Thoughts on Greek yogurt? I swapped out cottage cheese for that.
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Love it.
I think it’s a superior choice. Throw protein powder in it for protein pudding or PBfit for flavor.
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27/09/2020
Start time: 1145
Garage temp: 14C
Power clean & press
- worked up to 150x1
- 5x5 @ 125, SS w/ 5x10 band dislocations
Keg carry
- 5x35m
- Hamstring stretch, 1x60 sec
Walking lunges
- 50 reps L/R @ BW
- Quad stretch, 1x60 sec
Pull-ups, 5 min AMRAP
- 39 reps
Notes:
- Press is starting to stall out. That TM rep felt way too heavy. It’s interesting: all the overhead/pressing is really boosting my bench, but seems to be hurting my strict press. I’m not that worried, honestly, because I don’t like the strict press anyways.
- Keg carries were… not pretty this time. I don’t know what happened, but I had a hell of a time keeping the keg held high.
- Supposed to do some weighted lunges, but I just enjoy high rep BW lunges for leg work. Make my knees feel really good.
- Pull-ups are starting to petter out too. Still adding a rep or two each week, so not completely stalled yet.
- No yoga because it was my son’s 1st birthday! We had some family over and I was exhausted when everyone left (I don’t do well in groups). Regarding yoga though, the daily yoga and loaded stretches have made my joints feel so good. I refuse to give this up, because I haven’t felt this healthy in a long time.
- Meals below:
Morning: mixed fruit, 3 eggs, 25g protein, 150ml whole milk, 3/4 cup yogurt, 1/2 cup multigrain Cheerios
Post workout/afternoon: 25g protein, 250ml whole milk, handful of cherry tomatoes
Evening: 500ml whole milk, 3 slices garlic toast, a ridiculous amount of lasagna; I quite possibly ate half a 9x13 pyrex dish.
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28/09/2020
Start time: 1215? I think?
Garage temp: 14C
Clean & power jerk
- worked up to 200x1
- 5x5 @ 150, SS w/ 5x10 band dislocations
Push-ups, 5 min AMRAP
- 107 reps
Walking lunges
- 50 reps L/R @ BW
SHORT BREAK (hand to help get the kid ready for a playdate)
Running
- 10x100m repeats (run 100m, walk 100m), 14:50
LATER
Yoga
- 17 min, spinal focus
Notes:
- Definitely need to invest in some wrist wraps. My wrists are starting to get sore, especially on jerks, and I’m feeling it in my elbows now too.
- Another big running PR; again, I didn’t feel particularly fast, but I shaved almost 2 minutes off my previous 100m time. My shins are starting to ache on these, though. I run on pavement in Onitsuka Tigers, which are a very minimalist shoe.
- Meals below:
Morning: mixed fruit, 3 eggs, 25g protein, 150ml whole milk, 3/4 cup plain yogurt, 1/2 cup multigrain Cheerios
Post workout/afternoon: 25g protein, 250ml whole milk, 2 tbsp raw honey, handful dried currants.
Evening: another heaping helping of lasagna & garlic toast, 500ml whole milk
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03/10/2020
Start time: 1935
Garage temp: 9C
Summarizing the workout:
- worked up to 215x1 on bench, supersetting each set with RDL.
- bunch of band pulldowns SS w/ band tricep pushdowns.
Notes:
- Okay, so yesterday was not a great day. Busy, stressful, the prior work day was hell, and I ate like shit. This was a “get in and do the bare minimum” workout. Didn’t have the energy for carries or AMRAPS on pullups, so I figured some hammy and lat work would at least be in the ballpark of supporting those movements. Sometimes, you just gotta roll back your training, even in the middle of a program.
