KDay's Log

Training Logs
1

Here’s the start of my training log. I’m doing this to help keep me accountable.

I’m 6’2, 190 lbs, 28 year old male… I’m a beginning weightlifter. I did competitive swimming throughout high school and college (D3) and focused on sprint freestyle. I now know that the “weightlifting” I did for swimming wasn’t very effective. I didn’t do any squats or deadlifts until a year ago when I started 5/3/1.

I don’t do any competitive sports now. I’m going to start doing some occasional masters swim meets, and in the next year or so do some powerlifting meets.

Goal: To get stronger, bigger, and faster while staying lean. I’d like all of my main lifts to go up while keeping my waistline constant. I’m not going to nitpick about ab definition all the time, but I don’t see the point of getting stronger if I also get fatter. I’m focusing on strength training primarily, while doing some conditioning, running, and swimming as well.

I haven’t maxed out my main lifts. I plan to do that within a month, but for now here are my current best lifts:

OHP: 120 lb x 5 (140 lb estimated 1RM)
Deadlift: 275 lb x 11 (376 lb estimated 1RM). I’ve also done 325 lb x 7.
Bench: 195 lb x 7 (240 lb estimated 1RM)
Squat: 215 lb x 9 (179 lb estimated 1RM). I’ve also done 225 lb x 7.

Here’s an example schedule of what I do in a week:

Sunday: 5/3/1 OHP
Monday: Conditioning for 30 minutes
Tuesday: 5/3/1 Deadlift
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 5/3/1 Bench
Friday: Master’s swim practice for 1.5 hours. Mostly acts as a nice active recovery workout.
Saturday: 5/3/1 Squat

For nutrition, I eat 200 grams of protein a day. 3 meals a day. I cycle carbs a little bit with higher carb days on Deadlift and Squat days. I try to avoid carbs at dinner, but in practice that only happens 2 - 3 days a week.

I drink whey shakes pre and post workout. I just ordered some waxy maize that I plan to put in my shakes as well.

That’s my wordy brain dump. Now it’s time to get to work!

2

Yesterday, Thursday, June 9th:

Bench Press 5/5/5:
Final set: 170 lb x 3.

This set sucked. I followed this with two more sets of three at 170 lb. I’m completely redoing my bench press technique. I used to have crappy technique, and then I went to the EliteFTS Learn To Train seminar and got a lot of help. I think it’s just going to be a matter of time until I get it right.

Shrugs:
135 lb. x 10
245 lb. x 5
245 lb. x 5
245 lb. x 5
245 lb. x 5

That was it for today. I’ve been screwing around with my accessory work for the past 6 months, but I think I’m just going to go back to the BBB assistance work starting next week.

3

Swimming today. Got to swim outside this morning which was nice.

About an hour long workout. Long course meters.

Main set:
8 x 100s on 1:50. Made all of them pretty well.
8 x 100s on 1:45. Made the first two and just swam through the rest of them.

4

Saturday:

Squat 5/5/5
160 lb x 5
185 lb x 5
210 lb x 10 (NEW PR!)

Got a new squat est. 1 RM PR (280 lb), which was awesome. I just bought a lifting belt from EFS and this was my first time using it.

Leg Curls
102 lb x 10
102 lb x 10
108 lb x 10
120 lb x 10

5

Getting back into updating my log regularly. I’ve been training, just not posting here. Still trying to add it to my daily routine. I’ll just pick up with yesterday’s workout:

Sunday, June 26th

Deadlift 5/3/1 Day:
265 lb x 5
300 lb x 3
335 lb x 5 (New PR! 391 lb est. 1RM)

Deadlift (BBB assistance):
155 lb x 10
155 lb x 10
155 lb x 10
155 lb x 5

I was intending to do the full 5 sets of 10 reps for the BBB deadlift assistance work. However, I got a strain in my back that didn’t feel like a good pain, so I stopped after 3.5 sets. It’s not a lot of weight, but I was doing them with only 1 -2 minutes between sets and I was emphasizing as much speed as I could off of the floor. Typically if I miss a deadlift, it’s off the floor and I think I tend to not be aggressive enough.

Planks:
Front: 60 seconds
Left: 30 seconds
Right: 30 seconds

I can’t do a proper hanging leg raise, so I’ve replaced that with a few sets of planks.

6

Yesterday, I was still really sore from deadlifts the day before, so I didn’t do any conditioning. I’ll probably do that tomorrow (Wednesday) instead this week.

Tuesday, June 28th

Bench Press 5/3/1 Day:
150 lb x 5
170 lb x 3
190 lb x 2

This was a pretty good set. I’m trying to fix my bench press technique, so I’ve dropped the weight a bit. My goal was just to at least get the minimum reps needed so that I can increase the weight again next month, and I got an extra rep on the final set.

Bench Press BBB Assistance:
135 lb x 10
135 lb x 10
135 lb x 10
135 lb x 10
135 lb x 10

DB Rows BBB Assistance:
160 lb x 10
180 lb x 10
160 lb x 10
160 lb x 10
160 lb x 10

(Edit: when I say 160 lb for DB rows, that’s a combined weight. I used 80 lb DBs. I think that’s a bit confusing so I’ll be more explicit about that in the future.)

I got a bit cocky and was able to grind through one set of DB rows with 90s, but I was pausing a lot in between reps. I went back down to the 80 lb DBs to finish the set.

7

Thursday, June 30th, 2011:

Squat 5/3/1:
185 lb x 5
210 lb x 3
235 lb x 2

Squat BBB Assistance:
155 lb x 10
155 lb x 10
155 lb x 10
155 lb x 10
155 lb x 10

8

I’m done with another 5/3/1 cycle.

