caveman goes for 5/3/1 for 300/400/500

[caveman]

Thanks Quinteros. I'm enjoying this programming style and so I'm hoping it works for quite a while.

During lunch today 12/3/13
Body weight 202.4. I finally broke down and started tracking calories. The plan is to eat "normally" for a week and then make some improvements in the areas that are deemed deficient. I need to check Jordan's nutrition forum for some ball park targets.

Bench press - 185 for 5, 210 for 3, and 235 for 6. REP PR! Estimated 1RM = 273. Which ties my all time estimated 1RM. These all felt pretty heavy and honestly if I didn't know that getting 6 was the goal I would have stopped at 5. 275 is so close, I can taste it. 300 after that.

CGBP - 135 for 10, 10, and 10. I treated these differently today. No pauses at the top or bottom, just rep out 10 and rack it. It seemed to work well. These felt light and all 10 reps were fast.

Pull ups 6, 6, and 4. I should have done these yesterday, but I ran out time so I threw them in today. The original plan was to do 5 sets of 6, but I got confused and was also running short on time. Better than nothing!

Notes:
Started putting the barbell in the utility room to keep it warm and I now wear mechanics gloves when loading up the barbell. Handling the cold iron really seemed to suck the life out of me and now it's not that big of a deal that the garage is 45F and soon to be in the 30's with the cold weather we're in store for this week.

[caveman]

From today during lunch 12/5/13
Body weight 201.8

Deadlift 305 for 5, 345 for 3, and 385 for 5 singles EMOM. Estimated 1RM = 433, though I'm not sure how valid this number is given this style of pulling. This is my first time pulling singles every minute on the minute, EMOM. This was HARD. 305 felt great, 345 felt heavier than it should, and 385 felt like a ton. I would say that these are probably the slowest deadlifts I have ever done. No video confirmation, but it felt like the bar speed got faster as the lift progressed. It was very very slow off the floor.

So because my weakness seems to be off the floor, I am of the belief that deficit deads are better suited to address that weakness than pulling sumo. So for the first time today I pulled off a 2.25" deficit (three 3/4" sheets of plywood I had laying around the garage of the appropriate dimensions). Just 135 x 10 for 3 sets for this go around to see how it felt. and I'll keep adding weight/volume.

[caveman]

From Friday 12/6/13
Body weight 201.6

Overhead press - 110 for 5, 125 for 3, 140 for 5. Estimated 1RM = 158. That last rep was pretty slow and for the first time lock out for every rep was a bit of a struggle.

Dips 11, 10, 10 supersetted with pull ups 5, 5, 4.

[caveman]

From today 12/9/13
Body weight 199.6 (and now that I'm tracking calories, this is lower than it should be, but in the instance I'm not complaining).

Squats - 230 for 5, 265 for 5, and 300 for 7. Estimated 1RM = 360. The first rep at 300 felt like a warm up weight. The rest all felt hard. I'd like to say that I had one more in the tank, but that could've gone either way.

Front squats 135 for 10, 10, 10. A little extra rest between sets 3minutes instead of 2 and that made everything much easier. Then I thought I would screw around a little and try to move some heavier weight as my form felt decent. 185 for 0. Ooops, lost it backwards and had to set it on the pins. Then 185 for 1, and then 225 for 1. That was hard, or maybe unpleasant is a better word, so I figured I wouldn't press my luck.

Garage was cold and I just didn't feel like doing chins. No wonder these aren't progressing...

[caveman]

From yesterday 12/10/13
Body weight 200.4

Bench press - 160 for 5, 185 for 5, 210 for 9. PR! Estimated 1RM = 276! Woo hoo first time cracking the 275 estimated 1RM barrier! The 9th rep took an eternity, quite possibly longer than the first 8 combined. I am tempted to go for 275, but it's not a true milestone, though 2 plates and a 25 is kinda like the halfway point to 315... Hmm, and checking my sheet due to rounding errors, the next two week block is pretty much the same is this one, might have to sneak that in the next 5/3/1 day or maybe after presses on Friday.

CGBP - 135 for 10, 10, 10. These have gotten easier, not sure if it's because I'm just repping them with reckless abandon or I'm starting to adapt to this program. I think I'll add 10 pounds next go around and see what's what.

