Thank you!
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Sunday March 26, 2023
Last heavy squat focused leg day before Deloading (AM BW 173)
Squat
45 2x5
135x4
225x3
275x2
315x1
345x1 (Beltless)
375x1 (add belt)
405x1 (add wraps)
455x1 (Ginormous PR!!!)
High Bar Squat (Backoff set w/ belt)
225x21
Body Master Leg Extension
100x12
150x10
180x8
Walking Lunge
BWx20 per leg
BW + 25’s x15 per leg
Hamflexor Unilateral Leg Curl
30x10
40x8
50x6
60x7 (PR)
Life Fitness Adductor Machine
60x12
75x10
90x8 (PR)
Cybex Standing Calf Raise
120x10
180x8
100x12
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this is awesome. congrats.
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Thank you very much!
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Monday March 27, 2023 AM BW 175
Back/Rear Delts & Abs
Pull-up
55 lbs assisted x8
25 lbs assisted x5
BWx4
BW + 25 lb plate x6 (another rep added back; lat felt an awkward twinge/tweak on the last rep so cut it here)
HS Low Row
98x8
188x6
278x8 (PR)
238x8
Nautilus Neutral Pulldown
90x10
180x8
270x8 (PR)
Cybex Rear Delt Fly
90x12
120x10
150x8
130x8
Smith Shrug
105x12
195x10
285x7 (right wrist cracked/popped when unlatching the smith bar. Thankfully no pain)
Crunch
BWx20
BW + 20 lb DB x20
Leg Raise
BW 2x30
Good workout but definitely ready for my Deload. My left quad is feeling it after weeks of pushing my leg workouts; especially squats and overall fatigue is setting in a bit. Two more heavy workouts before the Deload. Wednesday is close grip bench + shoulder press for a push day and Thursday is back/hams/glutes for my last heavy deadlift session before the Deload heading into a vacation.
Also biked last night. 30 mins 8.6 miles and 207.1 cals
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PM Cardio
Bike 30:38, 8.8 miles, 211.9 cals
Nutrition
Chocolate Protein Shake + EAAs
3g fat
5g carbs
39g protein
3g fiber
Chocolate Protein Shake + Fish oil, glucosamine
5g fat
6g carbs
30g protein
3g fiber
Oikies Greek Yogurt + 34g blueberries, 8g PB Fit
1g fat
16g fat
19g protein
2g fiber
Chocolate Protein Shake + Decaf Coffee, 1 cup FL Skim
3g fat
11g carbs
43g protein
3g fiber
7oz tilapia, 3oz shrimp, 70g asparagus, 3g spray
6.5g fat
4g carbs
50g protein
1g fiber
Muscle Milk, Chobani Greek Yogurt, 8g PB Fit
5.5g fat
17g carbs
40g protein
5g fiber
Muscle Milk
4.5g fat
9g carbs
25g protein
5g fiber
9.1oz chicken, 3g spray 110g peppers/onions, 56g fat free cheese, 33g pico de gallo, 7g taco seasoning
4g fat
14g carbs
70g protein
2g fiber
Beef Jerky + coconut milk with decaf coffee
8g fat
20g carbs
27g protein
2 slices gum + 20mg melatonin
8g carbs
4g sugar alcohols
2162 cals
40.5g fat
106g carbs
343g protein
24g fiber
4g sugar alcohols
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Yesterday I weighed 170 on the dot. Traveled for work and didn’t get cardio in. Macros ended up putting me around 2k cals with 320g protein.
Today I weighed 172.4 and had my final shoulder/tricep focused push day before the deload.
Close Grip Bench Press
45x10
135x8
185x5
225x2
255x2
235x6
(Felt less stable and tired today but went onto have a good remainder of the workout)
Smith Military Press
15x8
105x6
155x10 (PR)
HS Dip
94x8
184x8
274x10 (PR?)
Seated Cable Tri Ext
60x10
50x10
Arsenal Strength Y Raise
40x15
50x8
30x9
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Thursday March 30, 2023 (AM BW 171)
Back/Hams/Glutes
Deadlift
135 2x5
225x3
275x2
315x1
350x1
385x1
405x4 (big PR)
Glute Leg Press
4pps x10
5pps x15
Seated Leg Curl
75x10
95x8
115x8
Wide Lat Pulldown
120x10
160x8
140x8
Seated Cybex Row (Wide)
130x8
170x6
Dropset 200x3 + 160x3
I was dead tired even during initial warmup sets but by the time I got to 350-385 on deadlifts I felt great. Can’t wait till after I’m well rested from the upcoming Deload.
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very nice. congrats.
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Thank you!
