@JamesBrawn007 I’m thinking dead start would be preferable but it usually comes to whatever method you’re most comfortable with.
Not sure it matters much in the grand scheme of things.
Cheers mate. Watched CT in a few videos on his main site re Strength Circuits and that was my impression, as least for the 1-3 rep range.
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Hey guys is there any drawback for doing the exercises one after the other instead of in circuit?
That’s a bit more convenient when training with other…
The workout is designed as a circuit to get the stength-endurance/resistance component in. It won’t be the same if you do the exercises one after the other. At least try to pair 3 together and the last 2 together,
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Doing one after the other is called straight sets and isn’t going to produce the desired results. I struggled to do all five exercises on a commercial gym so I split it up. I added an exercise and did two circuits with three exercises each. It kicked my ass.
Thanks for the replies must have read over it.
So for example I do 5 rep dl then 1 minute rest then 5 rep military press etc right?
Correct. If you have the space and equipment then you do all five exercises for 5 reps, then 4, and so on.
Is it a good idea to use back squats and Romanian deadlifts in the strength template instead of front squat and conventional deadlift?
I think that would be fine. Right now, I’m using a tire deadlift and camber box squat.
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Hope this isn’t dead, but you’ve struck gold with this program, I absolutely love it and the conditioning effect. I’m on my 2nd cycle of the strength block (Dead/Military/High Bar Skwat/Row/Bench as the big lifts), planning on doing a 3rd then moving to the power block (Power Clean/Push Press/Front Skwat/Weighted Pullup/Bench) for 12 weeks as I’m training for our now-delayed hockey season. I made rapid improvements, having turned what used to be 1RMs into 3RMs, but I do have some questions moving forward:
-I always go balls to the wall for my 3RM on Monday. As a result I rarely make it to the single @ 110% on Friday, sometimes barely getting one rep on the 105% double. Should I continue to work with an all-out 3RM or back off the weight so I can finish Friday’s sets?
-Going off of last point, since my 3RM is truly all-out, my numbers have stagnated for a few weeks. Should I continue working to my 3RM on Monday or drop it to 4 days/week using the same numbers?
Important: Shoot for a technically solid 3RM. A 3RM where that last rep takes 5 seconds – with form breaking down and using compensatory mechanisms – won’t work because it will overestimate how much weight you need to use during the week. The goal is to perform all perfect reps, so the weights need to be based on a near perfect performance.
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That is exactly correct. In a 1, 2 or 3RM used to determine training weights, all the reps should be done with the same characteristics as a training rep (or pretty close). Any drastic change in speed and technique will overestimate the weights you have to use.
That’s why a lot of people fail with those periodized excel templates that calculate your daily weights for a 12-16 weeks cycle based on a 1RM. And that’s why Wendler was smart with 5/3/1 by calculating the training cycle weights from 5-10% less of your 1RM.
A training cycle or program based on a 1, 2 or 3RM will NEVER fail because you underestimated the weights by 5% but it will almost always fail (especially over time as fatigue accumulates) if you overestimate them by 5%.
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Hi James,
Just curious to see how you went on the Build for Battle program?
I see you mentioned ‘I also intend to keep my current Sat morning strongman circuit as a swap out for the Sat session, which I think works well given this is the second circuit day anyway.’
Did this mean you replaced the Friday 5/4/3/2/1 circuit for a strongman circuit. Because that is what I was thinking of doing, change up the weekly stimulation, how did you go with it?
Also gives the flexibility to if I need to drop a session per week, I can drop this day & work in the other 4 days throughout the week, or fit in a quick pump session for the 5th day if applicable, allowing to still make progress week to week.
Thanks,
Mike P