Old Guy Doing 5/3/1

Training Training Logs
922

3/25/19 5/3/1 full body giant sets cycle 3 day 1 press primary/squat secondary

Warmup: barbell complex x3 with chin-ups 1/1/1

Giant set 1:
Press:
5x45#
5x65#
5x85#
working sets:
5x105#
5x125#
1x155#
1x175#
1x195#!
10x145#

35# weighted chin-ups 1/2/3/4/5/6/5/5/5

Squat:
5x45#
5x85#
5x125#
5x145#
5x195#
5x225#
5x255#

Accessory giant set:

1 arm DB press:
10x65#
10x65#
10x65#

Krok rows:
10x75#
10x75#
10x75#

Zercher squats:
5x155#
5x185#
5x225#

Conditioning: 20 minutes elliptical, 238 calories burned.

Felt great today, and everything went as well as I could have hoped for. I did exactly what I planned, all press sets except AMRAP set, then singles up to 195#, which ties a personal best, but that PB was at 20# heavier than I am now, so this is officially my first >bodyweight strict press! AMRAP set went great, as well, 2 reps more than last cycle at the same weight. I skipped the chin supersets with the singles, then finished with 3 extra sets of 5 reps with the 3 working sets of squats. Only had 1 rack to work with today so the ‘giant set’ was broken up.

Accessory work felt strong as well, and 5x225# Zercher squat is another PB.

Conditioning was meh, I was pretty tapped out after the accessory work, I focused on keeping my heart rate under 170 instead of trying to beat last elliptical calories burned.

7 Likes
923

Great work hitting bodyweight overhead. I reallly should try this one day !!

924

@Frank_C @mortdk
It is a little tall but it’s fun and rides surprisingly smooth on the highway. My commute to work is a whopping 3 miles so I can sort of justify it. My wife has the practical vehicle. A white Infiniti suv is the epitome of mom mobile in Texas lol.

925

Way to go on the PR’s Steve! That’s fantastic even if you don’t take into account the lighter body weight. That just makes it all the sweeter! Great job

926

I’ll never have a flashy car or fix one up, but if one was in my family then I wouldn’t let it go either!

Well done! Now if I can lose another 50 lbs then maybe I can press my bodyweight.

1 Like
927

Now that’s what I’m talking about! What a sweet ride. I love cars, but they’re just such stinking bad investments

928

Great job. That’s gotta feel good

929

57 Chevy a Dream car from my childhood. And still is. She’s beautiful Steve
Edit oh nice Press congrats

930

Thanks, guys! I’m pretty happy since it looks like I’ve pretty much gotten back to the strength level I was at before my layoff in October. I’m going to keep my training maxxes where they are though, and keep working the program the way it’s designed. It reinforces what I already knew, that once you’ve built to a given strength level, it doesn’t go away quickly, unlike conditioning. It also shows me that when I was bulking, way too much of what I was adding was unnecessary fat. After I finish my cut, I’m going to be a lot more methodical and clean about adding weight.

3/25/19 food for yesterday

Breakfast: Shake = 8 oz. whole milk, 1 large egg, 1 scoop quick oats, 1.5 scoop protein powder. 1 banana.

Lunch: 3/4 Large cafeteria salad = 4 oz. chicken breast, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, mushrooms, black olives, broccoli, red onions, beets, 2 oz. chickpea salad, 2 oz. green pea salad, 1 tbsp. olive oil, 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar.

Snack pre-workout: Other 1/4 of cafeteria salad. 8 oz. whole milk. 1/4 cup unshelled peanuts.

Snack post-workout: 1 scoop protein powder with creatine.

Dinner: 3/4 cup penne pasta with meat sauce. Garlic bread. 4 oz. deboned pork rib.

Totals for today 2288 calories, 190g protein, 173g carbs, 94g fat. 531 calories under target, corrected for training done. The company bought me lunch today, so I got a salad out of the cafeteria instead of using my own stuff, except for my olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Eating a good snack pre-workout seems to help a lot, and with the conditioning I’m doing at the end of my training, I’m starting to see that I would get some value from intra-workout nutrition. Thinking hard about getting some Plazma to try out.

3/26/19 morning weigh-in 187.8#

4 Likes
931

Well, Steve, I have some bad news for you. I’m going to put you in the advanced category as a trainee based on training age and actual age. According to this article, you and I don’t get to gain weight very fast unless we want to be fat.

I’ll be joining you someday on the “gain five pounds a year” plan.

2 Likes
932

Yeah, I’ve come to that conclusion already, and the article just reinforces what I already thought. A few lbs of quality muscle in the right place can make a huge difference, but I need to get rid of more of this excess flab, first. I’m cutting all the way to June 1st, however far that takes me, then shifting to strength building, and I’ll gradually up my calories and see how strength progresses from there.

3/16/19 food for today

Breakfast: Shake = 1/2 cup whole milk, 1 scoop quick oats, 1 1/2 scoop protein powder. 1 banana.

Lunch: Large salad = spinach, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, cucumber, mushrooms, carrots, radishes, onion, olives, 1 tbsp of olive oil, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar. 1 can of tuna with Frank’s Red Hot.

Snack: 1/4 cup unshelled peanuts. 3 rolls of smarties.

Dinner: 9 oz (deboned) of pork ribs. 1 dinner roll with butter.

Bedtime: 1 scoop protein powder with creatine.

Totals for today 1981 calories, 186g protein, 150g carbs, 70g fat. I went slightly over target (91 calories), mostly because of the peanuts and smarties I had for a snack at work, that I really shouldn’t have eaten. 160 extra calories with a couple grams of protein, and a bunch of fat and crappy sugar carbs. Oh well, I enjoyed it while I was eating it, and it won’t break the bank.

