Dinner tonight was an obscene amount of Mexican food (chips and salsa, rice and beans, steak and chicken fajitas, shrimp, etc.) eaten with my family at a nice restraint.
Second diner tonight was eggs and ground pork.
The hobbits had this figured out long before any of us, lol
5/3/1 Building the Monolith: W3D1
Squat: 5x45/135/185/225/250, 5x5 @ 280 (PR)
Press: 5x105/120/135, 9x105
Chins: 16x6, 1x4
Dips: 10x14
Pull-Aparts: 5x20
This was an amazing session. 275x5x1 was a PR before today, to put things in perspective. Every set of squats lasted well over a minute, but I found a way to grind out every rep, and then hit the press top set that I failed in week one (with at least a rep to spare).
Over 100 miles biked in the last few days, and then I come back and blow the hardest day of the first 3 weeks out of the fucking water. Feeling fantastic.
Edit: just weighed in at 177.0. Heaviest I’ve ever been. RHR was 64 yesterday, in the middle of an extremely active day (used my partner’s Apple Watch out of curiosity,) which I’m fairly pleased with.
No photo, but lunch today is:
Crushing it dude! On all accounts. Great work.
Awesome work on those squats sir. Quality
5/3/1 Building the Monolith: W3D2
Light jog: 2 Miles
Starting to get some shin splints, so I took this fairly easy. This has historically been an issue when I try to up mileage - open to advice, if anyone has any. Maybe some calf/tib work is warranted.
When I was a runner shin splints were usually a sign of tight calf muscles both front (tibialis anterior) and back mostly in the soleus. For me a good massage whilst extremely painful and some stretching was enough to keep me running. You could try using a foam roller for the rear and then a rolling pin or stick for the front will work.
Thanks for that! Can’t even remember the last time I’ve stretched my calves, so tight muscles there would hardly be a surprise. I’ll make sure to stretch and massage them more regularly going forwards.
Try walking backwards on a treadmill for 5 minutes or so before your lifting sessions.
I’ve seen a couple people doing that at my gym - what’s the rationale behind it? Thanks, by the way.
Eccentric loading of the anterior lower leg muscles. Eccentric loading is commonly used to treat tendonitis and other states associated with “overuse” and inflammation of tissues. Mechanisms are complicated and unclear but probably have something to do with increasing blood flow to the area and reducing muscle tone through neurological mechanisms.
Also, it’s a simple enough intervention that in my experience works the majority of the time. Try it, and if you feel better, keep doing it as necessary. Otherwise scrap it, and the only downside is you looked kind of goofy at the gym for a few minutes.
5/3/1 Building the Monolith: W3D3
Deadlift: 5x135/185/225/275/315, 3x5 @ 345
Bench: 5x45/95/135/155, 5x5 @ 170 (PR)
DB Rows: 5x10 @ 85
DB Curls: 2x20 @ 30
BB Curls: RP to 60 @ 45
From here on out, I’ll be lifting every other day as opposed to 3X/week. That’ll let me finish the program a day before heading to college, making the Deload week align with traveling/getting situated.
Today went pretty well - more or less unremarkable. At some point, though, I really need to buckle down and learn how to properly bench.
Very detailed explanation, thanks!
Lunch today:
5/3/1 Building the Monolith: Conditioning
75 DKB Cleans @ 35
To begin and EMOM: 5 push-ups on bells
Time: 6:15
100 Burpees (Untimed)
Stretching
Tried running, but called if off after a mile - my normal gait hurt, and pushing through it wasn’t worth what I’d get out of some random jog.
I’m going to pull most of the running while I take the advice you guys gave me a couple days ago, and hammer stuff like burpees and KB work in the meantime.
5/3/1 Building the Monolith: W3D3
(Only numbering lifting days now, because a “week” sort of loses its meaning on a six-day cycle)
Squat: 5x45/135/185/225/250/280, 20x165 (Beltless)
Press: 10x5 @ 105
Chin-Ups: 5x5 @ 45 (PR)
Pull-Aparts: 5x20
Shrugs (Beltless): 10x135/185/225/275/315, 5x365, 5 or 6 Rest-Pauses @ 225
Another solid day. That wraps up 1’s week, and is effectively the halfway point of the program. This is an absolute slog of a program, but the scale’s moving up, and 280 moved stupidly fast today.
Solid decision and perspective. Have you tried the backwards walking?
