Tobe's Training Log: The Hunt for a 560kg Total

Training Training Logs
61

You don’t expect to hit more than 5 reps on your top sets?

62

Yeah, already started doing some light conditioning work. Jogging medium tempo for 3-4 km about 2 times a week. Got any suggestions for a harder cycle? Still not sure what to do next after completing this current cycle.

63

Not so sure about the 1+ sets : ) Will def not do it for bench and press. I think I will manage deads but the squats will be tough.

64

For conditioning specifically? Or harder than FSL generally?

What are your goals, what do you want to improve? I don’t have enough templates under my belt to vouch for any particular one but consider this:

  1. What do you want to prioritize?
    1.1 Strength,
    1.2 Hypertrophy,
    1.3 Conditioning?
    1.4 A blend, and if so: what blend of the above?
  2. Do you know of anything specific that is holding you back?
    2.1 Is it strength?
    2.2 Not having enough mass?
    2.3 Technique?
  3. How much time do you want to dedicate in the gym? How much can you dedicate?

The above is not an exhaustive list but it might help form a decision matrix for if a template might fit the bill or not.

I don’t really think someone else can tell you what you should do, but if you can answer those questions and don’t arrive at something in particular yourself there are others around that might be able to help you navigate the options.

65

These is the things I wish to focus on:

  1. Strength and Hypertrophy, with main focus on strength. My goals are to hit specific numbers in the main three lifts.
  2. I currently think technique is the main thing holding me back in the lifts. But also very much strength. Mass should be ok, I think.
  3. 1.5 - 2 h training time is the current time slot I have. 4 times a week.

If I am being honest strength should be the main focus now. My initial goal was to hit numbers in the lifts so that is what I should be focusing on.

66

2021-01-04

Week 2/3 Anchor 5/3/1 FSL - Bench

Only did band pull apart for warmup then just straight to the bench.

Here are the lifts:

Lift Sets Reps Weight Notes
Bench 1 5 70
1 5 80
1 4 90
5 5 75
Assistance
Rows 5 10 70
Bicep Curls 4 12 32.5
Lateral Raises 2 10 10
Hanging Leg Raise 3 8 90 Bodyweight
One Leg RDL 3 12 14 14kg dumbbells

Bench felt heavy. I think one of the reasons for this is that I did intensive dips on the day before, my triceps were a bit fried. I should have cleared 5 reps on 90 easily but I only managed to get 4.

Another reason is that I have been playing around with bench form. As I mentioned before, I curve the back to the left side which causes some instability. Straightening it out increases stability but I have not nailed it yet. Now I have problems with stabilizing the shoulder blades correctly : ).

All in all, I currently feel I have issues with getting a stable and even foundation on the traps and the shoulder blades during the bench. Sometimes I nail it, sometimes not. Even though I try to retract them the same way each time, something feels wrong.

67

Then why are you considering BBB?

68

2021-01-06

Week 2/3 Anchor 5/3/1 FSL - Deadlifts

Continuing with deadlifts.

Warmup consisting of Limber 11 + Quad foamrolling.

Lift Sets Reps Weight(kg)
Deadlifts 1 5 122.5
1 5 142.5
1 (3)6 157.5
5 5 125
Parallel Bar Dips 12 90
12 90
12 90
10 90
10 90
Face Pulls 5 22.5 15
Barbell High Bar Squat 5 100
3 110
5 100

Think I slept for 5h. Was a bit wrecked. Strength was ok but getting and holding pressure and tightness in the body was a pain.

Getting better at filming the deadlift reps and I have some issues formwise that I am trying to correct. Getting better but still have some ways to go. Might post form video later.

69

Good failsafe to do same cycle as last one. Will probably work unless I figure something else out. Haven’t really started to think about it.

70

What I mean is that even if BBB is not optimal, it will increase progress towards the goal for some bit. And I get to practice the lifts a lot.

