Striking a Balance

Training Training Logs
361

May 28th

Warm-up: BHAW

Chin-ups: 5,3,3,3,3
SS Band pull-aparts: 20,25,25,25,25

Dumbbell rows, kroc style: 27x 20,20,20,20,25

Pull-ups, band assisted: 8,7,7
SS: One arm band lat rows: 10,10,10

Power cleans: 58 x 4
Got one of them sort of right, while but doing these, I felt a strange painful twitch inside my left wrist/ forearm, so decided to be prudent and stop. But the bar lay there loaded, so why not use it for something? So a few unscheduled presses:

Overhead press:
58 x 7
58 x 7
58 x 5

Band good mornings: 25,25,25
SS: Zeus rows: 10,10,10

Dumbbell lateral raises: 8.4x 15,15,12

5 Likes
362

Are you dropping under the bar when doing the cleans or just pulling straight to the shoulders?

363

Well, that is one of the components, that I want/need to train at becoming better at. I try to drop slightly under it, but yeah, tbh, I mostly muscle it up. I need to work a lot more at becoming better at this, including working at the mobility needed.

364

May 30th:

Warm-up: Burpees double pump,Internal rotation,Ax plate raise,Band sledgehammers,Sit-ups, Frog crunches, Band pull-aparts, Lazy hips, X-walks

Overhead press: (C7W2+FSL)
28 x 5
48 x 5
55 x 3
58 x 3
62 x 6

55 x 5
55 x 5
55 x 5
55 x 5
55 x 5

At this point, it seems that each cycle, I steadily sacrifice a rep for a kilo on the + sets.

Admittedly, I am a 5/3/1 novice, so I am not totally sure; but I guess this means that I have plateaued?

So should I soldier on - wait and see if the trend continues, or ought I do something different for a while?

Pull-ups, band assisted: 8,8,8,8,8

Push-ups: 25,25,25,35
SS 1hand band cross over chest : 10,10,10,10

Barbell rows:
48 x 10
68 x 10
78 x 10
90 x 10
90 x 10
90 x 10
90 x 10
90 x 10

Lateral dumbbell raise: 8.4 x 15,15,15
SS band face-pulls: 10,10,15

2 Likes
365

By this do you mean that as you add weight you get less reps that a lower weight ? I would say this is perfectly normal and acceptable. If at any point you do a reset by going back a couple of cycles the key is to see more reps when you repeat the same weight. No one can just keep progressing every 3 weeks for ever.

2 Likes
366

Yes, exactly - lately each time the weight have gone up by a kilo, it seems I am able to do one less rep on the plus set. Like:

C7W2 I did 62x6
C6W2 I did 61x7
C5W2 I did 60x8

And yeah, perhaps not unexpected, but if this continues, I will end up not doing the prescribed 3 reps.

Looking back over my notes, the big change I have added have been going from doing each cycle twice to just once. Think I will go back to the twice model, it seemed to create more steady progress.

1 Like
367

@dagill2 knows 531 a bit better than me, but pretty sure Jim prescribed adding weight for a number of cycles and then dropping back a couple of cycles, 5 forward 2 back kind of set up.
When I ran it, I would go forward until my amraps were close to the prescribed on that day and that would be my signal to drop back the weight and reset.

1 Like
368

He recommends slow progression. Thereā€™s a few ways to achieve that:

  • 5 forward 3 back
  • 7th week protocol testing
  • Using @simo74 approach of having a minimum standard you reset after
  • Using smaller increments for TMs. Iā€™ve used 1kg increments on Press with success.

Thereā€™s probably other ways too, but the principle is ā€œprogress too slowā€.

369

@simo74 @dagill2 Thank you for your helpful answers both. Some good stuff there.

I need to look more into some of the concepts, probably get the Forever book.
But going back a couple of cycles would be an easy way to ease of the throttle for a bit, had just not realized that I was supposed to do that once in a while.

You know, I mostly spend my time trying to keep up with the logs and had sort of forgotten the other sections. So it was kind of a dā€™oh moment when the first 3 google results was for the 5/3/1 forum here. :thinking: :smile:

2 Likes
370

May 31st

Warm-up: Huh?

