Swole.
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Very wholesome
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Yer like the cover of a lifestyle magazine 
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The digital projection tech they use now is absolutely incredible.
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Vacation - Days 5-9
Tuesday - 25 October 2022 through Saturday - 29 October 2022
Workout: No training
Totally crushed the parks!
We all had a blast, experienced some new rides and attractions, ate some good food.
But you really know it was good when it’s time to go home and you’re READY to go home!
Back to the grind tomorrow, and I’m 99% sure I’ll be starting six weeks of 5/3/1 & Bodybuilding. I think I hear the bro assistance moves calling to me…
Still not sure what I’ll be doing for the PM workouts, though. I’m toying with the idea of cycling through the 10K challenge a few times, but there’s always my standard easy/hard conditioning stuff or (oh crap!) tabata front squats. Guess we’ll find out tomorrow!
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If the PM workout is more about metabolic conditioning, you may want to look at the American KB swing. These are used often in CF as part of a WOD (with burpees, box jumps, assault bike, similar). It uses a bit more upper body pulling and you’ll need to adjust down the reps from 10K. I had never done them (only Pavel-style Russian swings) and struggled at first but now like them.
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Wow, that looks pretty intense!
I used to push my arms up and away more than what you see in the recent swing video—basically just above shoulder height with arms fully extended—but never quite like that. Wild!
Vacation - summary
Vacation was awesome, and for Mrs. SvenG and the kids (at least?), well-deserved. I am thankful that we had the opportunity to get away, have a ton of fun, relive some old memories, and make lots of new ones.
I’ve decided to start 5/3/1 & Bodybuilding this week. Current plan is to run two cycles of that and see where I am. I’m not looking forward to the PR sets week after week, but JW explicitly says, “When you push the assistance in [this program], keep the reps on the final set to just the bare minimum or just slightly over.” And I’ll be pushing the assistance, because it was the bro stuff that got my attention when @antiquity mentioned this template elsewhere, so the PR sets shouldn’t kill me…
My goals for this week are:
- Complete all 4 lifting workouts
- Do a 30-minute weighted vest walk every day
- Hit my upper back with a high-rep movement every day
- Complete 3 days of hard conditioning & direct calf work
- Eat well and eat to recover
I’ll be doing the morning workouts semi-fasted with Indigo-3G + Surge, as in Hardgainers. Per the template, I’ll also be hitting a 30-minute weighted vest walk every day, and I’m adding some kind of daily upper back work as well.
I am also planning to do some kind of hard conditioning on non-lifting days; here, “hard” just means intense, not necessarily the typical 5/3/1 definition of “hard conditioning.” (That said, I might push the sled as part of that work some days.) Beyond that, I am NOT planning on anything specific—e.g., the 10K Swing Challenge—but I will instead try to mix it up a bit. The afternoon work will need to be relatively quick, so circuits or tabatas will likely feature quite frequently.
My TMs for this cycle are:
Press - 155 lbs
Squat - 325 lbs
Dead - 395 lbs
Bench - 270 lbs
I’m going with those rather than the calcuated TM weights from the recent TM test—that was a total flop, and I’m 99% sure I can actually handle the working-set weights based on the numbers above. If I’m wrong and I’ve regressed too much, I’ll adjust accordingly.
I think that’s about it for now, so let’s get back to it, bro!
Edit: Almost forgot: I still owe 141, 142, and 143 unbroken BB curls for 15, 22, and 29 October. Not sure yet when I’ll get those in, but they’ll happen eventually.
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5/3/1 & Bodybuilding - c18w1d1
Sunday - 30 October 2022
Workout: Easy conditioning, 0910-1000 (50 minutes)
1-pump burpees + 28-kg KB swings - 2x(25 + 25), 25-second rest between
Weighted vest walk - 30 kg - 30 minutes
Fasted.
Up about 0700—let myself sleep in today! Lazy morning, finally got around to this… Fall is in the air here at home, but the cold air felt good on my lungs.
Daily work, calf raises, and some kind of conditioning to follow throughout the day.
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5/3/1 & Bodybuilding - c18w1d1
Sunday - 30 October 2022
Workout: Daily work, calves, & extra conditioning, 1540-1620 (45 minutes)
Towel hop tabata - 4x40/10
3 rounds of:
a) Single-leg calf raises - L/R - 35 lbs - 10, 8, 6
b) Wendler rows - 90 lbs - 20, 20, 35
c) 1-pump burpees + 30-inch box jumps - 10 + 10, 10 + 10, 10 + 10
Towel hop tabata - 4x40/10
Pwn’s Tabearta - 8x20/10 - 65 lbs - 3, 3, 6x2
Still fasted. Don’t ask…
Not surprisingly, my conditioning went away fast. It’ll come back quickly enough, though. Given that, this was just the right amount of work. I borrowed @T3hPwnisher’s Tabearta, and that caught up with me FAST: I was absolutely dying by the end. I don’t think I’ll make it a daily thing like the front squat tabatas—at least not now—but I am looking forward to progressing the reps and the weight on that in the weeks ahead.
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Glad you’re running this! Looking forward to seeing how it goes.