71

Yeah, but you could just leaf through Forever and take any template that says that it’s great/ideal for strength and do that instead. If you want to practice a lot then Big But Strong is maybe what you want. Other options include SSL, Rhodes or Portal’s, Coffinworm.

72
73

2020-01-08

Week 2/3 Anchor 5/3/1 FSL - Press

Mobility
Limber 11

No jumps or throws.

Lift Sets Reps Weight
Press 1 5 47.5
1 5 55
1 2(1) 60
5 5 50
Rows 5 10 72.5
Bicep Curls 4 12 30
Lateral Raises 4 8 12.5
Hanging Leg Raise 4 12 91
Squats 3 5 90
Squats 2 5 100
  • AMRAP was very heavy. I could not handle the weight at all. I have gotten more reps on this weight before. Might have overdone it with the warmup.
  • Rest of the session went fine. Strong rows today.
  • Added some squats in the end because it is fun and I wanted to try out some form stuff. Worked out really nice.
74

2020-01-10

Week 2/3 Anchor 5/3/1 FSL - Squat

Mobility
Limber 11

Around 10 jumps

Lift Sets Reps Weight
Squat 1 5 87.5
1 5 100
1 6 112.5
6 5 90
3 5 100
Assisted Chins 5 8 89-18
Dips 5 12 91
Glute Raises 2 8 120
1 8 127.5
  • Squats went well. Still had some in the tank on the AMRAP set. I filmed the sets and lost my cool since I was not happy with my form. This resulted in the addition of a couple more extra sets with some slightly heavy ones in the end. Was not that burned out by it. Form is looking better though, with some ways to go.
  • Added some glute raises at the end just for fun.
  • It might have been a mistake to transfer the dips on squat day from BBB to anchor. My bench has not increased that much during the FSL cycles and I think the dips might be the cause for this. I should probably replace them during the next cycle. Whatever that is.
75

2020-01-11

Week 3/3 Anchor 5/3/1 FSL - Bench

This is it. Last week of the impromptu anchor. Starting with bench.

Only band exercises as warmup

Lift Sets Reps Weight
Bench 1 5 75
1 5 85
1 2(1+) 95
5 5 75
Assistance
Seal Row 5 10 60
Bicep Curls 4 12 30
Lateral Raises 4 8 12.5
Hanging Leg Raise 4 12 91
  • Bench was very heavy. Looking back, I could make 95 for 4 reps before starting the cycles 6 months ago. I took this hard. I thought my strength had increased enough so that even though I did dips yesterday I should at least be able to perform the same reps I did 6 months ago, given the amount training I have done since then. There might be a couple of factors for this. I will consider and review them before the next cycle. I think the dips are a big reason why.
  • Assistance went well. Skipped the one-led RDLs since I was out of time.
76

2020-01-13

Week 3/3 Anchor 5/3/1 FSL - Deadlift

Going in a bit nervous. Did not get any sleep the previous night but slept for 8.5 h this time.

Tried to implement explosiveness during my lifts; Pulling at the bar as hard as I can. One problem I think I have is that the reps are performed too slow when they fell light. This probably jives bad with the whole “use light weights and work on speed” approach that these programs are built on. Probably lost some gains there.

Mobility

Limber 11

Jumps

Around 10

Lift Sets Reps Weight(kg)
Deadlifts 1 5 70
1 5 80
1 5 100
1 5 132.5
1 5 150
1 (1)6 167.5
5 5 132.5
Parallel Bar Dips 13 90
13 90
12 90
10 90
10 90
Face Pulls 5 20 22.5
Barbell High Bar Squat 1 5 90
1 5 90
1 5 100
1 5 100

Deadlifts went really well. Got a solid 6 rep set in with non-grindy reps. Form is still a bit iffy so it is likely I could have gotten 1-2 nice reps more if that was fixed. I filmed it, so will likely put it out for feedback when the weekend approaches after some editing. All in all, I am stronger now on that weight than I was before I started these cycles. That is a win.

