New Lifter/Been Infected by iron

Bigger Stronger Leaner Jim Wendler 5/3/1 Coaching
1

How’s it going T Nation? I have been bitten by the black iron beast and am now infected with a hunger to improve myself. Here I have come to gain knowledge and advice on my quest to continually improve myself. I got tired of being a sloth and sort of woke up to the way I was living.

Not necessarily new to lifting, but I am a beginner. Was introduced while wrestling in high school and most recently, a few years ago, by the Crossfit gym I attended. This means I probably need to be retrained on a few thingsâ?¦

Ever decided you have had enough and decided to do something about it? Well, I got tired of making excuses for not going to the gym so I have recently started purchasing equipment for my garage. There should be enough to get me started and hopefully I will find more as time progresses.

I have chosen to do the Wendler 531 Boring But Big Progression. Is that how you would call it? I am going to list my next 6 Cycles (21 Weeks) here and hopefully receive some solid feedback. Itâ??s almost mimics the BBB Template exactly, but due to my lack of equipment I changed some of the movements. Hopefully this okay being in the 531 section instead of Beginners. If not I will request it to be moved.

Main assistance:
Cycle One (3 Weeks): 5x10 @ 50% TM
Cycle Two (4 Weeks): 5x10 @ 60% TM
Cycle Three (3 Weeks): 5x10 @ 70% TM
Cycle Four (4 Weeks): 5x5 @ 80% TM
Cycle Five (3 Weeks): 5x3 @ 90% TM
Cycle Six (4 Weeks): 5x1 @ 100% TM

Monday:
Press 531 (Pullups between each set of Press)
Bench 5x10
DB Row 5x10
Back Ext. 5x12

DB Curl 3x10**
DB Lateral Raise 3x10**
Dips 3x15**

Tuesday:
Dead 531 (Jump Tucks between each warm-up set)
Squat 5x10
AB Wheel 5x15
Neck Harness 5x12

Thursday:
Bench 531 (Inverted Row between each set of Bench)
Press 5x10
Bent over row 5x10
Back Ext. 5x12

EZ Bar Curl 3x10**
Seated Half Press 3x10**
Band Face Pulls 3x10**

Friday:
Squat 531 (Step Jump or Box Jumps between each warm-up set)
Dead 5x10
Hanging Leg Raise 5x15
Neck Harness 5x12

**If I have enough in the tank to do these I will.

Conditioning:
Due to the weather and the fact the cold sucks I have recently purchased a Schwinn Airdyne and am using it. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I am currently riding at 50 â?? 60 RPM for 30 minutes. I hope to improve this over time. Tuesday and Thursdays I am doing some sort of interval such as Reverse Tabata. If for some reason a session is skipped I try to walk with a weight vest Saturday afternoon.

If anyone has advice or pointers where I could make changes that would be awesome and greatly appreciated. If I have not provided enough information please let me know and your questions will be answered.

2

In “Beyond 5/3/1” there is a BBB challenge you might like that a little better than trying to hit that heavy of weight in two workouts a week it might leave you a little, um, for lack of a better term fucked up?

3

I’d put back raises on lower body day. Superset them with the ab work.

4

This is pretty much straight out of the book man…just go for it.

5

[quote]some_dude wrote:
I’d put back raises on lower body day. Superset them with the ab work.[/quote]

That’s a good idea, thanks for the advice. Those two days of ab work + main lifts should be enough for core work correct?

6

[quote]roar-k wrote:

[quote]some_dude wrote:
I’d put back raises on lower body day. Superset them with the ab work.[/quote]

That’s a good idea, thanks for the advice. Those two days of ab work + main lifts should be enough for core work correct?[/quote]

Yes.

Your plan is pretty textbook aside from doing back raises the day before doing deadlifts/squats.

7

[quote]some_dude wrote:

[quote]roar-k wrote:

[quote]some_dude wrote:
I’d put back raises on lower body day. Superset them with the ab work.[/quote]

That’s a good idea, thanks for the advice. Those two days of ab work + main lifts should be enough for core work correct?[/quote]

Yes.

Your plan is pretty textbook aside from doing back raises the day before doing deadlifts/squats.[/quote]

Does the conditioning look fine for my current level?

Tried reading through TNation articles and posts and Wendler’s first book to find a plan that fit both lifting and conditioning.

Thanks again for your help and have a good one.

8

Conditioning looks fine to me. Just make sure you eat and sleep well. Most people underestimate what they’re capable of.