- Already planning how I want to layout my training after this block. Simplifying things even more and stripping down to brass tacks; I want to focus on barbell strength in JUST the O-lifts, because I feel they’re very complete movements, and conditioning/running. I also want to push just a handful of assistance lifts that A) pertain to the barbell lifts, and B) bring up physique areas I feel need some work. Performance is still my main driver, but I’m finding myself lamenting physique issues too much at the moment to let it go. Also, all this jumping around from movement to movement during sessions just KILLS my focus. I’m so atrociously bad at multitasking, so tying everything around a singular lift each session should help me push harder and get things done faster.
- Not logging meals from this day. It was garbage. We had no groceries and I just scrounged whatever I could throughout the day.
12/10/2020
Start time: 1215
Garage temp: 12C
Clean & power jerk
- 145x5
- 165x5
- 185x5
- 155x5
- 175x5
- 195x5
Hang power snatch
- 10x5 @ 90
Snatch-grip RDL
- 2x25
Hungarian plate twist
- 2x12
Notes:
- Aaaaall righty then. Life has not been fun lately. I’ve basically taken the last week and a half to deload and destress; aside from some stuff here and there, I’ve done very little working out. The “how much, how many, how fast, how far” was great up until life got stressful. It was a demanding program and it ran me down FAST once I wasn’t able to recovery properly. So I’m changing things.
- I’m gonna split my training into 3 strength days and 1-2 running/conditioning days. I like running. So I’m gonna run more. Strength training: full body/O-lifts, upper body, lower body. Focusing on these lifts: clean & power jerk, power snatch, bench, press, pull-ups, bent row, lying tricep extension (a la our Lord and Saviour, Mark Rippetoe), curls, front squats, abs.
- Here’s the kicker, though: all (well, most) of the lifts will be using some type of 5/3/1 programming. Reason? It gives me structure and allows me to set measurable goals and chase strength (which I like), but I can still use it to help me get bigger. It’ll also allow me to test out various juicy 5/3/1 variations that look interesting.
- Not gonna list my meals today. I’ve been eating a lot of rice, meat, eggs, kimchi, and milk/yogurt. I can’t avoid carbs anymore. I’n a very carb-driven person and I definitely perform better on them.
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As a perpetual low-carber, I’m honestly of the opinion that those that CAN perform better on carbs SHOULD eat carbs. I think eliminating them is a good choice if it suits the individual, but it’s square peg/round hole sorta stuff. My wife metabolizes carbs VERY well. She’s part korean, grew up in Hawaii, and her mom is from Iowa: she grew up on rice and potatoes. She’s tried to follow my dietary approach before, and it went terribly for her. Quality of life decline. In contrast, when we first got married, she cooked the way her mom cooked, and I ballooned up 27lbs. I was VERY happy, like Buddha, but also very much…like Buddha. It’s individual stuff, but the dudes that can make carbs work REALLY can make carbs work. @flipcollar can really make carbs work, and seems like he doesn’t need much fat or even a whole lot of protein to be lean, jacked and strong. Meanwhile, for me to get to a similar bodyfat/weight/strength as him, I cut out pretty much all carbs and fats and jacked up protein.
Bit ranty there, but to conclude: full support. Get some carbs.
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@T3hPwnisher Low carbs (or, backloading specifically) was fine for a while, until my training got harder and life got stressful. Then I just spent ALL day with carb cravings; I was going home from work literally salivating while my brain was screaming at me, “YOU NEED FRENCH FRIES!” I was craving chips, fries, cookies, ANYTHING carby. For me, insane cravings like that are a sign my body is lacking something.
I looked/thought back to what I was doing a few years ago when I would consider myself at my “peak” conditioning/strength relative to my bodyweight. I was training martial arts/teaching 4-5 days a week, between 4-8 hours of teaching a day (which involves lots of demonstrating) and minimum 4-5 hours of training/sparring a week. This was in addition to 2 days of running and 2-3 days of strength work, which was for a while simple: just heavy cleans, weighted dips and heavy-as-fuck farmers walks.
To fuel this, I was eating a veggie and meat stew twice a day, combined with cups upon cups of rice. I was lean, fast, seeing big strength gains, and rarely felt burned out. Rambling aside, carbs were the centre of my diet. I lost sight of what worked for performance in favour of trying to look good. It backfired, and I started looking like shit and feeling like garbage.
