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5x5: Week 3, Day 1 (heavy)
SQUAT: 60kg x5, 72.5kg x5, 82.5kg x3, x2, bailed out
BENCH: 52.5kg x5, 65kg x5, 75kg x5 x3
DEADLIFT: 85kg x5, 102.5kg x5, 120kg x5
BTN PRESS: 37.5kg x10, 37.5kg x10, 35kg x10
DB ROW: 37.5kg x12, 37.5kg x10, 35kg x12
CROSS BODY HAMMER CURL: 7kg x20, 7kg x15, 7kg x12
CABLE CRUNCH: 3 sets
CONDITIONING:
INCLINE TREADMILL WALK: 13.5 incline, 4.5kph, 20 mins
NOTES:
Squat was terrible today. After doing 80kg relatively easily on Friday, today at 82.5kg was bad and it ruined the rest of the workout for me mentally.
Even though I managed to get the bench and deadlift up and get the reps I was really annoyed about the squat. I was trying to rationalise why it felt so tough today. I can only think of 3 things:
- I was unwell since Thursday and yesterday morning I woke up feeling the worst of the 3 days. This morning I was ok when I woke but perhaps it was cumulative fatigue of being unwell?
- I stupidly woke at 3.30am to watch the Game of Thrones finale before going to the gym so I only had 4-5 hours sleep. Probably not ideal
- I also stupidly did the vanity / bonus workout on Saturday after doing the heavy day on Friday all while having a cold.
Oh well, these things happen. Iām going to do the light day on Thursday this week then try the 82.5kg squat on Saturday again. Iām sure Iāll get it but its just annoyed me for the week now!
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Bad days happen, do them, forget them, move on.
Next time youāll nail them.
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Consider them nailed today!
5x5: Week 3, Day 2 (heavy)
SQUAT: 60kg x3, 72.5kg x3, 82.5kg x5 x3
OHP: 37.5kg x5, 45kg x5, 52.5kg x5 x3
POWER CLEAN: 42.5kg x3, 50kg x3, 57.5kg x3 x5
CHIN UPS: BW+8kg x8, BW+8kg x8, BW+8kg x7
DIPS: BW+5kg x12, BW+5kg x11, BW+5kg x10
PALLOF PRESS: 3 sets
LYING LEG RAISE: 3 sets
CONDITIONING:
OFFSET KB CARRY: 40kg in one hand / 12kg in other 30m then switch KBs and another 30m x 5 rounds
NOTES:
Got the 5 reps for 3 sets at 82.5kg after failing it on Monday. It was a grind but still felt easy (if that makes any sense!).
I only did 3 reps on the warm up sets for squats as I wanted to make sure I reserved myself for the 3 work sets.
Power cleans I did 5 sets of 3 reps after realising / being told by Chris Collucci that I was wrong doing 3 sets of 5 reps! At 3 reps the 57.5kg felt easy but I need to focus on the form a bit more.
I think in the last 2 weeks Iāve gained a little more chunk than I wanted to so Iām going to spend 2 weeks doing a āmini-cutā (as recommended in this article Get Jacked, Not Skinny Fat to improve insulin sensitivity and force the body into adapting to a change). Then Iāll resume the mass gaining after that. The macros will be:
190g carbs
190g protein
75g fats
So total cals will be around 2200 cals (300-500 less than Iāve been eating) plus I will do some additional conditioning. I donāt want to cut cals too much and risk losing what little muscle Iāve gained in the last 2-3 months.
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I havenāt posted for a week. Iāve had my deload week, been to the coast with the family, enjoying some sea air, done 1 session at about 85% of the weights I was doing and generally recovering.
The cut is now over after 10 days. Trimmed about 1.2cm off the waist and the midsection is looking a bit more defined now so thatās all good.
On to more growth now.
But - the wife has booked a beach holiday for mid-August which leaves me a little quandary. Its about 8 weeks out. I wasnāt expecting to go on a beach holiday this year so I was focusing on strength gain now then mass from the end of the summer until the new year but now I may have to revisit that. 8 weeks is probably a decent amount of time to add a few more pounds.
