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

To deadlift again.

I really miss deadlifting, and I’d reason it’s a subtle reason I’m happy to be going back to 5/3/1. Today was pretty light, but it was good. Since I’ve been away for so long, my form is rusty and I really felt it today. I felt very “forward”, with my weight forward, almost more on the balls of my feet than the mid-foot. I had to work to find my groove again. Things improved towards the end, but it’ll probably be another week or two before I feel really dialed back in. Still, that things felt VERY light today was good because I could focus more on getting back into it. I worked up to 10 reps and just capped it — leave it in the tank (tho this was more than 1-2 in the tank; but hey, start very light right?)

Fronts were fine.

Good mornings… I think I hate them because I’m just not sure I’m doing it all right. I just don’t feel anything, other than I’m going to fall over. 😉 That said, my lower back was blown up from the deadlifts and fronts, so I dropped the weight a bit and really tried to work on form. I found towards the end I was doing better at keeping my torso in a good position (I was “slouching”, if you will). That seemed to help. So like just about everything today, too light, but focus on form improvement. So hey, not a bad thing.

As for the hip thrusts, or maybe it’s glute bridges. Whatever — I’m not putting a barbell on my hips, I’m not exploding upwards. I’m trying to find a way to get some hip extension work for my hamstrings, since I have no glute-ham-raise equipment. And I’m sorry, but every time I read about “activing the glutes”, I get some image of “Wonder Twin Powers… activate!” in my head, and the image just goes south from there. 🙂 So I did these, and sure, if I focused on the muscle I could actually feel it more in my glutes, which was pretty cool. And I really do want to keep some sort of bodyweight and unilateral movement around (a Paul Carter holdover). Today was 2-feet on the ground, but I saw this:

and it’s what I’m going to work my way up to. I’ll probably do the normal 2-feet on the ground glute bridges type movement next week as well, just to ensure I’m getting it right with the muscle focus, but I’ll work towards doing the 1-legged raised ones and see how it goes. Who knows — this might wind up being a failure and I find something else to do. But I’m trying it. Hell, I might even go back to long-stride lunges or split squats.

Anyways, today was good.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Deadlift
  • 135 x 5
  • 160 x 5
  • 190 x 3
  • 210 x 5
  • 240 x 5
  • 270 x 10
• Front Squat
  • 110 x 10
  • 130 x 10
  • 155 x 10
• Good Morning
  • 95 x 10
  • 95 x 10
  • 95 x 10
• Hip Thrust (really, glute bridges)
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
• Crunches
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 15

Eye-opening for sure.

Wendler says a few things about the “press” days. Things like for every 1 pushing rep you should do at least 2 pulling reps. That in between your pushing sets you should do some sort of pulling, like pull-ups. Basically it’s a way to get a lot of back volume because back is important.

When I first did 5/3/1 some years ago, I didn’t do this. I did some back work, yes, but I didn’t do the above because 1. I couldn’t do pull-ups (fatter, weaker), and 2. I had a wussy attitude. You see, when you don’t have much, every little bit is significant; but when you have a lot, you don’t consider the details as much. For example, I’m tall and when people ask how tall I am I say things like “6 foot something”. My wife is short, so when people ask how tall she is she says “5 feet 4 and 1/4 inches” — that 1/4 is important! And so it was for me back then I was afraid that trying to do back work in between my pressing sets would detract and tire me out and keep me from getting all the reps or getting that weight number — I was weak (minded) and wanted every little bit I could get.

But it’s been a few years, and I know that sure maybe it will detract a little bit — at first — but over the long haul I’m going to be better and stronger for it all.

So this time as I 5/3/1 I’m making sure to do pulling work in between my pressing work, because 1. I finally can, 2. I’m stronger (minded).

How did things go?

Really well.

The pull-ups were very strict — dead-hang, chin above the bar, no swinging, no momentum, fully reset between reps. That worked well.

The pressing? Well, just a few days ago I was benching and my AMRAP set was 195 for 11 reps. Today’s PR set was 195… and I got 12 reps AND had a couple left in the tank. So does pull-ups in between each set detract? I don’t think so. 🙂 Granted it’s not a total apples-to-apples comparison, but good enough to demonstrate that it’s just good for me.

