531 seems very short on Carrie’s in general, to be honest.
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Yes and yes. I started trying barbell rows again because I really don’t enduring the suck twice for the same movement.
@Cyrrex, I just remembered Wendler Rows for upper/mid back. It’s a shrug with a bit of a row. I used cables with the v-handle or the T-Bar row. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything at home to do these (no handles to treat my bar like a landmine).
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Ooh, nice. I have tried rowing from that position, but my back didn’t like it. That looks doable.
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If you can do them with cables (and you can load the cable stack heavy enough), these are awesome.
Awesome and awful at the same time. My sets took like 60 seconds each and it burned. Three second hold at the top, brief pause at the bottom, and then I’d hold on as long as I could after the last rep to get a loaded stretch.
Confession: I usually set the time limit at 20 or 30 seconds. I could’ve gone longer, but my forearms burned so bad. I recommend using straps.
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Noice. Will give it a look tomorrow I think.
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In other news, just ordered my copy of 531 Forever from Jim’s site (an early birthday present to myself). Shopped around a bit first and found one on Amazon for the bargain price of £458.75, with £2.80 shipping. What kind of cheeky arsehole price gauges that much, then charges them extra for shipping?
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So to be clear, you still spent roughly 500 quid on a book. That sounds wrong. Either that is a typo or you are literally the worst shopper.
Oh wait, you ordered it on Jim’s site. Still expensive, I am guessing.
I absolutely didn’t pay that price, no. I paid £48 including international shipping, and likely some exchange rate related fees as well. Which is expensive, but probably worth it for me.
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I said it back when I first bought the book and it still holds true today: I am honestly shocked that it does not cost $100. When I saw the $40 pricetag, I lept on it (and since I bought it pre-release, it was actually like $32).
It’s no secret that I’m a total Jim Wendler fanboy, which is funny given that I really don’t abide by many of his principles, but the book is no joke something that, if my kid ever showed interest in lifting, I’d just give them and go “Here you go: all the answers”.
It helps that I read “Powerlifting Basics Texas Style” to them as a bed time story when they were younger, so that’s already covered, haha.
You won’t regret the purchase at all. Read it start to finish, cover to cover. Leaping in the middle will make it screwed up.
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I was thinking “Goodnight Moon” or something but I suppose I can try to work this one in.
We hit up all the classics, don’t get me wrong, but it was something I really wanted to do. One of the highlights of my lifting career is that I got to tell Paul Kelso about it before he passed away.
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That’s awesome, dude. Super cool to get meet a “hero” (not sure how you’d refer to him) of yours.
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Thanks man. Wasn’t a physical meeting unfortunately: happened over facebook. But still, it was cool to have the correspondence with him.
I’d say I see plenty of parrellels between Jim’s work and your lifting, honestly.
I’ve got both previous books and would have bought this years ago if a kindle version was available. But, as you’ve probably noticed, I’m a massive Jim fanboy too.
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The biggest thing I learned from the book was how to actually PROGRAM rather than just run routines, and that definitely has shined through as of recent. Jim’s holistic approach is also solid, as it’s not just lifting but doing ALL the things that make you physically better. We’re just off in how much of a psycho I need to be in my training whereas Jim is some sort of sorcerer that can have you training well below your max abilities, finish a program, and be much stronger than when you started.
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The biggest similarity I see, is the focus on building the muscles to get stronger. Building a stronger body in order to get bigger lifts, rather than the other way round. Not a lot of talk of neurological efficiency or peaking or practising technique or the like. I’m aware many other authors have similar thought processes, but not quite as clearly a central tenet
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Work for today:
5 x 10 press @ 40kg ss. 5 pull ups
Notes:
- Fooking knackered today, just grabbed a quick session while I could. Grip was fried for some reason so pull ups sucked more than they should. Maybe the 10 second rest periods contributed to that too. Actually had to focus for the last 2 press reps which is pretty embarrassing and probably not something I should admit online. Don’t tell my parents.
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Apparently grip is the first thing to go down when you’re tired (because it’s the most neurological thing) according to CT.
And a little something is better than nothing!
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I’ve read that in many places, yeah. I’ll blame the piss poor baby weights on that then.