I’m starting to realise that high volume per session is a good approach for me. I’d die training more than four days a week, but at four days I can get a fair bit done per day.
Slept a fuckton but the upshot of that - as per usual - is a stiff back and upper back feeling kind of sleepy.
Today’s training
Agile 8 plus shoulders
Press
25 pull aparts with rotation between first three warm-up sets. Harder than they should have been, possibly because my theraband tore so I knotted it up and my rehab pull-down things are harder now.
5x137 lbs, just under 6 RPE
3x154 lbs, 6 RPE
3x176 lbs, 9-10 RPE - weight loss is costing me reps, apparently, but also apparently not much limit strength by the feel of early reps
1x198 lbs, 9-10 RPE - see above
Experimenting with really cranking down on my wrist wraps. It helps. A lot.
5x6x137 lbs, 7 to 8 RPE
30x121 lbs calf raises between FSL sets, kept the tempo down and calves were on fire. Seems like they’re finally starting to grow, which is nice.
DB bench press
50 total reps at 75 lbs: 12, 10, 10, 10, 8
Felt pecs, tris and shoulders doing these. I’m getting the impression they’re helping me with size but when I’m benching twice a week they’ll be left out for a while. They can’t compete with press and dips as overall bang for buck. Definitely going in the toolbox though. Just got to remember TTF: Tuck Then Flare.
DB chest supported rows
50 total reps at 65 lbs: 16, 12, 10, 12
Skin splitting pump in my forearms by now
Time for my hideously random conditioning:
Stairmill
One minute at level five
Nine minutes at level six
This might be my new go to. Short in time, not prohibitively onerous and just hard enough.
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Just for funsies some progress shots. I’ll blame it being hard to do from behind on how crap my back looks. It bails me out so often it deserves to look better. Also I can’t pose.
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That’s some strong press man
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It’s OK. My best - albeit ugly AF - is 203 lbs, which would be 50/50 these days. I don’t think I’m too far from bodyweight though.
That said, from next cycle I’ll be benching twice a week and relegating press to assistance, so I won’t be going even close to a heavy press for a while. It’ll be interesting to see how that affects things.
I did want a bodyweight press by year’s end but my bench is lagging that much I simply can’t keep going as I have been because that really doesn’t seem to have worked as well as I’d hoped. Which I think you know, because you read my log a bunch. I owe you that read time back.
How will those two sessions be?Cause I remember you told me your bench needs a shitload of volume to go up?
Imma do my best to hit prs and make that read back time worth while
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Next cycle I’ll do my regular 531 and FSL sets on Monday in lieu of press; then on Thursday I’ll try 531 pyramid without FSL. On Mondays, I’ll do 50 total reps of press as my push assistance to keep press in the mix. I’ll start with 60 kg and add 2.5 kg every cycle.
That should give me an indication of how my left shoulder/bicep especially reacts. I think it’ll be fine.
Then next year, going into my leader/anchor/peak I’ll make it even simpler by pretty much doing the same day twice with small alterations:
Leader (3 cycles):
Monday 5s Pro, 3x8 FSL, 50 total reps press
Thursday 5s Pro, 3x5 FSL
Anchor (2 cycles)
Monday 531 with plus sets, 3x5-8 FSL, 50 total reps press
Thursday 531 minimum reps only, 3x5-8 FSL
Peaking (2 cycles)
Monday 531 minimum reps only, joker set at weekly reps (95%, 100%, 100% of TM in weeks one, two and three respectively), 3x5x70% press
Thursday 531 minimum reps only, 3x3 paused FSL
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Sounds like a plan to me.Looking forward to see where all this volume will get you after peaking
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Great progress pics! Definitely getting leaner.
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Thanks. It’s nice to see the progress. I had a great month or so where it just seemed to melt away, I’m guessing now it’ll slow down a bit until the next surge.
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Not managing to nap yesterday meant that by the time I got home from work I’d be up for a bit over 24 hours. Three cheers for night shift.
Hot AF now, so didn’t sleep really. Was in bed for about five hours, woke up about once an hour. Also burnt the fuck out some beef I thought I was slow cooking. I’m a pretty good cook, so this is very rare for me. House smelt of burned turd.
Woke up weighing 205.7 lbs.
Today’s training
Agile 8
Deadlift
3 chest to bar neutral grip pull-ups between first three warm-up sets. So far, two cycles of pull-ups every DL day as well as front squats and my elbows are fine so far. Bigger of a deal than that sounds.
5x423 lbs, 7-8 RPE
3x478 lbs, 8-9 RPE - had to have three goes at this set, it was today’s sticking point
1x533 lbs, 9 RPE
1x561 lbs, 10 RPE
Oddly, despite being massively tired my technique was probably better than it has been for a while, unless the lack of sleep has given me technique beer goggles.