13/10/2020
Start time: 1015
Garage temp: 9C
Standing high jumps
- 2x5
Running
- 1.6 km (1 mile), roughly 7 min
- Hamstring, quad and calf stretch, 1x60 sec each
Band dislocations
- 2x25
Notes:
- This is gonna be my “conditioning” day. Once it gets too cold (or too snowy), the running will be swapped for something like KB swings, but I want to run as long as the weather permits. Trying to get a 6-minute mile at least.
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15/10/2020
Start time: 0945
Garage temp: 9C
Outside temp: 2C and windy
Bench
- 145x5
- 165x5
- 185x13
Press
- 100x5
- 110x5
- 125x11
Barbell row
- 5x5 @ 170
EZ bar lying tricep extension
- 65x5
- 75x5
- 85x13
EZ bar curl
- 5x5 @ 85
Wide grip pull-ups, 1 sec pause @ top & bottom
- 5x5 @ BW
Notes:
- For my upper body day, I’m doing SVR II (slightly modified) for my pressing movements, and Five And Dime (again, slightly modified) for my pulling movements. The change is that main work and supplemental work will be on alternating weeks. So for “week 1” of bench, this week was the PR set, and next week will be the Widowmaker. Pushing is the reverse, with the 5x5 of Five And Dime happening this week, and next week will be the 5/5/10. Additionally, for the pressing movements, every “main work” week will be working up to a PR set.
- It stretches everything out to 6 weeks instead of 3, but I don’t think it’ll be an issue. I’ll run it like God Is A Beast (which I’m doing for C&J and power snatch) and deload after each 6-week block.
- I was initially worried today that I was gonna lose out on gainzzz by swapping week to week, but if I push hard on those PR sets, and focus on manipulating pauses and tempo and MMC on the supplemental, plus food, I’ll grow.
- Oh, forgot to mention I finally bought wrist wraps. Jerks were starting to beat up my wrists, which was causing elbow issues. I was leaving pounds on the table because I was worried about the pain heavy jerks were causing. Tried the wraps for the first time last week and OH MY GOSH, what a difference. Weight was flying up on jerks, wrists felt good, elbows felt good. However, I can’t use them on bench. No clue why, but I lose so much power with the wraps when benching.
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Five and Dime is a great template. Solid plan of attack dude.
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Thanks, man. Yeah, I don’t know why I overlooked it before. Seeing it again and reading a bit more closely, I began to really like the sound of it.
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Definitely one of the templates that fools you into thinking you’re catching a break each week. Last week was PR sets, just 5x5 this week, but then the weight feels way heavier and you realize you need to do twice as many reps. Just one set this week, way less volume! Ah crap it’s heavier and I still need 10+ reps haha.
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I’m guessing you’ve run it before? How was your overall experience with it?
I did, I liked it but wound up having to cut it short due to an elbow issue. I did a lot of giant setting with the main lifts, I’d probably approach that a little differently were I to do it again, but a lot of bang for your buck with it.
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Update
After circumstances that unfolded this week, looks like I’m going to back to only lifting on my days off, which now are only Sunday and Monday. Gonna have to pair everything down to absolute brass tacks and hit the drawing board again. Fucking sucks.
Diet is gonna be another consideration. I’ve still got some leftover chub from my bulking early this year, and I wanna get rid of it. I might do something like OMAD on my 5 non-lifting days, because I’ll probably just be doing yoga or something, then go hard on refuelling during my lifting days; since it’s only 2 days/week, I plan to go hard on those days.
I wish there was another alternative, but it’s just not gonna happen I don’t think.
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Update: Part Two
Warning: lots of rambling ahead.
Thinking about training has been stressing me out the last few days, which stressed me out more because training is supposed to be fun, so I just got in this vicious loop of stress. It’s been awful.
