Thanks a lot for your help! I’ll do that, starting my anchor on Wednesday with the following TM’s
DL:110
Squat: 95
Bench: 65
Press: 50
Today was C4W4D3: deload on the Bench, I did a single with 62.5kg and worked up to it doing triples.
Assistance was minimal as I didn’t have much time.
I tried hard last week at running and since last friday I had a small cough that was quite bad yesterday and today.
I started cycling into uni and stopped by the gym instead. I’ve a got syrup thing to take for a few days.
So I felt pretty weak today, great to start 351! I still did OK on my PR set, which by the way are hard as hell! I forgot the intensity of it by doing 5’s PRO! I’ll do better next week.
I knew I wasn’t going to do much assitance work or any singles, so I did FSL pyramid to do some work with the main lifts and then called it a day. The workout was 40min, one of the shortest ever, I felt good at the end.
I started with the press
Press
Main sets
3x35
3x40
9x45 (PR!) (I did 7x45 exactly 3 months ago)
3x40
10x35
DL
3x77
3x88
10x100 (I had a few more in me but didn’t want to kill mysef) I did 10x102 exactly 2 months ago.
3x88
10x77
25 chins total (5x5)
Hopefully I’ll feel better friday for a squat rep PR!
I’m still coughing but I had a good workout !
Squat
Main sets
3x66
3x76
15x86 (PR!, I did 9x87 in December I think)
I had this number in mind since yesterday, but I thought I would get 12 or 13. My legs felt fine, it was actually my shoulder that were getting buried under the bar that made me stop.
I did 3 extra singles
1x95
1x100
1x105
105 is the maximum I’ve ever squatted but I know it is probably not my max but it did feel heavy, I guess I was tired from the PR set too.
I filmed the last two singles (I took a picture in the first one…), I realised the angle is not the best but any feedback ?
Also what is the easiest place to upload videos ?
Assistance
75 chins
5x5 ab roll out (hard as hell!)
5x10 DB bench with 18kg
weight; 76.9kg
Well done! Both those singles looked pretty easy. I think most people upload videos to either YouTube or instagram.
Your walkout is rather good. No excess steps. Angle makes it harder to tell, but there’s nothing in either that stood out to me as a problem. Bar speed was decent, and on 105 it looked more like you were caught by surprise that you had to work through your sticking point rather than it being heavy.
One thing you could work on is not cocking your wrists. That can hurt your elbows down the track. Most effective for me was pulling my elbows into my sides rather than under the bar. Widen your grip if necessary.
What do you mean by cocking my wrist ? For my grip I put my pinky on the second ring of the bar (power bar I think not Olympic)
I thought elbows should always be under the bar so that’s why I put them this way. I’ll try with a wider grip maybe it will help me on rep PR too o avoid shoulder pain
Thanks both for your feedback ! I might try 110kg for the last single on the 1s week and I’ll try to get a better angle too.
Bending your wrist back. It puts strain not just on your wrist but your elbow. Honestly, as far as I’m concerned elbows under the bar is a shitty cue. What you’re aiming for is a tightly locked in upper back, and you don’t need elbows under the bar for that. You need squeezed lats and scaps back and down. Elbows into your sides does that very well.
I see what you mean now, thanks. I cannot look at the link just now but I will tomorrow. Thanks again for your tips !! I will firm the singles in the bench on Monday to get feedback too !
Sunny week end, ended up riding my bike and not eating much but I still felt good !
Bench
3x45.5
3x52
11x58.5 (I’m not sure if 11-12 reps… I lost count !)
Singles
1x65
1x70
1x75
1x80 (PR)
Really happy with the bench PR, though I was sure I had it in me. 2 months ago I did 1x77 so i’m sure I could do a bit more than that: I will try maybe for 83 in two weeks (1s week)
I couldn’t film cause I had no batteries in my phone.
60 chins total between all bench sets
5x10 DB bench with 20kg
5x10 DB rows 22 kg
5x15 lunges with a 20kg kettlebelt on one hand
weight: 76.0 kg
Start of week 2: 5’s week
I missed the PR sets!
After the PR sets I did FSL pyramid. I feel like the leaders prepared me for that, I feel great after the sessions. Especially because on the 5’s week I don’t do singles.
I filmed the DL PR set, any feedback is welcome! I realised my hips may be too high to start with.