On the pull-ups I generally got 5 reps per set, which was really cool. I’m taking longer rests between sets, and I think that’s going to pay off in terms of better recovery and thus greater volume. Thing is, at the end of the session I totaled up all the pulling reps I did and basically did hit that “twice as many pulling as pushing reps” metric; not precisely, but very close enough. I dug that. 🙂

The wide, neutral-grip lat pulldowns were interesting. Yeah, I got some lat work in there, but I really felt it in my rear delts and that area. It’s been interesting to see how various handles on the pulldowns have hit different things for me. Like the v-bar really hits the middle of my upper back (and my lats). This wide, neutral-grip really hits my rear delts and that outer-upper back (and my lats). Something like a curl-grip pulldown really really works my lats. Quite interesting. Mostly because some time ago when back work still didn’t “move me”, I didn’t feel much difference between the grips/handles. But as I’ve gotten better at really working my back muscles, I’m finding the differences. It’s cool.

The DB rows were “Kroc-style”. I can’t do true Kroc Rows (implies you take the heaviest db in the place and rep it out). But I do the approach of 2 10-rep sets to warm up, then hit the last set for 20-40 reps. Dig that.

I found that my back was worked well, but not killed — that whole “stimulate, don’t annihilate”. My back hasn’t felt like this before; pretty cool.

I actually didn’t feel like I got enough pressing work, but I have to remember the pressing work is of a different orientation, so just roll with the program.

So far, digging the SST.

Music: Metallica, on shuffle…. and hitting “skip” a lot when it comes to particular albums. 😉

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)
  • 170 x 5
  • 195 x 12
• Incline Press
  • 105 x 10 (sets superset with neutral-grip pull-ups)
  • 125 x 10
  • 145 x 10
• Wide, neutral-grip Pulldowns
  • 110 x 15
  • 110 x 15
  • 110 x 12
• DB Rows
  • 55 x 10
  • 55 x 10
  • 55 x 21
• Overhead Triceps Extensions
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 15
• Hammer Curls
  • 25e x 15
  • 25e x 12
  • 25e x 9

Time for a change.

Time to Pursue the (next) Goal

I knew after I finished The Defattening Project that my next big goal was “3/4/5” — bench press 3 wheels (315#), squat 4 wheels (405#), and deadlift 5 wheels (495#). I didn’t start on this immediately after I stopped defattening because I was enjoying the hypertrophy work (still do). But recently I’ve been thinking about it more, and it’s come time to officially start on this journey. Sure, I’m stopping the GMM after only 2 weeks, but I learned some years ago that once you’re certain of something, get on with it else you’re just wasting precious time. So, I’m getting on with it.

Back to 5/3/1

While I’ve really enjoyed Paul Carter’s programming and philosophy, I’m moving away from it. I don’t think I’ll totally abandon Paul’s stuff, and I’m sure someday I’ll come back to it. It’s just that 5/3/1 has proven itself to me in the past, and it’s quite proven “around the world” that it works. It’s simple, it’s got solid foundational principles, and it works.

I also look at what I’ve learned over the past few years, in general and about myself and what I do and do no respond to. I see what’s working, I see what can help me maximize potential, and 5/3/1 should play in that. And since it’s nice to start out with a pre-planned template, I found that the 2nd edition’s “Simplest Strength Template” jives with what I’ve learned and what I’ve been doing. Sure, Boring But Big is proven and was my first choice for how to start off again, but SST may well be a better thing for me right now. The volume is just a hair lower than BBB, but it’s a little more comprehensive to the whole body. I’ve found that a general approach of “3 exercises” with the first being the big compound strength movement, the 2nd being an almost-big movement for more reps, and the 3rd edging towards an isolation movement for even more reps — yeah, I respond well to that: SST takes that approach (more or less). As written, it also uses some of the “big assistance” movements that I’ve been enjoying lately, like front squats. And I gotta say: going back and Pressing again has been fun and I look forward to that.

It’s other things too, like the increased frequency — it’s not 1x/week but 2. It’s a general upper/lower split. With things like the PR set, it requires me to push myself; but there’s auto-regulation and the ability to deal with less than stellar days if you need it.

Really, it should be alright. I really miss how things rolled on 5/3/1, so I’m happy to try getting back to it.

A few things to note

I am going to try 4x/week. In the past I found 4x/week was too much for me, but I also know I didn’t have a lot of stuff on point back then. Could 4x/week still be too much for me? Certainly. If that happens, I’ll fall back to 3x/week. But I want to see how this goes now and take whatever learning I can from it. That said, in the past I’ve also done the 2-cycles in a row before deloading, but I will NOT do that here; I will take the deload on the 4th week. This is an attempt to balance things a bit in terms of the 4x/week load.

I will start out as-written, but I’ll change up as needed, in whatever way that might mean.

I picked my working maxes based on a few things. Some things I flat out had the hard data on, so it was simple math to figure out. Other things I had reasonable guesses on or close enoughs and went from there (e.g. I don’t have straight-leg deadlift numbers, but I did have stiff-leg — so I took the stiff-leg and adjusted downwards a little bit). Bottom line is to “start too light” so when in doubt, round down, underestimate, etc. because in time it’ll work up.