No way I was doing paused front squats even though I felt good for having done my DL work.
3x5x286 lbs front squats
Fat Gripz BB shrugs 100 total reps at 132 lbs: 25x4
Time to add weight.
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Looks like you have seen some shit haha
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My facial expression doesn’t exactly make me the friendliest/most approachable/sanest looking guy around. Probably works out quite well in the long run given I like to be left alone most of the time.
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I was leafing though Beyond yesterday and came across the Training Maximally section. I’d seen it before but I’d always started reading and then stopped because I didn’t quite get it. It wasn’t all nice and neat and cookie cutter-ish (no disrespect intended).
Yesterday was different. For some reason I managed to get through the whole section and found it making a bunch of sense. Honestly, I think it seems to me very much the spiritual successor of 531, more so than snippets of new applications of the principles I’ve seen here and there like Leader/Anchor, etc. Those are just that, applications. Nothing really different, just more fit-for-purpose (again, no disrespect intended). Now I get why Jim says in that section it was his Eureka moment.
I think after I run the leader/anchor/peaking plan, I’ll give Training Maximally a go for the second half of 2017. The first seven months will let me continue to learn 5/3/1 and work in a very structured, directed way. Hopefully they’ll be a meet at the right time in July for me to test at.
Either way, I think by mid 2017 I’ll be in a reasonable position to run Training Maximally. I think I’ll have a decent enough handle on autoregulation by then to run it successfully.
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Sat down and planned out (as far as it can be planned) seven weeks of Training Maximally. There is something alluringly simple about it. So different to setting out how I usually run 5/3/1. I really think come mid 2017 it’ll be just what I need to do.
I don’t recall, is “Training Maximally” the part where you basically make 10% jumps up to your training max every session?
Pretty much. Then you can keep going up in Joker sets, add on a few backoff sets around 70-75%, etc.
It somehow just clicked with me when I read it. I think I need to get a little stronger and more muscular just to be able to absorb that kind of work and get that little bit more familiar with playing assistance very much off the cuff by day and it’ll be a good way to train.
What I’m considering is setting my year of training up along the lines of:
Three cycles of leader - 5s Pro, FSL
Two cycles of anchor - PR sets, FSL
Two cycles of peaking - no PR sets, no FSL, just joker sets
Two or three seven week cycles of Training Maximally
What I’m noticing is that I’m starting to feel something I haven’t before, and it’s been lurking around for a little while now. I really do like 5/3/1 and I don’t see myself doing better using anything different right now, but I’m starting to feel kind of limited or constrained in a weird way by the setup.
With Training Maximally it seems like I wouldn’t have to think much about gunning for a rep PR for the given top set, hitting the FSL sets and then assistance. I’d just work up to my TM. Maybe for a single, maybe for reps. Then I could hit some joker sets above my TM if I wanted, and maybe some backoff sets. Then do whatever assistance I needed.
I know, there doesn’t seem to be a significant difference. I’m doing a terrible job of explaining this @max13 . I think it boils down to starting to want a break from 5s week, then 3s week, then 5/3/1 week and set FSL sets without actually dropping 5/3/1. When I set out the cycle, everything just fell into place. I didn’t have to think much about oh, I need to get this assistance here and this there. It was more like, Monday, press and some rows and calves; Tuesday DL and then bench, some traps and done; Thursday bench, dips, rows; Friday squats, some single leg and some hinge.
I don’t know. Maybe it’s lack of sleep. Hopefully some of that made sense.
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Haha, it made sense. I remember reading that part of the book and it probably clicks now because you’d need some experience to be able to train like that. Following the exact percentages of 5/3/1 and a template for assistance work is always going to be better for a novice - like most of the people just starting 5/3/1 who are coming to this site for advice. Knowing when to go for a PR, when to back off, how to schedule your training over a larger time period all comes with more experience. I think you’d probably need that better grasp to be successful with the “training maximally” principles.
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If I’m understanding this correctly, I think my strongman pal does something similar. He doesn’t really follow a specific program, but he sets his workout up kind of as follows:
Week 1: He will do ~10 sets of 5 increasing the weight each set until he hits a weight he can’t complete the 5 reps at. Follows with weak point assistance lifts.
Week 2: ~10 sets of 3 reps, similarly increasing weight until unable to perform 3 reps.Follows with weak point assistance lifts.
Week 3: Work up in weight with singles (~10sets) until he at least hits his current 1RM, and usually attempts to hit a PR.Follows with weak point assistance lifts.
Week 4: Either repeat or deload depending on how the body is feeling.
I have done a few workout with him and really like this style, however, I need a bit more structure for my weight used or I’m sure I’d be dogging it on days I didn’t feel 100%.
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I don’t think I could match that rep PR without wraps, but I’ll give it a shot with and without later this week. Good work!
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