[quote]OTHSteve wrote:
7/14/15
5/3/1 cycle 3 day 10
Warmup.
Deadlift - 5x250, 3x280, 10x315#
Accessory - front squat 3x5x185#
So, got a chalk bag finally, and it made a major difference on my grip for deadlift. Last 5/3/1 week deadlift was 6x305#, so huge improvement there. Also getting into the grove with front squats a bit more… the hardest thing about them is catching my breath, I can’t take a full breath with the bar on front rack position.[/quote]
Never used chalk, but never had a problem with my grip. I find if I am doing DB/Kroc rows grip is not a problem. I see you are doing these have you noticed any difference in grip strength?
[quote]OTHSteve wrote:
7/14/15
5/3/1 cycle 3 day 10
Warmup.
Deadlift - 5x250, 3x280, 10x315#
Accessory - front squat 3x5x185#
So, got a chalk bag finally, and it made a major difference on my grip for deadlift. Last 5/3/1 week deadlift was 6x305#, so huge improvement there. Also getting into the grove with front squats a bit more… the hardest thing about them is catching my breath, I can’t take a full breath with the bar on front rack position.[/quote]
Never used chalk, but never had a problem with my grip. I find if I am doing DB/Kroc rows grip is not a problem. I see you are doing these have you noticed any difference in grip strength?
[/quote]
I feel like my grip is getting stronger, and I’m able to do all but the last set with double overhand grip, but the chalk still really felt like it made a difference on the max rep set. Maybe it’s mental and the chalk’s just a magic feather for me, I don’t know. It definitely made gripping the heavily-knurled bar more comfortable, so it could be that’s all it was, my hands not feeling like they’re about to tear…
7/23/15
5/3/1 Cycle 4 day 3
Warmup.
Bench - 5x135, 5x155, 15x180#
Accessory - FSL bench 3x5x135#, Dips 15/15/30, farmer’s walk after each set of dips, 2x80# DB, 50m
As anyone can see from my last few workouts, I’ve decided to take the 10/8/5 rep limiter off my 5/3/1 weeks’ max rep sets, and just going until I feel like I only have 1-2 reps left. Even though the results indicate to me that my training max is ridiculously far short of my true 1RM, I’m still going to make myself stick to the program and keep bumping the training max up by the prescribed amounts each cycle. Periodic weeks of joker sets will take care of my need for heavy, and I’ll avoid injury and strengthen all my connective tissue with the high reps, and slow eccentrics and pauses on the FSL lifts. Plus, the program is obviously working, so no point in making any sweeping changes and sabotaging myself.
[quote]OTHSteve wrote:
As anyone can see from my last few workouts, I’ve decided to take the 10/8/5 rep limiter off my 5/3/1 weeks’ max rep sets, and just going until I feel like I only have 1-2 reps left. Even though the results indicate to me that my training max is ridiculously far short of my true 1RM, I’m still going to make myself stick to the program and keep bumping the training max up by the prescribed amounts each cycle. Periodic weeks of joker sets will take care of my need for heavy, and I’ll avoid injury and strengthen all my connective tissue with the high reps, and slow eccentrics and pauses on the FSL lifts. Plus, the program is obviously working, so no point in making any sweeping changes and sabotaging myself.[/quote]
Keep up the good work. Top sets are looking awesome.
7/25/15
Conditioning - 6x200m run, ~1 minute rest between sets. Got my distance right this time. Still not timing it, just pushing enough that the 1 minute rest didn’t feel like enough on the last few sets.
The rec center gym is closed the week after next for cleaning and refinishing the basketball court, so this cycle is going to be abbreviated, and the week the gym is closed will be a deload week. I still have the gym at work, but can’t squat anything I can’t clean and push press there, so I figure it’s a good time to take a break. So, next week I’m planning to go all out for a 3RM record on all 4 lifts, assuming I continue feeling this good.
I was browsing Craigslist today looking to see what was there that might be worthwhile, and I picked up a squat rack, along with a bar and weights totaling 300# (297# actually, 135 Kilos, since the bar and plates are in Kilos) for $300. It’s nothing special, a Weider rack, but it’s good tube steel construction and the pins are solid so they’ll handle some weight, so it’ll do the trick for me, and it does have the built-in pull-up bar and a (crappy) lat pull-down attachment. So, I officially have a start to my home garage gym!
Now, I just need to keep my eyes open for some more weights, bumper plates if I get lucky, and a plate rack maybe, and I’m in business.
7/27/15
5/3/1 cycle 4 day 5
Warmup.