Today

It felt so different from what I’ve been doing. 🙂

I’ve been used to 5/4/3/2/1 on the work up, so doing the same # of reps felt a little odd. Small thing, but still there.

When I was doing the last set, I just kept going 1 rep at a time. When I hit 10 reps, my first thought was to keep going, but I racked it because my brain said “You know, somewhere Wendler wrote that it’s reasonable to cap the 5+ set at 10 reps”. So I did. It was good, because another thing to remember is that you’re supposed to leave 1-2 reps in the tank — this is not going to failure. So much of my work the past many months has been AMRAP and to failure, so I have to break out of that habit and let myself rack it before I get to that failure point. I think 10 was actually legit that point anyways because I know 11 was possible, 12 was a maybe (i.e. make the call after I’d finish 11)… so yeah, good.

Everything else was generally good, but man… I bet I’m going to be so damn sore in my hamstrings, glutes, and lower back come tomorrow. That got a lot of work. So much that while I was supposed to finish with some hanging leg hip raises, I opted to just do crunches so my lower back could be a little happier. 🙂 First day and already calling audibles. My body will get used to things.

I recall last night looking at this thinking that on paper it should be a pretty easy day. And relatively speaking I’ve had tougher days, but it’s a reminder that just because it’s a “5” day doesn’t mean it’s easy and something you can just phone in.

So hey… felt a little strange, but yet, felt good. Happy. Looking forward to where this goes.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Squats
  • bar x whatever
  • 105 x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 160 x 3
  • 175 x 5
  • 200 x 5
  • 225 x 10
• Straight-leg Deadlift
  • 145 x 10
  • 170 x 10
  • 200 x 10
• Leg Curls
  • 30 x 15
  • 30 x 12
  • 30 x 10
• Hyperextensions
  • BW x 12
  • BW x 12
  • BW x 12
• Crunches
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10

Apparently the hardest thing to do in the gym is WIPING DOWN THE EQUIPMENT WHEN YOU’RE DONE WITH IT! Seems some Thursday evening regular has rather (over-)active sebaceous glands, because I always find his/her head-funk on the benches, and today I found his/her leg-funk on the lat-pulldown seat. How fucking difficult is it to wipe down the equipment when you’re done with it?!?!

Apart from that grossness tho…

Today was alright. Yesterday I was doing a lot of pistol and rifle shooting. I had on a long-sleeved Under Armour shirt and had pulled the sleeves up, with the cuff being just above my elbow. After some time I was feeling great discomfort and a weird sort of “weakness” in my arms (I’m sure restricted blood flow). Pulled the sleeves down and things were eventually better. As well, the bottom point of the AR’s buttstock hits my pec just right and really pokes into the muscle and tenderizes it good. So today’s benching was affected. My arms felt that same strangeness, and my pec hurt a bit. I don’t think it was a major problem — I still hit my weights and reps, even having increased things by 10# across the board. So all was generally good, but I just didn’t feel so great.

But weights are better dialed in in terms of getting the proper reps out. Inclines went well. Rows went well. And I have to say — those neutral-close-grip pulldowns on the V-bar… man, really let the arms up and shoulders go forward, then pull “from the elbows” and really sweep the upper arm back until it’s at least parallel with your torso… man… that really works my lats like nothing else I’ve felt. Crazy.

And by the end of the session, my arms felt MUCH better.

This all said, I’m thinking about making some changes. I’ll explain when it’s time.

Music today was a bunch of “80’s metal”, a playlist from Apple Music. Anthrax, Testament, Exodus, Skid Row, Dio, Metallica, Ozzy, Megadeth, W.A.S.P., Mötley Crüe, Slayer, Motörhead, Quiet Riot, Suicial Tendencies, etc.

Based on Paul Carter’s “Guaranteed Muscle Mass” article.

• Bench Press
  • bar x 10
  • 145 x 5
  • 165 x 4
  • 195 x 3
  • 215 x 2
  • 235 x 1
  • 195 x 11 (AMRAP)
  • 195 x 6 (50%)
• Incline Press (350 Method)
  • 95 x 24
  • 95 x 14
  • 95 x 11
• BB Row
  • 155 x 8
  • 155 x 8
  • 115 x 12
  • 115 x 12
• Wide, Pronated-Grip Pulldown (350 Method)
  • 85 x 20
  • 85 x 14
  • 85 x 12
• BB Curl (350 Method)
  • 40 x 28
  • 40 x 15
  • 40 x 13