-
Notrhwoods Log
Background:
Male, 26 yo, 5'10", 225-230#
Ran SS from 7/2012 thru 12/2012
Been running 5/3/1 since 1/2013
Current Program:
Day 1 (Sa): Squat 5/3/1, Bench 5/3/1, Power Cleans
Day 2 (Su): Upper Body Assistance: Chins, Dips, Barbell Rows; 3 sets each
Day 3 (W): DL (1x5,2x3,or3x2 pyramid), Press 5/3/1, 3x5 Squats
Best Lifts to Date (5/8/2013):
Squat: 305x6
Bench: 255x7
Press: 180x2
DL: 345 3x2 (I know this sucks, I will use a squat body type as my excuse and the fact that I just started training at home and thus using chalk)
Clean: 190x1
Goals:
Get as strong as possible while staying under 231# BW; I am keeping the option open to compete in strongman as a lightweight down the road and I have plenty of fluff to lose. Additionally, I was about 220-225# before SS so maybe IDNDTFP, but I am comfortable at this weight.
Last edited by Notrhwoods; 05-08-2013 at 07:32 PM.
-
5/8/2013:
DL: 325 1x5; I just started over with 1x5s after pussing out on a set of 350 3x2 last week
Press: 145x5, 160x3, 180x2(PR), 120x10; using 3rd ed. press, added a back off set of 10 to get some extra volume in
Squat: 220x5, 240x5, 255x5; these weights are 65%, 70%, 75% of my 340 training max
-
How I got to current programming:
I discovered SS while trying to find full body routines that were time efficient. I loved the program and had success. Once my squat 3x5 weight got to 275# (after 1 deload) I had trouble with my low back recovering enough for three days a week training. Additionally, my bench 3x5 had stalled at 220 and my press 3x5 had been going nowhere for a few weeks.
I moved on to a 5/3/1 4 day split because I figured I could handle squatting/pulling only 2 days per week. I messed around for a month until I got into the grove that worked for me which was the 5/1 variant (proposed by Karl Schudt?) with 5x5@70% for squat, bench, and press for assistance (I did power cleans instead of extra volume on the dead lifts). I did not respond well to the higher volume of deadlifts in 5/3/1 and soon dropped them out to use the pyramiding scheme proposed by Andy Baker. This 5/3/1 variant worked great for all of my lifts esp. bench but it took so much out of me that I was basically useless in the other aspects of my life and now that it is summer I need more energy outside of lifting and working.
Thus my current program has me squatting/pulling only 2 days per week without all the extra BBB volume. The assistance day allows me to really focus on chin ups which I suck at (4 rep max) and get a limited amount of upper body volume in. Plus this assistance day works great with a home gym by spreading out the work throughout the day. For example: I can do 1st set of chins, dips, rows in the morning, the 2nd set in the afternoon, and the 3rd set in the evening. Hopping down to the basement for each group of 3 sets takes little time and I am fresh each time to give it my all at chins which I have been trying to get better at for a long time.
-
5/10/2013:
Squat: 255x5, 290x3, 325x3(PR)
Bench: 210x5, 240x3, 265x3
CLean: 135x3, 145x2, 165x1, 145x3, 145x1
My squat goal for today was 325x4. The fourth rep was a little high so I only counted 3. After the last squat set my right elbow and shoulder were hurting. I think the weight may have shifted on my back during the descent on the fourth rep thus causing me to cut off the rep high and hurting my right and elbow and shoulder. I carried on, but the pain definitely affected my benching and cleaning. My goal in the bench for today was 265x5 which I should have been able to do without the pain. For the cleans, I was hoping to ramp up to a 185 single which I have done several times in the past but it wasn't happening today. It is now about an hour and half since the workout ended and my joints feel OK, the real test will be tomorrow morning. I think I may need to work on holding the bar a bit higher on squats to a position where I feel more stable with it.