2 Likes
933

Do you anticipate the increase in calories to increase your weight? Or do you mean increasing calories back to maintenance? I’m all for increasing the base caloric rate but I wouldn’t understand why you’d go back to a surplus.

I know guys like Wendler advocate eating in a surplus to fuel strength gains but there are a lot of people who do it at a specific weight class. That proves you don’t have to gain weight to get stronger.

934

First I plan to bump up and figure out what actual maintenance is for me. Then, if I land a few lbs below 180, I’m going to try to get back to 180 without gaining any fat. Like, realllllly slowly, mostly working to build strength and barely going above maintenance. If I pretty much hit 180 on the nose, I’ll just stick there.

3/27/19 morning weigh-in 187.6# I appear to have hit another sticking point. I’m eating 750 calories below maintenance, more than that on training days, and weight has been almost exactly the same the last 3 days. Hopefully this is a prelude to another big step drop in weight.

3 Likes
935

I’m not sure how you determined your calories for cutting, but I’ve put my numbers into multiple calculators and kind of averaged them. I also took CT’s advice from his article about losing and gaining weight for natural lifters. I think he said to start with 11 cals per pound of bodyweight for cutting and 16 for gaining. I split the difference and it’s 13.5. That number is close to all of the other calculators.

I’m going to let my cheats and mistakes serve as the extra calories for my weigh gain. Five pounds a year only requires a surplus of a few calories a day.

1 Like
936

I’m trusting the numbers I put into the app right now. I reset my base weight and set my weight loss goal from 1 lb/week to 1.5 lb/week, which put me from a 500 cal/day to 750 cal/day deficit. I also did an idiot check against the math from CT’s article, and my current target daily calories is 10xbodyweight, which is as low as I want to go. I also eat some extra calories on training days. Once I’m done cutting I’ll add a couple hundred calories per day, let it ride like that for a week, and go from there.

1 Like
937

3/27/19 5/3/1 full body giant sets cycle 3 day 2 Deadlift primary/Bench secondary

Warmup: Barbell complex x3 with chinups 1/1/1

Main giant set:

Deadlift:
5x45# +2 power cleans
5x95# + 2 power cleans
5x135# + 2 power cleans
5x185#
5x225#
Work sets
5x255#
5x295#
Switched to mixed grip
10x335#

Bench:
10x45#
5x65#
5x95#
5x115#
Work sets:
5X145#
5x165#
5x190#

Chinups: 2/3/4/5/6/7/8

Accessory giant set:

Front squat: 5x155#, 5x185#, 3x215#

45# weighted Dips: 10/10/10

Barbell rows 185#: 10/10/10

Conditioning: 20 minutes on the elliptical machine, 226 calories burned. Focused on heart rate instead of calories again, max heart rate was 162 during sprint intervals, average was between 145-150, best I’ve maintained. Also tested my resting HR at my desk today, it was at 55, lowest it’s been in a few years.

10x335# on the deadlift was easier than 325# was last cycle, so that’s a plus. Front squat rack position was problematic because I was soaked in sweat by the time I got to accessories, and even chalk didn’t help keep the bar from slipping much. Only got 3 reps at 215#, bar was slipping and putting too much pressure on my wrists. Bumped up the weight to 45# on dips, still no problem getting 3x10.

3 Likes
938

3/27/19 food for today
Breakfast: Shake = 1/2 cup whole milk, 1 scoop quick oats, 1 1/2 scoop protein powder.

Lunch: Large salad = spinach, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, cucumber, mushrooms, carrots, radishes, onion, olives, 1 tbsp of olive oil, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar. 1 can of tuna with Frank’s Red Hot.

Snack: 1/4 cup unshelled peanuts. 4 oz. of chickpea and tomato salad.

Post-workout: 1 scoop protein powder with creatine.

Dinner: 3.7 oz (deboned) of pork ribs. 5 oz. penne pasta with meat sauce. 1 piece garlic bread.

Totals for today 1896 calories, 166g protein, 148g carbs, 71g fat. Almost dead on target, but 1000 calories under when adjusted for training done. Still working on leftovers in the fridge, there’s at least 1 serving of pasta with meat sauce, and several ribs left. No complaints, except I used up the french bread, and the wife used up the dinner rolls, so no more of either of those until we go grocery shopping.

1 Like
939

You really are killing it at the workouts Steve, that’s awesome.
As far as the weight loss and how much to eat, I did the math and I’m a bit over the CT recommended 11 x BW staying around the 12xBW numbers give or take a digit.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I look at the scale if it drops I’m under maintenance, if it stays it’s maintenance, if it goes up it’s a surplus :slight_smile:

I’m almost with you Steve, at some point in the near future, I’ll set my target weight. Then for the rest of the year I’m going to try to maintain that weight.
So keeping an eye on the calories and just hover around that weight. I’ll still have some fat, so I’m slowly trying to burn the extra fat and gaining a bit of weight.
As you and @Frank_C discovered: gaining weight is gaining fat. Can I stay at the same weight getting leaner, then I’ve gained a bit of muscles and burned a bit of fat.

1 Like
940

Yeah, ultimately that’s what you have to go with, individual variation inevitably means that every other method is just a thumbrule and a starting point. Right now I weigh 10# more than you, I’m eating 300 calories/day less than you, and you’re losing weight as fast as I am. Of course, I also think I’m currently fighting against a bodyweight setpoint I’ve been sitting at for several years so my body is resisting the change.

3/28/19 morning weigh-in 187.4# That’s 4 days straight hovering at almost the exact same weight. Still waiting for that next big step change down.

3 Likes
941

You might even get a little weight gain, but then the weight will drop.
You’re as stubborn as I am, when it comes to being persistently at something I think.
So by june, you’ll be damn lean Steve.