7WP, TM Test - summary
Decent week, happy for a bit of a break with the shorter workouts. Lifts went well, but it’s interesting how targeting a 7-rep set for the 80% TM in 5x5/3/1 is different than the 5-rep target for an 85% TM I’ve used for just about every template I’ve run to this point.
It’s also worth noting that I settled into a OMAD protocol this week, more or less because of life circumstances—there was a day, maybe two, where I could’ve eaten, but I chose not to.
What is planned to be a 10-week run of 5x5/3/1 starts tomorrow: 2 leaders, a deload, and the anchor. Pretty excited to give it a go—5x5 at the top set weights across all 4 lifts is going to be interesting!
My goals for the week are:
- Complete all 4 lifting workouts
- Complete 4 days of extra conditioning
- Complete 3 days of easy conditioning, direct triceps work, and direct calf work
- Complete 3 days of hard conditioning
- Eat well, but only as much (and as often) as necessary
The lifting workouts will proceed pretty much as they have for quite awhile now, but I’ll be targeting 50 total assistance reps in each category, which is the lower end of the recommended range in 5x5/3/1. I can always increase that if time and energy allow.
The “extra conditioning” will be the PM workout on lifting days, and that’ll be somewhat fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants—or as much as my personality can tolerate, anyway. I’m thinking some weekly mix of “challenge” style workouts, WODs, Widowmakers, etc. will become the norm here, and I’ll use it as an opportunity to lift some more weight, get my heart and lungs burning, and drench the floor in hard work.
I will be doing easy conditioning as the early work on Sunday, Wednesday, and Saturday, then combining calf work, extra triceps work, and hard conditioning in the afternoon workouts.
As much as I liked daily high rep triceps work—I think it really has made a difference over these past few months—I don’t like what it’s done to my elbows, so I’m going to back that down to just 3 days a week to see if that helps.
The easy-followed-by-hard condition days are still kinda funny to me, but I actually think it’ll work out nicely. The hard conditioning will still involve AMRAP in 15 minutes with either farmer’s walks or the sled and some other movements between the up-and-back trips, a la Pwn’s The Last Castle.
The nutrition goal is driven purely by life circumstances right now: I’m finding it hard to interrupt my work days to eat, so just planning to NOT eat is easier. I don’t mind the break, though, because eating-to-gain is a different kind of hard, and I did plenty of that from Hardgainers through Frankenbuilding (roughly August 2022 through January 2023).
Finally, my TMs for the first cycle of 5x5/3/1 are:
Press - 120 lbs
Squat - 275 lbs
Bench - 225 lbs
Dead - 320 lbs
My small brain and big ego see those numbers and say, “Sven, what’s wrong with you!?!”, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be feeling like these are just right before too long.
Onward and upward!
