Started lifting September 2011 after making some realizations about my life and what I wanted. I am the father of 3 little boys who think I’m superman, bad sadly I realized I was actually very weak. I decided I needed to change that and prolong my sons vision of me as a super hero… so I started my strength training journey.
Initially I started with some random BB split that I had seen in a magazine but I soon stumbled on to the stronglifts website. Now, I after reading through a bunch of the articles on that site I had a strong belief that the guy that runs that site is a douche and fairly annoying but the simple 5x5 program seemed to make sense. I looked around and decided to start with a simple 5x5 linear progression program.
Starting lifts were low:
Squat: 185 x5 (and they felt like they would kill me)
Bench: 135 x5
Deadlift: 185 x5 (these didn’t feel too tough but seemed like a good place to start)
I ran 5x5 for 3 months and then switched to 5/3/1 for several more. I am definitely a fan of 5/3/1 but I believe I could have got more newbie gains by sticking to the 5x5 a little longer. In April 2012 I ran Smolov Jr for bench and squats and saw some good improvements.
Squat 385 to 435 - 50 lbs
Bench 255 to 275 - 20 lbs
Deadlift 425 to 455 - 30 lbs
I definitely liked the Smolov style of training and am eager to run the full smolov cycle. Although 5/3/1 is a great program I liked the multiple squat sessions per week (at least for now). I still think I have some more newbie gains to make so I have started Madcow 5x5 and will run that until it’s given up everything I can get from it…then i’m going for Smolov.
Hoping to compete in my first PL competition in October of this year.
My goals to hit by years end are (raw): Squat 500lbs, Bench 315lbs, DL 500lbs.
Some very nice improvements in a fairly short amount of time. There is actually a full-body 5/3/1 variant where you squat multiple times a week. Some food for thought.
[quote]novaeer wrote:
Some very nice improvements in a fairly short amount of time. There is actually a full-body 5/3/1 variant where you squat multiple times a week. Some food for thought.[/quote]
Thanks. Is that in the 2nd edition? I only have the original book and never read that version but I am interested. I’m confident that I will go back to 5/3/1 because it is a good program, I seem to be able to still add weight every week (vs. every month with 5/3/1) so I’m going to try and do that as long as I can before I go back to 5/3/1. I see 5/3/1 being my long term plan after I’m done making my beginner gains.
[quote]novaeer wrote:
Some very nice improvements in a fairly short amount of time. There is actually a full-body 5/3/1 variant where you squat multiple times a week. Some food for thought.[/quote]
Thanks. Is that in the 2nd edition? I only have the original book and never read that version but I am interested. I’m confident that I will go back to 5/3/1 because it is a good program, I seem to be able to still add weight every week (vs. every month with 5/3/1) so I’m going to try and do that as long as I can before I go back to 5/3/1. I see 5/3/1 being my long term plan after I’m done making my beginner gains.[/quote]
That is a very rational plan and a breath of fresh air to see on this site, compared to the people who want to try the 5x5/5-3-1/Westside/Smolov hybrid. LOL. There is an article on this site from Wendler last year some time (maybe April), where he outlines the full-body template, but the 2nd edition of 5/3/1 fleshes it out better.
[quote]novaeer wrote:
Some very nice improvements in a fairly short amount of time. There is actually a full-body 5/3/1 variant where you squat multiple times a week. Some food for thought.[/quote]
Thanks. Is that in the 2nd edition? I only have the original book and never read that version but I am interested. I’m confident that I will go back to 5/3/1 because it is a good program, I seem to be able to still add weight every week (vs. every month with 5/3/1) so I’m going to try and do that as long as I can before I go back to 5/3/1. I see 5/3/1 being my long term plan after I’m done making my beginner gains.[/quote]
That is a very rational plan and a breath of fresh air to see on this site, compared to the people who want to try the 5x5/5-3-1/Westside/Smolov hybrid. LOL. There is an article on this site from Wendler last year some time (maybe April), where he outlines the full-body template, but the 2nd edition of 5/3/1 fleshes it out better.[/quote]
Thanks. I found that article. http://www.T-Nation.com/strength-training-topics/1316 It looks like a decent program. I like the line “And you always squat first. Because squatting is better than anything else.” Agreed.
Early morning training today because of family commitments. Wow I am not a morning person. Only had 35 mins so sets were fast and furious.
Light squats:
185x5
230x5
280x5
280x5
Press:
95x5
95x5
100x5
115x5
130x5
Deadlift:
240x5
290x5
335x5
385x5
Phew… hardly any rest between sets had me seeing stars today… almost lost my breakfast on the last set of DL’s. This felt like a conditioning day, maybe that’s a sign that I need to work some more conditioning back into my training.
Today felt real good, weights felt relatively light. Recovery has been good and I think that is helping. Some how I forgot my drop set of 8 squats as a last set, apparently I need to pay more attention.
[quote]Spock81 wrote:
YO alberta bro! What’s the gym like where you train at?
Really strong squatin’. [/quote]
Thanks. I train at work, but it’s alright. We have a squat rack and it is rarely used so i generally don’t have any competition for it. It’s not a bad gym actually, typical of a small commercial gym but with much less people. A month ago I was out of town for a week and got in a training session at a gold’s gym… reminded me why I will never train at another commercial gym.
Took an extra recovery day, lower back feeling much better today. Figure I need to strengthen my lower back so I plan to start adding in some back extensions on non-DL days to help with this.
Squats:
190x5
240x5
285x5
335x5
390x3
285x8
Bench:
135x5
140x5
170x5
195x5
230x3
170x8
155x10x3 I’ve been feeling like my bench could benefit from some more volume so I figured I would add in a few higher rep drop sets. I really liked the BBB bench sets when I was doing 5/3/1 so that’s where these came from.
Row:
95x5
95x5
100x5
115x5
135x3
100x8
Back extensions:
BWx10 - 3 sets. I plan to start increasing weight and sets and see how I respond to these.
No I won’t be at provincials. I haven’t entered a compettion yet, only started lifting last fall. Im planning my training around doing my first one this fall. Either the festival of strength in Calgary (September)or powersurge in edmonton (october).