Mine had 3 bars in the pack.i wasn’t sure which one I would want. I use the mid level one.
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I used the yellow one.
Can’t recall what level that was.
Theres a quirky twist movement you would never figure out on your own, lmk if you’re good or if you want me to look it up.
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OK, I can’t find the original video I used, but it’s called the Reverse Tyler Twist. That’s what I used; there are other twists you can do but if you have the pain I had, Reverse Tyler is where it’s at.
There are plenty of videos under that query, and they mostly look awful and I don’t need to screw up my Youtube recommendation engine with them LOL!
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@jdm135 @BethB taking y’all’s recommendation, Amazon says it will be here Sunday. Will let ya know what I think!
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Hope it works well for you.
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Work for today:
Agile: 10 min mobility
Conditioned:
Incline treadmill ruck. 25lb pack, 3.0 mph, 10 incline. 62 minutes
Notes:
- snatch grip hi pulls felt good. Trying to find some alternative to cleans, because cleans kind of feel weird when I’m wearing a sweatshirt, and doing a hook grip blows when it’s cold enough the bar is cold, so probably implementing a lot of hi pull variations for the winter.
- deads moved well. FSL sets were fast.
- BSS felt good. Going slow on these, trying to really focus on depth and control, plan to really hammer em hard and see how I respond.
- conditioning felt good, just threw on a TV episode and went for a walk. Big difference with the 25lb ruck instead of the 45.
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Work for today:
Lunchtime:
Conditioned: 48 min stairmaster
45 min level 5, 3 minutes level 8
PM:
Agile: 10 min mobility
Notes:
- threw a little bit of higher effort work in at the end of my stairmaster session. Not a sprint or anything, but took my heart rate from 140 to about 170 for those 3 minutes, which felt good.
- bench moved well, as expected on this week.
- rows and lat pulldowns moved fine.
- happy with DB incline, feeling strong on this. May have to start increasing volume soon, which wasn’t really the plan for progression but my DBs only go to 80, so here we are.
- used fat grips for the hammer curls. Throwing them on the nuobells, which already have a bit thicker handle, meant these were EXTRA fat grips. Thought it may help with the elbow pain I’ve been having. Crazy how it made 15lbs feel. Still light on the biceps, but forearms were working.
- @jdm135 @BethB my therabar came in, along with some hand squeeze things and those finger extensor rubber bands. Took em all into work and was just using them at my desk. It’s been one day, so obviously not seeing results yet, but planning to just keep hammering until things get better.
In other news, had some friends run the marine corps marathon yesterday. Went to cheer em on, seemed like a fun event. Came very, very close to losing a trash talk induced bet that would result in me having to do it next year, but fortunately my buddy got a hamstring cramp on mile 21 and missed the time that would of gotten me haha.
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These are always fun. That’s how my oldest ended up with a shaved head at the end of track season. Nearly lost his eyebrows too.
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Work for today:
Lunchtime:
Conditioned: 3 mile run 27:39
Started at 6.0 mph, then added .1 mph every quarter mile until the end. Nice little run. First 2 miles felt EXTREMELY easy, didn’t really register any sort of effort until entering the 3rd mile, which is probably due to the speed changes. Definitely not the fastest I could run 3 miles, but i mentally like the gradual speed increase. Also, doing this on a treadmill inside with no tv or music, whatever I can do to entertain myself is vital lol.
PM:
Agile: 10 min mobility
Notes:
- squats felt great. 300x5 moved easy. My legs are feeling stronger than ever. I’m not saying my SQUAT feels stronger than ever, I’m not really sure how my normal low bar will respond to the past few months of hi bar. But my LEGS themselves feel a lot stronger, specifically the quads.
- I’d murder for a leg press or hack squat. Wendler talks a lot about how he wanted a “stupid proof leg strength” exercise in his programming when he was competing, and I feel like I’m missing that. Any quad exercise I do, while still training my quad, is never really quad limited. Would like to change that. Thinking of getting the leg extension attachment for my freak athlete machine, so I can at least smoke quads that way.
- doing my RDLs standing on a bumper plate. Slow eccentric, would make an IG model proud. I feel I get a lot more out of RDLs focusing less on weight and more on stretch.
@BethB haha, I love it! In high school I used to always do something crazy with my hair for football playoffs (because I’d buzz my head for wrestling anyway). Ended up having purple hair, backstreet boy style frosted tips, a Mohawk, and white guy cornrows my 4 respective years lol
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Any chance you can rig up a belt squat with what you have on hand? It doesn’t take much, I have a cheap landmine I shove against the wall and then I stand on cinder blocks for increased ROM.
Ends up looking basically like this.
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I actually saw this yesterday from him:
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@BrandonCrawford I have a belt squat attachment for my rack, the fringe sport one. To be honest, I hate the damn thing lol. Not sure if it’s my levers or what, but it’s 100% hips, which is nice when that’s the goal, but I can not figure out a stance on the thing that lets me target quads, which is where I really need the most help.
