Your “are what I wanted” day of eating and mine are slightly different…
no mention of whole large pizza, spaghetti, dinner rolls, and fettuccine 
I only had a half day, or it would have been a much, much longer list.
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You’ve seem to have had some pretty rough sessions as of lately.
You could try to switch things up a bit. Maybe BBB is to much volume. (It was for me).
In your first post you stated that physique was the goal.
You have been following along on the Paul Carter thread, so you could try to use some of the info on that thread.
If you want to keep 531 you could try something like:
Taking your last workout as an example
I would start with squat
do your topset as a pr/amrap set.
Then do 1 set of FSL amrap
Finish legs with 1 set of single leg movement amrap
Seated press again topset as pr/amrap
1 set FSL amrap
Lat raise amrap with an intensifier rest pause/350 set
finish with a superset of abs and pull ups. 2 sets to failure.
More intense workout a lot less tonnage.
If you want to keep 531 in the mix stay with the weights until you get to at least 8 reps on the last/heaviest week.
It’s just a suggestion, because I really like what the man says in the thread, not saying everything is true.
But if you recall Jims first book it was always go for that PR on the topset, that’s where the money is.
I think if you asked Jim he would still say that’s what working. To many peeps have asked what about assistance and as of now he is just milking his program. At one point Jim altered and said that on the 531 week you should get at least 5 reps otherwise your TM is to heavy.
Sorry for the long rant
@mortdk has a point. I’d rather do one hard set instead of five medium sets. The biggest takeaway from Paul’s thread is finding and doing the least amount of work to achieve the desired effect.
BBB might work, but a different approach with less volume might also work.
RFESS can crush your legs but they’re not very taxing on your CNS like squats. You could swap out BBB squats for those, destroy your legs, and improve recovery due to the decreased CNS strain.
Appreciate the advice massively guys, genuinely.
My thought process has been one of trying to rule out variables. I think I’m pretty good at programming for myself by now, however my results say otherwise. I can blame stress, poor sleep, limited gym time, etc. all I want but I don’t know for sure until I try a straight out the box program that definitely works. Then I know that my programming isn’t at fault and I eliminate one variable.
In terms of volume, I genuinely don’t think I’m doing too much, however that’s now 3 smarter, stronger people who say otherwise so even my stubborn brain has to admit there might be an issue. My plan is to rest my back up until it feels “right”, then continue with this cycle (3 of 6 workouts down). If I keep having “freak bad workouts”, I may have to abandon ship and try something with less volume. I also plan to get rid of my old “grindy as hell” squat rep PRs and start the record book blank. Squat form has actually felt much more stable recently and I’d like to keep it that way. I’m also considering lightening the load on squat BBB sets and slowing them down. I think this might be more productive for building form and muscle.
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So I have actually been training, but only uphill treadmill walking daily. Took painkillers for a few days earlier in the week, which is unusual for me. Mid back is feeling much better though. No painkillers today and only the occasional reminder that there’s something wrong. Could probably have lifted today, but thought I’d be smarter to leave it until Sunday, make sure everything really is good before deadlift day.
Nutrition: as planned, except some bananas swapped out for strawberries because the British strawberry season is here, and I can’t describe how perfect they are. Weight trending downwards, but fluctuating massively.
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Glad to hear things are improving. Looking forward to seeing back under the bar soon
So that’s a big old nope. Slept on the floor mattress again last night and woke up in massive pain again. I can only assume that’s the culprit, although God knows why it’s suddenly such an issue. I’ll try sleeping on the sofa for a while, painkillers as needed and decide at game time whether I lift tomorrow. Getting very restless to be moving some weight now.
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Work for today:
Bench: worked up to 80kg x 8
Then: 5 x 10 @ 50kg
Deadlift: worked up to 5 x 120kg
Then: 5 x 10 @ 60kg
Pull ups: lots
Abs: some
Notes:
- Backs felt fine all day. Tweaked it slightly benching, but not enough to slow me down
- Bench was still a PR, but a poor, grindy one.
- 5 x 10 really is dull as anything
- still holding off on rep PR’S ON deadlift while I make sure my back is healthy and get used to the volume. Kind of itching to get after them though.
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Nice work and good idea to not do the PR set on deads.
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Nice Bench PR, I think every rep PR the last couple will be grindy and not that pretty.