-
5/15/2013:
Squat: 5@135, 5@170, 5@205 (deload weights)
Press: 5@75, 5@95, 5@115 (deload weights)
Chins: 8x2 spread throughout workout
Dips: 1x8
BB Row: 1x15@135
My shoulder/elbow was bothering me slightly over the weekend so I decided to skip my Sunday workout and do those exercises on Wednesday along with deloaded squats and press. I do not take a deload week everytime at the end of a 5/3/1 cycle it just depends on how I'm feeling. I should be able to start up a new cycle this weekend.
-
5/17/2013:
Squat: 5@230, 5@265, 5@300
Bench: 5@185, 5@215, 5@240
Clean: 3@140, 2@150, 1@170, 1@180, 1@190, 2x3@150
-
5/19/2013
Press: 5x125, 5x145, 5x165(PR)
BB Row: 3x8 @ 135
Dips: 3x6
2 min rest between sets of rows and dips
I will be switching to DB rows next time so I do not strain lower back on non squat and DL days. Might push dips to 3x7 next time depending on how things feel.
Last edited by Notrhwoods; 05-22-2013 at 07:45 PM.
-
5/22/2013
DL: 1x5 @ 330
FSQ: 5x3 @ 155, 1 min. rest btwn sets
Squat: 3x10 @ 155, 2 min. rest btwn sets
Squat weight seemed about right. Front squat could be a little heavier, maybe move up by 10 lbs next time
Last edited by Notrhwoods; 05-22-2013 at 07:46 PM.
-
Switching Program Back to 4 day split
I decided to switch back to the 4 day split because my bench press performance was greatly suffering from doing the bench 5/3/1 after the squat 5/3/1 on the same day. My shoulders are just too beat up after the heavy squats to perform well on the bench press. For example on 5/17/2013 I would have liked to go after my 10 rep pr for bench 240#, but could only do the minimum of 5 reps.
The reason I switched from the 4 day split in the first place was because I was becoming over-trained, to avoid this problem again I will:
1. Not use training max percentages for assistance work
2. Not increase the weight on assistance lifts until I can perform 3 sets of 10 with 2 min rest between sets (except Power Cleans and Front Squats)
The above two rules should prevent me from using too much weight on the assistance exercises and thus over-training.
The new program will look like:
Day 1: Press 5/3/1, DB row 3x10, dips 3x?. Dips and rows supersetted with 2 min rest between sets. No adding weight to dips until I can do at least 3x12 BW
Day 2: DL the same, Front Squat 5x3 w/ 1 min. rest btwn sets, Back Squat 3x10 w/ 2 min. rest btwn sets
Day 3: Bench 5/3/1, Chins 15 reps min., Press 3x10. Chins and Press supersetted with 2 min rest between sets
Day 4: Squat 5/3/1, Power Clean 5x3 w/ 1 min. rest btwn sets, RDL 3x10 w/ 2 min. rest btwn sets
Last edited by Notrhwoods; 05-22-2013 at 07:43 PM.
-
5/24/2013
Bench: 200x3, 230x3, 255x6
Chins: 15 total - 3,2,3,2,2,2,1
DB Press: 40x10, 45x10, 50x10 one arm at a time
Lat Pulldown: 100x20, 145x10, 130x8, 115x8, 100x10, 85x12
I was shooting for 8 reps on the last bench press set, but didn't make it. My hands were slipping to a wider and wider grip on reps 5 & 6! The damn bar at the gym had shitty knurling and my hands were sweaty I guess. I cannot wait for my Rogue flat bench to come so I no longer need to go the gym.
The one arm DB presses were a pretty good way of overloading the shoulder muscles and it revealed that my left arm is slightly weaker as I expected. The last 2 reps at 50 were kind of grindy with the left arm, next time I will go for 3x10 at 45 lbs.
I did a shit ton of lat pulldowns at the end of the workout because I was not happy with my chinup up performance. I really felt the pump in my biceps and now I understand that chinups can really be a good bicep exercise once you can do enough reps in a row. My gym membership ends at the end of this month so that will likely be the last time I get to use a lat pulldown in a long time. It is one of the few machines that might be worth buying but I don't have that kind of money to blow on an assistance machine.
Posting Permissions
- You may not post new threads
- You may not post replies
- You may not post attachments
- You may not edit your posts
-
Forum Rules