You’re right there with me. I just set my all time squat PR at 370 last week. I feel like squat is a grind to add weight to the bar. I’m not sure when I’ll hit 405 but I haven’t set a timeline; maybe before I’m 40? That gives me six years!
That should be enough time to add 35 lbs and work through a couple injuries 
1 push-up, 1 pull-up, 2 Squats. Up to 10, 10, 20 back down to 1, 1, 2. Total of 100 push-ups, 100 pull-ups, 200 Squats. I have no idea how long it took. Probably 20 minutes or more. Then one the most brutal calf routines I’ve ever done, which I just posted about in the BSL forum.
I think you’d like these CrossFit Benchmark WODs:
Chelsea: 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats EMOM for 30 minutes
or
Cindy: 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes
I’ve done Cindy before. Don’t remember how many rounds but I gotta do it again. But Chelsea I have definitely not done. Gooooooooood lord. 150 pull-ups 300 push-ups and 450 squats? With no time restriction that would be hard enough to complete, EMOM would be constant work. I bet I’d break the minute restriction at 10 minutes, if not before.
For me it’s the dang push ups. I learned yesterday that if I add the tiniest little hitch to my pull up then it makes it infinitely easier.
I do them with my feet crossed and knees bent anyway. All I do is add a slight knee raise to the start. I could probably make cheat the pull ups with that but I can’t do 300 push ups in 30 minutes anymore. I could only do that at my first police academy.
Last day of week 1 of Built for Battle
235, 250, 265, 285, 300
105, 115, 125, 135, 140
170, 180, 195, 210, 220
155, 175, 185, 195, 205
Just did 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 super slow wide grip bodyweight pullups, like 3 second negatives. Heavy cable rows were making my shoulders and lat insertions feel weird for some reason. Can’t explain what the feeling was, but it didn’t feel right. Felt better doing pullups. I don’t want to skip all horizontal pulling though, so I may have to alternate with doing BB rows or something.
Just did prowlers for the assistance work. 10 sprints with +45 finished me off nicely.
Great fuckin program. I think my plan will be to run it for 4 weeks, then back to either 5/3/1 or another CT program for 2 months, then back to this again. I could totally do this 4 times a year. Feels fucking awesome.
Retested 3RMs
Deads 365 (felt fairly easy tbh)
OHP 160
Squat 275 (1+ in the tank)
Bench 235
WPU’s +70
Bench was a bit too much of a grind for my liking…but as I posted in CT’s thread, I do a dead/OHP/squat circuit followed by a bench/WPU circuit (originally rows), so my bench takes a bit of a blow in terms of the weight I can lift, but I don’t think it’s detracting much from my strength gains. I have had days at the gym where I could have run the whole circuit continuously but it’s my wife and I and The 3/2 split of the circuit is something we can do consistently instead of whenever the whole circuit isn’t possible. I never cared about how much I was benching, so it’s not a problem to take a blow on that, and WPUs are limited enough in their progression for me to go slowly.
I did day 2 of week 2, but i’ve had to take 2 days off. I got costochondritis, i.e. inflammation of the sternum, where the ribs join it. Super painful, feels like your chest is going to snap in half if you flex it. It’s happened once before, and today it feels finally like it’s going away. I also strained a muscle in my ribs on my 3rm retest day so that finally feels better too. I’m kind of proud of myself, not too long ago I’d have tried to work through both injuries, but just a couple days off can fix a lot of things and get you back to work mode. I also noticed my arms and back grew a bit more, as is usually the case when I actually give myself a couple days off.
Day 2 week 2 (wednesday)
295, 315, 335, 355, 365
115, 130, 145, 155, 160
225, 245, 255, 265, 275
185, 205, 215, 225, 235
BW, +25, +45, +55, +70
How do you think this program would go without taking Thursday off? I’m considering running it Mon-Friday. The way CT laid it out, Wednesday tops out at 92.5% as a “light” day. Saturday tops out at 90%.
I’m considering dropping Wednesday’s load so that it tops out at 87.5-90%. Heck, it could even be 85% to help reduce the work before the big day on Thursday.
This would eliminate most of the problems between my training and work schedule.
That could work. You could also drop Wednesday’s main lifts altogether and just do conditioning. 4 days of compound lifts are definitely enough either way. But I like your idea of dropping the percentages. Maybe even up the volume a bit too, like 55, 60, 65, 70, 75%x8-12?
That’s probably doable. I saw that someone is mixing in days of 10/8/6/4/2 on the circuit for more volume. I could also just do straight 5’s all throughout like 5/3/1’s 5’s PRO. I don’t know if I want to add too much volume because there’s already the assistance circuit on top of that session. I did a shorter running workout before the Wednesday session this past week and my workout took 2 hours! I took short little breaks between circuits to catch my breath and set up, but it was quite the day. It actually elevated my body temperature the rest of the day.
