The beginning of a new year, and for many a new chapter in their lifting life/journey.
What was everyone’s progress in 2014?
My 2014:
My training weight 1+ increases over a year of using 531
Dead 30.5% (50.1kg)
OHP 35.2% (14.5kg)
Bench 25% (19kg)
Squat N/A - but built my front squat up from scratch to 110kg
I’ll be ecstatic with anything like this in 2015.
Nice gains.
I had huge achievements with 5/3/1 last spring. Then I got greedy, lost the principles of this program and tried to do everything at once. This stalled my progress and I did hurt myself. Last fall, after rehab, I continued with 5’s pro and then with 3/5/1. The injury slowed me down a lot, and I have had problems with squats after that, but I’m coming up slowly.
Squat: About 15-20kg
DL: About 40kg (conventional), 55kg (sumo).
I had tremendous progress (noob gains) in sumo dl last spring. After my back injury I learned conventional, from last September I have gained approx. +40kg to my estimated max. (the conv. is now close to my sumo PR).
Bench: about 12-14 kg.
Press: about 10kg.
I have also done power cleans for couple of months now (from September), but it is impossible to estimate my maxes, when I’m still novice in cleans.
Like I said, my progress have suffered a lot because of my own stupidity. Now I’m following this program like a slave. If I manage to stay on the course and do everything like it should be done, the gains should be fairly nice (at least the numbers for next December looked quite high in paper).
I’ve run the program for 7 months over 6 cycles, with several weeks off in between. In that time, I have accomplished the following:
Overhead press 1RM is up 10 lbs (I had to do a reset on this)
Deadlift 1 RM is up 60 lbs
Bench 1 RM is up 30 lbs
Back Squat is up 15 lbs (Had a foot injury and did a reset here too)
I’d rather have seen a more substantial increase in squat 1 RM progression, but given an injury in late summer, I’m okay with this as long as I can make better gains in 2015.
I took a fairly long break from the pursuit of strength to develop endurance and maintain/reduce bw. Back on and now entering my 4th cycle. I expect OHP and bench TMs are up a solid 20 lbs total, and squat and Deadlift are flying up there with an expected total 40lb TM increase.
My most notable accomplishment is that in two weeks my 7 RM squat went up 10lbs!
Also I’ve moved my bodyweight from the high-170s to the mid-180s
In 2014 I ran full body templates and BBB templates.
Squat increase 30 kg
Bench increase 15 kg
Deadlift 25 kg (changed to sumo recently to mix things up)
Press 5 kg at best.
In 2015 I am going to focus more on strength, therefore I am going to run Beyond 1.1-1.4 templates from this site and a couple of challenges at the end of 1.4 then back to Beyond if the first run through has good results.
After 6 months with 531 in 2014:
Dead +25% (42.5kg)
Bench +19% (15kg)
(Zercher) Squat* +48% (47.5kg)
I’m very happy with that progress and grateful to Jim for enabling it.
*) Can’t do heavy back squats due to shoulder instability
I haven’t actually made a lot of progress this year in terms of numbers. I hurt myself last January, backed all my TMs down and decided to focus on building a better base. I started making progress again in July then hurt myself again in August (smashed/jammed my thumb while learning how to power snatch). My thumb is still messed up and causing me grief but I’m slowly working through it.
I did a mini meet in Dec where I put up 1075. Not where I wanted to be but I was happy just to post numbers. My squat and deadlift have both gone up 40 lbs while my bench has dropped 20.
I have a competition coming up in a couple weeks so my focus right now is dialling in my form and not getting any more injured. After that I think I’m going to focus on increasing mass since I’m not that big (192 @ 5’8") and I’m pretty sure a bigger bench is going to require getting bigger.
39 years young, 2014 was my 2nd year of training and started 5/3/1 in January. During this time I changed my template 1000 times do to indecisive goals. Program ADD, trying to find the elusive magical formula that doesn’t exist.
