Gee, that’s encouraging.
Alrighty, boobs day. I seem to be on a 5 day cycle right now for this 5 Pro setup (instead of a week, duh), which I kind of like…my mindset here is that I am trying to find the groove, not so much trying to get stronger yet. I will probably switch gears before I go in that direction. If I go in that direction. I am probably going to dive in and do it (which includes eating my way to gainz), but more a question of WHEN. Last year I did it start of July. Might wait a little longer this year, but probably not too long. So tempting.
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Decline Barbell Bench Press
- 45 kg x 5 reps
- 60 kg x 5 reps
- 70 kg x 3 reps
- 80 kg x 5 reps
- 90 kg x 5 reps
- 105 kg x 5 reps
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Muscle-Up
- 2 reps
- 7 reps
- 1 reps
- 3 reps
- 2 reps
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Dumbbell Bench Press
- 20 kg x 8 reps
- 26 kg x 8 reps
- 30 kg x 10 reps
- 30 kg x 10 reps
- 30 kg x 10 reps
- 30 kg x 10 reps
- 30 kg x 10 reps
105 went up okay, but I probably had to move it faster than I wanted to. 110 next time is going to be hard, I think, which annoys me. Hit 7 MUs for the first time in a long time, but the last one in particular was a very near thing, shit. Assistance work after that was going to be a bit more grand than it was, but the MUs drained my will.
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Nice work. Why did you chose the decline?
Because I always choose the decline. I have always found the flat bench a bit awkward, and my shoulders do not like the bar path, especially when it gets heavy.
I’m really enjoying getting back to DB pressing myself. Haven’t lost as much off em as I thought I would after months of lockdown.
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Yeah, I am going to try to keep them in the rotation as an accessory like I did above. Maybe swap between them and dips.
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I think we got similar rotations going: dips, OHP and DB press
Well, I am kinda doing 531 on OHP, Declines and Squats. Everything else can and will be swapped in and out. But even then, I am a “keep it simple” type, so all the supplemental stuff will consist of a fairly small group of things. DB pressing, MUs, PUs, Dips, and even those damn Bulgarians. I like the basics.
The one thing missing there is Deads, which I will also work in, but probably not as part of the program.
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I have found previously that if I train deadlifts in the same 531 style as any other lift, I stall at best and crash and burn at worst. I like the Kroc deadlift program as a replacement. It’s just a fairly basic, submaximal progression that requires no thought and minimal time.
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Well in my case, as dumb as it sounds…I don’t really want to progress it too much. I do not trust my spine to handle the compression any longer. So my problem is that I will progress it right into the danger zone if I am not careful.
But whatever, I can still get loads of benefits from some unstructured deadlifting, including using the trap bar, talking it for a walk, etc… Never been a problem before.
I’m in a similar boat, for different reasons. When I push my deadlift hard, all my other lifts stagnate or move backwards. Probably why I’ve deadlifted a semi-respectable 225kg, but never managed anything even close to a passing grade in any other lifts.
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I’ve found the same 5/3/1 has never done much for my deadlift, but I stuck with it for years.
I have an awful deadlift.
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531 worked for my deadlift when I did non-531 stuff with it, like clusters and ROM progression. Both of those were absolute magic bullets.
Haha so 531 worked when you didn’t do it properly, I’ll keep that in mind!
My thinking on training is evolving at the moment - I’m thinking that since I’ll never compete at powerlifting and literally no one except me cares about my deadlift numbers and since I pull wide sumo which probably has about the least possible carry over to any real life lifting - why do I still train it. Maybe time to use the trap bar more?
Very tempted to jump into dark horse and do something that works more than just static strength (which I suck at big time anyway!).
My experience with 531 and DL…I can kill it through the program itself, but not convinced it makes me much stronger as a result. I just end up doing 140 for a stupid number of reps or whatever, needlessly frying my nervous system.
Contrarily, if I just want to get strong at DL, I just do a lot more heavy singles, doubles and triples, not following a program. That works just fine.
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531 works very well for me on some lifts, but deadlift isn’t one of them.
I’m definitely moving my thinking towards “what lifts actually deserve all my attention” in terms of hitting my goals. Honestly, I think deadlift and bench are probably going to take a back seat for a while, see if I can get them moving with less effort.
I actually kinda think that picking up the trap bar and walking with it gives more practical strength benefit, while also building your traps and all that stuff.
Yea I keep thinking about walking with my trap bar but that means leaving my garage to train and I’m lazy! Which I’m sure dark horse will cure/kill.
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Yeah, trap bar walks will cure you of laziness. Anything around or above twice your bodyweight is pretty brutal.
Just use the trap bar and do heavy high rep sets. Worked well for @T3hPwnisher
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