I was going to get caught up on chins, but the garage was cold and I didn't want to blast my arms before my scratch bowling league that night. I went 236-197-252 for a 685, which was my best night in a while.

Feeling good, no real aches or pains, though I do get moderate DOMS after every squat day.

[caveman]

From yesterday 12/12/13
Body weight 201.6, I think

Deadlifts - 275 for 5 (was supposed to be 270, but I'm lazy), 310 for 5, and 355 for 8. Estimated 1RM = 441. These felt freaking awesome! I went into this workout not really looking forward to it. The bar was cold, the bottoms of my feet were sore for some unknown reason, etc... But once I got going things went really smoothly. 310 felt like a warm up set, all 5 reps done with DOH grip to boot. My strength off the floor was on point, which I am sure has more to do with setting up correctly instead of some massive increase in strength from last weeks EMOM and light deficit deadlift modifications. I would get into positions, could set, and as soon as I started the pull, the weight was off the floor. Seriously, I thought I forgot to add weight for 310 because it felt the same as 275. 355 was also fast off the floor. Sweet!

2.25" Deficit deadlifts - 225 for 8, 8, and 8. I thought I would up the weight and do 8's. Then next week 9's, followed by 10's and then up weight, reduce the reps and start the progression over again.

I'm saving pull ups for overhead press day as they superset nicely with my dips assistance work.

[caveman]

Hmm falling behind on posting,
From 12/13/13

Overhead press - 100 for 5, 115 for 5, 130 for 7. Estimated 1RM = 156. I'm pretty sure this is a rep PR for 135. Went for 8 and about forehead level I decided that I probably wasn't going to save this one and aborted.

Pull ups supersetted with dips. Pull ups went 5, 5, and a ugly 5. Dips went 10, 10, 10, I think. I guess I should start writing down my assistance work, somewhere else besides here. Hmph.

[caveman]

From yesterday 12/16/13
Body weight 201.6

Squats - 265 for 5, 300 for 3, and 335 for 4. Estimated 1RM = 365! All time estimated 1RM PR, never lifted 335 for reps before either! Weird, 265 and 300 both felt pretty heavy, 335 didn't feel much heaver than those.

Front squats supersetted with chin ups. 155 for 10, 8, 8. Definitely conditioning/ab limited for these.
Chins went 5 sets of 5, all pretty easy. I was going to do a 6th set and then decided against overdoing it seeing that I haven't done these in a while.

Great session!

[caveman]

During lunch today 12/17/13
Body weight 201.8

Bench - 190 for 5, 215 for 3, 240 for 6! Estimated 1RM = 279! That's an all time estimated 1RM PR and definitely a rep PR for that weight! I felt like a had a hardtime getting set for 190 and 215, and was generally not looking forward to 240, but 240 felt natural and easy. Last two reps were on the slow side, but they both went up and that gave me enough confidence to load up 275. I wasn't planning on doing that today... I tried to take video of the attempt, but unfortunately a text came in just before I unracked the bar and so all it shows is my setup. :-( The good news is that it went UP! Descent was reasonable, and the "bounce" off my chest was good, and then it seemed like it stopped and I thought poop, here we go again. But it hadn't stopped, just slowed way down. YES! 275 for 1. All time PR by 15 pounds!

CGBP - 145 for 10, 10, 10. I threw these all up, but they were definitely not as snappy as 135. Keep these the same for next week.

[caveman]

During lunch today 12/19/13
Body weight 204.6

Got caught up on some much needed sleep last night and so was hoping for a good session even though I was still a little sore from squats on Monday.

Deadlift 315 (supposed to be 310) for 5, 355 for 3, and 395 for 4 singles EMOM. Estimated 1RM = 433. Damn, 395 felt heavy heavy. Though in hindsight maybe not that much worse than 385 did two weeks ago. Definitely not as easy as I thought/hoped it would be. I tried the new barsense app to track the bar speed, but it didn't work, most likely because there wasn't enough light for it pick up difference between the black plate versus the black floor. I'll fix that problem for next time.

Deficit deadlifts 225 for 9, 9, 9. The last set was brutal at the end.

Well not quite what I was hoping for, but in reality this is probably how it was supposed to go down, and I do think it is addressing some weak areas in my game which is a good thing.