Viking Workouts

[Briks42]

Im glad you are feeling a little better. Take it easy and be smart. You know what you have to do.

I like your plan going forward if you only expect to get to the gym a couple days a week. It might be tough to make progress, but I think you can definitely keep your lifts where they are by doing this.

What has happened to you is one of my problems with 5/3/1 in general. I hate hate hate 13 scheduled deloads because you know things are going to happen on OTHER weeks, and you are going to end up with even more time than that where you either don't lift or barely lift at all. If you can be assured that you can give the other 39 weeks full effort, 5/3/1 might work ok. But real life doesnt work like that for most people. There will be injuries, vacations, etc where you can't work out. When you add those ON TOP of all the scheduled dealoading, its way too much time not working hard.

I also don't think the frequency is high enough for the main lifts on 5/3/1, but thats much less a concern for me than all the deloading.

Anyway, sorry for my rant. We've discussed this before in that 5/3/1 thread, so I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but that program really annoys me.

[DV]

Hey Briks, thanks for dropping by. I'm glad my plan seems decent to others as well.

that program really annoys me.

Hah! I agree that you will take more deloads than the 13 scheduled ones. However, Wendler also mentions this in a bit about how life sometimes gives you unexpected deloads. And you can obviously deal with this in different ways. One is to just do the extra deload and still deload as scheduled. Other is moving up the scheduled deload. Some people have also had success only deloading every 2-3 cycles. I found the deload to work very well, I destroyed the weights in the week after the deload, and with the max-rep system, the deloads actually bump up your poundages that way, if you know what I mean.

I'd stay on 5/3/1 if I hadn't gotten ill. This is where we sort of agree; on the frequency thing. I like squatting only once per week, but less than that would not work for me. So when you won't make 3-4 workouts per week for the foreseeable future it isn't the best bet, IMO. As I mentioned it could be done, grouping press/deads and bench/squat, but if you are going to do that anyway, I like other full-body templates better.

Depending on what I end up doing at the OL club back in Denmark, I might give 5/3/1 a real run. And if I do, I'm quite confident that I'd get some decent results, actually. I felt more motivated on 5/3/1 than I have for a long time. Only having one main lift for the day really lets you focus on that. It was a nice break from doing full-body for 5-6 years.

[Briks42]

Oh, I don't doubt you will have success with it when you have the time to fully devote yourself to it, but I still don't like the 13 deloads, even if you schedule around sicknesses and stuff. Agree to disagree though. Like I said, I've spoken my piece so I don't want to keep annoying you.

Either way, yes, I definitelydo like your current plan. Its simple and allows you to add more work if you find yourself with the time. That sounds perfect to me.

[DV]

06-06-12: 15.54-16.48: Press/Squat

Still not 100%. It's a holiday tomorrow, so it won't completely screw me over if I feel shitty.

Warmup: Jump rope (3x40), dynamic stretching, pushups (3x10), air squats (10), chins (3x4)

Press: 65x5, 85x5, 105x5, 125x5, 135x7
I started feeling shitty during the last sets, but didn't go home like I maybe should've. I did 4x4 chins between sets, 7x4 total for today.

Weighted chins: Aborted, I wanted to get some squats in before I felt too shitty.

Squat: 135x5, 175x5, 205x5, 245x5, 275x5
Felt shitty. Before going under the bar for 245 I even said to myself "this is stupid". Sadly I am too stubborn to throw in the towel. I did skip the back-off I had planned, though.

Here's to me not crashing again after this.

[Briks42]

Damn man. You can't seem to shake whatever it is that's bothering you. I hope you feel better. I admire you for pushing through it though.

[DV]

Damn man. You can't seem to shake whatever it is that's bothering you. I hope you feel better. I admire you for pushing through it though.

It's the bloody altitude. Problem is, if I held off training whenever I feel like this, I'd almost never train. Luckily I am going back to Denmark (which is AT sealevel) in a month and change after three years up here.

I've thought about this before, and I think we are all mentally placed somewhere on an axis, where one extreme is training too hard (and being too stubborn), and the other being too cautious (and lazy?). I am definitely on the stubborn side, which I need to temper. I'm getting better at it, but I still have things to learn.

I felt quite shitty this morning, but having the day off today and doing fuck-all has helped. It's 2PM now and I almost feel fine. So I can hopefully go burn myself out again tomorrow, and then use the weekend to recuperate. Surprising lack of DOMS from squatting - but I guess 275 isn't enough to make me sore, which I guess is a good thing.

[Root]

Where are you where the altitude is giving you trouble?

[DV]

Where are you where the altitude is giving you trouble?

La Paz, Bolivia. I work out at an altitude of about 3600 meters, which is roughly 12.000 feet. Work is a bit higher up the mountain, I live a tad lower. And in three years I've never come to terms with the damned altitude, but luckily I'm out of here soon.

As a note to myself, using oxygen post-workout yesterday seemed to help, and getting some this morning did as well.

[Root]

Wow. Eres muy freaking alto.

[Root]

Wow. Eres muy freaking alto.

I guess that should be 'estas', not 'eres'

Unless you've been smoking something.