Also thought I’d post my dinner from tonight because I think it was pretty good.
1007 calories, 128g carbs, 24g fat and 76g protein based on estimates by eye. Ingredients are pasta, kidney beans, broccoli, olive oil, bolognase sauce, beef mince and spinach. Macro in ratio 50c:21f:29p.
18/05/17
I started off squatting as usual but whatever I’ve done to my shoulder is worse than I thought and getting under the bar was very painful. I think I’ve pulled something a bit so I stopped after my first set and did hack squats instead.
Hack squat machine:
2x10x80, 10x130, 20x80
Face pulls: 5x10
Bench press (TM-67.5):
10x20, 5x40, 5x45, 5x50, 16x57.5 (PR)
A bit of shoulder pain on this as I locked out but it was bearable- it seems to be worst when I lift my arm above my head. Top set wasn’t too bad, 20 reps was tempting but I didn’t want to be silly.
Back extensions: BWx10, x20
Lat pull-down: 5x10x40
Very light weight for me now but I’m really slowing it down and pausing at the bottom.
I don’t know if I’ll squat or overhead press next workout but if not I’ll find some sort of alternative.
19/05/17
25 minutes cardio
I did 10 minutes on the elliptical and exercise bike each then 5 fairly hard minutes on the rowing machine. Afterwards I stretched a bit.
20/05/17
Front squat:
5x20 (back squat), 5x20, 5x40, 5x50, 5x60 (PR)
I’m still having issues with my shoulder or more specifically it’s the area just above my collarbone- front of my trap I think. Getting under the bar to back squat really seems to aggravate it and it seems to be healing a bit so I don’t want to do anything to stop that. Front squatting was basically painless though so at least I’ve got a decent alternative. The last time I front squatted more than the bar was in September when I used it with SST and my training max was 55kg so anything over is technically a PR but the last set was by far the best one. The thought has crossed my mind of swapping back squats for front squats one of the days next cycle.
Incline bench press:
10x20, 10x30, 10x35, 10x40
Did instead of overhead press, felt good as long as I got a lift off.
Deadlift:
2x5x60, 2x90, 2x95, 2x100, 2x105
Felt decent from 95kg onwards, used chalk for the first time and kept it all double overhand with no issues. This is week three instead of four of the six week deadlift program because I missed last week. I basically had a deload last week so when I deload everything else I’ll be doing week six of this.
Lying leg raises: 3x10
BW: 86.8kg
I’m currently only doing front squats because back squats aggravate my hip. Surely getting better at those will help back squats down the road, right? My current plan is to run Training Maximally for front squats twice a week.
I would imagine it’ll definitely help or at least maintain it, hopefully I can squat on Monday anyway.
Training maximally sounds good for front squats because you don’t necessarily have to push high reps so your back won’t go first. I think I prefer how they feel to back squats.
22/05/17
Squat (TM-95):
10x20, 5x40, 5x60, 3x65, 3x75, 11x85 (PR)
The last rep was slower than I’d like it to be but a PR. Played with moving my stance in a little bit.
Dumbell bench press superset with row:
5x10x20
I’ve been making sure I could really handle this weight before going up but I’m ready now. Used a slower tempo and attempted to have some sort of mind muscle connection. I got a decent pump as a result.
Back extensions: BWx10, 15
Figured out how to engage my hamstrings by pressing my heels into the pad- makes a big difference.
BW: 87.1kg
Weight going down slowly like I want it to.
BBB plan
While I’ve been bored I’ve been thinking how I’ll lay out BBB when I start doing it. Going with four days a week I’m going to do the following:
Day 1
Squat 5s PRO
Deadlift BBB
Abs 3sets
Lat pull-down 3x10
Day 2
Bench press 5s PRO
Overhead press BBB
Barbell rows 5x5
Day 3
Deadlift 5s PRO
Squat BBB
Abs 3 sets
Lat pull-down 3x10
Day 4
Overhead press 5s PRO
Bench press BBB
Dumbbell rows 5x10
Split 1,2 off, 3, 4, off, off
For BBB I’m going to start with 5x10 at 50% then increase to 60% then 70% like in the three month challenge unless I feel too beat up.
