Wendler's 5/3/1 Program - Part 4

Training Powerlifting
922

[quote]Knausome wrote:
I’m on my fourth cycle after cruising for awhile and working out mobility kinks. Everything is progressing smoothly as I slowly add in sled/tire work after training. Ordered my Prowler today, suffice to say FUCKING EXCITED is an understatement. [/quote]

You should be excited. I just got my prowler last week and it’s the first time that i’ve enjoyed doing conditioning work. There’s just something so badass about it. Oh and it’s really fuckin hard by the way. Two 45’s on there for some sprints or pushing this thing up inclines, and you’ll want to pray to jesus that you don’t die.

923

Hey Jim,

Is their any chance of getting a distributor for the new book (and other sweet gear) in Canada? I know a few people who want to pick up the book but it’s pain in the ass to get stuff up here otherwise ($30 shipping on a $20 book is retarded).

924

[quote]zack726 wrote:
Hey Jim,

Is their any chance of getting a distributor for the new book (and other sweet gear) in Canada? I know a few people who want to pick up the book but it’s pain in the ass to get stuff up here otherwise ($30 shipping on a $20 book is retarded).[/quote]

I’m sure he’ll have the digital download available, that’s what I bought when I got the traditional 5/3/1.

925

5/3/1 is doing wonders for my Deadlift. I’m on my 3rd cycle and somehow still got 12 reps on week one 10 on week 2, today I got 340 x 10 for Deadlift. Thing is I didn’t even start “light” - I definitely used my true max and took 90% of that.

Here is the progression of rep records for bench and deadlift, I would love to get some input from the board. My bench has seen very little improvement comparatively.

Bench
Cycle #1 Cycle # 2 Cycle # 3
W1- 175x7 W1- 180x7 W1- 180x8
W2- 185x6 W2- 190x5 W2- 190x6
W3- 195x4 W3- 200x3

Deadlift
Cycle #1 Cycle # 2 Cycle #3
W1- 305x10 W1- 315x13 W1- 325x12
W2- 325x10 W2- 335x10 W2- 340x10
W3- 340x11 W3- did not complete

For week 3 you can see that I decided to not up the weights on the bench but instead re-run the same cycle.

So what jumps out obviously is that the deadlifts are being done in a higher rep range… I did not though inflate my max on the bench, it was a true max that was done days before starting. Deadlift numbers are accurate in the sense that I always try to go to the same level of failure for each final set.

Im on a maintenance diet sitting consistently at 185lbs.

Thoughts?

Edit - got 200x6(bench) for this most recent cycle(yesterday), compared to 200x3 on the last cycle, maybe not stalling after all.

926

You could try to lower your training max for bench. According to your post you only got 7 reps on your first week, this makes me think you overestimated your bench 1RM. I prefer to set a training max that gives me around 12 reps when starting the first cycle.

927

First off, loving this program thus far.

I’m only on my first cycle, week 3. I’m doing the Mon/Tues/Thurs/Fri split with boring but big.

I’m terribly out of shape (Fat), so I’ve been slowly increasing assistance work and conditioning.

I just wanted to get your suggestions on something:

I just did a pulse fast on my off day, Wednesday, and it is suggested to workout twice on the two days afterward. I understand that it’s not necessary, and I could easily just do the normal routine, but I was wondering if anyone else had experience with this or had any suggestions.

I do not want to change the program, but I am wondering if say, splitting the main workout and the assistance exercises would be beneficial, or perhaps to do the main lift/bbb main lift (5/3/1 and 5x10) and then do another sequence of assistance lifts later in the day. I do believe I would be able to handle it from a recovery standpoint.

Today’s lift is Bench Press, and tomorrow’s Squat, if that helps influence things.

Thanks, and I apologize if this is a stupid question. :slight_smile:

928

Just do your workout as usual. No need to split it up over two sessions.

929

Cool. That’s what I did (will do).

Thanks, again.

930

Anybody have some of their main movements from a deadstop position (except deadlifts of course)?

