Tried do a mile run with the dogs, but my gravel road turned into Grand Central Station this evening, and I ended up having to stop and corral the dogs up several times, and talk to another neighbor I hadn’t met yet (really nice guy, btw, offered to cut up the dead tree in my yard and take it off, he can use the wood and I would have to do it myself or pay someone else, so I told him he could have all the wood he could cut). So, what I ended up with was 4 legs of roughly 400m, at a slow mile pace… not great conditioning, but better than nothing.
8/13/15
5/3/1 cycle 5 day 3
Bench - 5x140.5, 5x160.5, 11x185
Accessory - FSL bench 3x5x145#, pushups 3x20
8/14/15
5/3/1 cycle 5 day 4
Warm-up.
Squats - 5x92.5 kg/203.5 lb, 5x105 kg/231 lb, 12x120 kg/264 lb
Accessory - FSL squats - 3x5x102.5 kg/225.5 lb, good mornings 3x10x52.5 kg/115.5 lb superset with toes to bar.
Conditioning - first, carried a couple hundred lb of fencing remnants a couple hundred feet to the storage shed; Then, ran about 1.5 miles, slow pace, maybe 10:00 mile pace, maybe a little slower. Didn’t time or measure, but was well over a mile, less than 2.
8/17/15
5/3/1 cycle 5 day 5
Warmup.
Press - 3x50kg/110#, 3x60kg/132#, 3x67.5kg/148.5#, J+ 3x75kg/165#, 3x77.5kg/170.5#
Accessory - FSL+ 3x5x60kg/132#, shrugs 3x10x223#
First of all, new 3RM for press at 170.5#! I actually missed the 3rd rep initially, thought to myself ‘F*** that!’, tightened up my core and pressed in back out. Definitely a solid 10 on perceived effort. I tried to do curls superset with my shrugs, but my right bicep/forearm is acting up a little.
It also bears mentioning I’ve adjusted how I do my pull-ups between sets on press and bench day. Before, I was doing face pulls or cable rows between warm-up sets, and then switching to 5 pull-ups between working sets and FSL sets. Now, without the machines here at home, I’m warming up into pull-ups by doing 1 pull-up after the first warm-up set and adding one per set, which ended up being up to 11 reps after the last FSL set today. It’s been keeping my forearm and bicep behaving themselves for the most part, but it seems like curls are still not in the cards.
8/18/15
5/3/1 cycle 5 day 6
Warmup.
Deadlift - 3x248.5#, 3x278.5#, 3x316.5#, J+ 3x354#, 3x387#
Accessory - front squat 5x65#, 5x85#, 5x115#
Had to stop early on the front squats because it was raining and hailing sideways into the garage on me, and I had to run out and put the wife’s Suburban in the garage and close the door, killed my workout. Still, another 3RM deadlift record, only by 2# this time, but I know 5-10# per cycle was never going to be sustainable indefinitely…
8/20/15
5/3/1 cycle 5 day 7
Warmup.
Bench - 3x150#, 3x170#, 3x195#, J+ 3x205#
Accessory - FSL+ 3x3x185#, 1x225#, pushups 20, 20, 25, pullup 65 total.
Bench was screwy today - I had no spotter, and I have no pins to raise the bench racks, so I have to half bench to get the bar off the rack, and on top of that the bench is poorly constructed from a weight distribution POV, so when I get off it, it wants to tilt backward unless I load the feet with plates, which gets in my way for setting up. I stopped after the first joker set, then did some heavier FSL lifts to make up for that.
Then I messed around between sets of pushups and figured out that if I moved my squat rack away from the wall, I could JUST fit the bench in there, letting me bench off the squat rack so I could take the bar from a good height. As an added bonus, the safety pins have a perfect setting so I don’t hit them at the bottom position, but if I drop my back arch I can rest the bar safely on the pins. I did 1x225# after I set it up, just so I won’t feel bad about not benching 2 plates on my joker set day. One was all I had in me after the heavy FSL sets and the pushups, though.
