[quote]UnderConstuction wrote:
[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
I see this is your second cycle of 5-3-1. Did you calculate your Training Maxes (90% of 1RM), as required? I’m just curious because you should be getting more than 2 reps on your 5-3-1 week two cycles in.
[/quote]
This. I suggest either lowering your training max or taking smaller weight jumps from cycle to cycle for a while this way you won’t stall as quickly. 5/3/ is all about the fact that you can get stronger with sub-maximal weights. Also as far as your accessory work goes it’s kinda high. I would stick to 3 or 4 assistance exercises (including arms and abs). 5/3/1 is about the main lift not the assistance. However Jim did say (paraphrasing) that as long as your main lift is going up do what ever the hell you want for assistance work. And you are setting PR’s
so you get to do whatever the hell you want. And I’ve found that if you want to get bigger on 5/3/1 BBB is full of win.[/quote]
Agreed on 2 reps not being enough at this point in 5/3/1.
I started 5/3/1 last year, set my initial weights a bit on the high side, and got through about five cycles before everything just fell to shit. Took a couple of weeks light, tried one reset, utterly failed to hit anything close to my prescribed reps. Did a second reset, judged off of my actual training maxes – but by that point I was so fried (and enough life trauma going on) that I took about a 2-3 month hiatus. Not out of the gym fully, though there were a few skipped weeks, but lighter stuff, more Oly work, and the like.
Started up again in September based on my summer reset. Did OK but not great, so I decided to repeat the cycle. THAT was where the majick started to show: I was grossly increasing my reps for all lifts on all of my 5 / 3 / 5/3/1 weeks. Squats (which had been stalling) I went first for 15 reps, then 20. Press went from 3 reps to 6, deads went from a miss (strained back) to 8 reps. Only my bench dropped a rep, which I attribute to a good performance in the prior cycle, and more fatigue on the second (I’d got a full dead set instead of failing out), and it still put my computed 1RM 20# over my best actual.
I also took a hard look at my auxiliary work, really trimming it to 2-3 movements per day. I’m hitting back (chins / Kroc rows) and weak points specifically, with power cleans on press day (they’re fun). I do virtually no direct ab work – I consider the squats, deads, GMs, GHRs, and push-ups coverage. If I’m really feeling my vinegar I may throw in a set of HLRs 1-2x in the cycle. But don’t wait for it. And, during deload, week, I deloaded the aux work as well (Wendler tells you to do this, though it’s a bit buried). Felt really good starting this cycle, looking forward to seeing how it goes.
I’m just starting my third cycle of the fall, this time progressing at 10# / 5# as prescribed by Wendler, and 3 workouts in (press is tomorrow) it’s going well.
Sorry to hijack your log, Hallowed 