Not sure how to progress, the options appear to be:
- Continue with Starting Strength as-is for 8 weeks. I wonāt gain maximal size but I will get my lifts up significantly before going away. Risk of gaining excess fat again between now and then
- Base workouts on Starting Strength but with more hypertrophy added. My thinking here is doing upper/lower with the low rep squat and deadlift/power clean on lower day and the low rep bench and ohp on upper day and then more volume in the 8-15 rep ranges
- Do Starting Strength (as-is or the upper/lower version) for 4 weeks then move to a mass focused program for 4 weeks (like the link below)
- Scrap Starting Strength altogether now and do something like Paul Carterās Guaranteed Muscle Mass (Guaranteed Muscle Mass) for 8 weeks then come back to Starting Strength in late August.
Iām leaning toward option 4 because options 2 and 3 just seems like Iām going to spin my wheels and do neither strength-acquisition nor hypertrophy properly.
Thoughts?
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Iām not familiar with the other Starting Strength programs you are listing. Pick a program that doesnāt grind you week after week (meaning bar speed slows down week after week) as itās just not sustainable. Pick one that allows you to progress slowly week after week and build momentum and confidence under the bar.
When I started lifting I remember seeing that video which I still refer to prevent me from program hopping!
I saw the video of your squat. I think it looks pretty good, slow down your descent a bit. You will gain strength by being more confident in the hole. Also your wrists are cocked back, you could try a wider grip to avoid hurting your elbows and wrists on the long term. I was guilty of these two things myself. I think the Juggernaut TrainingSystems youtube channel has great video on teaching the lifts and giving practical cues if you want to have a look.
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Thanks @hypem74
That is a good video. Such simple and obvious points when you think about it. But it does get lost in this world of instant gratification and noisy opinions!
Irony is I always tell my 6 year old that if youāve committed to something then you have to see it through. No quitting!
Right - food for thought and I will pick something by the end of the weekend that I will do for the next 12 months.
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Funny 
I watched it yesterday and almost committed to the same thing.
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I think the main point to take away is consistency and not necessarily the one year thing. That would require the program to be quite flexible. Some programs land themselves better at this, I think 531 is fantastic for that.
@hypem74 I think you are right. Flexibility of the program is the most important thing - thereās no way you can literally go and do the same workouts / movements / rep scheme for an entire year. You do need to follow a certain essence of a program though.
And thatās why Iāve decided to go back to 5/3/1 again. The core of the program will be consistent and I can just tweak templates or assistance exercises as I go on.
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Do the big basic compound movements ad reps and then weight.
keep doing it over and over.
Do some assistance the same way, but those could change over time.
Squat, front squat, deadlift, Rdl, BB row, chin up, pull up, OHP and bench press as the main movements.
531 is a good stable as far as that goes.
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5/3/1 Cycle 3, Week 1, Deadlift day
DEADLIFT: 85kg x5, 97.5kg x5, 112.5kg x9, 97.5kg x10, 85kg x11
SQUAT: 67.5kg x10, x10, x10, x10, x10
QUAD EXT: 36kg x12, x12, x10, x10, x10
CABLE CRUNCH: 5 sets
PALLOF PRESS: 1 set
CONDITIONING: Incline treadmill walk; 10 mins, 4.5kph, 13.5 incline
NOTES:
Back to 5/3/1 with my tail between my legs! And it was an awesome work out; felt more focussed than the Starting Strength and whatever else I tried for last 2 weeks. It was like I was in there for a reason and I knew exactly what it was.
The 5/3/1 structure I have chosen is BBB, variation 2 from the Beyond 5/3/1 book but for the main lift I have also added the pyramid downsets with max reps. Sounds like a lot of work but I took my time working through it. It took 55 mins to do the deadlifts, squats and quad ext today so I was hardly rushing.
There will be some soreness tomorrow I think, so Iāll have to see how football goes tomorrow evening!
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Thatās what I like about Jims work, you know what to do on the main lift, a purpose going in.
Wow 3 amraps of DL, thatās tough.
Nice topset GsG Things are moving along nicely.
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Will be following along with great interest as Iām looking at doing very similar routine once Iāve leaned down more.
