I’ve started this programme 2 weeks ago (tomorrow I’ll go through the third week of the first cycle) after doing some high intensity training with olympic lifts that held me to good results at the beginning and no further increases for a long period.
So here I am now, with the need of some extra mass, but my main objective is strength, so 5/3/1 BBB seemed a good idea to do.
The exercises are these:
Day One:
Bench Press 5/3/1
Press 5 sets of 10 reps
Chin ups 5 sets
Day Two:
Squat 5/3/1
Deadlift 5 sets of 10 reps
Neck & Abs 2 and 3 sets
Day Three:
Press 5/3/1
Bench Press 5 sets of 10 reps
Inverted Rows 5 sets
Day Four:
Deadlift 5/3/1
Squat 5 sets of 10 reps
Neck & Abs 2 and 3 sets
For the 5/3/1, the training max are:
Squat 120kg
Deadlift 120kg
Bench Press 80kg
Press 55kg
I’m using the 90% of these ones, and 50% of TM for the 5x10 (going up to reach the 60%, and finally raising while the TM does).
I think I maybe will try to reach the 50 chins reps, no mind what the sets are, because it seems I do not make any progress just by trying to max the reps in 5 sets. And when I reach 50 in 5 sets, then I’ll start to add weight on the chins.
P.D: I wanted to post the last set video of the Bench Press, but the conditions of light are very very poor… I’ll try to solve that for tomorrow so I can post some videos.
I’ve been doing some recovery workouts, and finally it seems that next week I’ll be ready to get my new maxes.
Today I’ve done a 80 kg x1 Bench Press and a 100 kg x3 on Squat.
During the first week after my injury I did only some push ups, pull ups and abs. On the second week I went further on upper body exercices like rows, presses and what I had been doing before, and on this week, the third one, I concentrated on reintroducing the Squat and Deadlift.
I don’t know if this answers your question, but if with assistance work you mean specifically recovery methods, I did nothing. Just resting when I could, some ice at the beginning, then hot, and testing a little how my ankle was going on by doing some movements.
I am not sure if this is right, but it seems like you maybe just got into 5/3/1. BBB is a great program, but just make sure you are following Jim’s recommendations. Use the 90% TM, not your actual max. Do the deloads, and don’t make big jumps (i.e. don’t worry about increasing your maxes as fast as possible, you have to take it slow and do the month to month 5/10 lb jumps. Gaining strength is really more like a marathon than a sprint.) I made some of these mistakes and ended up stalling for a while until I pulled my head out of my ass.
[quote]Mitchnasty wrote:
I am not sure if this is right, but it seems like you maybe just got into 5/3/1. BBB is a great program, but just make sure you are following Jim’s recommendations. Use the 90% TM, not your actual max. Do the deloads, and don’t make big jumps (i.e. don’t worry about increasing your maxes as fast as possible, you have to take it slow and do the month to month 5/10 lb jumps. Gaining strength is really more like a marathon than a sprint.) I made some of these mistakes and ended up stalling for a while until I pulled my head out of my ass.[/quote]
I just got into 5/3/1, yeah, indeed I could only perform 3 weeks as I had an ankle injury, so I did some recovery and now I’m testing my 1 RM’s to start again (of course I’ll take 90% of them to start).
After reading Beyond, I’ll go for the BBB 5x1 challenge, starting this sunday. And my 1 RM’s for Press and Deadlift will be taken this thursday.