Added some light squats at the end just to work on form. I mentioned before that there is a problem with the left core (un-activated) and the shoulders. These are probably also affecting the deadlifts. So I am working on those now with various exercises. Some of them are:

  • Band pull-aparts
  • McGill Big 3 for core
77

I think it’s great you are being mindful about the principles but must point out that adding sets at 80% of your TM with another main lifts implies you don’t trust the ordinary template to progress your lifts. It’s fine if you want to have high frequency, but then you shouldn’t also do 5x5 SSL. If you want to squat 3x per week, choose one of those templates that let you do that.

2 Likes
78

2020-01-15

Week 3/3 Anchor 5/3/1 FSL - Press

Mobility
Limber 11

Jumps/Throws
Nothing

Lift Sets Reps Weight
Press 1 5 50
1 5 57.5
1 3(1) 62.5
5 5 50
Assistance
Rows 5 12 72.5
Bicep Curls 4 11 32.5
Lateral Raises 3 8 12.5
Hanging Leg Raise 4 12 91
Squats 3 5 80
Squats 2 5 110

Press went so-so. I started filming press sets a couple of weeks ago and discovered that my form was skewed. Tilted heavily to the left, pressing up my body. After correcting it I got a a bit weaker and I am still trying to find the correct stance. So I will lower the TM for the following leader cycles while I figure the lift out properly.

I could not film the lifts, unfortunately, since the gym was packed and my favorite filming spot was taken.

Added some squats at the end to practice form. However, I did overdo and loaded them too close to TM, so I am feeling a bit sore at the moment; just about to leave to do a squat PR at 1+ as well.

So those squats were probably a mistake : )

79

2020-01-15

Week 4/3 Anchor 5/3/1 FSL - Squat

Went into this a bit anxious since I was a bit sore from the squats I did on Friday. Turns out that I managed to get a good PR set anyway : ) so that felt nice.

I got a bit anxious after the prescribed sets because the form was not good. Still drifting too much to the right leg. I have been trying some corrections but I still drift back to the same position when the weight gets heavy regardless of the cue I use. Sometimes I forget some of the cues and that makes it more worse mentally. So it all kind of spiraled and I added 4 more squat sets. This resulted in me getting kind of burned out so nixed some sets in the dips/chins super-setting block.

Mobility
Limber 11

Jumps/Throws
Was going to do some jumps but I forgot : (

Lift Sets Reps Weight
Squat 1 5 95
1 3 105
1 6(1+) 120
9 5 95
Assisted Chins 4 8 89-18
Dips 4 12 91
Glute Raises 2 8 120

  • Was happy with the 6 rep AMRAP 1+ set, weight felt lighter than I thought it would. The set was approached with limited warmup, tried to waste as little energy as possible. Before, I could do arbitrary number of warmup sets which meant that I approached an AMRAP set with different energy levels. This week I tried to limit warmup sets to 3 with specific percentages and this has helped with performance.

  • I am having trouble with the squat form. I have worked on this over the last year but only seen limited success. When it gets heavy I still drift into the same position. I have gotten some useful tips from friends at the gym but it is not enough. Going to post form vids in the log for feedback. I feel that I really don’t have any body coordination on the left side during the squats, like it’s asleep.

Next week I will begin the Boring But Strong template for 2 leader cycles, followed up by something that I have not figured out yet.

The point of the next block is now to increase the strength of the main lifts.

80

Yeah, I will probably skip the squats during the next block. I added them just because I wanted to practice form.

I think it just became busy work ( just doing some work hoping it will fix itself ) , since I do not see any measurable improvements on the form; I thought if I just put in the work it should be fine. However I feel like I have no idea what I am doing now, so I should just back off from adding extra squat and just post a form vid and get some feedback.

Better to take a measured approach than just banging your head against the wall and hoping something sticks.