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5/3/1 Cycle 3, Week 1, Bench day
BENCH: 57.5kg x5, 65kg x5, 72.5kg x8, 65kg x9, 60kg x9
BTN PRESS: 35kg x10, x10, x10, x10, x10
HANG HIGH PULL: 45kg x5, 40kg x10, 40kg x10
CABLE ROW: 55kg x12, x12, x12, x12, x12
PRESS UP: BW x15, x15, x15
GIRONDA SWING: 6kg x12, x11, x10
SHRUG: 85kg x12, x10, x10
CONDITIONING: KB SWINGS: 28kg x10, 60s rest, 7 rounds
NOTES:
This was yesterday. It was ok. Hang high pull was causing issue in my arm so I will drop that next week for pull downs.
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5/3/1 Cycle 3, Week 1, Squat day
SQUAT: 65kg x5, 75kg x5, 85kg x8, 75kg x10, 65kg x10
POWER CLEAN: 45kg x5, 52.5kg x5, 57.5kg x5
DEADLIFT: 85kg x10, x10, x10
SEATED HAM CURLS: 50kg x15, x15, x13
LEG PRESS CALF RAISE: 75kg x15, x14, x15
CONDITIONING: BATTLE ROPES: 25s on / 40s off x 5 rounds
NOTES:
Rep PB on the squat - and it felt pretty good. 90kg next week and I am feeling confident!
Meant to do 5x10 deadlift for BBB but I didnāt fancy doing that so I added in power cleans using the 5/3/1 rep scheme but I wont be going for max reps on the top set, just the prescribed 5 or 3 or 1 reps.
Everything done in 70 minutes today.
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Glad youāre back at it.
FSL pyramid and BBB are two different supplemental templates, Jim doesnāt recommend doing them together. No way I could squat BBB after 3 tough sets of deadlifts. See how you get on but I would just stick with one, probably BBB. Stick to it for 2-3 cycles then do 1-2 cycles of FSL pyramid.
The rest looks solid. For power cleans, I think Jim recommends 5s and 3s so youāre on the right track there, enjoy!
Hi @hypem74
I know what you mean about about not doing pyramid and BBB together but really itās just 2 extra sets of work on the main lift so I donāt think itās too big a deal. Also I did FSL + SST last time around and it seemed to worked ok for me.
Iāll keep an eye on how I feel over the coming weeks - if I get run down Iāll amend accordingly. But summer holiday is 7-8 weeks away so some extra work now then back off for a week before going away to allow the super-compensation to happen and itās all good.
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5/3/1 Cycle 3, Week 2, OHP day
OHP : 42.5kg x3, 50kg x3, 55kg x5, 50kg x7, 42.5kg x9
INC BENCH: 55kg x8, x8, x8, x8, x8
NARROW LAT PULLDOWN: 60kg x12, x12, x10, x10, x10
PENDLAY ROW: 40kg x10, x10, x10
DECLINE MACHINE PRESS: 30kg x18, x15, x12
SHRUG: 20kg plate in each hand x25, x25, x25
REAR DELT RAISE: 6kg x15, x15, x15
CONDITIONING: INC TREADMILL WALK: 13.5 incline, 4.5kph, 10 mins
NOTES:
It was a bit of a disappointing workout to be honest. I felt quite light headed most of yesterday and I wonder if there was still some today even though I told myself I was fineā¦
Also in annoying news, I have a bit of a quad strain. Its been there for 6 weeks or so but Iāve kept telling myself its ok. I really ought to rest it given what happened with my groin last year. Its frustrating because its mostly aggravated by squatting so I think I have to knock that on the head for a few weeks along with football. I can still do glute, hamstring and calf work. Iāll test out deadlift tomorrow to see if that gives any issues. If it doesnāt then I need to think about how to rejig my routine given I wonāt be doing the squat day for a little while. ANY IDEAS??
Perhaps rather than upper/lower style, I could do 5/3/1 as more of a push-pull style? So Iād have the following set up:
PUSH DAY 1 OHP as main lift then some assistance work on shoulders, chest and calves
PULL DAY 1 DEADLIFT as main lift then some assistance work on hamstrings, back and glutes
PUSH DAY 2 BENCH as main lift then some assistance work on shoulders, chest and calves
PULL DAY 2 WEIGHTED CHINS as main lift then some assistance work on hamstrings, back and glutes