ive been following this one… nice job!!!
Thanks guys I appreciate the kind words! I will be taking a break from lifting for a bit to recover. I am trashed from the meet. I will be back to posting here in about a week or so. Thanks again!
Hey guys! The training starts for real next week. I am still just breaking things back in. The week after the meet I did NOTHING. Then last week I did all band and blast strap stuff for about 30 minutes each day. This week I decided to hit one upper and one lower day, then as I said the real training resumes next week.
Last night I just did 5x5 on the squat with 275 without the belt. Then I messed around with rack pulls since I think they will help my deadlift if I add them as an accessory exercise on this run through 5/3/1. I ended up working up to 5 sets of 3 at 405. Pulling them from just bellow the knee, which is where I usually stall out. Next week I pretty much pick up where I left off with cycle 6 of the 5/3/1 program. I am only going to hit the assigned reps on the first 5RM week to help me break back in, then I will run the program like normal for the rest of the training cycle.
I will still be training only three days a week. With my limited sleep schedule the extra recovery time does me wonders. My days are going to breakdown like this:
Bench Press:
5/3/1 Bench
Boring But Big bench sets (5sets of 10 @ 50-60%) I am going to alternate BB and DB here.
Pull-Ups: Alternating weighted and unweighted
Dips alternated with blast strap pushups.
Squat:
5/3/1 Squat
5x5 with no belt
Hypers
Ab roller
Military Press:
5/3/1 Military
Boring but Big Military
DB Rows Alternating 5 sets of 10 or “kroc” rows
Dips
Band pull aparts
Deadlift:
5/3/1 Deadlift
5RM/3RM days: Pin Pulls 1RM days: SLDL 5x10
Hypers
Ab Roller
I put in a few alternate exercises to give me a little bit of variety. As of right now the deadlift is the only day where I have planned what days I will be doing what alternations of the assistance work. I plan on just deciding this by feel, but this may change as I work my way through the program.
Let me know what you think of the plan. The only major additions over before are the pin pulls and throwing in DBs for the BBB bench.
The infamous Apostate, the state record holder…good to have you back
Thanks Whup! It is good to be back at the weights. I was going nuts without it!
Also, I just got my new 1500lbs tested powerbar from Jesup barbell in the mail today. I am going to be using it to squat and probably bench with this training cycle. I never had any good bars before, just the shitty one you get with 300lbs weight sets. I am so pumped to squat with this thing on Monday! The knurling is so deep I don’t think I will have to chalk.
10-3-2009 5x5 Bench
This was my first serious upper body workout since the meet. My bench groove felt a little off and I need to really focus on keeping my upper back tight and my leg drive firing all the way through the lift. I am going to play with some foot placement stuff to get my legs more involved. I may end up benching the same boots I use to squat since that may help.
Onto the workout.
Bench: Supposed to be 5x5
225x5
225x5
225x5
225x5
225x3 I knew the next one would not go so I stopped. This was smart. I got pissed and only waited about 30 seconds before deciding I needed to get those last two reps. This was dumb…
225x1.5
The second rep stalled about 3/4 of the way up and came back down. I can’t remember the last time I missed a bench in training. This was a DUMB mistake. I should have shut it down after the set of 3. Oh well.
Time to make up for it on DB rows. These are going to be a big focus of my next training cycle. I think if I can push the weight up on these my bench and deadlift will both see some major benefits.
DB Rows:
50x5
70x5
90x8
110x10
110x10 Right arm
110x7 Left arm
I am going to alternate the way I train these. Some days it will be multiple rep sets like this and some days it will be “Kroc” row style with one all out set of 10-30 with weights in the 100-130 range.
Dips:
BWx12
BWx12
BWx12
At this point I was totally dead. My work capacity is way down from not training in a while. I felt like I was gonna puke for a bit after the DB rows. The conditioning will come back quickly I just need to be smart with my volume as I build back up.
LINK TO THE VIDEO: - YouTube
A little late on this, but great job on the meet!
[quote]BlackLabel wrote:
A little late on this, but great job on the meet![/quote]
Thank man! It was such a good time. Competing raw was so much more fun than all of the geared meets I have done. The people there were very cool as well. I can’t wait to do my next one in the spring!
Hey guys, after about a one year layoff from posting on here I am back. In the past year I have had a ridiculous amount of life changing events. I got a new job, bought a house, got married, and bought a new car. Needless to say my training was mostly done pretty light and I just tried to fit it in where and when I could. I pretty much stopped training heavy and was just doing bodybuilder type stuff for reps.
Now things are finally setting down. I just finished up two weeks of 5x5 as a bit of a primer before getting back into the 5/3/1 program again. I thought about making a new thread, but this one documents the progress I had made before and I am hoping to get back to that level and way beyond so I am going to keep it going right here.
My short term goals are to compete in a tune up meet on Sept 11th and then be ready for a bigger meet December 4th. I am starting really light and building my way back up. I have some slightly different equipment than last time since my basement had low ceilings I had to get a new rack and get a little creative with military press.
I will still be training three days a week and will try to update this as much as possible. Just like last time my only training partners are the stereo and my video camera so I will be posting my workouts on here as part of my log. My bench workout from yesterday will be up as soon and it is done uploading to youtube.
