I’m in as well, us short guys need to stick together. I’m envious of your traps… another 20lbs or so and you will be a beast.
Thanks for the compliments, man, and welcome aboard.
I probably won’t update that often because 5/3/1 is pretty boring to look at, though.
As an update:
So far (been 1 week, lulz) 5/3/1 seems ok. I didn’t follow Wendler’s instructions completely because I don’t want to wait 2 or 3 months to start using weights that will actually push me. I’m not one of those guys who inflates their 1RM… so I have been using my actual working maxes as ‘working maxes’ when calculating what weight to use.
So far I was able to smash the top ‘5 rep’ set and nearly doubled that on all of the lifts. I figure this means I was being pretty honest with myself and I’m confident I’ll be able to progress. I just don’t see the point in waiting 2 or 3 months to start working with weights I KNOW I could push RIGHT THIS MOMENT, you know?
I’m all for the slow steady progression but I don’t see any reason to slow it any further. If I stall I’ll just take it back a bit… but I just can’t fathom how I would stall already from using honest working maxes that I know I could do at the drop of a hat.
I guess either way I will find out.
As a side note… pumpkin egg nog is freaking delicious and I have been smashing a quart of it every couple days. lol
So for the last few months I have been taking handyman classes at a local trade school. I’ve started screwing around with woodworking and I really enjoy it. I think one of my new dreams is to one day open up my own hand-crafted furniture shop.
Also, it’s amazing how holding a hammer for hours can increase your forearm vascularity within a couple weeks.
It’s also amazing how muscles don’t help you swing a hammer unless you know how to swing a hammer. As I was learning different techniques and such it amazed me how all these years I have just been muscling the hammer down instead of actually swinging it… it makes a huge difference. Not sure if anybody will know what I mean though… but it explains why my skinny Dad could swing a sledgehammer way longer than me. I used to fucking kill myself trying to control it with my muscles… LOL so funny.
Lifting is still going ok. Because I’m using my true maxes… 3 week has been kinda tough sometimes (mostly for incline bp/ cgbp) but I’m still beating the rep requirement each time. I’m glad it’s tough though… it means I’m actually gonna start getting stronger again. I’m totally looking forward to waking these fast-twitch muscles back up.
If I do everything right I may just end up with a couple elite lifts within a year. Maybe year and a half if I stall some (I’m sure I will). I’d be pretty stoked!
I realized a couple days ago that I had been looking at the wrong spread sheet for my military press and CGBP calculations EVERY time I have done them.
No wonder I was having a harder time hitting the prescribed reps with those two lifts in specific. I was doing month 2. LOL
Now I’m just going to roll with it because I underestimated myself. I always forget that my short triceps give me odd strength on CGBP in comparison to flat or incline benchpress. I even do CGBP with 5 or 6" inbetween my hands so the ROM is longer. Just gotta be my tricep tendons or something, right? shrug
edit: By the way, up a few pounds and feeling a lot better. Rolaids and sour kraut are my two new best friends and green tea has been booted to the curb.
With thanksgiving tomorrow and egg nog plentiful and easily accessible I decided to skip the deload for month 1. I know this is common practice among many and I think I’ll be alright. Like I’ve said before… I wanna start making progress as soon as possible. I don’t feel like I deserve a deload after all my up’s and down’s plus 5/3/1 is a slow/steady progression system… so I just don’t wanna delay progress any further.
If any of you were wondering how I have it set up…
here is what I have been doing:
*Delts/triceps:
Military press - 5/3/1
Partial lateral raises - 3 x 20
DB cross-body front raises - 1 or 2 x 10 (not a huge priority… just throw it in there if I feel like it)
Rear delt flyes - 3 x 15
BB shrugs - 3 x 6-8
Close-grip benchpress - 5/3/1
French press - 3 x 10 (currently skipping these because my wrists really need a break from the movement)
tricep kickbacks - 3 x 25
*Legs:
Front squat - 5/3/1
Hack squats - 3 x 10
Straight leg deadlifts - 3 x 10
Glute raises/bridges - 3 x 10
Seated calf raises - 5 x 15
^ I may or may not add in lying leg curls or walking lunges for extra volume. I’m just waiting and seeing how I recover. I’m still learning so I’m taking my time figuring out what I can handle. The current work out leaves me having difficulty walking for a couple days. It’s hard and heavy.
*Chest/biceps
Incline bp - 5/3/1
Incline flyes - 3 x 10-15
Depth pushups ala john meadows… 3 x max reps just before failure
BB curls - 3 x 6-8 (wide grip, shoulder width grip, close grip)
DB concentration curls - 3 x 10
*Off
*Back
Conventional deadlifts - 5/3/1
Reverse grip cable rows - 3 x 10
V-grip pulldowns - 3 x 6 x 8
Straight arm pulldowns - 3 x 10
Rear delt raises - 3 x 10
Pinwheel curls - 3 x 10
Hyperextensions - no specific rep/set scheme… just do them to get blood in my lower back to maintain its function
*Off
*Off
I’m still figuring things out for myself but this seems to be working so far. I know it’s a little early to tell because I’m rebounding off of the lowest weight I have held in a year. My goals are primarily power building and I am confident this approach will get me where I want to be in a couple years.
