Avls 5/3/1 log or 'How i'm trying to get north of vag'

Hi guys,

This is going to be my 5/3/1 training log. I've been lifting since jan 1st got immediately hooked, there's now nothing i love more. I did SS for around 3-4 months to get a base of strength. Then i did a push pull for a couple of months whilst eating at maintenance and spun my wheels because im stupid. Following this i did SS:ANP for a month whilst eating a lot and fat fucked myself. The last month i've spent cutting and got rid of the fat i added during that last month whilst maintaining strength gained but i'm still around 17-18% bf. That's not to say i haven't made any progress, i've probably gained around 8-9kg of lean mass in 7 months of lifting and i've gone from being ridiculously weak to just fairly weak.

You can find a journal of my last couple of months of lifting here:

What i've learned about myself is that:
1) i can still make linear progress but to do so i need to eat so much that i'm just going to get fat.
2) I can't make noticeable progress by eating at maintenance or recomping.

So my solution to this is to eat at a moderate surplus of +500cals with a ton of protein whilst doing an intermediate program and be satisfied with slow but steady progress and minimal fat gain. 5/3/1 seems to fit this bill perfectly.

I'll be supplementing with: creatine CEE, zinc, vit C, vit D, magnesium and cod liver oil. My diet will be mostly 3000-3500 calories of meat eggs dairy and nuts with some cruciferous veggies and sweet potatos for carbs. I'll probably make it more like 3500 on training days and 3000 on non.

My goals from now until new year are to gain upto 1lb a week whilst making strength progress on 5/3/1. I want to end the year 10-20lbs heaver than i am now, i figure if worst comes to worst and i gain 20lbs 10 of muscle 10 of fat i'll still only be 20% bf which is salvagable and i'll have made some real progress. Best case scenario is 10lbs of muscle gain with no fat. Either leaves me 12kg of muscle heavier after a year of lifting and of a respectable strength after 1 year of lifting.

Stats and the workout:

So before I start here are my current lifting stats:

25 years old ,178cm (5'10), 87kg (191lbs), 18% bf.

Initial PBS
Squat 3x5: 87.5kg
Bench 3x5: 70kg
OHP 3x5: 50kg
Deadlift 1x5: 140kg

Obviously i wont be doing 3x5 anymore so these workout to the following estimated (*) and actual 1RMs for PB breaking on 5/3/1

High Bar Back Squat: 105kg*
Bench Press: 82.5kg
Overhead Press: 57.5kg
Deadlift: 165kg

New 5/3/1 PBS in 1RM Equivalents - will update this regularly hopefully!

High Bar Back Squat: 106kg
Bench Press: 84kg
Overhead Press: 58kg
Deadlift:

My workout will look like this, i'll be aiming to be in and out in 1 hour, anymore and i'll drop the rest of the assistance for that day, will be starting this monday:

Day 1: Squat day (get these bad boys out of the way)

5/3/1 High-Bar Back Squat (referred to as HBBS from now on for speed)
5x10 HBBS/ Front Squat/ Box Squat @ 50% 1RM
12 + 4x3 Leg Curls (MYOREP)
3x10 Decline Crunch

Day 2: Bench day (erry day bench day)

5/3/1 Flat Bench Press
3x10 DB Bench (incline, flat, decline, whatever)
3x10-20 Kroc Row
12 + 4x3 Skullcrusher (MYOREP)
2x10 DB OHP (really light, priming and recover for OHP day)

Day 3: Deadlift day

3x3 Power Clean
5/3/1 Deadlift
1x10 Deadlift @ 50% 1RM
3x5 GHR (i just leave the weight on the bar after deads get my workout buddy to hold the bar down and jam my feet underneath the bar to do these)
8x3 High Pulls
12 + 4x3 Barbell Bicep curl (MYOREP)

Day 4: Press day

5/3/1 Military Press (may swap for push press after a couple of cycles)
3x10 Military Press/ DB S Press @ 50% 1RM
12 + 4x3 Chinups (MYOREP)
12 + 4x3 Lat Pulldowns (MYOREP) (my lats are my worst muscle group hence the added focus/ bodybuilding slant)
3x10 Facepulls
2x10 DB Press (light for recovery)

Note: I'll probably work upto this level of assistance rather than jumping straight in with it, just starting with the most important assistance first (rows and chins for example with the BBB volume) and then increasing it when i feel it isn't going to stall my progress.

Any help, tips or opinions would be more than welcome!

I'll be interested to see how you progress in strength and bodyfat % on a caloric excess. I did 5/3/1 for the last 6 months on a cut and it worked pretty well to maintain strength until right at the end, but because the weights and reps move around so much from week to week (and only progress monthly) it's easy to lose track of how strong you actually are at any given time. If I were doing 5/3/1 and trying to gain I'd be a little concerned about putting on fat quickly without a corresponding quick strength increase.

As far as programming, one thing that worked well for me and saved some time is doing power cleans as a warmup to the deadlift - you can just move right into your worksets without any additional deadlift warmup. Also, I see you've scheduled in additional light sets after the worksets. IMO, you"ll get enough deadlift volume (especially with the last AMRAP set and the power cleans) that you'll be plenty happy with the results without more light sets. The other lifts can use the extra volume.

Thanks for the post. I just got back from my first squat day workout and really enjoyed it, felt like i worked really hard though i did miss doing some kind of upperbody stuff at the same time.

With regards to the fat gain i'm planning on programming my 5/3/1 such that when i start each cycle i'll set it up to do around 8 reps on the 5+. I'm hoping this will mean an increase of more than the 5lbs for upperbody and 10 for lower for each cycle that wendler prescribed in his ebook but if not then that's ok. I think you might be right about the deadlifts, having just finished doing 100 reps of leg assistance i think planning on 30-50 deadlifts is probably a bit optimistic. Plus i always found that when doing SS my deadlift progressed pretty much unhitched every week with just one heavy set.