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It looks like a focus on bodybuilding has made you a better powerlifter. Your lifts have improved and you could get into the 165 lb class vs the 198 class previously. That is a massive improvement!
A question I have for you is what do you think has made the difference? Is it the training, nutrition, both? I noticed you are eating a lot of protein. I have upped my intake, since it was on the low end for a lifter. I am hoping it helps in the long term. If you have any comment on that, I’d love to hear.
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Thank you very much! I definitely think it’s a laser focus on nutrition, supplementation and sleep. I used to be incredibly inconsistent on nutrition. Now I never go under 200g protein and most of the time it’s much higher. When I’m finished recomp/cutting my carbs will back up and protein down but protein will still be high. I hit my micros as well though, making sure I’m hitting 100%+ on every vitamin and mineral per day. I actually drink 3-5 premade protein shakes per day (sams club has the cheapest ones there’s also Premier there and Aldis has similar ones called Elevation). These have everything in them so I never miss out on micros. This also likely has helped with sleep. I get to bed on Avg by 8-8:30 every night. Before I’d take hours to fall asleep. Now I can fall asleep within 15-30 mins and I get at least 7 hours a night, many times it’s 8 hours.
Training wise I love high intensity; not just by % of 1RM but moreso going to or very close to failure on a majority of movements in all rep ranges. I feel hitting anything less than @8 RPE/2 RIR is leaving too much on the table for me personally, because I can grind while making reps look the same. So if I stop at what I thought was RPE 7/3 RIR I may actually have a lot more than 3 more reps in me.
I love hypertrophy work so I’ve done a lot more of what powerlifters would say is accessory work but with a focus of PR’ing on those too. As a powerlifter in the past I wouldn’t chase as many PR’s on smaller work but now I at least attempt to on everything.
Finally I train at 4:30 or 5:30am every morning during the week. I think this has helped my sleep and I’m much stronger in the mornings now than I am in the evenings. On weekends I train around 8-10am. I’m able to take I’m caffeine this way without it impacting my nights.
3 Likes
Just speed-read through your log and will continue to follow. Great stuff! …And actually good timing I found it as I feel like I’m transitioning similar to how you did. I wondered if you had any feedback for me if that’s okay.
My best lifts are/were similar to what yours were in your very first post (except for my squat was quite a bit worse), and at an exact bodyweight range that you were at too! I’ve had random downtimes, injuries, didn’t train through the pandemic etc and since I got back to being consistent I’ve done mostly “powerbuilding” stuff with 5-6 exercises a day, 3 sets each kind of thing.
Since a wrist injury I’m back to re-aligning myself and my goals, and what I really want out of training. I need to be doing this to make sure I firstly, make a proper return, and secondly, stop myself from going insane whilst I can’t do much!
This mirrors what I feel/do/enjoy also. To be doing what I do on 3 sets across most exercises probably isn’t required, Like you, I’m just not the kind of person to consciously leave a couple of reps in the tank if I can avoid it. My rest times leave the session ending up being way too long and I can probably get away with doing less. I’m recovering and adapting fine in a period of great progress before my injury - but I still feel like the way my style of training and philosophy changes through time, I could be better suited to the lower volume and more physique-focused approach.
Are you following a program, one you made yourself, or autoregulating? Apologies if you already discussed all this. Your exercise choices and program itself looks almost identical to the one I’ve been building in my head. How do you feel day to day running it compared to the style of training you were doing before? Were you initially nervous about dropping volume but soon saw the proof in the pudding?
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Thank you! And absolutely i love providing feedback!
I hope you get better quick From the injury. I had some set backs including straining my quad in 2020 and bicep tendon in 2021.
Great points on the 3 sets across as an example. I did this kind of volume based training off and on for years and over time found it boring. But I also actually ran a conjugate method quite a bit though when powerlifting so on the main movements I’ve been used to lower volume; however, accessory movements had a ton of straight set volume.
I am HEAVILY autoregulating. I was running an accelerated bro split for awhile which was fantastic but modified it to more of a hybrid Push Pull Legs approach again for now. I pick a pool of variations on big compound movements kinda like you would on a conjugate method or even with Doggcrapp training and I go for a PR on one of those variations every time I train a given bodypart. I have 3-4 variations for big movements then I have a handful of smaller movements I also go for PRs on. I’m not afraid to change what I do the day I wake up based on how I feel. For example, Last week I hit stiff legged deadlifts for a PR at 350x7. Today I felt very tired and was willing to modify my conventional deadlift workout had my last single felt like crap and I would’ve went for another stiff legged PR but instead I willed my way up a conventional deadlift PR. Another example, I hit wrapped squats multiple weeks in a row the last couple weeks and hit PRs each time whereas I normally wouldn’t hit squats in wraps on consecutive weeks. My bench kept going up by simply flat benching one day and incline benching another day so I rode that out until I couldn’t recently. I personally hate 100% structure unless I’m doing a powerlifting meet and even then I would autoregulate more than others.
