Even though I slept enough feeling kind of sluggish. Possibly the night work catching up, so very glad today and tomorrow are my last shifts. It’d make sense, that’s three months I’ve been doing it.
Off today, so just some conditioning.
100 reps jump rope to get moving
15x40 yard sprints at 70% up a slight incline. Total time nine minutes 40 seconds. I’m kind of getting a feel for percentages in the sprints I think: 60% is just a quick-ish run, I could keep going beyond 40 yards for a while; at 70% my foot is on the gas but not flooring it, and while I could go a bit over 40 yards I’m happy to stop there because past 40 I’d have to start pushing.
Bench press
3x192 lbs, under 6 RPE - bench feeling amazing, everything locked in
3x220 lbs, under 6 RPE - still feeling great
7x247 lbs, 9 RPE - yet still feeling spot on
5x10 165 lbs tng with quick setup, and all around 7 RPE - much, much easier than last week.
In retrospect, today was a good candidate for Joker sets but I completely forgot. I’m putting that down to short sleep.
3x12/side 100 lbs DB rows
60 reps jump rope between BBB and row sets for a total of 480
3x12 15 lbs/hand chest supported flyes because I couldn’t see the usual band and couldn’t be bothered to look for it
120 reps jump rope to get my 600
For a day with so little sleep, a really good session.
For some reason even more tired than yesterday. RnB Friday on the radio again. RnB and squats is beginning to become a thing.
Today’s training:
Squat
3x319 lbs, under 6 RPE - all a shade high though I think
3x363 lbs, under 6 RPE - depth OK I think
9x407 lbs, 9-10 RPE - brawn over brain today. I stopped counting at three. The bar moved around a ton but for some reason that didn’t bother me. I think I was too tired to care.
Decided I’d just do my BBB DL sets and be done.
5x10 319 lbs DL, all around 6 RPE except for set five which was 7-8 RPE.
By now realised I wasn’t as fucked as I thought and decided to do a set of bodyweight lunges. 50 per leg. It would probably have hurt less to do 5x10 with a weighted bar.
20x15 lbs/arm chest supported flyes.
Another day where the simple fact that I’m doing 531 nudged me to do the work and it turned out I had the gas to do it.
Not quite, it has been stated in the books to just do the prescribed number of reps if you’re doing the BBB template. That’s personally what I prefer doing cause I find the plus sets to be particularly taxing, not just on my body but mentally.
I’m not gonna search through the book to double check so maybe I just forgot. Or maybe I’m just mixing it up with the BBB 3 months challenge. Personally, I almost always run the 3 months challenge when I decided to use the BBB template.
Yeah, I remember being confused about this too, PR sets or just prescribed. I did see the just prescribed somewhere but I don’t think it was in the regular BBB template. There are so many it can get confusing. I think the key is the whole auto regulate thing when working up.
I just took the approach of BBB as any other assistance template so I just bolted it on to the 531 sets. I’ll do two more cycles after this one and then do four cycles of FSL with Triumvirate assistance.
I’m really curious to see when I need to re set because I’ve read it’s usually between three and five cycles. However, because I understand the reset happens when you can’t hit the minimum reps I don’t see it happening that soon unless I hit a real wall out of nowhere based on the numbers I’ve been managing so far.
I was under the impression that FSL was what you would do on a day you felt good, like an option, not a regular part of the program. For example, you hit twelve on your last set of 5’s week and you’re feeling good, so you drop down to 65% and do another AMRAP set. Is that different than what you’re talking about? Doesn’t really matter since I am still two months away from starting, but am curious. Am also curious about your reset - thought it was 5-7 cycles rather than 3-5 but figure that’s also a part of how accurate you set your TM’s.
No, it’s a full template/variation. You’ve got a couple of options, like FSL as an AMRAP set or multiple FSL sets of five to eight. What you’re talking about sound like joker sets.
The reset isn’t something I’m planning on doing - I’ll do it if the need arises. Ideally I’ll just keep going and going, or at least not have to reset for a while.
I just read an article by Rippetoe. Of course he was talking about linear progression, but he recommends milking it for as long as possible, and if you do stall, he has three questions: 1. How long are you taking between sets? 2. How much are you sleeping? 3. How much are you eating?
He recommended as much as ten minutes between sets if that’s what it takes. And between 5-6K calories a day, lol.
Yeah, I thought FSL and Joker sets were options for working up. I’m constantly going back and re-reading all of my stuff, it’s just impossible to digest it all the first time you read it.
Don’t get me wrong, I would consider myself a fan of Rip’s work but I would say some of the things he says are very… Polarizing.
Most of Rip’s work seem to be targeted at beginners and I would say this is definitely one of them. Hell, to be even more precise, this is directed at underweight teens between the ages of 15-18 or whatever. He addressed this in one of his “Ask Rip” videos but I can’t recall which one.
That is massively questionable advice for anything but the rankest of beginners.
Just briefly:
Doesn’t matter much. Doing cluster sets you’ll be moving 90-100% for multiple singles with under a minute rest.
In a lot of cases there’s a limit to how much you can improve on this no matter how important, unless you’re a teenager with only school to worry about.
Very important but 5-6k calories a day will just get you fat in most cases.
Stalls happen. I actually kind of experienced one in my DL from July last year. It moved, but very slowly compared to previously. I’m anticipating a stall but I don’t know when exactly. I’m also not concerned because the book sets out how to deal with it.
If I had to guess, I’d say @The_Myth is in the right area with six to seven cycles.
In relation to absorbing the books, IMO Beyond is tough to grasp without reading the first book. I got. off, but didn’t even begin to get much out of Beyond until I’d been doing 531 for a few weeks and had read the original several times.
Understatement of the day. It’s also one of the reasons I like reading his stuff.
Yep! But, it can be helpful in analyzing your own program. Clearly, at 52, I’m not going to go up to 6,000 calories a day to get another ten on my deadlift. Rip does seem committed to getting stronger.
I think it’s valid in context. Granted, this advice is pointed towards the underweight beginner, but recovery, rest, and nutrition are important for any trainee. I’m probably not going to alter my lifestyle completely solely to continue adding weight to the bar, but when I do stall, these three things might be something to consider.