Went ok, didnt get an awesome night sleep but really enjoyed the workout, had to cut the last assistance exercise (which i've rearranged a bit) because the f1 was starting soon and i was pretty dead. In the future i think 3 or 4 3set assistance exercises is around the right ballpark for a 1 hour workout.

High Bar Back Squats

Bar x5
60kg x2
65kg x5
75kg x5
85kg x8 (PB!) This was ok, I was hoping for 10 and think that's what i could've hit before i started cutting but 8 was a decent start considering i've just started eating again. I went for a 9th rep but had to dump it. Failed on the hip drive which i suppose is educational.

Assistance

HBB Squat
50kg x10
50kg x10
50kg x10

Leg Press (Some plate loaded horizontal lever thing)
160kg x10
160kg x10
160kg x10

Lying Leg Curl
45kg x10
45kg x10
45kg x10

Skipped the core work, want to hit at least 6 maybe 7 of 90kg next week.

Well we learn something new everyday. Just got back from workout 2 which was shoulder day and I was NOT recovered from yesterday with a capital NOT. Just felt tired and weak despite 8 hours sleep plenty of food and creatine. May have to rethink my scheduling, especially as I still have to fit in two cycles a run and a couple of games of squash a week. Will have to think on how to arrange things as the nature of a 4 day workout in 7 days means one will have to follow the other at some point.

OHP Day

OHP

20kg x5
35kg x5
40kg x5
45kg x9 (Equal PB) - The gym im using this week whilst mine is being refurbed doesnt have a barbell rack and i cant ohp in the power cage so i had to clean the weight before pressing, pretty sure this cost me the last rep, also if i'd been feeling 100% i think i could've got 12 or so.

30 x10
30 x7 anterior deltoids just had nothing left, guess they fatigue quicker

Seated DB OHP

30 (15 x2) x10
30 (15 x2) x8
30 (15 x2) x5 - waited a few mins and did seated DB OHP to get some more volume

Chinup

BW x5
BW x5 - no third set, just no

Lat Pulldown

60kg x8
60kg x8
60kg x5
60kg x3
60kg x3 - I tried to do a MYOREP style format here with 20 second pauses between sets, but as you can see i got the weight wrong and started too low

Upright Row
20kg x10
20kg x10

Lateral Raise
5kg x10
5kg x10

Other things i've learned:

1) Sets of chinups aren't working for me, yes im 11kg heavier now than i was 7 months ago and can still do the same number but i should've made better progress than that. I think im relying too much on my biceps too, im just going to start doing chins and pullups all the time on my bar at home and as warmups to get better at them rather than schedule 3x5.

The schedule I used for 5/3/1 (and am now using for a 5/3/1 variant) is Mon - bench, Wed - dead, Fri-press, Sat - squat. Squat day is always the hardest for me to recover from, and there's not much that happens on press day that affects the squat for me. Also, you are doing a lot of assistance work - maybe slim down the routine a little for a 4 day a week schedule?

That schedule does sound like the best possible for recovery, i'll probably switch to it next week and skip the bench volume this friday so that benching again on monday isn't too much of a hassle. That or just do sat: squat mon: press wed: dead fri: bench.

As for the volume i agree that it was a lot today, however, that was more because i was trying out what i liked doing. With dropping chins to just do them randomly at the start of workouts or when i'm at home i'll probably just stick with the BBB presses, lat pulldown and upright rows for press day. I think the squat day was just about right but if i start feeling like i can't recover at all i'll have to bring it down.

Wed 27 July - Cycle 1 - Week 1 - Deadlift Day

BW: 87.6kg

Pretty awful workout, felt weak still, maybe i really did over do it on sun+mon, hopefully i'll get used to the extra volume.

Power Cleans

40kg x3
60kg x3
60kg x3
60kg x3 - Felt heavy (have done 67.5 5x3 before) and I didn't feel explosive at all

Deadlift

60kg x5
100kg x5
125kg x6 - Terrible, i wanted 9 or 10, I was pulling 125 for 5 3 months agos
80kg x10

Shrugs - MYOREP 20 second rests

80kg x8
80kg x5
80kg x3
80kg x3
80kg x2

GHR

BW x3
BW x3
BW x3 - I'm actually better at these than i used to be

Curls
30kg x8 (Preacher)
17.5kg x5 (DB)

Called it. I'll be pulling 132.5kg next week, I should be able to do 7-8 of them but maybe not after today. Hope my strength comes back soon. I've edited my workouts to lower the volume making it more manageable, doing more like the triumvirate now.

Thu 28 July - Cycle 1 - Week 1 - Bench Day

BW: 88.1kg

Felt much better today so though i'd better make the most of it and go lift some weights.

Flat Bench

20kg x5
40kg x3
50kg x5
57.5kg x5
65kg x9 - (PB!) Felt explosive on both activation sets, wanted to try for 10 but 9th rep was grindy so didn't go for it.
50kg x10

Standing DB Shoulder Press

15kg x8
17.5kg x5
20kg x3
22.5kg x1
20kg x5 (1-arm push press) - Benching again on mon to get order of workouts correct so todays assistance volume was for press to avoid fatigue

1-Arm DB Row

40kg x6
40kg x6
40kg x6 - Felt weak on these today, but i have quite substantial doms in my upper back from deadlifts yesterday so think this is probably why.

Lying Triceps Extension (Skullcrusher)

20kg x12
20kg x8
20kg x5
20kg x5
20kg x3 - Went for MYOREPs again 12+ 4x3 with 20 second rests but got the starting weight too low again, i'll get the hang of it eventually.

That's all folks.