I’ve tweaked the program to suit my needs. Jim is a monster but I don’t like everything that he likes. I don’t have a power lifting background. I squat about 1/3 of his PR. I’m tall and lanky. I learn best by doing other people’s programs. After my trial and error I take what I like and add it to my toolbox and leave what I don’t like.
The difference between me and those I referenced are that I didn’t post my program for validation and you won’t hear me call it 5/3/1. I’ve changed it so it’s my own version but I won’t insult the creator by saying I’m following the program.
Basically progressive overload? As much as I appreciate the science and training and such. I do wonder what’ll it be like if I was just told to “do compound movements heavy and do them hard”.
Meatheads, in the traditional sense, don’t really exist anymore, at least among people in our generation. Everything is planned and calculated. Rarely do you see someone who gets strong through pure strength of will.
That’s what I’m noticing. 5/3/1 in a short amount of time taught me the principles that are needed to be successful. I attribute my recent success to purely just going to the gym and not missing days and putting in that work and eating more qualities food in good quantities with a lot of compound lifts in different ranges…
Days that I feel good I push it hard, days that I feel like shit I’ll try to push it, but not as hard as I would if I feel really good. Just recently I squatted a PR. And I realized I did was from purely a mental standpoint.I wasn’t scared to get under the weight and lift it. And granted it aint heavy for probably 95% of the people here, but it’s heavy for me and was proud I got it from pure will power and not being scared to get under a heavy weight.
In my gym there is about 3 people myself included who plan what the fuck they are doing.
Everyone else just comes in and chooses like this:
1 - Chest and Arms
2 - Chest
3 - Arms
4 - Shoulders and Arms
5 - Shoulders
6 - Back and Arms
If a body part is still sore then they go down the list until they find something isn’t sore and do that with a load of random exercises based on what they see on instagram.
I was only referring to the people whom I would considered to have had success in the gym. I simply couldn’t care less about the other people who simply waste their time in there, taking up space and hogging equipment.
The first few pages of 5/3/1 basically teach you all you need for a lifetime in the gym.
Lift properly
Eat properly and in good amounts
Sleep properly and in good amounts
Lift more than last week properly
Do this x 3 then have a rest from heavy weights
Everything you do is from a purely mental standpoint, attitude is everything.
Congrats on Squat PR btw
Without planning you can sort of doss about and do a bunch of random shit and still have success in the gym for about 3 months and 6ish months if you have youth on your side.
People who spend all their time doing curls 3 inches away from a mirror are trying to recreate their noobie gains where they put on arm size like crazy and don’t realise they have to do things properly/ with a plan.
For me I’m in a difficult spot as I want to shout at the lazy people and equipment hoggers but they would leave my gym and we’d lose members and revenue. Oh well, I’ll continue moaning on T nation forums
the older I get, and subsequently the more time I spend in gyms, the less I think the details of your diet and workout matter, and the only three things that truly matter are time, effort and consistency.
If you don’t have the physique you want, you haven’t put in enough time working hard and being consistent. Details like your split, exercise selection, rep ranges, etc., don’t matter, because if you’re busting ass consistently for long enough, you’ll get to where you want to be. People just don’t apply these three things to training methods or diets that they don’t like, which leads them to complain these things “don’t work for me.”
“Body part splits didn’t work for me” - nope. You didn’t spend enough time consistently busting ass because you didn’t like it.
“Low carb diets don’t work for me” - nope. You just didn’t like not eating carbs so you shit your pants and gave up, instead of consistently making the effort with it for long enough.
Physiologically we are all MUCH more similar than we are different. When people say a training method or diet “didn’t work for me” I roll my eyes, because everything works for everyone; it’s just what you like enough to stick with, make the effort with, and do for long enough to see the results that works the best.
Low carb diets don’t work for me. I tried 100g per day and I was hangry. It didn’t work because I don’t like it. If I punch you in the nuts every time you cheat on your diet then I bet you’ll get results temporarily but you won’t stick to that plan because no one likes getting punched in the nuts. Picking a plan that you like improves your chances of adherence.
You know what does work? Not eating more than I burn in a day. It’s simple math. But this lines up with your point on details.
I’m 32 and beginning to think if you eat real food in reasonable quantities and train consistently year after year then you’ll have the same physique regardless of your specific diet or lifting program.
If you don’t believe me then do a strength/power program for awhile and then switch to hypertrophy and take note of how little your body changes from one program to the next. Also, read CT’s stuff on muscle migration.
I used to be the exact same way. But I’ve had substantially better results on a 2 day program than a six day bro-split. Being to busy to train actually helped my gains lol
I was back in the gym within a week after my knee surgery (result of dislocation). I ended up lying on the stretching mats nauseous and weak AF lol. Apparently little food and copious amounts of Lortab is not a good pre-workout.
The hardest part of the workout is DEFINITELY not dying of a blood clot. The painkillers really kicked my ass and seemed to take away my ability to breathe.
Also, I’m wearing a sleeveless shirt in the middle of December in freezing temps because my surgeon made it clear I was NOT to break a sweat while the stitches were still fresh, as I would risk an infection. When I wasn’t on video, I would be shirtless with a fan blowing on me to keep my body temp down.
Nowadays, I find myself ‘stalking’ people’s profiles here on T-Nation before I judge the validity of their given advice.
Is it just me or is there an increasing amount of new members who’re on the younger side(aged 13-16)? Granted I joined the site at the age of 17 but damn, I know for a fact that I wasn’t that much of a dumbass. I looked back and checked!
I went drinking beer and playing some sauce toss one week after my stroke and 2 days after they canceled the open heart surgery for the mass they found on my mitral valve.
Ultra sound show something 1 cm in size on Tuesday. Friday, while on the table they checked again and it had disappeared.