8/22/15
5/3/1 cycle 5 day 8
Squat - 3x220, 3x250, 3x282#, J+ 3x310#, 3x345.5#
Accessory - FSL squats 3x5x222#, good mornings 3x10x120# superset with 6x toes to bar.
So, technically, another 3RM record on the squat, by 0.5#. I’ll count it though, because it actually felt stronger than the last time I did 345. Definitely had another one in me this time, and last time there was no way.
8/22/15
Conditioning - sprints 6x200m, about 1 minute rest between legs. 1x400m slow run at the end.
Getting faster and actually sort of sprinty on my sprints, still not going to break any records, but I can get a decent pace and hold it for 200 without too much problem.
8/24/15
5/3/1 cycle 5 day 9
Press - 5x120.5#, 3x135#, 9x150.5#.
Accessory work - FSL press 3x5x120.5#, 1 arm DB press 3x15x45#, pullups 70 total.
9x150.5# is a rep max record by default, since this is the highest my 1+ week press number has been so far, and with 9 reps, a reset is nowhere in sight.
Edit: forgot to note that I picked up a pair of nice gym-quality 45# dumbells at the Salvation Army in KC this weekend, so my gym grew a little more.
Congrats on the home gym. I would love to have one some day, but I would first need a home haha.
9 reps on 1 set is awesome. You will certainly keep progressing that way.
[quote]JMac31 wrote:
Congrats on the home gym. I would love to have one some day, but I would first need a home haha.
9 reps on 1 set is awesome. You will certainly keep progressing that way.[/quote]
Thanks, man, it only took me 50 years to get to a place where I have the space to do it, the money to afford it, and the time to devote… hopefully your timeline will be better.
As far as the reps, yeah, I’m really happy with my progress. The mentally difficult part is keeping myself on the 5#/10# per cycle progression, even though I know my true max is way over my training max. I keep telling myself, the program is working, don’t jack with it…
Okay, today, 8/25/15
5/3/1 cycle 5 day 10
Deadlift - 5x267#, 3x300#, 9x330#
Accessory - front squat, 5x20Kg, 5x40Kg, 5x60Kg, 2x80Kg
Front squats continue to be problematic. Today it was the bar slipping because I was sweating so much. I guess I need to wear a t-shirt instead of a tank top when I’m front squatting, and maybe chalk the heck out of myself. Honestly, I don’t know what the deal is, my front squat is so much weaker than my back squat. I need to bring it up, especially if I ever want to do anything strongman-ish.
8/27/15
5/3/1 cycle 5 day 11
Bench - 5x160.5, 3x185#, 10x205#
Accessory - FSL Bench 3x5x160.5, pushups 25, 25, 25, pullups - 73 total
8/28/15
5/3/1 cycle 5 day 12
Squat - 5x234, 3x265#, 10x295#
Accessory - FSL squat 3x5x234#, good morning 3x10x120#, superset with 3x6 toes to bar.
8/29/15
Conditioning - about 2 hours of shoveling, wheelbarrowing and spreading gravel for my new driveway. Hard to judge exactly how much I moved, but it was a 26 ton load, and I made a solid dent in it, over 10% of it for sure, maybe 15%? This will be my conditioning every day until it’s done, and I’ll probably need another load of gravel to finish the driveway.
8/31/15
5/3/1 cycle 6 day 1
Decided to make this 5’s week a semi-deload on weight, and just do the prescribed reps instead of pushing for a rep record. Partly, because I want a little break from going heavy, but partly because this week the rest between sets is consisting of shoveling a load of gravel into a wheelbarrow, dumping it and spreading it, so this week’s workouts will be semi-conditioning workouts.
Anyway, on to the workout:
Warmup - 1 load of gravel shoveled and spread (1 load is 20 shovels full, guessing about 20# per shovel, so maybe 400# in the wheelbarrow)
Press - 5x105#, 5x125#, 5x140.5#
Accessory - FSL press 3x5x105#, pullups 45 reps total, 10 loads of gravel shoveled and spread.
