I'm Ripping Off 5/3/1 & Getting HYOOOGE

Training Training Logs
61

Back to the regular routine now. Here are this week’s workouts so far, these were some good ones.

Mon-

5 x 5 squat (275 lb)
3 x 10 pause squat (195 lb)

Weds-

5 x 5 bench (165)
3 x 10 cable row (“120”)
3 x 10 incline DB bench (50s) - missed a lot of reps here, started to feel very tired
15 neutral grip chinups

Fri-

5 x 5 deficit DL (345)
3 x 10 pullthroughs (???, the cable stack I use doesn’t have labels, so I just put the pin in somewhere halfway)
3 x 10 hyperextensions

After a long trip back after Christmas my weight went down somewhat, right now it’s at about 167.5 around workout time and 172-174 before bed. Monday’s session was just nuts, I could barely walk afterwards and had DOMS literally all week long since then in my hamstrings and quads. Wednesday’s session went well at first - I finally got myself to “pull the bar apart” on bench, which prevented me from cocking my wrists back, and fell into a good groove - but later on I felt very tired and unable to grind out the assistance work. Today’s session was better: deficit DLs were easy, although I had to make some form adjustments to keep my lower back from rounding throughout the lift. Ready to take on the triples next week!

62

Quick update:

Yesterday I hit a 425 DL at 168.

New short term goals:
Weigh 175
Squat 355
Bench 215
DL 455

by May 1.

Looking to stay focused, stay healthy, and make some progress.

63

How goes the training?

64

Good question. Stats right now are:
Weight: 176
Squat: 365 (April 12)
DL: 445 (April 30)
Bench: ? (haven’t tested recently)

Squats were going really well until I ran into some stuff that messed up my form for a while (calf strain, elbow strain, and a broken toe). I’m just starting to get back into a good groove with them.

DLs were barely going up even though I was pulling 1-2 times a week with decent volume. I recently tightened up my form and been doing them often and heavy. I think 465 is within reach by summer’s end.

Bench has been going OK, I’ve been doing it nearly every week, and also supplementing with overhead presses, both in the five rep range. But I haven’t actually tested it recently. I should do so in a few weeks.

Right now I’m running another version of the 40 day workout, emphasizing the conventional DL, seated OH press, and DB row. I changed the rep scheme to 5x1 or 5x2 on the first lift to drill good form under heavy weight. I swap in other exercises like squat, bench, RDL about once or twice each week to mix things up.

This week’s training so far is fairly representative: (work sets only)

Monday:
Squat 5x2x315, OH press 2x5x145, DB row 2x5x100s, face pulls 3x10x110
Tuesday:
Squat 5x2x315, OH press 2x5x145, DB row 2x5x105s, face pulls 3x10x110
Wednesday:
Off
Thursday:
Deadlift 5x1x415, OH press 2x5x145, DB row 2x5x100s, face pulls 3x10x110
Friday:
Deadlift 5x1x425, OH press 2x5x135, DB row 2x5x105s, face pulls 3x10x120

Still have another session planned for today before the week is out.

65

More:

Sat.:
Deadlift 5x1x415 … caught up with a powerlifter who was also training DL and pulled a few more singles … DB row 2x5x110
Sun.:
off
Mon:
Deadlift 5x1x425, OH press 2x5x145, DB row 2x5x105s, face pulls 3x10x120
Tue:
Deadlift 5x1x415, OH press 2x5x145, DB row 2x5x105s, face pulls 3x10x110

It’s interesting that it’s been a year almost to the day since I first tried the 40 day WO. Since I’m around day 25 now, I’ve been at it longer that last summer, and made decent progress too. So far:
5x1 DL: 385 >>> 425
2x5 OH press: 125 >>> 145
2x5 Row: 90s >>> 110s
3x10 Face pulls: 100 >>> 120
Other exercises I haven’t done often enough on this program to mark progress: just lifted whatever I felt was good that day.

BW: from about 173 (dipped a bit at the end of May) to about 176 (low:171, high:177)

I think this time around the 40 day program is working better for me because I am actually letting the weights wave up and down over each week, so that I’m not trying to make linear progress from workout to workout. Also, eating more than last summer has been instrumental to recovering well.