Thanks for the encouragement. Crap rest seems to be the norm for me lately. Tends to be one of those vicious cycles for me with one bad night of sleep leading to another… Nothing to do but keep at it though.
I’ve been getting better about stretching. Static stretching bores the hell out of me, so I’ve been doing more locomotor type movements (bear, monkey, frog) and the few yoga poses where benefit to boredom ratio is bearable!
20-MAR-2019
I was due for Day 1, Week 2 of 5/3/1 full body, but decided to have an easy day instead. I tried a couple new movements to see what felt good.
Push-ups
BWx11
BWx9
BWx7x2 sets
Seated cable row
85x10
Hammer strength chest-supported row
90x10
DB row
32.5x10x2 sets
Step ups - Held a dumbbell “goblet style”. These felt fine on the knees, so I may keep these in the rotation.
25x8x4 sets
Landmine deadlifts - Just played around with these to get the feel of the movement. I felt a lot more activation in the outer thighs and glutes, not much in the lower back.
Last, I did what I’m calling my “vanity circuit”. I did a few rounds of cable lateral raises, cable hammer curls and barbell roll-outs.
I ultimately may change up my routine. After 4 weeks on 5/3/1 full body, I don’t feel any stronger, and my joints are bugging me. I may do a push/pull split or go back to tactical barbell, which worked for me in the past. My only grip with TB is that doing the same 3-4 movements every workout can get boooorring.
What’s makes your list of acceptable benefit to boredom ratio? Down dog and triangle pose would be on it for me.
I tried the Epsom bath salt…I remembered that I hate baths. Sitting in a hot sweaty room is not relaxing. I tried reading but really just counting down the minutes to get out! Not sure if the salts worked either.
Knocking 531 on the head maybe? Maybe try a different variation? Good luck whichever way you go.
Sometimes you just know whether a routine works for you or not. I’ve not looked at tactical barbell but only doing a few movements does sound boring. What about Doggcrapp? Sounded interesting from the bit discussed in the 531 book.
If I feel significantly better, looser after doing it, it’s a winner for me. Definitely down dog, child pose, anything that stretches hip flexors. All good stuff.
I think the problem is you’re forgetting a key ingredient, a nice cold beer. Seriously, something about the contrast of a hot bath and cold beer feels great!
There’s a lot I like about 5/3/1, but it just doesn’t seem to be working… at least the variation I’m doing. In the past, I’ve gotten strongest doing the same lifts 3x a week. Not super exciting, but effective. I’m thinking of keeping the same 3 core lifts and then mixing up accessory movements to keep things interesting.
Couldn’t make it to the gym yesterday, so I did a circuit of push-ups, inverted rows on rings and RFESS with a 16 KG kettlebell. Didn’t record numbers, but stayed in the 10-ish rep range.
Just had a “fun day” in the gym. I tried some things I haven’t done in a while - rack pulls, leg press, high incline bench press. The goal is to find 3-4 compound movements that don’t bug my joints and really focus on those for a while.
Missed a workout due to work travel… such is life.
28-MAR-2019
Bench press
45x10
85x5
95x5x3
Cable row
70x12
75x12
80x10
85x10
Incline smith machine bench press
85x11
85x9
Face pull
15x12x2
15x8
Squat
45x10
95x5
105x5
115x5
125x5
Very nice mate, finishing with 125kg squats!