Press
5x32.5
5x37.5
12x42.5
Pyramid down
5x37.5
15x32.5
DL
5x72
5x83
15x94 (PR, I’ve done 10x92.5 in December, my first post on the thread)
Pyramid down
5x83
15x74
Assistance
100 chins between the above
3x20 DB bench with 14kg (wanted to do high reps today)
3x20 hyperextension
weight: 76.8kg
eedit: just realised I’m not supposed to go for max reps on the second week… I’ll just do the prescribed reps for squat and bench.
edit2 and note to myself: read more about the programs I’m doing, don’t add stuff. I’ll take out FSL for the rest of this cycle, as it’s not in the book and as recommended in the posts above.
Hips are definitely too high, also looks like you aren’t quite getting your hips through at the top. Try to get your shoulders behind the bar at the start and drag the bar up your legs. As you lock out, squeeze your glutes hard.
I will do that, thanks for your feedback!
I’ve been reading and watching a lot of things about programming recently.
I’m starting to understand how the cycles are thought out: going from high volume/low intensity to low volume/higher intensity. This is exactly what 5’s PRO + 5x5 FSL to 351 is doing so I’m glad that I am in the right direction thanks to all the advice I have received here.
Also I see why the TM needs to be set low: you have so much more room to kick ass in the PR set. When you barely get the reps, like at did at the very start, you just don’t feel as strong even though the weight is heavier.
Hopefully the 531 Forever book will arrive at the end of this cycle so I can read more about programming for beginners.
C4W2D2 5’s week
Squat
5x62
5x72
5x81
100 pull ups/50 dips/ 3x10 ab roll out from knees, 2x20 sprinter sit up, 2x20 toe touch (almost like a V sit up)
The dips felt much easier than usual as I didn’t Bench or Press before, it actually makes more sense to do them after squats since they are much harder than DB bench!
I’m feeling good on the squats. This was the last workout at the uni gym, I’m going home tomorrow so my next workout will be either monday or tuesday with Bench. The one after that will be the start of the 1’s week, where I want to do 3-4 singles for each exercice, but OHP.
On the squat I’ll do 100-105-110, Bench 75-80-85 (or repeat 80 depending how the first two go). For the DL, probably 120-125-130 but if I don’t feel good I’ll just repeat 120. I feel less confident working with heavy weight on the DL, especially as my form is not as good as it could be.
I’m enjoying 351 so far, and depending how I feel at the end of the cycle I might deload as it corresponds to the start of my exams and (hopefully!) receiving 531 Forever: it would allow me to sit down and see how to optimise my next cyles.
If I don’t deload I’ll probably start gain 2 cycles 5’s PRO + 5x5 FSL and then 351 as discussed before
weight: 76.9
Bench day is tomorrow!
I am back home now, I ran on friday after my squat session, swam on saturday morning and ran again yesterday. The runs were easy for 30 min.
I believe that after this cycle I need to do some hypertrophy work. I’ve been looking at the monolith template and it looks pretty cool. It is run for 6 weeks.
The advantage is that it’s ran 3 days/week, when BBB would need 4 days a week to complete a cycle in the normal time. If trained 3times/week, BBB drops the frequency for the lifts which is not the best.
In the monolith I would be doing pressing movements 3 times and squatting twice which is something I want to try on 531.
Any other ideas/templates ?
Also another question for people on 531: how do you manage to fit 2 Bench and 2 squat sessions a week ? I’ve looked at full body templates but they do 3 squat sessions a week. For Full Body Full Boring there isn’t any OHP which I’d like to keep.
This would be for a Leader later down the road, after I’ve ran 351 once more cause I like this template. Thanks!
Bench after pressing and squat after DL. Easy.
I’ve seen you answer this a few times, but I do my DL and Press on the same day as I work out three times a week !
That would mean doing the 4 lifts in one day.
I could squat after bench and vice versa using deload/FSL percentage. What rep range do you use when you squat after DL and bench after press ?
It depends. I’ve done bench as an assistance after press, when I’d do sets of 10 (or you could do 50 total reps too) and use around 60% of my TM. I just like to squat after DL, usually front or SSB. SSB I tend to so reps more, like 20 rep sets for a total of 50 with maybe 60-70% of my squat; front squats I’ll do heavy doubles with pauses in the hole of a couple of seconds, usually three to five sets.
I see thanks.
So you would consider it as assistance and replace the DB bench with barbell bench ? I like this idea.
I’m sure there will be a program in 531 forever covering this, I was just curious.
I don’t have a SSB, and I have introduced lunges recently to replace front squats so I’ll keep it that way for now.
Thanks for your answer!