As long as you take it easy first few days you’ll be fine to squat within a week I reckon, 2 absolute tops.
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Looks rock solid. I’m game. My only questions refer to some 531 terminology.
5s pro means 3 sets of 5s at the standard 531 percentages, right? So from week to week you’re doing different weights each time?
And the SSL work similarly means using the second-set percentage, which ramps up over 3 weeks, right?
So week 3 (actually week 5 or 6 considering the 2-week micro) ismuch heavier than week 1, but same sets and reps, yes?
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Yep. So week 1 is 5 x 65%, 5 x 75%, 5 x 85%. Week 3 (remember it’s a 2 week microcycle) is 5 x 70%, 5 x 80%, 5 x 90%, week 5 is 5 x 75%, 5 x 85%, 5 x 95%. Then reset TM and go again.
Exactly so, yes. So week 2 (for squat) is 10 x 5 @ 75%, week 4 is 10 x 5 @ 80%, week 6 is 10 x 5 @ 85%
Yes. I expect to eat a lot on this program.
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Thanks for the clarity.
I forgot to mention my top-line reaction and one of the best things about this:
Press 3x weekly, at different percentages and volumes. Hell yes.
Btw are you using any particular diet approach? I’ve been low-carb the past few months but I’m not sure it matters… I have learned that heavy whipping cream is an easy way to add calories if needed without carbs lol.
You can also make sugar free meringue and throw a load of berries and the cream in a bowl together you get a low carb Eton mess.
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What kind of time are you expecting to allot to these sessions? Do you intend to giant-set some of the exercises? Some of the days look to be well over an hour otherwise. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that! Just trying to make it work for me)
Week 1 day 1 could probably giant-set the squat and the press…
Week 2 day 1 is long no matter how you slice it. I personally could do the squat and leg press at the gym, then do the rest at home in the evening (I go to a commercial gym in the morning on the way to work, and have some basic things at home). Or giant-setting the extensions, curls, and SLDL at the end of that would cut out some time - what do you think?
Just noticed I"ve asked like 10 questions today in 2 posts. Feel free to ignore, I’ll find a way to cope!
Thats straight from Morningstar, worked well for me.
I’m currently having one big meal a day with a couple of shakes and nuts and fruit at other times. I’ll need to add to this noticeably which will mean adding more carbs and fats to the shakes. First point of call will probably be to add back in the morning oats and I’ll go from there.
The big sessions are “as long as they take”. I did the Squat part of week 1 day 1 in comfortably less than an hour and I could speed that up considerably if in a time crunch. Week 2 day 1 is probably going to be long, no matter what.
I don’t know, honestly. I’ve never done this program before. My feeling is that if you were going to do a split, you’d want the split to happen between the quads stuff and the hamstrings stuff. Maybe even move the hamstring stuff to workout 3? Make it 3 more sensible length sessions. This is very much geared to the time I expect to have available for me though, which is plenty on Mon/Wed and not much on other days.
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Looking forward to seeing how this experiment goes
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Work for today:
5x5 Squats @ 90kg
5 x 5 Press @ 50kg
Nice and quick bit of maintenance work heading into holiday week. Also snapped a quick “after” photo for Transformation challenge. It’s awful quality and you can see practically nothing, so I’ll leave it as a back up in case the hotel doesn’t have a better mirror tomorrow.
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End of Transformation Challenge @Chris_Colucci
This will have to be my finished product.
Weighed in at 193.2lbs as of yesterday.
I’m.planning to enjoy the first proper family holiday in nearly 2 years this week, and start the program laid out above next week.
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Enjoy that holiday!
This is my interpretation of your plan above. Idk if you can see it. I realize now you probably intended to increment the 5/3/1 stuff weekly for press and bench, and bi-weekly for squat; I put it all biweekly here because that was my first impression.
I’ll set a (embarrassingly low) squat and bench TM this week and get numbers plugged in to this. May start next week with you, or wait for my vascectomy to be over and done.
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That looks about right to me. Be awesome to have you join me man.
Looking good my man. Challenge in the bag
Enjoy your holiday
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In vasectomies? That’s a bit strange, but okay. You probably need one anyway.
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@ChongLordUno thanks man. Got to say, the full length mirror was a little eye opening. Work to be done when I get back
@Cyrrex I need a vasectomy? Or I need someone to hold my hand while I get it? I’m confused.
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Somehow I just saw this rofl! I’m dreading it. And could use the handholding. Wanna join?
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Weeell, not your hand exactly.
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For what it’s worth, I had one a few years back. It is not that bad. Was sore for a few days but not a big deal. (not physically at least, I think it is more of a mental thing.) But I wouldn’t count on doing any strenuous lifting for the first few days.
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I think the amount of people encouraging you not to reproduce is a testament to just how much people fear your genetics and prowess my dude.
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Post holiday check in: 197.4lbs. Only 4lbs gained in a week, pretty impressive considering. I was reasonably active on non-driving days, and practised intermittent fasting most days to mitigate the absolute crap I was eating every evening. More importantly, it was an absolutely awesome week that was worth any negatives that came with it.
Only other relevant thing to note from the week was how much I miss being out in (what passes for) nature, and also the calming effect it seems to have on my little man. I’m not entirely clear at this stage how I squeeze time to hike into my life but its pretty clear its something I should try, and ideally include little man as much as possible too.
Looking forward to starting up this monster of a program I’ve concocted tomorrow, while being slightly apprehensive of the workload. I’m expecting having a hard nut like @jdm135 along for the ride will push me to do what it takes to recover instead of bailing.
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