Press - 3x110, 3x125, 3x140#, J+ 3x150#, 3x165#
Accessory - skipped FSL press because of time and real estate (I need to get my rack put together), 1 arm DB press 3x10x60#, curls 3x10x48# superset with shrugs 3x10x225#, 1 set of max reps chin-ups as a finisher, got 17.
So, a good first day of 3x joker sets, 3x165# is a record for press, which is the lift I was most worried about not hitting a record with. I was planning on hitting 3x160, but 150 felt pretty light so I bumped it up 15 and it went up fine. 3rd rep was a grind, but no doubt it was going up.
7/28/15
5/3/1 cycle 4 day 6
Warmup.
Deadlift - 3x225, 3x265, 3x305#, J+ 3x345#, 3x385#
Accessory - Front squats worked up to 3x205#, 1x225#
20# PR on 3x deadlift! I was originally going to target 375#, but 345 felt really good, so I decided to push it. It was definitely hard, but totally worth it. I think I paid for it on the front squats, though. I was planning 3x225#, but I could tell after one that my back was too smoked and wasn’t going to stay straight so I cut the set short. Still, definitely not something to be disappointed about, and now that I think about it 1x225# is a record by default since I haven’t ever gone heavy with front squats, just used them as an accessory for deadlift.
7/30/15
5/3/1 cycle 4 day 7
Warmup.
Bench - 3x145, 3x170, 3x190#, J+ 3x210#, 3x230#
Accessory - FSL+ bench 1x10x155#, Dips 15/15/35, farmer’s walk with 2x80# DB’s after each set of dips.
Definitely time to start doing weighted dips, getting too easy. Also, another 3RM PR on bench!
Hit a new 3RM on all 4 main lifts this week, so I’m psyched! Forced deload next week since the rec center gym is closed, and I haven’t got a place laid out to set up my new squat rack yet, so that’ll be my mission next week, figuring out how my home gym is going to go.
Conditioning - 2x800m run, times 3:30, 3:35, 2 minute rest between runs. Second 800 was quite a bit higher effort than the first, but the first was downhill all the way and I took it easy, and the trip back up the hill was a killer.
More conditioning - 16x50m sprint, walk 25m between sprints, walked some more, finished up with a slow 200m once I put the dogs back on their leashes. As usual, the dogs cover at least 2x the distance I do, except for the little one, who struggles to keep up with me after the first few rounds.
So, not a lot of working out the rest of this week, but still a productive week. Went running a couple of times with the dogs, no long distance, just some 200-400m lengths, fast enough to make me work. Put together my new squat cage last night, did a few light squats to try it out. Then got another score on Craigslist today, a bench, another bar and another 200# worth of plates for 200$. Now, for a grand total of 500$, I have a squat rack and a bench, 2 45# bars, and enough plates to be able to load a bar up to 500#.
No longer dependent on gym hours and having spend a half hour commuting to the gym and back! The only real downside is that I have a mix of kg and lb plates, but that’s only a minor annoyance easily handled with a little mental arithmetic. Can’t wait for tomorrow morning, I’m going to give the whole set-up a test run!
Trial running my new equipment, working up to a 1RM in each lift to see where I stand.
Press - 82.5 kilos = 181.5 lb, a solid record for me
Squat - 120 kilos + 110 lb = 374 lb, another record. It was a grind, but I might have had a little more in me. Had to stop there because it illustrated a problem I need to work out on the rack. The hole spacing for the rack pins is such that I’m either too low or too high to rack the weight. I had the pins on the slightly too high hole, and I couldn’t get my left side re-racked. struggled for about 30 seconds, then had to let it drop onto the safety pins. So, I need to either drill a new hole for the rack pins, or put some sort of platform to raise the floor in the rack an inch or two.
8/10/15
5/3/1 cycle 5 day 1
Press - 5x95, 5x115, 11x135#
Accessory - FSL press 3x5x95#, 1x10x95# behind the neck press, 3x10x65# curls superset with 3x10x185# shrugs, 3x10 pullups.
No conditioning, maybe later this evening when I walk the dogs.
8/11/15
5/3/1 cycle 5 day 2
Deadlift - 5x223, 5x258.5, 12x293#
Accessory - Front squat 5x40, 5x50, 5x60, 5x70, 3x80 kg, Barbell rows 2x10x135# superset with 2x5 toes to bar.
Didn’t do any conditioning last night, just walked with the dogs, so will run some tonight.
Mixing and matching english and metric plates is just a little irritating, but at least I’m keeping my mental math skills sharp. Was supposed to do 5x80 kg front squat, but lifting outside in Kansas in the Summer leads to a lot of sweating, and the bar started slipping out of my rack.