Training maxes will probably be squat 90kg, deadlift 110kg, bench 70kg, and overhead press 40kg. Writing it out 5x10x35 on bench seems stupidly light considering I’m comfortably doing 5x10x20 dumbbell presses. I may for bench only go 60/70/FSL instead. Plugging the numbers this seems much better and I’m a lot LOT better at reps with bench than anything else.
With how the assistance is set up I have 10 sets of pulling vs 8 sets of pushing horizontally and 6 sets of pulling vs 8 sets of pushing vertically which I’m happy with. I’ll work up fairly heavy on the 5x5 day providing my lower back feels good. Every day will involve using the power rack so providing it has a pull up bar attached I’ll do chins between sets of overhead press and squat. To avoid any forearm or elbow pain I’ll start with them just between squat warm ups, probably sets of two. Then between OHP and squat warm ups too and finally I’ll move to the working sets also.
The plan was to start BBB once I’d come out of a calorie deficit but I’m unsure when that’ll be and therefore when I’ll start. I’ve decided instead that no matter what I want to do it for at least three cycles before I start WS4SB. I’ve briefly considered a fourth cycle with 10x10 assistance instead of BBB for the upper body lifts but I don’t know about that yet. As I said before nutrition wise I plan to keep calories so that I’m gaining 0.25-0.5kg a week however I’ll probably eat just at maintenance the first few weeks.
That should sum up everything for now unless I forgot something. I like the idea of having things all planned out similar to how @MarkKO does.
It looks OK. I’m guessing you’ve got a reason for doing no lower body assistance? Also, rowing every day AND doing pull-ups may be a little excessive.
I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to handle any lower body assistance. It’s definitely a possibility if I can, I’d probably start with back extensions and then split squats.
I’ll keep that in mind with the pulling, that’s why I want to work up to it. I think from my limited experience my back will be fine but my arms might not be.
Easy fix: DB rows on day two, BB rows on day four, back extensions day one, split squats day three
I like the sound of that, thank you. Do you think just doing chins between sets will be enough vertical pulling then baring in mind I probably won’t be doing sets of more than three?
Yes. Just add a rep every four weeks to your pull-ups. They’ll build up over time.
Thanks for your help it’s always appreciated.
My pleasure
I like to think of it as a baseline strength type of thing. Eventually(and hopefully), we’ll reach the point where we can bang out 20 rep sets of pull ups between our sets. I remember reading somewhere that that’s what Jim Wendler does. The guy gets in a 100 reps of chins before even finishing his warm up or something along the lines of that.
That’s definitely a good goal to shoot for. I think losing a bit of weight will go a long way for me with regards to pull ups.
Losing weight is one of the easiest ways to increase the number of pull ups you can do
23/05/17
Conditioning
Decided to use the nearby football (soccer) pitches to my advantage, now the grass is drier, and run around them.
Jog x1 lap
Run long side, walk short side x2
Sprint short side, walk long side x1
I’d planned to do a bit more, at least another lap of sprints, but this was plenty for a first time. My lower body feels pretty beaten up already and I didn’t want to push it further. I’ve seen people mention working up to sprinting and I probably should have.
I think while I’m at university this will be my go to conditioning and when I’m at home I’ll run up hills. I want to do this at least once a week for the rest of the term, I like it a lot.
24/05/17
Squat (TM-95):
2x5x20, 5x40, 5x60, 5x70, 5x80
Lower body is quite sore from running yesterday and I think it definitely effected these a bit but they weren’t too bad.
Bench press (TM-67.5):
10x20, 3x40, 3x50, 13x60
Slightly dissapointed by this. The goal for the top set was 20 reps but I had a bit of pain in my upper chest starting halfway through which is probably from sprinting last night. I didn’t feel as fast as I usually did so I decided not to push it. I have a plus set with 60kg again at the start of my next cycle so I’ll get it then.
Lat pull down: 3x10x40, 2x10x35
I used a neutral grip for a change and couldn’t really feel it in my back so I lowered the weight and took it really slow, pausing at the bottom, which worked pretty well.
Wanted to do some facepulls or inverted rows but the gym had gotten really busy. Not the best day but it happens.
BW: 86.8kg
