Wendler’s 5/3/1 is obviously an awesome program. Tons and tons of athletes all over the place have made incredible progress with size and strength using the program. I’ll be logging my progress in a training log.
Some of you may have seen my BodyCompBlitz log that I just finished up. I made some awesome fat loss progress using Roman’s program and would recommend that to anybody. Lower abs were previously non-existent, and I now am showing vascularity and definition in that region (some of the late pics are in my tnation hub).
I’ve chosen 5/3/1 as my next program because I have never tracked strength progress, and I really am not that strong. Over the next week, I’ll be figuring out 1-rep maxes for each of the lifts (I’m doing the bare-bones, original program and might sub Power Cleans for standing shoulder presses). I’ll then use these 1RM’s to calculate my base-line 90% number, which I’ll use for the remainder of the program. I want to do this program until I can pull 500 and powerclean 300. After this week, we’ll know how far away I am.
Today I’ll do max bench work along with some accessory stuff and will report back tomorrow. Anybody with any experience doing this, I’d love to hear what kind of accessory stuff you’ve done and how successful you were with that. Thanks.
Lift Strong,
AT
6/25/12 Bench Press Max Workout
Bench Press: worked up to a max of 275. I’ll use 90% of that to start 5/3/1 (250).
A1. Incline DB Press:
5x10-15 x70-80lb Dbs
A2. FatGripz Straight Curl, pump
B1. T-Bar Row
B2. DB Skullcrusher/Pullover Combo exercise
4x10x60-70 lbs
Finished with a short period of time on the jump rope. Pretty long workout, but that was because I didn’t know where my max would be and took a while getting there.
Sore as a motherf****** today, this was my first time benching since February. When I got home, I excitedly filled in my 5/3/1 table, calculating percentages to start next week. So excited to start this program.
6/26/12 Max Squat Workout - 5/3/1 prep
Squat: maxed at 345. 40lbs shy of my best squat ever, but I can’t complain… It’s been a while since I’ve squatted that heavy.
Leg Press: 4x (8-10x45lbs)
1x Strip Set on the leg press
6/27/12 Conditioning
Ran 4 miles this morning, despite the fact that my legs feel utterly useless today. Not a good run.
I can’t stand running, but I have to train for the New England Tough Mudder on July 14th. Once that’s over, it’ll be sprints exclusively for conditioning.
6/28/12 Power Clean -MAX Day
Did I mention that I love power cleans? I had an awesome strength coach in high school who got me into power cleans when I was as young as 14. I’ll never forget the first time I did 135 in high school. I was working out with these jacked linemen and my scrawny, 6’4", 150lb body was nothing compared to these older guys.
Power Clean Max: 225
Finished the clean session with some lighter sets for practice; it’s been a while since I’ve done these consistently, and I’m excited to incorporate them in my 5/3/1 program. I have had a running contest with a friend of mine to get to 300lbs, but that may be a while. My training partner filmed some of these lighter sets so I could take a look at them and put them up on here.
Then we moved on to some vertical pulling (kayak rows, lat pulldowns with 2s squeezes and FatGripz) and some lateral delt work.