One way that I measure my progress is to add up the estimated 1RM max for Squat/Bench/Deadlift for an estimated “total” for the week. I know that’s not perfect, but it’s just a rough way of checking my progress over time, and I like to see my total going up.

Here were my estimated 1RM “totals” for each of the past three weeks:

5/5/5 week: 797 lbs.
3/3/3 week: 840 lbs.
5/3/1 week: 845 lbs.

Good progression, I think. My best ever one-week estimated total is 883 lbs. Also, in the past month, I had PR deadlift and squat, but they weren’t on the same week. If I cherry-picked my best lifts of the main three last month, my estimated total would be 879. My bench is holding me back at the moment.

9

Last Friday, July 1st, 2011:

Sandbag conditioning for ~20 minutes with a 60 lb sandbag.

5 sets of :
5 turkish getups
5 cleans
5 presses
5 squats

10

Monday, July 4th:

Sandbag conditioning for 20 minutes.
60 lb bag

5 sets of:

5 turkish getups
5 cleans
5 presses
5 zercher squats

11

Tuesday, July 5th:

DELOAD WEEK

Combined OHP and Deadlift deload day:

OHP:
70 lb x 5
80 lb x 5
90 lb x 5

OHP Accessory:
65 lb x 10
65 lb x 10
65 lb x 10

Deadlift:
225 lb x 5
245 lb x 5
265 lb x 4

Chinups (bodyweight):
10, 6, 4 (20 total)

Barbell Curls:
45 lb x 10
45 lb x 10
45 lb x 10
45 lb x 10

12

Thursday, July 7th

DELOAD WEEK

Bench Press Deload:

Bench:
135 lb x 5
145 lb x 5
165 lb x 5

Bench assistance:
105 lb x 10
105 lb x 10
105 lb x 10
105 lb x 10
105 lb x 10

DB Row:
65 lb DB x 10
65 lb DB x 10
65 lb DB x 10
65 lb DB x 10
65 lb DB x 10

I feel like my bench press technique is finally starting to come together. Doing tons of reps for the BBB work helps a lot.

13

Thursday, July 7th, PM Workout

Sandbag conditioning for 30 minutes.
60 lb bag

5 sets of:

5 turkish getups
5 cleans
5 presses
5 zercher squat

I followed that up with:

10 clean and presses
24 clean and presses (with some snatches thrown in)

I’ve never done any olympic lifting before, so I’m experimenting with the sandbag. I didn’t realize that I could snatch it right over my head. I think I’ll try to add some challenge workouts around that.

14

Friday, July 8th

Swimming workout. Short course yards.

300 yard warm-up
200 IM (3:10)
4 x 100 kick IM order (2:00)
4 x 50 swim IM order (50)
200 IM swim fast (3:00)
4 x (4 x 12.5 easy, hard, build, sprint) on 10 seconds rest
4 x 50 free. Easy, hard, easy, all-out.

My last all-out 50 free from a push was about 28 seconds, which I’m happy with. I’m doing a masters meet later this month, and I want to make sure that I break 30 seconds in the 50 free (long course meters).

15

Saturday, July 9th

Squat Deload

135 lb x 5
165 lb x 5
185 lb x 5

Squat Assistance:
135 lb x 10
135 lb x 10
135 lb x 10

After reading Thib’s recent article on deloading, I realized that I probably didn’t need to deload this week. I think that I’ll probably deload most months, but I’ll evaluate it on a case-by-case basis. I don’t want to burn out, but since I’m still a beginner, I can probably handle skipping a few deloads here and there.

16

Sunday, July 10th, 2011

OHP 5/5/5
85 lb x 5
95 lb x 5
110 lb x 5

OHP Assistance
Dumbbells (combined weight)
60 lb x 10
60 lb x 10
60 lb x 10
60 lb x 10
60 lb x 15

Pullups (bodyweight)
12 wide pullups
7 wide pullups
6 close chins
5 close chins
(30 total reps)

Barbell Bicep Curls
45 lb x 10
50 lb x 10
55 lb x 10
55 lb x 10
55 lb x 10
(a little cheating at the end, but nothing huge)

Also did some very light reps on bench press to work on my technique to ‘grease the groove.’

17

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

Deadlift 5/5/5
235 lb x 5
270 lb x 5
315 lb x 6

Deadlift assistance
145 lb x 10
145 lb x 10
145 lb x 10
145 lb x 10
145 lb x 10

Planks
60 seconds on front, 30 seconds on left, 30 seconds on right.

18

Saturday, July 16th, 2011

I had to push back my bench press day because I had to be at work early the past two days. Picking up where I left off:

Bench Press 5/5/5:
130 lb x 5
150 lb x 5
170 lb x 10

Bench Press Assistance:
145 lb x 10
145 lb x 10
145 lb x 10
145 lb x 5
135 lb x 10

DB Rows (combined DB weight):
160 lb x 10
170 lb x 10
170 lb x 10
170 lb x 10
170 lb x 10

19

Saturday, July 16th, 2011

Ran 4 mile road race
33:13

I haven’t been running much lately, so this could have been a better time. I’m happy with how I did though.

20

Monday, July 18th, 2011

Squat 5/5/5
175 lb x 5
195 lb x 5
225 lb x 5

Squat Assistance:
155 lb x 10
155 lb x 10
155 lb x 10
155 lb x 10
155 lb x 10

My estimated total this week was 867 lb., my second best week ever.