Getting after in here. GL on the squats!
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@vlifter83 - Thanks, dude! FWIW, squats went well… See below.
5/3/1 & Bodybuilding - c19w2d6
Friday - 16 December 2022
Workout: Legs & abs, 0520-0640 (80 minutes)
Indigo-3G - 0500
Surge - 0530-0621
Warm-up
Throws + jumps
Begin: 0538; End: 0637; Duration: 59 minutes
Squat - 105x5, 135x5, 165x5 | 195x5, 225x5, 255x23 (rep PR)
BB hack squat - 145 lbs - 15, 15, 15, 15, 15
Leg curl - 80 lbs - 15, 15, 15, 15, 15
Leg extension - 105 lbs - 12, 12, 12, 12
Ab wheel - ramp (19) - 12, 12, 12, 12
Upright row - 60 lbs - 15, 15, 15, 15, 15
Semi-fasted: black coffee upon waking, then Indigo-3G and Surge as above.
Christmas came early this year!
Yep, that’s right: I gave myself nearly 2 full minutes of rest before the last set of hack squats!
Crushed a WM at 255 for 23 reps, too. Previous best was 255x20 at the end of June.
I saw this week’s weights last Sunday and knew I wanted today’s top set for 21, but then I realized this morning that the June WM might’ve actually been 21 or 22 reps—my notes said I lost count and so decided to record 20 reps, 'cause I knew it wasn’t fewer than that. I was also certain it wasn’t more than 22, so that meant 23 for a small rep PR today, so…
First 11 were pretty fast, though they got tough around rep 8. After 11, I basically did singles up to 23, taking about 5-7 deep breaths between each rep. The weight was heavy during the “rests,” but it didn’t get really heavy until about rep 17 or 18—at that point my lower back was starting to whine, so I just wanted to finish. But I forced myself to take each one as it came, to breathe deeply, and not to rush: I had come too far to miss the PR because I got antsy. It was agony for about 3:15, but I got it done.
Obviously exhausted by that point, but I managed to get the rest of it done in a reasonable time, too. Warm-up sets in 4 minutes, main work in 11 minutes, and supplemental in 14 minutes (!)—somehow I was able to move through the hack squats at a fairly normal pace, but I really did take nearly 2 minutes before the last set.
Easy conditioning to follow later today. But for now, let’s eat. All. The. Food.
23 Likes
Nice pr
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Amazing.
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Nice job on the squats
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@throwawayfitness, @jdm135, @simo74 - Thanks, guys! As someone who’s been struggling with top-end strength—heck, not just struggling, but actually regressing a bit—I’ve been quite pleased this week to find that my strength-endurance is still moving up!
3 Likes
5/3/1 & Bodybuilding - c19w2d6
Friday - 16 December 2022
Workout: Easy conditioning, 1730-1825 (55 minutes)
1-pump burpees + 28-kg KB swings - 2x(25 + 25), 25-second rest between
Weighted vest walk - 30 kg - 30 minutes
Done.
Slower than slow—I usually do this route in about 33-35 minutes, but it took over 38 minutes tonight!
It was incredibly restorative, however, and I’m pretty sure I’ve never had that thought DURING these walks…
11 Likes
Hey man, honored to see that I get to contribute back somehow, no matter how small. Strong work here!
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5/3/1 & Bodybuilding - c19w2d7
Saturday - 17 December 2022
Workout: Easy conditioning, 0545-0640 (55 minutes)
1-pump burpees + 28-kg KB swings - 2x(25 + 25), 25-second rest between
Weighted vest walk - 30 kg - 30 minutes
Done. My lower body feels like it’s encased in cement, but this morning’s work did the trick! (This afternoon’s air squats ought to help as well.)
6 Likes
5/3/1 & Bodybuilding - c19w2d7
Saturday - 17 December 2022
Workout: Calves, daily work, & extra conditioning, 1005-1050 (45 minutes)
Towel hop tabata - 4x40/10
3 rounds of:
a) Single-leg calf raises - L/R - 35 lbs - 10, 8, 8
b) DB gorilla rows - 2x30 lbs - L/R - 15, 15, 15
c) KB swings - 28 kg - 50, 50, 50
Towel hop tabata - 4x40/10
(Half) Cindy WOD - AMRAP, 10 minutes
a) 5 pull-ups
b) 10 push-ups
c) 15 air squats
Rounds: 7 + 0 reps (finished 9 full rounds in an additional 3:05)
Legs are stuck in concrete again, folks!
Out-of-town family is coming into town in an hour or so, so I needed to knock this out early. My legs got tight after the walk, and I was moving slowly throughout. My Cindy performance was miserable, but the effort was there! Decided to make it more about the reps today than the time, so I knocked out two more rounds after the timer expired. Air squats were the slow move again—obviously feeling yesterday’s squats, but that’s exactly why I do these on Saturday and not some other day—but really everything was pretty slow: still feeling fatigued.
But with family here, I’ll be eating recovering most of the day.
Yes, some of the food is off-menu, and, yes, I’ll have some of the Christmas cookies my daughter is making even as I write this, but I won’t go crazy with any of it.
Oh, right—BB curls. Today’s goal is 150 unbroken, but as has become usual on Saturdays lately, we’ll just have to see how the rest of the day unfolds…
14 Likes
Welcome to being a grown up
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5/3/1 & Bodybuilding - c19w2 - summary
Another good week. A great week, in fact: I set new rep PRs for every lift, and I hit all of my goals for the week, too.
