elevated Glute Bridges (triset with crunches and calf raises)
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 10
• Crunches
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 10
• Seated Calf Raises
  • 35 x 13
  • 35 x 13
  • 35 x 13

Good stuff.

Keeping the wrist wraps on until my wrists feel better; they help.

On the 5+ set, I had a lot left in me (could have gotten 2-3 more easily, and still had some in the tank), but trying to stick to the rule of 10-max and shutting it down. It’s in part for the discipline of the program: stimulate, don’t annihilate; work light; that I don’t need to kill it every session because it’s a week of recovery, rather get the volume over the course of the week given I’ll hit the general same areas twice a week; etc.. So far so good, but I just have to keep reinforcing the paradigm shift.

That said, overall felt very strong today. While I’m not tracking my pull-ups here, I am making progress on them too.

I feel good about the change-up on the assistance work, but it’s the first session so hard to really say. But keeping it to 1 minute of rest between sets is certainly helping on bringing things up and keeping my session times from getting stupid long.

I do think I’m going to bring a “first set last” approach in on the next cycle. I think a little more volume will be good.

Music: bunch of 80’s hair bands.

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
  • 150 x 5 (work sets superset with neutral-grip pull-ups)
  • 175 x 5
  • 200 x 10 (shut it down early)
• Incline Press
  • 105 x 10 (sets superset with neutral-grip pull-ups)
  • 125 x 10
  • 145 x 10
• Cable Rows
  • 100 x 20
  • 100 x 14
  • 100 x 12
• Shrugs
  • 185 x 20
  • 185 x 20
  • 185 x 15
• Overhead Triceps Extensions
  • 55 x 20
  • 55 x 14
  • 55 x 10
• Hammer Curls
  • 25e x 20
  • 25e x 12
  • 25x x 10

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