9

Pick a template from the book an go. Stop thinking so much an just train. The rest will take care of itself if you’re committed

10

[quote]Rupert531 wrote:
Pick a template from the book an go. Stop thinking so much an just train. The rest will take care of itself if you’re committed [/quote]

^Agreed. You can tweak an already established program to better suit you, but in the end you just gotta grab your nuts and do it. Good luck.

11

[quote]gymrat1225 wrote:

[quote]Rupert531 wrote:
Pick a template from the book an go. Stop thinking so much an just train. The rest will take care of itself if you’re committed [/quote]

^Agreed. You can tweak an already established program to better suit you, but in the end you just gotta grab your nuts and do it. Good luck. [/quote]

At the end of these 21 weeks I will be back to post my beginning and ending numbers as well as pics for comparison.

Unless I have any more questions you all will hear from me in 21 weeks.

12

Good luck.

13

Just finishing my third month of boring but big. Shit’s brutal but works like a charm. Glad to see a beginner actually doing a sensible program. Good luck and dont forget to eat haha I have put on some serious mass by eating like a mofo

14

Good luck - just follow the plan in the book.

15

For some reason my post was eaten by the forum gremlins. Posting again what I tried to on Friday…

With this being my final deload week I wanted to revisit my initial thread and give my overall impression. I believe I was about 6 weeks into this program when I posted and was looking for any sort of advice that would help me through it. Truth be told it was just as easy as reading the plan in the book and the post was more of me looking for approval than anything else.

Yes, I did gain weight and quite a bit of it to be honest. I ate and ate and ate to where people at work thought I had a worm or some sort of disease. But, if I did not eat enough it felt as if it took longer to recover. Diet always plays a big factor, but I could definitely tell when I did not eat clean that it hurt my performance. On top of this the last eight weeks I was limited in my time to train and skipped the conditioning. This will be one of the things I kick myself for not doing as I believe I could have found or made time.

Both my strength and mental game went up during this period. On some of the training days I wanted to shrug off the last sets of assistance, but before I started I made a goal to complete it all as it stood. Family, friends, and co-workers were also telling me that I was gaining weight or eating too much and that I should stop. My wife was about the only one that supported me through it all, including the eating, and she stated she was proud that I finished it all. She even thinks some of it looked fun and I hope this gets her to start training. My lifts were as follows: Press 145x1, Dead 360x1, Bench 225x1, Squat 330x1, and PClean 200x1. At the end of this program my lifts went up to the following: Press 200x1, Dead 500x1, Bench 300x1, Squat 405x1, PClean 260x1. I believe initially I had a mental block on lifting heavy which is why my starting weight was so low, but towards the end that changed with everything but the Power Clean. I keep mentally screwing myself with that lift and need to knock it off.

Technique is still an issue with some of the lifts and will need to be worked on. I have videos of a few lifts that I may post, but they are not pretty. Basically they weight went up and it went down. The videos are of my last 3 heavy sets for all lifts. I may try to edit them and post them.

My training log was minimal and did not include items outside of what the weights felt like that day and the weight being used. I am thinking that the log will need to be changed and become more of a training diary.
Thinking the Prowler Challenge may be next, but I am wondering if I could do bodyweight assistance instead?.? I am not going to increase my training maxes based on my current 1 rep PRs, but I am going to keep going another cycle or two and maybe take a 2 -3 cycle reset.

Thanks for reading and all the advice I received at the beginning. It?s all there in black and white in the book and if you do not screw with it and just follow it you will get stronger. Set your goals and attack them. My training goal at the start of the year was for the first six months I wanted to focus on strength gains and I would like to think I accomplished that. Now, I would like to focus on conditioning and fat loss. Here?s hoping the aforementioned Prowler Challenge can do this.

Please excuse my writing/typing as I am not used to posting more than a few sentences at a time.

16

Wow! Congrats man…that progress is incredible.

17

Insane strength improvements. What was your starting and ending bodyweight? And how has your body composition been effected? I don’t need BF% or anything, but if you were fairly lean before and now you feel like you’re massively fat, I’d be interested to know.

No matter what happened with weight and body comp thats impressive progress. Nice work.

18

I weighed in at around 208 when I started and now I am at 226. Still wearing the same clothes, but in the legs they are tight. Like I said in previous post if I would have kept up the conditioning like I was supposed to the weight gain would probably be quite a bit lower. Also, I believe the aversion to lifting heavy is probably what stifled me in the beginning.

On top of that my technique for the Press and Bench are abysmal at best, whereas the Squat and Dead look average.

19

A 300 lb bench after 6 months is nothing to scoff at, especially if your form sucks. Read some Dave Tate articles (“So You Think You Can Bench?”) and post a video of you putting up 315.

Again, nice work.

20

Good work. Strong lifts. Power cleans fuck with me too.