Jsutt's 5/3/1-ish log

[Jsutt]

It's been a couple of months since I was making linear progress so it's time to move my log I guess. At the moment I'm doing Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 full-body hybrid program with a few tweaks, mainly higher volume/lower weight pressing and added assistance exercises.

My old log is here.

All weights are in kilos because my country is in step with the rest of the world :-)

Current stats:

Weight: 87kg
Squat: 140x5, haven't tested 1RM.
Deadlift: 165
Bench: 87.5x2
Press 62.5
Power clean: 85.

My training goals are a 180kg/400lb squat, a 200kg/440lb deadlift, and a 100kg/225 power clean - the presses I don't really care about. I lift weights to be strong and muscular - it's kind of a niche sport in New Zealand so I haven't entered any competitions, although I'd like to this year. I'd also like to do more olympic lifting but unfortunately it's not really an option at the moment.

For work sets on squats and deadlifts I use a belt, I'm *trying* to find some lifting shoes (not easy) and otherwise that's it for gear.

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Copying over my workout from today -

Friday

Squats 20x8, 60x5, 90x5, 110x5, 125x3, 140x2 - F&*# pulled an abdominal muscle. I had the belt on too tight and couldn't tense properly, rookie mistake. I think core strength is what's holding these back at the moment, which I guess explains the big difference in squat vs deadlift.

Press 20x5, 30x5, 41 for 3 sets of 10. Pulled my head out & took my micro weights. This set felt the same as last week's lighter set so I guess that is improvement. After the work sets busted out 60kg for a single (woop woop).

Decline bench situp things (name??) 15, 15, 10 - which was all I could manage. Definitely adding these to the program to help with the squat.

Chins 10, 8, 7 - mixed these with the sit-ups so lost a couple reps.

[Valhall]

Good luck!

[Jsutt]

Monday

Serious DOMS in the abs from Friday. Argh!

Squats 20x8, 60x5, 90x3x7.

Deadlift - Big jumps today to go for the heavy single: 60x5, 100x5, 130x5 (d/o, beltless), 160x2 (mixed, belt), 175kgx1. Twice my bodyweight, no chalk, no straps, ahh yeah :-) 4 plates is now within spitting distance and my year goal of 200kg is looking very doable.

Tried some decline situps but I could only manage 3 - got to work up to these!

Pull-ups 10, 8, something, something...anyway got 30 reps total.

Now I am going to sleep.

[Jsutt]

Wednesday

Squat 20x8, 60x5, 90x3x7.

Bench 20x10, 40x5, 60x5, 70x2x5, realised I forgot to add the 1.25kg plate, 72.5x3x5.

Power clean 40x5, 62.5x5, 72.5x3, 80x2. Tried altering the back angle a bit on these and I found that I had more power sitting back slightly.

Decline sit-ups, 2x5 - still sore from Friday. I think we can safely assume that these are the weak point on the squats.

[Jsutt]

Friday

Squats 20x8, 60x5, 85x5, 110x5, 125x3, 140x4. The first two at 140 were really solid, felt the abs start to go on the 3rd rep, pain on the 4th. Still, my legs had no problem getting the weight up.

Press 20x10, 20x10, 30x5, 40x10, forgot to add the 1.25's again, so just went to 50x5 and 60x2.

Chins 11, 8, 7.

Sit-ups 3x5. All I could manage.

[Jsutt]

Sunday. Food poisoning. F*#$, this is going to put a dint in things.

[Jsutt]

Wednesday

Just a quick one today

Squats 20x10, 60x5, 90x3x5.

Bench 40x10, 60x5, 75x3x4 (repeat these next week)

Chins 10, 8, 8.

[Jsutt]

Friday

Squats 20x10, 60x5, 90x5, 110x5, 125x3x5 yikes these were hard, not sure if it's mental or leftovers from getting sick. I decided to leave the 140 lift today and just do the warmup for sets across, which I don't normally do at this weight.

Press 20x10, 30x5, 40x10 (either I have a serious mental block about getting the weight right on this, or else mild retardation), 42 for 3 sets of 10. Had to use the stretch reflex to get the last set out.

Decline situps

Chins for a total of 30.

And I have a pair of VS Athletics squat shoes on order from the States! Finally decided to suck it up, and actually it comes in at NZ$160 including shipping so that's not too bad.

[Jsutt]

So after a consult with my physio office buddy the verdict is that the pain squatting is a strain of the psoas major at the insertion point, caused by an under-performing transverse abdominus. Apparently that means no more heavy squats (I am ok to knock out sets around the 125kg mark) until the problem is sorted, but everything else should be unaffected. I've been given a daily stretching routine and some pilates type stuff to wake up the transverse abs and the obliques to get them more involved in the squat. If this is anything like my back strain last year, which was caused by the posterior chain not contributing to my (very bad, high bar) squats, then once the muscles involved *do* start pulling their weight they should grow very quickly.

[Jsutt]

Monday

Squats 20x8, 60x5, 90x3x7.

Deadlift 60x5, 100x5, 125x5, 145x3 (all d/o, no belt), 160x5 (mixed grip, belt) - I've already pulled this, just double-checking everything was ok after the muscle strain & illness. Lock-out was hard on the last 2 reps.

DB bench 15kgx2x6, 25x3x8.