Third Time's a Charm

[RyanW]

Squat 345x5x2
Press 222.5x1x5; 205x3x1
Deadlift 495x3x1; 405x5x2

5 plates!!! This is starting to get expensive, lol

[Matt Dawson]

Squat 390x5x3
Pin Press 235x3x3
Hang Power Clean 170x3x5
DB Incline Press 75x8x3

[Cole Gorton]

Deadlift 495x3x1; 405x5x2

hey matt, do you like doing the top set triple followed by backoff 5's?

im thinking ahead as to what im gonna do when my DL gets heavy and i cant do 5 reps anymore. my first thought was to do what you do and do my top triple followed by a drop set of 5 (for volume) but part of me is thinking about just doing 2 triples (to get 6 total intensity day reps). have you done both ways? obviously the back offs are working for you bc 5 plate DL for 3 is bad ass

[Matt Dawson]

hey matt, do you like doing the top set triple followed by backoff 5's?

im thinking ahead as to what im gonna do when my DL gets heavy and i cant do 5 reps anymore. my first thought was to do what you do and do my top triple followed by a drop set of 5 (for volume) but part of me is thinking about just doing 2 triples (to get 6 total intensity day reps). have you done both ways? obviously the back offs are working for you bc 5 plate DL for 3 is bad ass

My first change when I failed a set of 5 was to move to 2 triples: Third Time's a Charm. It worked fine for about 6 weeks, but ultimately the stress of 2 heavy deadlift sets proved too much for my low back. So then I switched to 1 heavy triple which has kept me going for a while, but I wanted some more volume.

As for the 2x5 backoff sets I only settled into that the last 2 weeks. I think I like it so far. The lighter backoff, even though way more volume, don't stress my low back to the limit the same way as a second heavy triple would.

I had previously tried 2x5 "light" deadlifts on other days of the week and they didn't work out. Back was too stressed after 5x5 squats on Monday and 2x5 deadlifts after 3x5 squats on Friday left me under recovered for heavy squats the following Monday. As you said before managing low back fatigue is the key.

[Matt Dawson]

Squat 435x5x1; 390x5x4
Strict Press 180x5x5
Chins 3x5

[Matt Dawson]

Squat 350x5x2
Press 225x1x5
Deadlift 500x3x1; 405x5x2

[Cole Gorton]

hell yea dude 500x3 is diesel

[Matt Dawson]

Squat 395x5x3
Pin Press 240x2x5
Hang Power Clean 175x3x5

[Matt Dawson]

Squat 440x5x1; 395x5x4
Strict Press 182.5x5x5
Chins 6, 5, 5

Been running HLM on my squats for while now:

Monday (Heavy) 1x5 Topset @ 100% + 4x5 Backoffs @ 90%
Wednesday (Light) 2x5 @ 80%
Friday (Medium) 3x5 @ 90%

Really liking this setup. Monday's 5RM is daunting but then it's a huge relief to complete the set and know the hardest part is done. Not that any of it is easy. I've been finding the backoffs and the medium days are relatively hard. It think it's partly the accumulated fatigue from the previous workout and partly that weight actually is heavy.

Concerned that my depth was a little borderline last week so I tried to sink these squats extra deep, which cost me tightness at the bottom. Need to work on controlling my eccentric better as I got a little squirrelly on some of these.