Later - conditioning with the dogs - 2x800m run, not timed, relatively slow pace first 800, picked up the pace for the 2nd 800. Rested about 2:00 between the runs.
Okay, good thing I decided to deload this week, since I came down with food poisoning Monday night, and for the last 2 days doing anything that required developing internal pressure and bracing my abs would have been a very bad idea…
Anyway, finally doing better, so combined days 2 and 3, main lifts only.
9/3/15
5/3/1 cycle 6 day 2/3
Deadlift - 5x234, 5x273, 5x315#
Bench - 5x145, 5x165, 5x185#
Accessory - pullups - 1,2,3,4,5,10,20
I didn’t think about it while I was doing it, but it feels pretty good that I can do 5x315# deadlifts and 5x185# bench and consider that a deload day…
9/4/15
5/3/1 cycle 6 day 4
Squats - 5x233, 5x265, 5x295#.
Nothing else, but I’ll run later when I take the dogs for a walk.
9/4/15
Conditioning
Running - 6x (200m run, rest for 10 breaths, 100m sprint back, rest the time it takes to walk back to where I sprinted from, repeat), out of breath, but my legs and my wind both held up to this better than I expected.
Okay, first of all, on Saturday 9/5/15 - Impromptu strongman work - 6 hours of loading a moving truck for a friend who is moving to the U.A.E., and putting all his worldly possessions into storage back in California.
Highlights included overhead pressing one end of a 10-foot couch to get it over the railing off the stairs from the basement; 4-person (although really mostly 2-person) 600 lb table saw carry; 2-person 400 lb lathe carry; several other large desks and other pieces, and innumerable smaller boxes.
It was pretty humorous watching a couple of the guys who didn’t know me well outside of work, and a couple of the wives, when I started carrying stuff, since I was the smallest guy there, but easily the strongest with the exception of my buddy Chris, who is a 300 lb moose who, while he isn’t actively lifting right now, is just built to be strong.
Chris and I did all the heavy lifting, my other buddy Brian was the loadmaster (or tetris master as I was calling him) and amazingly stuffed about a thousand cubic feet more of stuff into the truck than I though was possible, and it was a good way to spend a morning. Plus, my wife made pulled pork sandwiches for everyone, so that made everything even better. The choice to go to the bar and drink a bunch of beers and margaritas after getting fairly dehydrated was, in retrospect, not the best decision on my part, but overall still a good day.
On to actual scheduled workouts:
9/7/15
5/3/1 cycle 6 day 5
Warmup.
Press - 3x115, 3x130.5, 3x150.5#, J+ 3x160.5#, 4x170.5#!
Accessory - FSL+ press - 3x5x135#, pullups - 70 total, DB press 45# with fat gripz 3x15 superset with 3x10 BB rows 135#
So Joker sets were the same weights as last cycle, but last time the 3rd rep almost didn’t happen, and this time 3 reps went up so fast I had to do another, and even the 4th went up easier than the 3rd last time. Bodyweight overhead press is coming!
9/8/15
5/3/1 cycle 6 day 6
Warmup.
Deadlift - 3x250.5, 3x284, 3x317#, J+ 3x350#, 3x390#
Accessory - Front squat - 3x10x60Kg/132#
Okay, front squats went a lot better today. I did 2 things differently: 1 - I moved my hands in a little. I’ve been racking with my hands at about my overhead press position, a bit wider than shoulder width. Moving it in a little gave me a much better grip to hold the bar against my collarbone without stressing my wrists excessively. 2 - I decided to start treating it like an accessory exercise instead of a second main lift, higher reps and lower weight. I’ll gradually work the weight up as I go, but I’ll keep it at a weight I can do 10 reps with. Maybe sometime I’ll switch things up for some cycles and work front squat as a main lift, but for now I’ll just get comfortable doing it as an accessory exercise.