I know some will think I have too little volume on some days but I don’t really care. My upper chest is finally filling out for the first time ever so I know it is working. My legs are bulking back up nicely as well. I push it hard on each and every set and I will get where I want to get.
Wish me luck homies.
So today is the start of week 2 of Cycle 2.
I really like the way training has been going. I’m not obsessed over it, I get my work outs in, and I feel good. I can see myself doing this program for a long time.
Things I have learned the last month:
-Doing deadlifts for 5+ reps sucks ass. Actually, make that all of ‘5 week’ sucks (in a good way)… I definitely prefer me low reps with ‘strength’ lifts. lol
-Fish oil DOES actually do something. You just don’t realize it until you stopped taking it for a month and your tendons ache, crack, and pop even when warming up.
-Taking BCAA’s and a multivitamin after heavy drinking is a wicked easy but effective way to prevent hangovers.
-Alcohol tolerance seems cool until you actually have it and have to drink twice as much to get a buzz. (I weigh near nothing… this should not be happening! GAH!)
-I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas. I love all the decorations, the music, the awesome foods, family, etc… but I hate all the family , gifts, bloated every morning feeling, mild allergic reactions to christmas trees, the fact I let it go completely during the holiday season but still don’t put on any weight (of any kind), etc…
-You know your dog is old when she goes outside, lays down in the grass, and just watches the world go by. I wish they had longer lives so bad. I’m not emotionally capable of handling it when my old girl has to go… the very thought of it makes me well up. Thank god I should still have 3 or 4 years with her.
It’s been anotha’ week brothas.
Like I keep saying… I’m really glad I started doing 5/3/1. It’s just great for me. I think I have a lot of training knowledge… but I never knew how to progress. Jim Wendler laid out an easy to understand way to progress and for guys like me (unintelligent mindless mofos)- it works.
I don’t know if I weigh more but I look different in the mirror. My delts, traps, and chest are all definitely starting to look more ‘dense’. My quads are looking denser too - they don’t shrivel up completely now after a few days of not training them (losing the pump).
And as far as strength goes… according to a 1rm calculator based on my ‘3 week’ for military press… I’m already 10lbs stronger than when I started. That’s pretty awesome to me. I can’t wait to test it out in another cycle or two. I’m supposedly 40lbs away from my goal for november 2013 - it might be rough because it’s military press… but damn, I feel close.
I am struggling with incline BP though… my chest is just genetically small and weak. It’s improving but it is painstakingly slow and frustrating. I mean really, I can rep out my incline bp 1rm for 5 when doing CGBP. That just doesn’t seem right! The good thing is that incline flyes, neutral grip DBBP , and stretch pushups pump up my chest a lot… so I think doing those in combination with strength oriented incline bp will lead to gains. It’ll probably just take longer than other body parts for me.
In closing: I’m satisfied. I think my training future looks bright. However, my chest sucks and always will in comparison to the rest of my body and I need to buy elbow sleeves because I am getting old man elbows.
Well, with the new year having arrived I thought I’d post my lifting goals for 2013.
I’d like to deadlift and squat weekly while maintaining my knee and lower back health without pain. If I could do this for a single year it would be great. I’m built for deadlifting but lower back issues have kept me from attaining what I could have for a long time.
I’d like to military press near 200lbs by the end of 2013 and deadlift 400 or more. This would be awesome for me. Super strong? No. But I’d be the strongest primordial dwarf in town… I wanted a 400lb deadlift back in 2010 but never got there because of my lower back. I should be far beyond that by now. I’m not as number oriented on other lifts but obviously I want to get stronger on them as well.
I’d like to put on 15 or 20 pounds and be able to maintain it without bouts of losing weight quickly and then having to put it back on. This has plagued me since I started lifting and I hate it. I want the focus of the weight on my chest, delts, triceps, calves and quads.
Happy new year everybody.
Here’s another small update:
5/3/1 is working well for everything except my chest. My chest feels tremendously weaker and I am struggling with weight I used to dominate on Incline BP. Sooo … I have decided to drop the 5/3/1 approach for it and switch to DB incline press with 3 working sets in the 8-10 rep range. I need to rebuild my mind-muscle connection and pump up the volume. I think that’s just how my chest is.
The 5/3/1 approach is working wonderfully for my deadlift and military press though. My delts definitely seem leaner as well. Deadlifts for reps really, really suck though! lol
edit: And oh, that youngster guy’s trolling actually led me to trying DB upright rows… I actually like them alot after a few sets of partial lateral raises. I’m just doing both now and I like it. lol, I got trolled but it actually turned into something useful.