For me, the two most psychologically daunting lifts are squats and bench. So I’ve been doing squats from pins (slightly above parallel) and bench from pins (just a few inches above my chest).

i find with the safety factor of the pins, I can do MUCH more. And its not like the ROM is small either. I’m figuring if i can get these lifts up to a large weight, then when I eventually switch over to full ROM movements, I’ll probably be able to handle a decent amount. Plus, starting from a deadstart position usually helps with force development anyways.

sigh…I guess I just wanted peoples opinions about that.

931

[quote]forbes wrote:
Anybody have some of their main movements from a deadstop position (except deadlifts of course)?

For me, the two most psychologically daunting lifts are squats and bench. So I’ve been doing squats from pins (slightly above parallel) and bench from pins (just a few inches above my chest).

i find with the safety factor of the pins, I can do MUCH more. And its not like the ROM is small either. I’m figuring if i can get these lifts up to a large weight, then when I eventually switch over to full ROM movements, I’ll probably be able to handle a decent amount. Plus, starting from a deadstart position usually helps with force development anyways.

sigh…I guess I just wanted peoples opinions about that. [/quote]

Im just speculating, but this sounds like it might be better suited towards geared lifters, as it could leave your strength lacking in the bottom portion of the lifts.

932

[quote]HallikFrank wrote:

[quote]forbes wrote:
Anybody have some of their main movements from a deadstop position (except deadlifts of course)?

For me, the two most psychologically daunting lifts are squats and bench. So I’ve been doing squats from pins (slightly above parallel) and bench from pins (just a few inches above my chest).

i find with the safety factor of the pins, I can do MUCH more. And its not like the ROM is small either. I’m figuring if i can get these lifts up to a large weight, then when I eventually switch over to full ROM movements, I’ll probably be able to handle a decent amount. Plus, starting from a deadstart position usually helps with force development anyways.

sigh…I guess I just wanted peoples opinions about that. [/quote]

Im just speculating, but this sounds like it might be better suited towards geared lifters, as it could leave your strength lacking in the bottom portion of the lifts.[/quote]

Agreed, the squat one is kind of odd though even for geared. If they are daunting just set your max lower and make it up with more reps. For bench most will disagree but I don’t think what your doing isn’t the worst idea for a variation. Personally I would never do the squats like that though.

933

[quote]HallikFrank wrote:

[quote]forbes wrote:
Anybody have some of their main movements from a deadstop position (except deadlifts of course)?

For me, the two most psychologically daunting lifts are squats and bench. So I’ve been doing squats from pins (slightly above parallel) and bench from pins (just a few inches above my chest).

i find with the safety factor of the pins, I can do MUCH more. And its not like the ROM is small either. I’m figuring if i can get these lifts up to a large weight, then when I eventually switch over to full ROM movements, I’ll probably be able to handle a decent amount. Plus, starting from a deadstart position usually helps with force development anyways.

sigh…I guess I just wanted peoples opinions about that. [/quote]

Im just speculating, but this sounds like it might be better suited towards geared lifters, as it could leave your strength lacking in the bottom portion of the lifts.[/quote]

Most agreed, that is why I include full ROM squats in my assistance exercises.

934

[quote]sufiandy wrote:

[quote]HallikFrank wrote:

[quote]forbes wrote:
Anybody have some of their main movements from a deadstop position (except deadlifts of course)?

For me, the two most psychologically daunting lifts are squats and bench. So I’ve been doing squats from pins (slightly above parallel) and bench from pins (just a few inches above my chest).

i find with the safety factor of the pins, I can do MUCH more. And its not like the ROM is small either. I’m figuring if i can get these lifts up to a large weight, then when I eventually switch over to full ROM movements, I’ll probably be able to handle a decent amount. Plus, starting from a deadstart position usually helps with force development anyways.

sigh…I guess I just wanted peoples opinions about that. [/quote]

Im just speculating, but this sounds like it might be better suited towards geared lifters, as it could leave your strength lacking in the bottom portion of the lifts.[/quote]

Agreed, the squat one is kind of odd though even for geared. If they are daunting just set your max lower and make it up with more reps. For bench most will disagree but I don’t think what your doing isn’t the worst idea for a variation. Personally I would never do the squats like that though.[/quote]

True, but what if it doesn’t feel awkward? For the squats, I actually start from the uprights, then lower it to a dead stop to the pins, then explode upwards.