@freshyfresh thanks for the info! I do have a sled, which I really should use more in the warmer months. (Flat out refuse when it’s cold lol.) the high reps squats sound…. Awful. Useful I’m sure, and I’ll prolly end up doing something like that…. But man that sounds like it sucks haha. 400?!?!
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I have a belt squat attachment for my rack, the fringe sport one. To be honest, I hate the damn thing lol. Not sure if it’s my levers or what, but it’s 100% hips, which is nice when that’s the goal, but I can not figure out a stance on the thing that lets me target quads, which is where I really need the most help.
I know you’re wanting “no think” movements, but this morning I finally got a solid quad pump by switching to flat soled shoes instead of lifters and focusing on NOT locking out at the top of the rep. Kept tension on the quads the entire time.
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Work for today:
Deadlift: 300x5, 350x5, 390x5, 5x5x300
Press: 120x5, 135x5, 155x5, 5x5x120
Some lat pulldowns, db bench, goblet squats
Crammed this in, heading out of town tomorrow, will be back to usual Monday
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Notes:
- god dammit. 235x3 on bench. I hit this for 5 a month ago. I know part of it’s my shoulder, but god damn. I don’t get how I’m so pathetically weak on this. I can hit 185x5 on an overhead but can’t get 235x5 on flat? What the actual hell.
- I think I’m ditching 531. Everytime I have ever run this, my bench has just taken a nosedive, and today was no exception. Hell, im pretty happy with my lower body strength as is! It’s the upper I really need to get moving.
- I’ll finish this week of 531 since it’s the last of the cycle, but I gotta find something that works.
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We all know how I feel about 5/3/1 and I’m not here to defend it: If it’s not working, it’s not working.
But I am curious: Have you ever tried other 5/3/1 rep schemes for bench? I’m thinking specifically 5x5/3/1, which is the basis for the 5/3/1 for Hardgainers bench (or very close to it, I think). That’s worked well for my bench in the past.
I also know my press responds better to 10x5 than to 5x10 or 5x5 supplemental—maybe something like that would work for your bench?
Just spitballing here… Definitely ditch it if it’s not the right work for your goals.
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I’ve tried a ton of em, to include the 5x5/3/1. I think part of my issue is the percentages. .9x.95=0.855, and I feel like I am just hard pressed to hit that for 5 on bench. Which I can do on other lifts, making me think my ability to do reps on bench is just a bit extra shitty? I’m not too sure.
I think I need more volume on bench. Not saying high reps. But, take deadlifts. I can do one set of deadlifts and really crank into it, and I feel like I get some great training effect. On hard set honestly does have me feeling like I did my work for the day. With bench? One hard set just ends. I push, it stops moving, there’s not a ton of “grind” that I can push into it, I either got it or I don’t.
The times my bench has been highest, I’ve always been rubbing some sort of linearish program. I hit a 255x3 bench from Alsruhe linear, hit a 250x3 off juggernautai, and hit a 235x7 off of just straight 5x5 routine. Any actually, thinking about it, I went from every one of those programs to a 531 cycle…. Where my bench fell again.
I don’t think ANYTHING has ever helped my squat or press nearly as much as 531 did. My deadlift tends to blow up from not deadlifting lol, so that’s just anyone’s call. But bench likes me doing a lot of sets of moderate weight at repeated efforts, and that’s what I think I need to get back to
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The question I always ask in these situations is “are you using 5/3/1 to bench more, or are you using bench in 5/3/1 to get stronger”
Because if the goal is to bench more, I’m incline to agree: bench frequency will drive numbers, because of greasing the groove and motor unit improvement (although I DID add 10lbs to my bench running Super Squats WITHOUT benching for 6 weeks…) But if the bench press is just a tool within 5/3/1 to get stronger overall, it’s worth analyzing how strength OUTSIDE of the bench is improving. Perhaps your press goes up on 5/3/1 because your bench is driving the progress there.
Funny enough, the best bench I ever had was when I was running DoggCrapp, which had very INFREQUENT benching. Same with Westside.
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I’d say both lol, which I know is a terrible answer. I want my bench to be higher than it is. I’m not doing a powerlifting meet anytime soon, no real reason why I NEED bench in particular to go up, other than just a general rage that my bench is so terrible compared to my other lifts, and I want to get it to a realm I feel is respectable.
Generally, I want to improve my pressing strength. All around, it’s definitely my weak link. My deadlift is my strongest, and I’ve got a pretty strong back in general, with a pretty decent squat, but pressing has never been my strong suit. I’d REALLY like to get to a 3 plate bench, again not because I care about bench that much, but because it would show that my horizontal press has finally gotten some progress.
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I saw there was some political unrest in Tanzania and thought of you and your planned trip to Kilimanjaro in January. I hope everything settles before you get there!
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