Quick Observations:
2014 Achievements:
Squat: 266 - 327 lbs (up 23%)
Bench: 168 - 193 lbs (up 15%)
Deadlift: 309 - 390 lbs (up 26%)
Press: 107 - 126 lbs (up 18%)
2015 Goals Summarized:
Unfortunately I train in a commercial gym, so as we all expected the past week has been carnage. So I have spent time testing all my 1RM.
Results:
215kg Deadlift
110kg Front Squat
62.5 OHP
110kg Bench
All PRs. Happy.
2015 goals:
230kg Deadlift
125kg Bench
80kg OHP
140kg Front squat
Some background, as I advised I did all last year on 351, and been training consistently for 3 years, now entering my 4ft. Iâ??m 6ft and 103kg/227lbs. Carrying about 10lbs of Christmas weight haha.
Best lifts this year:
2x440lbs Deadlift
12x350lbs Deadift
1x462lbs Deadlift
Made a 45lbs jump on my bench in 2014 to 330lbs just in december.
Squats I haven’t really tested anymore after hitting 375lbs in july. Few weeks after that I started the Fullbody template, squatting 3 times a week worked. I got stronger 330lbs went from 1 to three and got ten reps with 265lbs.
I’ve also experimented with lowbar since the above numbers are all highbar.
Press went from 187lbs to 200lbs, but just…
All at a BW off 209lbs.
This year I want to hit a 440lbs squat in December and have 550 Deadlift. Press 220lbs. Don’t care much about the benching.
All this with 531 for a whole year.
Here’s 350x11 (did 12 in December)
I have had some good success doing 5/3/1 for 2014. Here some of my stats:
Age 31
Height 5’8
Weight 185 maintained this weight all year.
Military Press on 3/28/2014 i did 115x13, in October i did 140x9
Bench Press on 4/2 i did 185x13, and towards the end of the year i did 215x12 and 240x6. I also hit a all time 1 rep max of 280x1 which was 15 pounds more than my prior best.
Squat, for 2014 i swtiched from low bar belted to high bar w/out belt. Previous best low bar was 400x1 with a belt. Starting with highbar on 3/31/2014 i did 270x10 beltless. Towards the end of the year i did 295x13 and 300x10
(some videos are below).
Deadlift - I have really done well with my deadlift this year not only for reps but also my maxes. I felt like i have fined tuned my form on this list better than all othes. I started at 345x9 and 445x1, and moved to 400x9 and 485x1.
Squat video 300x10
High bar squat 300x10 - YouTube
Deadlift Videos
Progress Deadlift
Deadlift 1 rep PR
Deadlift rep PR
I started his Boring but Big 26 weeek program as i have never done a high volume program. I am hoping towards the end of that i will hit some more PR’s. I’m currently on week 7 of the 26 weeks. This last week i felt was the hardest as i was doing 70% 5x10 accessory work.
Been on 5/3/1 since July 2013, 5’11
Jan 2014, competition maxes @181lbs raw no knee sleeves
Squat-365
Bench-290
Deadlift(conventional)-465
Total-1120
Gym maxes were about the same, I went 6/9 that meet
November 2014, competition maxes @198lbs raw w/knee sleeves
Squat 463lbs
Bench- 336
Deadlift(sumo)- 585lbs
Total 1383lbs
Went 8/9, deadlifts on 2nd attempt, 585 I got it up but couldn’t hold lockout and dipped down before command, took 585 again on 3rd and got it easy. Wanted 600 on 3rd but played it safe
Maxes as of today
Squat-500lbs
Bench- 336 lbs
Deadlift conventional- 585
Deadlift sumo-585, testing soon, looking to hit around 620lbs
Next competition in May, looking to total minimum 1500lbs @198 raw no knee sleeves.
Favorite templates are basic 5/3/1 w/simplest strength assistance, beyond 5/3/1 with fsl and. Jokers, currently doing advanced 5/3/1 w/simplest strength assistance and loving it. I dropped overhead presses for 75/85 bench and squat for extra bench and squat volume. For meet peaking I follow 5/3/1 for powerlifting, with whatever template I am on. I run each template atleast 3-4months minimum before I switch up. Looking to try out frequency 2.0 if I switch it up.