Despite going back to 8-hour shifts, there’s a big chunk of time in my mornings where I’m either taking care of my kid if my wife is at work, or helping my wife take care of my kid if we’re both home, meaning that unless I wake up at, like, 0500 (which just won’t happen), the only time I have to train is after shift, but that would extend my evening to late and sabotage sleep. Which leaves me with just weekends to train.
Trying to fit everything I needed/wanted to do into 2 days was a losing battle. I’m a 5/3/1 fanboy for life, and trying to mess around with combining different templates for different lifts was turning into a disaster, especially when I tested out what I thought was a good layout today.
Finally, I thought, “Hey wait, why not just use the original vanilla 5/3/1 template?” It just clicked; getting stronger? Rep PRs are great for that. Building muscle? Isn’t the big thing now that you only need 1 big ol’ set to failure? Applicable to a wide range of lifts? Absolutely.
So we’re gonna go with something like so:
Day 1: Upper body
Hang/power clean, 3/5/1 (75 sec AMRAP instead of rep PR sets)
Bench, 3/5/1
LTE, 3/5/1
Barbell row, 3/5/1
Curl, 3/5/1
Abs, 25-50 reps
LISS, 10-15 minutes (running, skipping, etc)
Day 2: Lower body
Hang/power snatch, same as cleans
Front squat, 3/5/1
RDL, 25-50 reps
Band leg extension, 1 million reps
Band leg curl, ALL the reps
Abs, 25-50 reps
LISS, 10-15 minutes
This’ll be quick to get through, and I’ll just make sure I go absolutely balls-to-the-walls on those PR sets. I’ll also try my best to squeeze a couple conditioning sessions in throughout the week. Something like 2 sets of tabata, because it’s quick (few minutes of warm up, 1 set of 4 minutes, 2 minutes rest, 1 set of 4 minutes, die) and I can get a lot of work done in a short period of time.
Once again, this is far from a perfect plan. But, it checks a lot of boxes, and until life smoothes out, I’m just gonna have to roll with it as best I can.
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Update: The Trilogy
Good lord.
Figured a few things out, had some discussions with the wife, and the plan changed again.
I’ll probably still be lifting on my days off, but we’re gearing up to possibly move my gym into the basement, because winter gets cold here. Training in a freezing garage gym won’t be fun for long.
If that happens, I’ll be more inclined to train in the evenings after work.
ALL THAT SAID, here’s the new plan:
“Frankenstein’s Malcolm X Morning Star Madness”
- I’ll run Morning Star from 5/3/1 Forever, but with full cleans instead of power cleans, barbell row instead of squats, and bench instead of the press. I know Jim says not to change anything in that template, but I’m a bastard, and these are the lifts I care about right now (plus I have no squat rack soooo)
- The assistance work will be placed immediately after each major lift — lower body assistance after cleans, push assistance after bench, and pull assistance after rows. Assistance will employ the “Malcolm X” method as Jim calls it; just get the prescribed reps done however you can.
- Here’s the other big kicker: the FSL and SSL work for bench and rows will also employ the Malcolm X method. I’m in a place right now where I want to just get my workouts “over with”, and this will at least let me push hard without the workouts dragging on.
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How do you feel about short workouts in the evening? Like 20 minutes?
You could do a three exercise circuit and get extra work between your Monday and Friday sessions.
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I thought about it. @T3hPwnisher had suggested I look into a one-lift-a-day kinda thing, but knowing me I’d beat myself up to no end if I missed a session.
I try my best to cram stuff into a handful of days, so that even if I’m tired after work or on my training days or whatever, I just tell myself, “It’s only X-amount of days. You have all these other days to rest.” Were I to be training 5 days a week, I’d get stressed and anxious thinking that I was tied down to so many training days. If that makes sense.
I think that’s why I was making decent progress training on my weekend a little while ago, despite doing 11-12 hour days and training 3 days in a row. I busted my ass on those workouts, but I knew I had 4 whole days to recover.
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