15 years old
6’1"
172 lbs
Training for 1 year
6/13/2014 Friday
Shoulders
Military Press 95x5x5 (PR) change to 100 lbs next workout
DB Shoulder Press 5x10 40 lb DB’s
Machine Side Laterals 4x12
Rear Delt Flys 4x12
Please make suggestions on anything I should change.
I am training for strength and hypertrophy.
I should have filmed myself doing the Military Press for a form check but I will do that next workout.
I am going to be real busy today, however I am going to write you a post on the how and why of what we are going to do here.
Your goal is strength and hypertrophy.
How are you going to use your strength/hypertrophy?
Powerlifting strength is going to be vastly different from strength that you need to deploy on a football field.
Powerlifting is about hitting that one rep max of 450 for one rep below parallel at your lowest bodyweight on a given day of the year.
Football does not require that. I will argue that for football, the ability to smash 300 for 20 reps every day on demand to parallel is going to do you more good.
Just because you can hit 300x10 doesnt mean your good for 400, and just because you can hit 400 doesnt mean youre good for 300x10 (my post later will explain this concept).
If you want to do PL I have a program that will get you strong. I have my own hybrid of the Dan Green’s training, with 5/3/1 mixed in.
If you have a specific reason why you would want to do one program over another, I would like to hear it.
We are not going to be doing a program that I personally know will not work, or isn’t intelligently designed.
WS4SB3 is an awesome program you could easily run.
You could do Starting Strength with a few special tweaks I have made. (I have done this program and tested this one on friends. It works.)
The choices are endless, but I need to know what your reasons for needing to be bigger and stronger are.
I do not want to train specifically for powerlifting right now. I will do powerlifting training if I am going to be training for a meet. I probably will not do a powerlifting meet until I am out of high school and my dad wont let me do a meet either. I want to be bigger and stronger for football. I want to do a program that will get me all around stronger, bigger and more muscular, not just a program that focuses specifically on increasing my one rep max on the squat, bench press, and deadlift.
[quote]BangkokHustle wrote:
I do not want to train specifically for powerlifting right now. I will do powerlifting training if I am going to be training for a meet. I probably will not do a powerlifting meet until I am out of high school and my dad wont let me do a meet either. I want to be bigger and stronger for football. I want to do a program that will get me all around stronger, bigger and more muscular, not just a program that focuses specifically on increasing my one rep max on the squat, bench press, and deadlift. [/quote]
So you are going for the 300x20 correct?
What kind of equipment do you have access to?
Correct. I have access to everything I need. My gym has squat racks, bench press, dumbbells, and a sled.
15 years old
6’1"
172 lbs
Training for 1 year
6/15/2014 Sunday
Legs
Leg Press 30 reps 1 plate warmup
60 sec rest
Leg Press 20 reps 2 plates warmup
60 sec rest
Leg Press 15 reps 3 plates
120 sec rest
Leg Press 15 reps 3 plates
120 sec rest
Leg Press 15 reps 3 plates
120 sec rest
Leg Press 30 reps 2 plates (finisher) (Quads were burning like crazy)
Lower Back Hurt a little bit afterwards from the injury last week but I am making a doctors appointment tomorrow.
6/16/2014 Monday
Chest
Bench Press 135x5x5 Will increase to 140 lbs next week
Dumbbell Bench Press 5x10 50 lb DB’s
Incline DB Bench Press 4x12 40 lb DB’s
Incline DB Flys 3x15 20 lb DB’s
Do you have any qualms about switching from your current programming to a variant of 5/3/1 Boring But Big?
I have a lower back strain that still bothers me. I am seeing the doctor tomorrow about it. I don’t think I can squat or deadlift yet. Also I’m sure that 5/3/1 will not work well for my upper body.
6/17/2014
Tuesday
Back
5x5 Barbell Rows 135 lbs (Hurt my lower back a lot)
5x10 DB Rows 55 lb DB’s
Lat Pulldown 15,12,8,- drop set to 15 reps
Ab supported T bar row to save my lower back instead of regular T bar rows 12,10,8-drop to 8
6/18/2014 Wednesday
Legs
Leg Press 30 reps 1 plate warmup
60 sec rest
Leg Press 20 reps 2 plates warmup
60 sec rest
Leg Press 15 reps 3 plates
120 sec rest
Leg Press 15 reps 4 plates
120 sec rest
Leg Press 15 reps 4 plates and a quarter
120 sec rest
Leg Press 30 reps 2 plates and a quarter (finisher) Couldn’t walk properly after this set
90 Sec rest
Leg Press 20 Reps 2 Plates (Bonus Set) Completely finished my legs
Leg Curl 5x10
Stretched out my hams and quads really well
[quote]BangkokHustle wrote:
I have a lower back strain that still bothers me. I am seeing the doctor tomorrow about it. I don’t think I can squat or deadlift yet. Also I’m sure that 5/3/1 will not work well for my upper body.[/quote]
5/3/1 will work for your upper body.
