One month in the books. Conditioning has gotten SO much better. I no longer feel like I’m dying after a workout, which is great. Excited to start pushing the weight a little bit beyond where I was at the end of 5/3/1.
Overall very pleased with the first month. OHP has taken me by surprise as it feels very strong right now. I figured squats would be quite a bit easier than they are due to my previous + sets being 15 or more during the last program. But I suppose 80 ish reps of squats really take their toll. Still waiting on my initial goal when I began working out… A 405 pull… can’t wait for that day…
Dips 20,15,13,13
Rear delt fly 4x15 @ 15lb each hand
Feeling pretty beat up today. Recovery was shot this weekend, stayed up late on Friday and Saturday night. Had a big family BBQ Saturday which was great but I ended up drinking waayyy too much beer and didn’t eat anything until dinner. Also, I didn’t eat enough for dinner and it ruined my appetite on Sunday.
I’ve been tossing around the idea of cutting out alcohol for a month just to see what happens and how I feel. I’m curious as to how it will effect my lifting. I don’t drink every day or anything, normally just once or twice a week on Friday and Saturday, but I feel as though it is often enough to cause a disturbance in recovery. Also I drink like a fish so that probably doesn’t help. I’m on call next week so I won’t be drinking anything. Might just keep it going through mid October.
Definitely feeling under recovered this week. Got through the workout ok, but it was a battle. I have been shoving food in my face yesterday and today. Still having a pretty intense pain in my bicep/forearm. It’s like the tendon or whatever that connects the two is tender/sore on both arms. Working is a pain in the ass due to lifting things all day, especially my tool bag which is upwards of 60lbs.
Tossing around the idea of a deload next week due to my dumbass decisions over the weekend.
Incline bench 12,12,9,7 @ 120lb
Bent over row 4x12 @ 125lb
Skipped pushups and curls, but I did do 10 mins of bike sprints.
It’s starting to become obvious to me when I’m in need of a break from intensity. I seem to get irritable and constantly tired, and I’ve also noticed little aches and pains on top of the bicep/forearm issue. Going to do a deload week next week as it’s starting to effect my work and workouts. Will probably do something similar to what I was doing with 5/3/1 and just work up to a decently heavy single and call it. Might ride the bike a couple times as well.
Still going to hit squat tomorrow, and more than likely I’ll keep my working weights the same as this past week when I finish up the deload to make sure I’m good to up the weight. @isdatnutty does that make sense?
For sure man! You HAVE to listen to your body. You can’t keep adding weights, reps week in and week out forever. For me I know I go hard for like 4-6 weeks and then have a very light week and then get back to it again. Make sure you are eating enough. With the weights you are handling you might just be under-recovering.
I’m thinking that may be the issue… I’ve def been trying harder than usual the past few days to eat more.
I tell myself it won’t happen but deep down I think I’m afraid of getting fat haha. I just have to suck it up, eat the food and embrace idea of getting bigger.
Attempted squats today but my right arm is FUBARed. So strange how it crept from left elbow to left shoulder and now is hitting real hard in my right elbow and shoulder. Going to ice the hell out of it tonight to try and make work bearable tomorrow.
Intensity was very low today. Hit 5x8 @ 215lb back squats SS with 5x12 leg raises. Definitely need some time to unwind again.
Nah you’ll be fine just gotta listen to your body! I babied a right bicep forearm thing. For a couple months and now that it doesn’t hurt curling 25’s I’m still using 20’s and hitting higher reps. Instead of pull-ups I’m doing pulldowns and working up double progression style without re injuring. And luckily I can do chins and certain rows without discomfort. Just don’t do things that aggravate an injury… there are no mandatory movements!!
I hear you. Might do a lighter run through of the program this week and see which exercises are giving me trouble. If it hurts- I’ll stop doing that exercise. The issue is that idk which movements are causing me pain. It’s very possible that none of them are really that bad and this is all stemming from something else- work, sleep position etc.
