5/3/1 For the Next Year

[boneyendoplasm]

I did SS and a variant of it for a little over the past year with a few hiccups due to a quadricep tear (Tear was unrelated to lifting). Anyway, I did SS LP to quickly rebuild the strength in my legs after the time off and now seem unable to recover from squating three times a week and deadlifting once a week. I assume it's some combination of poor recovery genes/walking and standing more at job/being a year older. I tried Texas Method for a week and lower body recovery was no better, if anything it was worse. I've now landed at 5/3/1. Here are my current stats:


Height: 5'6''
Weight: 138lbs


Maxes

Squat: 210 at 5 reps
Deadlift: 265 at 5 reps
Bench: 160 at 5 reps
OHP: 100 at 5 reps


I'm using Wendler's 90% of calculated one rep maxes. It feels a little low on bench and possibly OHP but oh well.

Workout 1 was Monday. I'm doing a MTRF 4 day split.



Week 1, Cycle 1 Monday:

OHP:

65lbs x 5
80lbs x 5
90lbs x 9

Assistance:
3x10 at 50lbs OHP
2 sets chins to failure

I fucked up the assitance work. I was supposed to start BBB at 30% of one rep and did 50% instead. That will be fixed from here on out. Also, I did less volume because I don't want to overtrain.

[boneyendoplasm]

Week 1, Cycle 1 Tuesday

Deadlift:

180lbs x 5
205lbs x 5
235lbs x 6


Having never done more than one 5 rep set of deads, I wasn't sure how I felt about doing 3 sets of at least 5. So, I decided to just stop at one rep above the prescribed reps and not do any of the deadlift assistance work. Additionally, I was coming to 5/3/1 because it only has 2 leg days a week that are nicely spaced out, in the hopes that I'd be better able to recover. For now we'll go with no assistance work on squats or deadlifts days and see how I progress. If I start to stall, I'll consider adding in some of the BBB assistance work.

[boneyendoplasm]

Week 1, Cycle 1 Thursday

Bench:

110lbs x 5
125lbs x 5
140lbs x 12

Assistance: 5x10 Bench at 50lbs and 4x10 rows at 70lbs.

Overall a surprising workout. I know I've gotten stronger but somehow I mentally keep blocking that out. Hitting 12 reps at 140lbs, with at least one rep left in the bank, was eye-opening for me. There's no way I could have hit even 10 reps with pauses at the bottom one year ago. Hell, I might not have even been able to bench 140 even once. I have a feeling that I'm going to hate myself tomorrow for doing as much volume as I did today.

[boneyendoplasm]

Week 1, Cycle 1 Friday

Squat:

140lbs x 5
165lbs x 5
185lbs x 9


I felt like I could have hit 10 reps or more on squat but decided to stop at 9. Whatever odd fatigued state my legs have been in crept back up on Thursday morning. I felt great on deadlift day and off day Wednesday. I didn't do anything physical activity wise that would have caused it to come back. I'm beginning to think it might something I'm taking supplement wise, or perhaps not taking. I'm going to make a few alterations and see how I feel over the next few days. I have a really hard time believing it's from overtraining since all I did was SS on legs for about 4 weeks before the problem appeared.

[boneyendoplasm]

Week 2, Cycle 1 Monday



Forgot to update this week.


OHP:

70lbs x 3
85lbs x 3
95lbs x 8

Assistance: 5x10 15 lb dumbbell press. 3xFailure chins.

I think I did too light of assistance on the dumbells. I know the chins were good because I felt sore in my lats the next day and I haven't really felt sore in a while.

[boneyendoplasm]

Week 2, Cycle 1 Thursday

Bench:

115lbs x 3
135lbs x 3
150lbs x 9

Assistance: 5x10 bench at 50lbs. Hammer rows 4x10 at 35lbs per arm.


I skipped out on lower body lifts this week because of continued fatigue issues with my legs. I decided to take the week off and reset at a much lower weight and volume starting next week and try to slowly work my way back up. Tired of the lower body setbacks, but I guess it is what it is at this point. Got to be more careful about how quickly I go up in weight and volume. I'm in this for long haul. If it takes me 2 years to get a 400lbs squat, so be it.

[boneyendoplasm]

Week 3, Cycle 1 Monday

OHP:

75lbs x 5
90lbs x 3
100lbs x 6

Assistance: 5x10 with 17.5 dumbbells military press and 3xFailure Chins.

This is push week. I'm super pumped. Got 6 reps today at 100lbs on OHP, could have gotten 7 or possibly 8. Assistance work felt a little harder today, I think it was just an off day fatigue wise. I'll wait until the next cycle to hop on that heavier assistance weight wagon. All in all, pleased with this workout. Based on how I felt today, I'm not sure I need a deload week. I was not sore in the slightest in my upper body. Perhaps the deload week will become more relevant once the weight gets higher and the assistance work gets heavier, as it will the next two cycles.

[boneyendoplasm]

Week 3, Cycle 1 Tuesday

Squat:

135lbs x 5
135lbs x 5

After taking about 10 days off from lower body lifts, I decided it was time to go back in. I decided to start light and with low volume and work my way back up slowly. Unfortunately, whatever was wrong with my legs did not seem to improve in the 10 day off period. After the second set, the same sort of fatigue I had begun experiencing in my lower body several weeks prior, popped back up. This makes me wonder if it's something out of my control, ie. a medical condition that I now have but am not aware of yet. It's also possible I'm missing something very important in my diet in the way of macro or micro-nutrients. Hopefully I can figure it out because this is not fun.

[boneyendoplasm]

Week 3, Cycle 1 Thursday

Bench:

125lbs x 5
140lbs x 3
160lbs x 6

Assistance: 5x10 bench at 50lbs. 4x10 hammer machine rows at 40lbs per arm.

Today was the day of reckoning. My last previous best rep and weight on bench was 160lbs x 5. Today I got 160lbs x 6, and today was definitely an off day. Felt a little extra fatigued. Additionally, I asked for a spot from one of the workers at the gym, and didn't realize he was going to help me with liftoff. I never do this, and I realize how much I rely on lifting the weight off myself to really get the tension into my muscles before starting to bench. Basically, the worker dropped the weight at the top of the lift, and I was completely unprepared for it and had no tension in my muscles. I struggled mightily during the set to build up tension, but it never felt right. So, given those two issues, I'm very happy with 160 x 6. Because I'm still at the low side of intermediate, I'm going to start my next cycle without doing a deload week. Nothing feels worn out by any means. My guess is when the assistance work gets heavier, deload weeks will become a necessity.

[boneyendoplasm]

Week 1, Cycle 2 Monday

OHP:

70lbs x 5
80lbs x 5
90lbs x 8

Assistance: 5x10 OHP with empty bar. 3xF chins.

I carried around a bunch of stuff yesterday so felt a bit fatigued, but still hit my reps no problems. I wanted to get 8 on the last work set, and I did. 9-10 would have been a sure thing. Assistance is heavier this cycle (went up to 40% of one rep) and I struggled on the last two reps of the last set. Hopefully that'll get easier. All in all, good workout. Pumped about how heavy the weights will be getting in the 2nd and 3rd week this cycle.