I started 5/3/1 with a bench of 180 for 9 reps.
My new personal best is 245 for 10 reps.
I started over 2 years ago mind you.
This stuff takes time man.
The split I will recommend is this.
Day 1
Paused Overhead Press 5/3/1 scheme
Paused Overhead Press with your second work set for 3 sets
Paused Bench Press 5x10
Kroc Row 4x10-20
Straight bar curl 4 sets of 10
Day 2
Limber 11
Hack Squat Machine for whatever you can manage
Smith machine shrug for whatever you can manage
Static grip work (pick something heavy up and hold it for time)
Lying Leg Curl machine for whatever you can manage
Seated leg extensions for whatever you can manage
45 degree back extensions for whatever you can manage
Day 3
Paused Bench Press 5/3/1 scheme
Paused Bench Press with your second work set for 3 sets
Paused Overhead Press 5x10
Overhand Pull Up 4 sets to failure
Face Pulls 4 sets of 10
Triceps Rope Pushdowns 4 sets of 10
Day 4
Limber 11
Hack Squat Machine for whatever you can manage
Smith machine shrug for whatever you can manage
Static grip work (pick something heavy up and hold it for time)
Lying Leg Curl machine for whatever you can manage
Seated leg extensions for whatever you can manage
45 degree back extensions for whatever you can manage
DO NOT WORK THROUGH PAIN. IF IT HURTS JUST STOP AND MOVE TO THE NEXT THING. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT YOUR LEGS AT THE MOMENT. KEEP SEEING DOCTORS AND HEALING!
You are to max out on bench and overhead press and use 90% for your training max.
Here is how you are to operate.
If you are sore from your last upper body lift, and you have an upper body lift planned for later in the day, YOU ARE TO STAY HOME AND EAT INSTEAD WITH THE INTENT OF LIFTING THE NEXT DAY.
Make sure that you warm up adequately and that you are ready to go before you start lifting.
(EDITED FOR ADDITION OF MORE SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS)
Watch this series…
I will post a bit more later.
Ok. I finally caught up on my own log, so here is how you have to look at training.
Strength is like a pyramid.
The height of the pyramid represents your strength as demonstrated by your one rep max.
The width of the base of the pyramid represents your strength as demonstrated by the amount of volume you can do.
It is a well known fact that the foundation of a building in most situations determines its height. The wider the foundation, the higher you can build.
It is also a well known fact that being a bigger version of yourself allows you to move more weight than you could if you were a smaller version of yourself.
SO…using the example of our pyramid, having a wide base to our pyramid is going to allow us to build it taller.
Now, here is why 5/3/1 is so great. It trains all portions of your pyramid if you set it up properly.
Also, it allows you to make progress anywhere. You can make a volume PR (total lbs per workout), a rep PR (11 reps with your previous 10 rep max), or a weight PR (12 reps with 225 where your previous best was 8).
Also numerically speaking, it allows you to hit different calculated intensity percentages throughout your cycle. (This concept is hard for me to explain. For instance if all you ever lift with is 225 and you can only get 5 week after week, but you are not strong enough to get 6, all you are hitting is 85% intensity of a 253 lb max. That means ZERO PROGRESS. You may be able to hit 215 for 7 though, which puts you at approximately 80-83% intensity of a 258 lb max. THAT IS PROGRESS IN MY BOOK. Eventually over time you will have the opportunity to take another stab at 225, and YOU WILL crush the old PR.) This also kind of explains why guys who get caught up in testing all the time stall out. They continually go after a number and fail week after week instead of training to hit that number after working up to it over a period of weeks to months.
5/3/1 also allows you a lot of time and room to progress. It allows for occasional bad workouts too by setting a minimum number of reps.
Boring But Big will also work to make you bigger, which will also make you stronger, and contribute to your football performance.
ALSO we can space 5/3/1 out a bit to give time for you to sprint, and work on your agility.
AND, if it needs to be, we can eventually swap out a few of the lifts to mimic movements closer to what you’ll be doing on the football field, or to just build raw athleticism. We can’t make those changes yet though, because we have to have a baseline of results from a program that you run for at least 3 months before we start to tinker with it.
That is the direction we will be working in with your training.
I would also like to see your form. We can review upper body lifts for now because you’re injured and cannot do lower body.
I would like to see your form with approximately 90-95% of your 1 rep max for one rep.
I took a look at your 315 squat video. I will save my comments on that for later though, as it is not relevant right now.
No one form is perfect for everyone. Tweaks will have to be made, however there are pretty basic things that have to happen to make a good safe lift that is working what we are intending to work.
Also, do you think that it could be possible for you to get your hands on a copy of Starting Strength?
The form described in Starting Strength is a good place to start before you hone your form over time.
I will take a video of my bench press form and overhead press form. I could try to find a download for starting strength online.