Without a doubt dropping bb curls though, I can tell for a fact that it hurts when I do them. I lent all of my 1" plates to a cousin for a while and he just recently acquired a new barbell and standard plates so he will be getting them back to me at some point soon. At that point I’ll have dumbbells that I can get up to 50-60lb each.
I also noticed on Friday that back squats made it feel pretty shitty too. I don’t have the shoulder mobility to get my forearms perpindicular to the bar which I’m assuming is the problem for that exercise. Ordered a set of wrist wraps and figure 8 deadlift straps as well because I’m worried mixed grip on DLs might have something to do with it too…
I stopped doing mixed grip dead’s a long time ago. My grip is decent and when I do more work at a heavy enough weight for my grip to slip I use straps but always double overhand. My bicep/forearm tendon is a little cranky today after mixing in some reverse grip barbell curls as part of my assistance so I’m just gonna try to do some super light dumbbell curls next upper body day. If it still hurts I’ll do a Deload week and drop curls for a week.
Did a few sets of bench, worked up to a couple sets at 145, did a few ohp sets at 75 and some rows in the 125 range. Tried out the deadlift straps, weight was light… I’m sure they’ll take some getting used to. Then 10 minutes of bike sprints.
Arm feels ok, still a little tight/uncomfortable but not bad enough to really cause an issue.
I typically do double overhand on all warm up sets and switch to mixed only when I feel like the weight is heavy enough where my grip will be the deciding factor of whether or not I’ll make the lift. I think I’ll do the same with the straps.
Did 4x5 pull ups between the last few sets of DLs. Tried the straps on the 315 and 345, felt pretty good and much better on my arm than mixed grip. Long rest periods and just kind of a relaxing lifting session.
Hungry as hell today. Had a breakfast wrap and a big hand full of almonds for breakfast, then a 600ml whole milk and double scoop protein powder shake before lunch, .75lb Chuck eye steak and a small chicken thigh with a little rice and an apple for lunch and a beef brisket taco, smoked pork taco, 1.25lb sirloin steak and 8 whole eggs for dinner. Going to down a good amount of broccoli sprouts and a little bit of pineapple, then prob another whole milk shake and some peanut butter before bed… Ate like a king today. Weighed myself this morning and I’m sitting at roughly 198. Up only about 1lb since I leveled out after vacation in early August, and 4 lbs since early June.
Did some pendlay rows @135lb… I think I did x3,3,3,3
Sup pull ups, very slow controlled reps. For some reason these felt easier than normal. 5,5,5,5
Incline bench 95lbx10,10,10,5,5
Really itching to get back to the scheduled lifts. My arm feels quite a bit better and I did everything very slow today to ensure there wasn’t any pain at points within the movements. Broke a little bit of a sweat, nothing major… sometimes it’s nice to just come in and screw around and throw some weight up. Ready to continue the process with the program.
Did a few pullups and some RDLs. Also hit DL very light and tried to move the weight as fast as I possibly could.
Weight moved easy today. I think I am pretty much fully recovered. I have been eating like it’s my job this week and I weighed in at 198.5 this morning before my morning “ritual”. It’s pretty obvious to me that I should probably start eating a little bit more on top of what I’ve already added.
Good morning 4x12 @ 115lb
Walking lunges 4x15 @ 25lb ea hand
Did full stop deadlifts on the first two sets, then touch and go the last 3 sets. Used straps on all working sets, and double overhand with no straps on all warmups. I think I will keep doing it that way indefinitely.
Did very slow controlled pullups. Haven’t really been improving on them.
Grip was shot anyway due to work. Forearms were just not feeling strong. We removed a 700lb cast iron boiler section from a boiler room, up two flights of stairs, then down another flight of stairs into the back of a pickup, and reverse that bringing the new one down. Then working on some rooftop units were installing on a 4 story building with no elevator on a very hot (for me) day here. 87 degrees and sunny in October?!? Wtf!
Looking forward to a rest day, but I may ride the bike tomorrow since I’ve skipped it the past couple of days.