Not been training for a few days, house move is done though so that is a stress gone. Have a stinking cold and cough but covid test was negative so will ride it out and look to train end of the week. Did some conditioning in the back garden, weighted vest walking for 20-30 mins with 20kg, while in isolation.
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As in just walking round and round in circles?
Haha, up and down the garden /patio. It was mainly to get the baby to nap in his buggy while the older one pottered about. We were going stir crazy indoors!
Iāve definitely done those walks. When we first got little man home, he insisted on being carried around all the time. I remember one particular time when my better half first went back to work, I literally carried him round the house for the entire 8 hour shift because heād start crying as soon as I stopped and I didnāt want him to get upset with daddy.
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Havenāt lifted in about two weeks now, moving house left little room and energy then came down with the lurgy resulting in a couple of days in bed/ on the sofa. Still feeling like crap but dragging myself through life regardless haha.
Commute is a little longer and days are shorter so my time at home seems a lot more limited. Kids are a handful (whoād have thought!) and sleep is poor (either insomnia, kids waking, or both).
Soā¦
Iām considering running a 2x week template. Iām a sucker for 531 so thinking 2x2x2. But Iām worried this is me taking the easy way out. Only one way to find out I suppose (even if it means I fall off the Committed 2020 wagon).
Benefits of this means I can dedicate more training time to each session so assistance work can be higher volume, and I can keep up with some conditioning work. Considering getting a turbo trainer to set up in the garage during the winter.
I know a few people have had success training twice a week, but Iām still under the impression that moar is better!
I did a number of 531 templates on two days a week for over two years and made some great progress. If your effort, consistency and diet are all on point it is deff not subpar.
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Thanks mate! I was thinking you had done something like this and was working my way through your log recentlyā¦ there are a fair few posts there!
Yes there is a lot of posts in there. I think I switched to three days a week at the start of 2019 so the two day a week stuff was a fair way back.
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I also ran 2 days a week 531 for a year or so, sometimes life demands are bigger than we have time for & gym isnāt going to be too priority for a good husband/father/employee.
I just used the 531 reps/%s and ran the base program with one day as squat & bench the other as deads & OHP still hit prs - didnāt do a huge amount of accessory work either.
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Great stuff, thanks for the input!
Typically, for me, I am now overthinking this. Looking through 531 Forever and panicking about which template to choose, then going back to 531 Beyond. This morning I was reading Help a Friend Get Stronger, and it seemed to align pretty well with what I want out of my training right now. Two days lifting (Iāll do PR sets and maybe FSL widowmaker), 50-100 reps assistance in each category. Easy conditioning 2-3 times a week on top of it (along with general dog walking and child herding). Should be more than enough to keep me progressing for a few months or so until life settles down a bit.
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Can make plenty of progress on 2 a weeks. It really gives you license to go batshit on those two sessions as itās almost impossible to overtrain.
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Iām totally sold on the idea of twice a week training. Iāll run the original 531 with two lifts a day, much like I started on this log, and off the back of @alex_uk 's suggestion. Wonāt add in the FSL AMAP yet, so I should have plenty of room to add in a good amount of assistance, thinking mainly bodyweight.
And when life settles again I can really go for it with supplemental work!
Thanks everyone so much for the suggestions and discussion!
Iāve also got a lovely garage to train in now; Iām really looking forward to standing military presses.
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5th October
Squat
5x50
5x55
10x62.5
Bench
5x30
5x35
15x40
BPA (red band) 4x25
Push ups 2x25
Ab wheel 2x15, 1x20
First day back at it. Didnāt have the willpower to push the PR sets this morning, will find my groove soon enough. Regretting my decision to pile on bodyweight assistance and actually did a whole lot less than I had planned. Might hit some chins this evening if I can find my rings - in the shed gym I was chinning on the racked barbell, but had to tuck my knees to my chest to get full ROM; I refuse to do that now I have the ceiling height haha. Iām going to hang my gymnastic rings over the garage rafters but I have yet to unpack them and have no idea where they ended upā¦
And to celebrate starting training again, I have been considering other programs to runā¦ SMH
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Whatās your goals and what are your limitations?
My goal was to stick with one program until the end of the year, but I have dropped hard conditioning (running) and have planned to train only twice a week compared to thrice.
Longer term I want to put on muscle.
Limitations are time, recovery and somewhat equipment. I train at home with a barbell, rack, rings (still havenāt found them) and a loadable dumbbell. I could go to a commercial gym if the need was great enough but I have painted myself into a corner in regards to budgeting time for working out.
So my plan is to stick with basic 531 (pr sets) 2-3 times a week as recovery and time allow, then reassess in the new Year. I have a sneaking suspicion that it may work quite well if I can stick with it, in which case I should stay with the same plan until something stops working.
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8th October
Deadlift
5x70
5x80
15x90
(Standing) press
5x27.5
5x32.5
10x35
Chins (in between all sets of main and assistance work) 10 sets of 3 reps
Single arm DB press 3x12
Knee raises x50
Plate raise x50
DB row 2x15
But disappointed with the PR sets as quite a significant drop from last time I ran this workout, but heavy life stress and about 2kg of bodyweight loss (so Iām about 70-71kg now) betwixt the two so Iāll just move on.
Longest workout for a while clocking in at 47 mins.
I find the PR sets to be very stress/fatigue driven. I think itās more an issue of work capacity than true strength. For instance, today my PR set was a weight Iāve done for 10 in the past, but I was tired and felt off, so I only got 5. Any more would have been a grind. However, bar speed on the first rep was fantastic, a far better indicator of strength in my opinion. After a ādisappointingā PR set, I went on up with my end of cycle test and set an all time PR. While rep PRs are a fun way to challenge yourself, Iād prefer to quantify my strength with bar speed. Also, just because I could rep out 20 squats or deadās, Iām just not into that kind of self mutilation, lol. Hang in there, the strength is there even on a bad day for capacity.
Thanks man. I do agree with you that this is more than likely a minor blip in performance and have very clear reasons for the drop in reps. I really need to work on seeing the bigger picture - that this is a long term endeavour.
Re. bar speed, I know Jim Wendler is big on this, but Iām afraid that notion went out the window this morningā¦!
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10th October
Ab wheel from kneeling 2x15, 1x20
Neck harness 15kg 3x15
Neck flexion 10kg 3x12
BPA 3x25
Feeling good, sleeping well (in between children waking during the night).
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