C1 W3 D3
Box jumps 10 total.
Power snatch 47.5 x 5x3
Front squat 10x5
Superset with
Fat grip chins 10x5
Press 65x 3,4,3
Dips 8,10,10
Leg raises (super strict) 3x10
Finished off with a couple of lat raises and bentover lat raise supersets.
Hot.
4 Likes
Conditioning - Hard
15 driveway sprints.
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Easy conditioning
Ruck, 13kg
39mins, 3.76km
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Cycle 2
As I am going to be switching lifts and program, I haven’t done a deload, just changing it up and doing some TM testing.
TM Testing Day
Squat
20x5, 60x3, 80x3, 100x3, 120x1,5(B), 140x5(B)
The 120 was really smooth, so junped to 140. The first 3 were good, but the last 2 were a bit off, too grindy for my liking. TM will be 130, I am confident i could have hit it easily.
Bench 60x3, 80x3, 90x1, 95x5
The bench lacked a bit of pop as i didnt rest much after squats. Hit 95x5 with a decent pause at the chest though. Probably could have ground out 2 more at that weight.
Its funny, I am now a better bencher with a narrower grip than wider. My grip is “close grip” by comparison with IPF.
Chins 16x3, 24x2, 32x2, 16x5, 0x10
These were for fun.
Was going to call it quits and do the next two lifts tomorrow, but then I remembered holidays are short and decided to cram it all in. Probably hurt my DL more than the press.
Press 40x1, 60x2, 65x1, 67.5x5
This moved well. Last rep got a bit stuck midway but ground it out.
I must say, the Morning Star is boring, but it has done wonders for my press. It hits the balance of high frequency, high volume and high intensity perfectly for that movement. Will bear that in mind, worth a revisit.
Deadlift 70x3 110x2 130x1(B) 160x5(B)
Had this as a goal, hit it and stopped. Not going to get injured after the other lifts. Moved well, def had more in me. Room to move up next cycle.
5 Likes
Conditioning.
5.3km run.
30:56.
Woeful pace. Need to get more consistent.
3 Likes
Forearm games.
Dead hang. 1:30. I am really not good at this. Will have to do more of them.
Then plate pinches. Easy did the 2x10s single handed, couldnt get the 2x15s
Then my weird D handle with a fat grip.
Got up to 56kg with left. Right hand didnt quite get it properly.
Note the formal lifting shoes, increase performance on all lifts.
One arm deadlifts. Standard bar, gripping centre knurling.
L:70kg, 80, failed 90, got 90.
R:70, 80, just got 90 to lockout and failed, got 90.
Finished it all off with a neutral grip hang. 1:13
Just some horsing around.
6 Likes
Easy conditioning
Bike ride with kid in seat. 1 hr riding time, with 10 min break at a playground at the 40 min mark.
4 Likes
So in chatting to my brother, he tells me there is an amateur strongman event every year at the CrossFit Gym he attends… I am going to look into this…
As a side note, this caught my attention as my browsing on Crossfit stuff in recent months brough my attention to U90 strongman - something I can actually see myself trying.
Anyone got advice about trying it out without derailing the main plan?
1 Like
Here’s the plan for Cycle 2 - some tweaks since testing the maxes, deciding to keep the front squat and explore some strongman for the next month (before this baby comes).
Cycle 2 writeup.
Plan is to expose myself to Strongman style training, whilst keeping 531 progression and principles in mind. Maybe I’m stupid, maybe I’ll love it. Worst case in 3 weeks I can go back to my baseline plan of 5x5 FSL with the big 4.
Day 1
C+J Heavy
Use 531 %, but limit reps to 3’s and hit top set 3x i.e. 65, 75, 85x 3x3.
Power clean and focus on total weight overhead. Clean every rep.
Incline bench for Log raw press strength - FSL Widowmakers rest pause style with Timer.
Do some light upper back work and some carries/Farmers walks
Day 2
Front squat with back squat Top set Widowmakers
Do arms, hammies and abs and call it a day.
Rest
Day 3
Press with jokers (at TM) and FSL Widowmaker (rest pause with timer), and DL PR set plus jokers
Do some rows
Day 4
Prehab/rehab/conditioning:
Kettlebell snatches.
Chins and dips. - 50 each - do at least a few weighted sets in there.
Any prehab/rehab.
Arm work. - 100 each
Do some swings etc for conditioning.
Day 5
Strongman Saturday - carries and medleys etc.
Consider doing a few drop ins at Local Gym for this.
Use a 351 progression, on the 5 week cap the sets at 5 and the widowmakers at 45s.
Other weeks use 60 seconds.
4 Likes
Tagging @simo74 as he’s probably your man for this
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The plan looks solid to me, build your strength on the big 4 using a barbell and then practice strongman on Saturdays. With the strongman work in in particular the carry movements and deadlifts (farmers, sandbag, yoke) try to stay away from a max single attempts and do more conditioning rep style work. Overhead work like axle or log you can get away with the odd single attempt as they are easier to recover from.
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Cheers Simo, appreciate the advice.
1 Like
C2 W1 D1
Clean and jerk 55x3 65x3 72.5x3x3
Power cleaned every rep, moving them all easily. Mixed push press and push jerk to feel them both at each weight
High incline bench 52.5x3, 60x3 67.5x9
60s timed widowmaker (rest pause), 52.5x 20 total reps.
Incline lat raises 12.5s x 25, 20,20
Farmers carries with trap bar.
There and back on driveway with 120kg, 2 passes.
Done. Bit late night as the kid toom ages to go down. Need to go back to mornings now im back at work.
6 Likes
C2 W1 D2
Front squat 72.5x3 82.5x3 92.5x6 (B)
Back squat 92.5x20 (B)
GHR 8,10,12
Leg raises 10,10,12
Fat curls 20x 20,25,20
Straight bar pushdown 24x 20,25,20
Can someone help me with the name of the strongman who did crazy high rep curls. Cant think of his name right now - EDIT - remembered - Poundstone!
I was not ready for the fat bar curls, but the goal is 100 straight.
6 Likes
Here are 2 different popular templates for adapting 531 to strongman. They are pretty similar - 2 or 3 barbell days and an events day.
3 Likes
Not @Deadliftnstill, nor am I super-interested in training for Strongman, but I always love 5/3/1-related stuff! Definitely a good read, thanks for posting that.
2 Likes
Cheers, will give them a read!
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I ran the second one a couple summers ago. It was pretty good actually. I’ve also seen people use 5/3/1 for upper body events (bc it’s usually for reps events) and conjugate stuff for lower body main lifts (deadlifts usually 1rm event most of the time)
2 Likes
Thanks all.
For the record, I’m not about to compete (but not ruling it out for later in the year), so keeping a 531 base and just trying to get stronger. I just like some Oly lifts and the idea of events, which is kind of why i dabbled in Crossfit too - the WODs add some spice.
I am just using some ideas from the elitefts articles (had read them a while back), and the frontsquat,/backsquat idea from some thread I found on here (I think @antiquity was on the thread - can’t find it now).
Trying to keep the base ideas of 531 in there - start light, progress slowly, use compound lifts, full body assistance, etc.
It may turn into a hare brained idea that I drop at the end of the cycle and go back to a tried-n-true, or I might love it and run it for 3-6 cycles - we’ll see. So far I’ve enjoyed the rest-pause/widowmakers.
4 Likes