Since I ran a conjugate method many times in the past, it wasn’t too difficult for me to put such an emphasis on lower volume for the big lifts. Having such a focus on PR’s for accessories rather than getting a boat load of volume on was the biggest change. I was a little nervous about it but I looked at it this way, so many of the biggest and strongest bodybuilders in the world (both natural and enhanced) perform this style of training (chasing rep PRs, not necessarily the autoregulation piece even though many do that too). It’s too easy to sandbag yourself into not chasing more strength when limiting your intensity. This is different for everyone though. Some folks respond greatly to more volume and 100% structure. I find this much more fun and I’m happy with my results so far.
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Awesome, cheers for the reply.
Your thinking completely aligns with the direction I’ve been going so it’s good to hear you’re having such success with it! Having a pool of 3-4 variations is great, and in my experience can even work with 2 for a certain period of time (as you mentioned with your benching). I’ll autoregulate for the most part but may very well end up with an A and a B workout for the same muscle groups, adding a C or even a D workout when I feel it’s needed for whatever reason… including for the sake of it, and boredom. A while ago I did something like this with rowing movements and even moving through 4 different variations, the first variation would still increase despite not doing it for 3 corresponding sessions. High-intensity training can definitely profit from less frequency of an individual exercise I believe. BUT if I want to smash the same exercise I did last week/corresponding session? Then that’s what I’m gonna do.
I wasted a lot of time in the minimalist train of thought, so even though I’d always loosely aim to progress on the accessories and isolations, the bigger movements were what really mattered. I noticed more all-over growth in a short amount of time when attacking these “smaller” exercises with a similar amount of intensity + volume. All I care about in my mind is +1s and I have no interest in a lot of the other stuff. That is not to discount these other methods which clearly work, just clarifying what motivates me.
I look forward to shorter gym sessions, potentially feeling better day to day because I haven’t beat myself into the ground (I was still adapting and progressing, but it didn’t come without cost), and maybe I can get some more exercise variation as well doing some stuff I’ve always wanted to do a bit more of but never had the time or was too fatigued from my main work to bother with.
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Definitely a great mentality. Being adaptable in the gym is key. The funny thing is I’d consider something like 5/3/1 to be higher intensity with the top AMRAP set but the idea of “not majoring in the minors” is something so many preach that I’m against. I’d say due to this, it didn’t work well for me when I ran 5/3/1 years ago. It would very likely work now and I actually apply the 85% daily training max to my training from Beyond 5/3/1 so that no matter what, the variation I hit on any given day for a body part I always work up to 85%. If I’m deloading it could be 85% for just a single. I use 85% to gauge where I go for that given day whether up for a heavier PR, at 85% for a rep PR or lower for a higher rep PR. Or it could be all the above which it has been many times lately.
Another key thing with standard 5/3/1 several years ago though is I had come off super high volume DUP type training with high frequency. My physique looked like crap from DUP even with some isolation work. I don’t think you’ve been running ultra high volume but one thing I’d say is if you were, you could experience a drop off in strength. I have a few friends who experienced this but sticking with the change is crucial because ultra high volume especially in powerlifting on the actual big 3 is not sustainable and easily leads to injury.
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Saturday April 1, 2023 (AM BW 173)
Chest/Biceps + Extra Triceps and Rear Delts
Smith Incline Bench
15x10
105x8
155x5
195x3
215x3 (PR; 2 plates and 10 per side)
HS Flat Bench
97x8
187x6
237x9 (PR)
Cybex Pec Dec Fly
90x10
120x8
140x8
(Didn’t push these since I’m deloading even tho I PR’d at my first two movements)
Alt DB Curl
30’s x6-8
35’s x6-8
50’s x4 (super easy)
Cybex Preacher Curl
50x8
70x6
90x4 (PR)
60x12
Incline DB Curl
25’s x10
35’s x8
40’s x6 (PR)
V-Bar Pushdoen
50x12
70x8
80x10 (PR)
HS Rear Delt Fly
130x10
160x8
175x10 (PR)
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PR city in here.
Congrats.
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Thank you!!
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Last night I hit calves and Abs before heading to the beach today.
Cybex Standing Calf Raise
100x10
160x8
200x6
100x10
Nautilus Seated Calf Raise
90 2x10
Nautilus Pro Plus Abdominal
70x15
100x12
130x8
Hanging Leg Raise
BWx25,15
Sauna 20 mins
Weighed 176 this morning prob from all the sodium I ate yesterday even though my calories were under 2,000
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