935

[quote]forbes wrote:

[quote]sufiandy wrote:

[quote]HallikFrank wrote:

[quote]forbes wrote:
Anybody have some of their main movements from a deadstop position (except deadlifts of course)?

For me, the two most psychologically daunting lifts are squats and bench. So I’ve been doing squats from pins (slightly above parallel) and bench from pins (just a few inches above my chest).

i find with the safety factor of the pins, I can do MUCH more. And its not like the ROM is small either. I’m figuring if i can get these lifts up to a large weight, then when I eventually switch over to full ROM movements, I’ll probably be able to handle a decent amount. Plus, starting from a deadstart position usually helps with force development anyways.

sigh…I guess I just wanted peoples opinions about that. [/quote]

Im just speculating, but this sounds like it might be better suited towards geared lifters, as it could leave your strength lacking in the bottom portion of the lifts.[/quote]

Agreed, the squat one is kind of odd though even for geared. If they are daunting just set your max lower and make it up with more reps. For bench most will disagree but I don’t think what your doing isn’t the worst idea for a variation. Personally I would never do the squats like that though.[/quote]

True, but what if it doesn’t feel awkward? For the squats, I actually start from the uprights, then lower it to a dead stop to the pins, then explode upwards.[/quote]

MaruderMeat does front squats from pins, and if you have the pins set as close to your chest as possible for bench actually requires to be stronger on the bottom portion of the lift than a pinless bench press.

936

[quote]JoabSonOfZeruiah wrote:

[quote]forbes wrote:

[quote]sufiandy wrote:

[quote]HallikFrank wrote:

[quote]forbes wrote:
Anybody have some of their main movements from a deadstop position (except deadlifts of course)?

For me, the two most psychologically daunting lifts are squats and bench. So I’ve been doing squats from pins (slightly above parallel) and bench from pins (just a few inches above my chest).

i find with the safety factor of the pins, I can do MUCH more. And its not like the ROM is small either. I’m figuring if i can get these lifts up to a large weight, then when I eventually switch over to full ROM movements, I’ll probably be able to handle a decent amount. Plus, starting from a deadstart position usually helps with force development anyways.

sigh…I guess I just wanted peoples opinions about that. [/quote]

Im just speculating, but this sounds like it might be better suited towards geared lifters, as it could leave your strength lacking in the bottom portion of the lifts.[/quote]

Agreed, the squat one is kind of odd though even for geared. If they are daunting just set your max lower and make it up with more reps. For bench most will disagree but I don’t think what your doing isn’t the worst idea for a variation. Personally I would never do the squats like that though.[/quote]

True, but what if it doesn’t feel awkward? For the squats, I actually start from the uprights, then lower it to a dead stop to the pins, then explode upwards.[/quote]
MaruderMeat does front squats from pins, and if you have the pins set as close to your chest as possible for bench actually requires to be stronger on the bottom portion of the lift than a pinless bench press.[/quote]

I looked up Meat’s videos, and I found the exact squat variation that I’m talking about that I’m doing, except that I’m just slightly higher than him in this video:

937
938

I wonder why they wont show up?

939

It won’t show if you link it while the vid is still on the users homepage with /user you need to click view comments, related videos and more and link it with the /watch.

940

[quote]forbes wrote:
- YouTube [/quote]
like this

941

SOOOOO I’ve been training for about a year WITHOUT a program. I just started 5/3/1 this month and it is really helping me focus.

Here are my current numbers for 90% of my one rep maxes:
standing shoulder press (MP)
31.5kg/69.3lbs
bench press
36kg/88lbs
squat
63kg/138.8lbs
deadlift
76.5kg/168.3lbs

Wendler’s Prediction for me + 12 months (May 2011)
standing shoulder press (MP)
58kg/127.3lbs
bench press
69kg/150.9lbs
squat
119.5kg/262.9lbs
deadlift
135kg/297lbs

Mr. Wendler, if I actually hit these marks by next May, I want to send you a hand written thank you card and a nekkid photo.