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5/3/1 & Bodybuilding - c18w1d2
Monday - 31 October 2022
Workout: Shoulders & biceps, 0525-0635 (70 minutes)
Indigo-3G - 0500
Surge - 0530-0624
Warm-up
Throws + jumps
Begin: 0540; End: 0632; Duration: 52 minutes
Press - 65x5, 80x5, 95x5 | 110x3, 125x3, 140x4
DB press - 2x45 lbs - 12, 12, 9 + 3, 9 + 3
Lateral raise - 2x15 lbs - 12, 12, 12, 12
BB curl - 65 lbs - 12, 12, 12, 12
Preacher curl - 65 lbs - 2; 50 lbs - 5; 40 lbs - 5, 12, 12, 12
Shrug - 2x65 lbs - 20, 20, 20, 20
Semi-fasted: black coffee upon waking, then Indigo-3G and Surge as above.
Yep, that’s a shoulders & biceps workout! Haven’t blasted a group of body parts like that for awhile, and it felt kinda good. In that bad kind of way, haha.
Warm-up sets in 4 minutes, main work in 5 minutes, supplemental in 13 minutes. Took the top set to 4, and the last rep was a struggle. Would’ve needed 8 for a true PR, but that wouldn’t have been there this morning, so I put my ego aside and followed JW’s advice for the PR sets in this template. Think I hit the supplemental weight on the nose, because I had to rest-pause the last two sets, and that means there’s room to improve.
Ran the Rx assistance as a circuit, and added shrugs as my daily upper back work. All of that took about 30 minutes. Took awhile to find the right weight for the preacher curls; I might be able to hit 4x12 at 45 lbs, but I’m going to leave it there for now. My setup for those isn’t ideal, but I can really feel my biceps, so the isolation is working, especially compared to the BB curls, where I get some involvement from my anterior delts and probably use a little body english.
Anyway, first lifting workout is in the books, so that just leaves a weighted vest walk for later today!
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5/3/1 & Bodybuilding - c18w1d2
Monday - 31 October 2022
Workout: Easy conditioning, 1640-1725 (45 minutes)
Weighted vest walk - 30 kg - 30 minutes
Different route, took just over 35 minutes, actually. Should’ve probably done the burpees + swings beforehand, just because, but I didn’t even think of that until just now. Oh well—maybe next time.
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5/3/1 & Bodybuilding - c18w1d3
Tuesday - 01 November 2022
Workout: Back, 0520-0645 (85 minutes)
Indigo-3G - 0500
Surge - 0530-0629
Warm-up
Throws + jumps
Begin: 0542; End: 0639; Duration: 57 minutes
Deadlift - 160x5, 200x5, 240x5 | 280x3, 320x3, 360x4
Bent-over row - 135 lbs - 8; 125 lbs - 4, 12, 12, 12
Chin-up - 10 lbs - 10, 9 + 1, 8 + 2, 7 + 3
Good morning - 135 lbs - 10, 10, 10, 10
HLR - 12, 12, 12, 12
Incline scap/trap - 2x50 lbs - 15, 15, 15, 15
Semi-fasted: black coffee upon waking, then Indigo-3G and Surge as above.
And THAT’s a back workout! Upper back is shot, lower back is shot, and I’m dead tired everywhere else, too. It was a good morning. (Actually, 40 of them, haha!)
Warm-up sets in 5 minutes, main work in 8 minutes, then supplemental in 11 minutes—at least I’m calling the bent-over rows “supplemental” in this workout, even though I think maybe that should be the good mornings.
Used straps for the last two deadlift sets, and my belt for the top set. Brace was unusually strong, almost too much even: I had to concentrate on not passing out; lifting and lowering the BB was almost an afterthought.
My back is weak and I’ve never been good at BB rows, so I started a bit too high—it was my lower back that gave out at 135 lbs, not my lats or upper back. Dropped to 125 lbs and that was just right: the remaining reps and sets were not easy, but they were smooth and controlled. Again, there’s room to grow.
Did the Rx assistance as a circuit again, and also added my daily upper back work. I’ll probably do that for the entire run of this template. I’m really pleased with the weighted chin-ups, even though I had to rest-pause most of the sets: 10 reps with a 10-lbs plate on that first set is a rep PR, and there’s room to grow by reducing use of rest-pause for the others. The good mornings were incredibly difficult, but I was once again focused on my bracing, so that was good. Definitely fatigued by the end: even the HLRs and scap/traps were hard by that point.
Anyway, I’ll get a weighted vest walk in later today, and that’ll be that!
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This made me chuckle out loud more than it should have.
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5/3/1 & Bodybuilding - c18w1d3
Tuesday - 01 November 2022
Workout: Easy conditioning, 1650-1740 (50 minutes)
1-pump burpees + 28-kg KB swings - 2x(25 + 25), 25-second rest between
Weighted vest walk - 30 kg - 30 minutes
Remembered the burpees + swings today. Today’s route took just less than 35 minutes. Not much else to say beyond that. Back at it tomorrow!
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5/3/1 & Bodybuilding - c18w1d4
Wednesday - 02 November 2022
Workout: Easy conditioning, 0520-0610 (50 minutes)
1-pump burpees + 28-kg KB swings - 2x(25 + 25), 25-second rest between
Weighted vest walk - 30 kg - 30 minutes
Fasted. That’s that. Daily work, some extra conditioning, Monday’s burpees + swings with a penalty round, and some make-up BB curls are on the docket for the remainder of today. More as it comes…
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In which book is 531&BB? I have all 3 and it doesn’t sound familiar.
Loved the comment on bracing for a heavy deadlift.
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That template is from JW’s blog, pointed out to me by @antiquity. Just search “5/3/1 and bodybuilding” and it should be the first hit.
Thanks! I’m still figuring out the belt, but I think I got it right yesterday.
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I’ve never run the whole 531 bodybuilding program, but have done individual workouts. Can’t wait to see how it all works for you and how tempted I’ll be to run it myself.
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