After the rib and chest pain went away, I went back to B4B, but it was the 110% day. I did the 110% for everything but deadlift - it was the only exercise that felt like it was going to bring the pain back. So i did everything up to the 105% lift and then hit a rep PR of 315x10. Might have even had one more in the tank. I’m definitely ready to get back to 400+ but it wasn’t the day to do it.
Deads
315, 335, 365, 385, 315x10
OHP
115, 135, 155, 165, missed 175 strict, bad setup. Next time.
Squat
225, 245, 275, 285, 295
Bench (did close grip, was still worried about my chest)
185, 195, 205, 215, 225
Pull-ups
Just did 10 BW pulls every round
Finished with a bunch of horizontal pulling exercises. Love pull-ups but the shoulder always feels more stable when my horizontal pulls get more volume.
B4B last day of week 2
OHP 95, 105, 115, 125, 135
Dead’s 265, 285, 305, 325, 335
Right hip felt tight today. Squats did not feel good.
Squats 185, 205, 225, 225, 225
Bench 185, 195, 205, 215, 225
Row stack 10-14
Did calves instead of accessory work
Seated calf raise
1 plate x 10 (1-1-1 tempo)
2 plates x 5
2 plates x 5
Superset with
Donkey Calf Raise
3x40
10x10 standing calf raise drop set style with 10 second rest in between steps, started at 140, went down the stack to 20 and did the last sets BW. Painful calf routine, but adding size for sure. Man, donkey calf raises really fuck you up, lots of people don’t train calves and the ones that do rarely do donkeys so that upper part of the calf/behind the knee area never gets hit. Now that I’m doing them my leg feels so much stronger and knees feel much better.
Conditioning day, 3RM test tomorrow. Honestly would like to try for 405x3 but will probably just do 385 and hit the 405 on my 110% day.
Barbell Complex: 95 lbs
6 deadlifts
6 RDLs
6 rows
6 hang cleans
6 ohp (strict)
6 back squat
Then 5 of each, 4, down to 1
Normally this complex has front squats and good mornings, but with the deads, rdls, rows, and squats I’m pretty sure I was pushing my hip/back already so I just did 45 sec rest between sets (instead of the prescribed 90 sec), and on the 2 and 1 sets with no rest.
Giant Set x4
Swiss ball crunches x25, 20, 15, 10
Sprint 25M
HLR x10, 10, 10, 10
40-45 mins in the gym.
3RM day
Dead’s 375
OHP 165
Squat 285
Bench 235
Switched up the cable rows for the chest supported row (plate-loaded) - 3 plates
Bench isn’t going anywhere. Probably due to me preceding it with squats AND dead’s and OHP up to a 3RM before ever touching the bench. Oh well, OHP > bench and I only have this week and the next before going on to something else, and I’m gonna do hypertrophic chest work for accessory days. But deads feel pretty good. I know it’s not a lot of weight but I’m excited to get back to 400+ and start the climb to 500.
Finishing up a visit to New York. Wife does pet sitting so they had to stay in VA, so instead of leaving her with both kids I took the older one and she kept the younger one. On hour 6/7 of a train ride with a 3 year old in a cramped cabin. Please baby Jesus let him keep being chill.
I don’t like letting my kids stare at the phone all day but sometimes it’s the best option. It sounds like you might be in one of those situations.
They’re never allowed to have phones, ever. So it’s doubly effective to let him watch Moana with headphones in on the train, since it’s like forbidden fruit for him. People didn’t even know he was there til the last 30 minutes when he transformed into a total dick. But I made it, took a nap, went to the gym and pulled 405 for a double!!! Gym was way too packed for B4B tonight so I did deads up to a double and then did a pushup pull up pyramid up to 10, followed by some cable work.
Finished out the week of B4B. Honestly, too lazy to type up all the numbers for B4B over the past 3 days, but I finished out my 3rd week yesterday and I’m going to be moving on to another routine. I’ve gone up to the 230ish range recently and I’d like to establish a deficit, and cut back down to 220, then do a bit of recomposition and see where to go from there. It’s happening, guys. I’m going back on a bro split. Going to try this one
that was suggested by @robstein in a thread recently - the fear of bro splits around the internet these days is real, and it really is ridiculous. Not to mention, it’s actually difficult to design a bro split that doesn’t end up hitting body parts multiple times a week. Chest gets hit on chest day and shoulders day, shoulders on shoulders, chest, back, back on back and legs, arms like every damn day, etc.
First day:
Incline DB 5x5
Decline Bench 4x10
Cable Crossovers 3x12
Pushups 3x15
Calves
Seated Calf Raise x10, 8, 6 (1, 1+25, 2 plates)
superset with 3x40 donkey calf raises
Standing Calf Raise 3x12 121 tempo
First day was Chest and Calves, Second day, Back + Abs
Lat Pulldown 4x10
Deads 315 4x6
One Arm DB Rows 80lbs 4x12
Cable Rows 3x12
superset with
Straight Arm Rope Pulls 3x15
HLR, Rope Crunches, Decline Crunches