I’m not 100% sure what it means to “raise the floor,” but I think I raised the floor this week: The rep differences in the PR sets weren’t huge and, with 5s week weights, the loads weren’t super heavy, but I put up more quality reps in each top set than I have previously, and that’s never a bad thing—this old diesel just keeps chugging along!
I continued with a bit more food at breakfast this week, and I once again got a solid mid-day meal every day—pretty sure that makes a big difference. Lunch is generally coming later in the day than I actually prefer, and that has pushed dinner back such that I was still feeling very full when I went to bed a few nights, and THAT actually disrupted my sleep a bit. But the benefits outweigh the costs, so we’re just gonna keep putting down the food—my body needs it!
The 6th and final week of 5/3/1 & Bodybuilding starts today. My goals 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
- Continue to eat lunch every day
- Eat well
The loads this week are repeats of what I (incorrectly) used in Cycle 19, Week 1, so another goal is to do better (or at least not worse) on this week’s top sets. If I can eke out a PR here and there, all the better, but I’m not too worried about that for once: I’m content to keep raising the floor, ‘cause I gotta believe that helps to move the ceiling up over the long run.
That’s about it for this week, I think. If I’m honest, I’m looking forward to the end of this template—but only because I want to tweak it and run it again!
That’s my current plan, anyway, but we’ll just have to see how I feel at the end of it.
Let’s do it!
13 Likes
5/3/1 & Bodybuilding - c19w3d1
Sunday - 18 December 2022
Workout: Easy conditioning, 0700-0800 (60 minutes)
1-pump burpees + 28-kg KB swings - 2x(25 + 25), 25-second rest between
Weighted vest walk - 30 kg - 30 minutes
Fasted.
Knocked the concrete off yesterday only to find my lower body covered in rust this morning! Shook that off with the burpees and swings, but I was still feeling slow during the walk. Granted, the snow, ice, and biting wind didn’t help, but even so…
I’m supposed to hit 8x3 on Tabearta this afternoon—that’s gonna suck! You know the effort will be there, but right now I’m not super-confident that the rep goal is within reach today… We’ll find out soon enough, I guess!
BB curls didn’t happen yesterday—surprise, surprise—so I’ll hit those up at some point today, too.
10 Likes
5/3/1 & Bodybuilding - c19w3d1
Sunday - 18 December 2022
Workout: Daily work, calves, & extra conditioning, 1655-1745 (50 minutes)
Towel hop tabata - 4x40/10
3 rounds of:
a) 1-pump burpees + 30-inch box jumps - 10 + 10, 10 + 10, 10 + 10
b) Single-leg calf raises - L/R - 35 lbs - 10, 8, 8
c) Wendler rows - 90 lbs - 20, 20, 35
Towel hop tabata - 4x40/10
Pwn’s Tabearta - 8x20/10 - 65 lbs - 8x3
Hell yeah!
Effort was there—that was inevitable.
Reps were there—that’s me telling my weaker self where to go!
I absolutely went early on every round, but all that did was reduce the rest periods. And I only came down to the wire on the very last round, 'cause those were the hardest 3 reps I’ve done yet.
Rest of it was good. Those Wendler rows are really feeling good these days—they absolutely suck, they absolutely hurt, but they absolutely work, too!
Still have 150 unbroken BB curls, but… I’m a lazy procrastinator, so we’ll see.
10 Likes
Absolutely crushing it in here! Fantastic job Sven, I really enjoyed getting caught back up in your log. Cheers!
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@littlesleeper - Thanks, my friend! It’s great to have you along for the ride.
5/3/1 & Bodybuilding - c19w3d2
Monday - 19 December 2022
Workout: Shoulders & biceps, 0520-0625 (65 minutes)
Indigo-3G - 0500
Surge - 0530-0614
Warm-up
Throws + jumps
Begin: 0536; End: 0622; Duration: 46 minutes
Press - 70x5, 90x5, 105x5 | 120x5, 135x3, 150x6 (rep PR)
DB press - 2x45 lbs - 12, 12, 9 + 3, 8 + 4
Lateral raise - 2x15 lbs - 12, 12, 12, 12
BB curl - 65 lbs - 12, 12, 12, 12
Preacher curl - 45 lbs - 10, 10, 10, 10
Shrug - 2x65 lbs - 20, 20, 20, 20
Semi-fasted: black coffee upon waking, then Indigo-3G and Surge as above.
Another small rep PR on the top set today: Previous was 150x5 in a TM test way back in March. I was pleasantly surprised how well the first 4 reps moved, the 5th rep was slow-ish, the 6th was kind of a grind—not horrible, but still a grind—and I might’ve been able to fight for a 7th. But, in the end, I wanted 6, I got 6, and so I left it there.
Warm-up sets in 4 minutes, main work in 8 minutes, supplemental in 8 minutes. Rest of it was uneventful but solid, though my forearms, grip, and my right elbow were all barking pretty loudly throughout most of the assistance rounds—that was strange, particularly because I didn’t end up doing those BB curls yesterday. (I’m a lazy procrastinator, remember?)
Easy conditioning later today, but I’m already deciding to put off the 150 curls I still owe myself until tomorrow, or maybe even Wednesday, because… Well, because that seems prudent at this point. (And I’m a lazy procrastinator!)
19 Likes
You have definitely caught a new gear. Inspiring and well done.
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Nice PR on those OHPs!
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