Band leg triple exercise (Hip/glute/quad): 20,20,20
SS Lazy hips: 20,20,20
SS Air Squats: 10,10,10

Band clamshells: 40,40,40

Glutes bridges - one leg: 20,20
SS Glutes bridges - march 40,40

Lunges: 10,20,20

Just the essential work for the cranky hip today. Donā€™t want to jinx it, but I think I am starting to feel the slightest of improvements.

2 Likes
371

June 1st

Warm-up: External rotation, Band pull-aparts,V-crunches

Floor press: (C5W2+SSL)
58 x 5
67 x 3
71 x 3
76 x 15
71 x 5
71 x 5
71 x 5
71 x 5
71 x 5

Push-ups: 20,20,20,20,25,25
SS A: Straight band flyes: 12,12,12
SS B: UCV dumbbell flyes: 12,12,12

In other news I got my first jab earlier tonight. :+1:

5 Likes
372

June 3rd

Warm-up: Internal rotation, lazy hip, x-walks

Chin-ups: 5,5,5,5
SS Band pull-aparts: 25,25,25,25

Dumbbell rows, kroc style:
27 x 25
27 x 25
27 x 22
27 x 20
27 x 17

Overhead press:
62 x 5
62 x 4
68 x 1,
73x fail,
71x fail,
53 x 5
53 x 5
53 x 5

For some reason I decided to try FSL at 85%. I kinda knew I could not do it, so canā€™t really explain why I thought it was a good idea. I have been reading a little up on 5/3/1 lately and twigged on something, that I really had not really noticed before; the emphasis on the reps being good, strong reps. Well, these quickly became the opposite, so I figured I would instead test my max to determine my RM before resetting. Not an great idea either. (Well in theory, but I should be fresher when trying that.) Finished with some 5s of a humbler weight.

Pull-ups, band assisted: 8,8,8
SS: One arm band lat rows: 10,10,10
SS Zeus band rows: 10,10

Band good mornings: 25,25,25
SS Dumbbell lateral raises: 12,12,12
SS X-walks: 15,15,15

While this was another unsatisfactory press session, the main back exercises was great, I did well on the chins and rows, so a good day.

5 Likes
373

June 5th

Warm-up: Band pull-aparts, sit-ups, reverse hypers, sideplank w/twist.

Deadlift:
58 x 3
78 x 3
98 x 3
118 x 1
138 x 1
150 x 2
150 x 1
138 x 1
138 x 1
138 x 1

Finishers:
Band sledgehammers: 10,15,20
Dumbbell hammer curls: 12x 20,18,18
Band triceps pull-downs: 20,20,15

6 Likes
374

June 6th

Today is not a full Sunday session, as we have to leave shortly for lunch with my mother in law, so just the essentials.

Warm-up: Internal rotation, frog crunches, lazy hips, x-walks, cubans, plate raises.

Overhead press:
8 x 5
28 x 5
48 x 3
58 x 3
63 x 1
68 x 1
71 x 1 (PR)
72 x 1 (PR)
48 x 8
48 x 8
48 x 8

Had another go at assessing my 1RM. Managed to get 72kg up, but it was not pretty.

Back in march I lifted 70x2. According to online rm calculators that means my 1RM areā€¦ 72kg. So that is validated - but it also means that I have not moved my top weight these past 2,5 months. So as suspected, I have stalled.

Will now set this as my new RM and reset back to TM+zero.
BTW what is the common notation for that? Would this be back to cycle 1 - or would you continue the current cycle count?

Pull-ups, band assisted: 10,10,10

Push-ups: 25,30,30

Barbell rows: 68 x 15,15,15
SS dumbbell lateral raise: 12 x 5,5,5

6 Likes
375

Who cares what it looks like, nice work on the PR mate.

2 Likes
376

Another PR party!!! Congrats

377

As we use to say way back in the old days, ā€œgo ugly earlyā€. PRā€™s arenā€™t meant to be pretty or it means you could have done more. Congrats.

378

sounds like a technique I used on a Friday night as a young fella :wink:

2 Likes
379

It was and is. Itā€™s also the slogan of several A10 squadrons.

1 Like
380

Thanks guys