7-19-2010
5RM Bench Night
Bench:
Warm ups and stretching (PVC roller and spikey ball)
160x6 (Should have been 5, but I miscounted)
170x5
180x12 Looks like I am starting off light enough
Bench with short mini bands attached:
135+mini bands for 5 sets of 5
DB Rows:
50x10
70x10
90x15
Seated DB Power Cleans:
20x15
20x15
20x15
10x20
DB Skull Crushers:
20x15
20x15
20x15
I am going to replace the DB Skull Crushers with dips as soon as I get my new dip station set up. I was pretty happy with this workout. It was my first bench workout back and although my strength is way down my form felt pretty good and I think I should have things back close to where I was before pretty soon.
Here is a link to the video: - YouTube
[quote]Apostate wrote:
Hey guys, after about a one year layoff from posting on here I am back. In the past year I have had a ridiculous amount of life changing events. I got a new job, bought a house, got married, and bought a new car. Needless to say my training was mostly done pretty light and I just tried to fit it in where and when I could. I pretty much stopped training heavy and was just doing bodybuilder type stuff for reps.
Now things are finally setting down. I just finished up two weeks of 5x5 as a bit of a primer before getting back into the 5/3/1 program again. I thought about making a new thread, but this one documents the progress I had made before and I am hoping to get back to that level and way beyond so I am going to keep it going right here.
My short term goals are to compete in a tune up meet on Sept 11th and then be ready for a bigger meet December 4th. I am starting really light and building my way back up. I have some slightly different equipment than last time since my basement had low ceilings I had to get a new rack and get a little creative with military press.
I will still be training three days a week and will try to update this as much as possible. Just like last time my only training partners are the stereo and my video camera so I will be posting my workouts on here as part of my log. My bench workout from yesterday will be up as soon and it is done uploading to youtube.
[/quote]
Congrats and good luck with everything! Good to have you back…again
Thanks again Whup. It is good to be back. I can’t tell you how glad I am to be training properly again.
7-21-2010
5RM Deadlift Night
Warmups: Dynamic mobility, PVC roller, Spikey ball
135x5
225x3
275x5
295x5
315x10
Stiff Leg Deadlifts, no belt (I am going to slowly work these back up to 225+)
185x10
185x10
185x10
185x10
185x10
Band Abduction/Adduction: 5 Sets
Ab Wheel with knees on my bench: (These are REALLY hard and I think they will help my squat and deadlift a ton!)
3 sets of 10
Overall I felt really good tonight. My deadlift form is starting to come back. I need to focus on getting a little more leg drive at the start, but overall everything felt really fast and pretty easy tonight.
7-24-2010
5RM Military Press Night
For starters, I had to modify the way I do military press at my new house. The basement is great for lifting with the concrete floors and all, but the ceilings are really low. I am only 5’4’’ but when I reach up I can touch the ceiling if I stretch for it. I knew this was going to make military pressing with a standard power bar impossible. I was thinking about buying a giant cambered bar from elitefts.com to use for pressing, but it was just way to expensive for what I was going to use it for. I decided instead to try to build a mini-cambered bar with a much smaller camber. I designed and built one out of galvanized pipe and I think it came out pretty well. The camber makes it a little less stable than a regular bar and a little harder to control. Also, I have no idea how much it weighs so I just count the weight that I put on the bar and count the bar as 0 so that is why the weights listed look so low.
Military Press:
75x5
80x5
85x12
Military Press BBB sets:
50x10 x 5 sets
Barbell rows:
135x12
135x12
135x12
135x10
Seated DB Power Cleans:
20x15
20x15
20x12
10x20
10x15
I did some band work after that for my right shoulder that is basically just prehab stuff. I would be interested to see what you guys think about the mini cambered bar. I am thinking about trying to make another version out of a real Olympic bar eventually.
nice solution:)
Very smart solution! I wanna try that bar out.
[quote]whup wrote:
Very smart solution! I wanna try that bar out.[/quote]
Thanks guys. The bar is interesting. It is harder to use than a regular bar, but as long as I keep getting stronger with it then it should not matter.
7-26-2010
3RM Squat Night
Warmups PVC roller, dynamic warmup and spikey ball
255x3
270x3
280x10
225 for 5x5 with no belt
Goodmornings:
135x10
135x10
135x10
Abs on my hyper bench
BWx12
BWx12
BWx10
BWx9
I am not sure if I like doing the sets of 5x5 raw or not. I know it gives me more volume, which I need right now but my form was starting to breakdown a little bit at the end and the last thing I want to be doing is practice squatting with bad form. I might replace these with goodmornings. Any thoughts???
By the way there is no video. The camera cut out during my 280x10 set. I was pretty pissed off.
7-29-2010
3RM Bench
170x3
180x3
190x12
Sets with red shorty band attached:
135x5
135x5
135x5
135x5
135x5
Seated DB Power Cleans:
15x20
15x20
15x20
15x20
DB Rows:
70x10
90x10
100x20
No camera today. I was training with a good buddy of mine and didn’t feel like breaking it out. My bench still feels really solid. I am excited to see where I can get things by the time I am ready for my meet Sept 11th
7-30-2010
3RM Deadlift
295x3
315x3
330x10
Stiff Leg Deadlift No Belt
205x10
205x10
205x10
205x10
205x9
Ab Wheel:
4 sets
I felt pretty good about my deadlifts tonight. My form seems to be coming back a bit and I feel pretty strong on them. Right now this is the lift that I am most comfortable with out of the big 3.