Probably a good idea not PR’ing on DL.
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@mortdk I try to keep my reps pretty clean, but sometimes you need a win. Makes tracking PR’s trickier though because I don’t (yet) note whether they’re grindy reps or not.
@simo74 thanks man. It feels weird to do so little work in one session, but the volume still has me gassed by the end. I think this will definitely increase my work capacity, if nothing else. And yeah, I know from experience that I get a bit carried away with deadlift PR’s. They used to wipe me out when I was 5 years younger, sleeping 8 hours a night and pretty stress free. I definitely need to be wary of going back to that with my current recovery ability and a dodgy back
Speaking of which: back feels pretty much perfect today. In fact I’m feeling pretty good all round, no DOMs, minimal aches and pains, happy days.
Nutrition for today:
Breakfast: oats
2 double protein shakes throughout the day
Dinner: hopefully chicken, prosciutto and veg. Might end up stuck at the in laws for dinner, in which case all bets are off unfortunately.
Nutrition for last week was as planned, apart from a protein bar Amazon sent me free, which I used as a post workout last night. It was fine, just tasted like a slightly rubbish toffee crisp.
Nutrition plan for this week:
Breakfast: 100g oats with handful frozen berries, 1 Apple, 1 scoop whey
Lunch: 4 scoops of protein powder, 2 portions of fruit, I’ve planned bananas but the strawberries might be too tempting
Dinner: depending on the plan for the day will be either:
Chilli (400g lean mince, red kidney beans, many veggies, 100g rice, flavour)
Or:
Wraps (400g Chicken breast, 2 wholemeal tortillas, vegetation, flavour)
Sunday will be a roast (300g chicken, 200g roast potatoes, veggies)
Plan to lift tuesday/Friday, not sure on post workout yet, but i always crave grease sonic I hit some big numbers I might treat myself to a maccy Dees or something.
This is Quality and exactly what you want. Nice
That’s pretty darn good Dagill, but be careful, don’t go ballistic on the next couple of workouts… it might flare right up.
Nutrition for today: as planned, plus a decent sized bacon cheeseburger post workout. It was a long, rough day.
Work for today:
Seated press: worked up to 5 x 50kg
Then 5 x 10@ 25kg
Squat: worked up to 82.5kg x 10
Then 5 x 10 @ 50kg
Abs: some
Pull ups: lots.
Notes:
- Weight had been moving in the right direction, fairly sure it still will be by weigh in tomorrow
- Lightening the squats feels like a good idea at the minute. By focussing on doing them right, they became just as difficult as the 60/70kg Squats.
- I’ve been trying to do more pull ups outside of the gym as well. I was extremely disappointed when I restarted pull ups a few weeks ago, so I’m trying to make it a bit of a priority. Especially with the reduced back volume in this plan.
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Nutrition for today: as planned, plus a packet of my favourite crisps my little man insisted on feeding me at lunchtime. Cut potatoes out of evening meal to compensate.
Weight: 190.6. Back over 190 again, but a definite downward trend, so I’m happy with with that.
Fun fact for the day: if anyone’s in need of a quick way to epilate their arms, I can’t recommend banded push ups enough. Quick and incredibly painful, but far less messy than wax.
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So I’ve gone and picked up an infection of some sort. Tonsils massively inflamed and painful, sleep minimal. I’ll keep nutrition as planned but I’m unlikely to lift tonight. See how I feel.
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I would blame @I_Luc he has infected everyone 
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Yep, everyone at work has blamed me as well 
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So I thought fuck it, I can breathe, I can lift.
Instantly regretted it when I had to park 20mins walk from the gym due to Friday night traffic.
Bench:
Worked up to 85kg x 3
Then: 5 x 10 @ 50kg
Deadlift: worked up to 130kg x 5
Then: 5 x 10 @ 70kg
Abs: some
Pull ups: some
Notes:
- PR sets on bench are getting too low for my liking. I know I’ve been lifting in less than ideal circumstances the last few weeks, but would still like to be closer to double digits. I’ll see how I recover and consider some TM manipulation
- Once I get used to the volume, I think some more dedicated lat work will be needed.
- Accidentally loaded the deadlifts too heavy. Thought I’d put 20kg on first, turned out to be 25kg. That was a nice surprise when I unloaded the bar after.
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