I’ve never competed in powerlifting, but I want to some day. Right now I just want to get stronger. I’m a big Jim Wendler fan so I am starting his 531 program. so far I love it. Here is my first week’s workouts. Last week was my first week of it.
MONDAY
Deadlifts: warmup sets- 135x5, 155x5, 185x3. Working sets-200x5, 230x5, and 260x5.
Boring but big assistance- more deads with Fat Grips- 135x10x5
Situps- 5x10
TUESDAY
Bench- warmup sets-95x5, 115x5, 135x3. working sets-150x5, 175x5, and 200x5.
BBB assistance- more bench with fat grips-135x10x5
DB rows- 50x10x5
THURSDAY
Squat- warmup sets- 95x5, 115x5, 135x3. working sets- 150x5, 170x5, and 195x5.
BBB assistance- more squats-135x10x5
Stiff legged Deadlifts with Fat Grips- 135x10x5
FRIDAY
Mil. Press-warmup sets- 45x5, 65x5, 85x3. working sets- 95x5, 105x5, and 120x10.
BBB assistance- more presses with fat grips- 65x10x5
Dips-5x10
current training maxes are: deadlift-300, bench- 230, squat 225, and mil press- 140
current training maxes are %90 of what my true 1RM maxes are at the start of this program.
Other miscellaneous information: I have only been working out consistently for a couple of years. I am 21 and I’m a college student. I try to do interval sprints twice a week on days i don’t lift weights.
Main Goals- get bigger, get stronger, and just move north of vag.
2/28/11 Monday
Deadlift- 135x5, 155x5, 185x3, 215x3, 245x3, 275x3
More Deads but with Fat Grips-135x10x5
situps-5x10
Tuesday 3/1/11
Bench- 95x5, 115x5, 135x3, 165x3, 185x3, and 210x5.
Bench with fat grips- 135x10x5
db rows-50x10x5 (these were super light and easy going to up the weight for these next week)
3/3/11 Thursday
Squat-95x5, 115x5, 135x3, 160x3, 180x3, and 205x5.
squats- 135x10x2
leg press/calf raises- 2 plates x 15, 3 plates x 15, 4 plates x 10, 4 plates x 10, drop set 3 plates x 8, 2 plates x 8
-This workout was pretty fast pace, the squats felt pretty good. left a couple in the tank on the set of 205. the pump in my calves from the leg press/calf raise superset was crazy.
3/4/11 Friday
warm up-
facepulls-2x20 with 20 lbs.
external rotations, side raises, front raises, rear delt raises. All done with 5 lb plates in each hand.
military press(standing)-barx10, 65x5, 85x5, 100x3, 115x3, and 130x8(new PR!)
mil press with fat grips- 70x10x5(sets)
Pullups of various grips- done in between every set of pressing, probably did like 60 or 75 total pullups because i’m weak at them.
Dips-3x10
more facepulls- 20 lbs. x 10, 40 lbs x 10, 50x 8( a little too heavy), drop set 20x10
Really happy with the military press, especially because i still had a couple reps still left in the tank on it.
This was the first time i have ever done facepulls ever, i really like the way they feel. I will def. keep them in my training.
I decided to clean up my diet a little bit so I will be eating a lot more chicken and brown rice and oatmeal and eggs, and some other healthy shit. not trying to lose weight, just trying to eat healthy and see if it will help me gain some good muscle and improve strength. Of course Beer will still be in my diet, can’t wait for St. Patty’s Day!
3/7/11-monday
deadlifts-135x5,155x5, 185x3, 230x5, 260x3,290x1,300x1, 315x1
more deads-135x10x5
box jumps/situps/pushups-3x10
Let’s go man, push those last sets! That’s where some of the magic is in this program.
the reason i havent pushed the last sets except for the one day with military press is because before this I hadn’t lifted in a good 2 months and lost a lot of strength that i did have. also for this week instead of trying to get lots of reps on the set of 1, I am taking just the 1 rep, so that i can do a couple heavier singles afterwards.
But I will definitely be pushing those last sets in the next cycle. Cleaning up my diet was a wise choice, I feel way better going to the gym now. I have more energy and seem more focused. Can’t wait to see the improvements after a couple months of this.
3/8/11-tuesday
Bench-95x5, 115x5, 135x3, 175x5, 200x3, 220x1, 230x1, 245x1.
Bench with fat grips(using a closer grip)-135x10x5
Pullups- done between every pressing set. Not sure how many reps. They felt pretty good and I definitely feel like i did more than i normally do.
Dumbbell rows with fat grips-50x10x5
Really happy with this training session 245 felt easy.
P.S. The d-bag trainer that I had spot me for my two heavy bench presses today was a moron as far as giving lift offs. I will never ask this dude to spot me ever again. He like yanked the bar up before he handed it off to me and basically messed up how i was set up so i re-racked it. Had him get down on the bench and showed him exactly how i wanted it handed off to me as well as emphasized not to touch the bar after the hand off because i knew i would get the 1 rep on it. This is exactly why I need to get a training partner who is a powerlifter or is just not a dumbass.
I hear you on that hand off dude, bad hand off can really screw you up. I ask for a spot every so often, but never a hand off.
thursday-3/10/11
Squat- 95x5, 115x5, 135x5, 170x5, 195x3, 215x1, 225x2, 245x2
squats BBB-135x10x4
pullups-a total of 29 in 5 sets:5,5,5,7,7
back extensions:15,15,15
i hate squats so damn much. i hope they will start to grow on me the more i do them since this is the first time that i am doing squats consistently ever.
friday 3/11/11
warmup- face pulls-3x20, 5lb plate-side raises, front raises, and rear lateral raises.
military press-barx5,65x5,85x5,105x5,120x3,135x1,145x1,160x1
mil. press (BBB assistance)-70x10x5
Done in between pressing sets:chins-40 reps, wide grip pullups-15 reps, nuetral grip pullups-15 reps
dips-4x10
160 felt real easy. Got the deload week coming up this upcoming week. I’ll still train but I’ll probably just go in and do some short easy bodybuilder workouts and i will do conditioning 4 days next week.
Eating healthy definitely is going well I feel like it is helping me strength wise and I feel more focused than I normally do.
sunday 3/13/11
warmup-side raises/front raises/rear-lateral raises
Hang cleans-barx8,95x6,135x3,135x3,155x1, 175x1(failed)
dumbbell push press-40x10,55x6,70x3,70x3,80x2
pullups-4 sets of 5
dips-4 sets of 10
back extensions/situps-3 sets of 10
ran “hills” on the treadmill for like 15 min.
Monday-3/14/11
today was a good FUCKIN" Day! I got my mini pro band from elitefts today along with a sick free shirt. so i played around with the band earlier in the day doing band pull aparts, band goodmornings and band curls/extensions earlier in the day just for fun.
Tonight’s workout is where I really got down to “bidness” haha.This is supposed to be a deload week but i’m not really a fan of training light so I turned this into i just go in the in the gym and have fun week, who the hell cares as long as I’m picking things up and putting them down right?
Deadlifts-135x10,135x10, 225x25 (you read that right 25 times, sorry that I don’t have a video for you folks, I’m a broke college student. So you will just have to take my word for it because I’m an honest guy, and I think people who lie about how much they lift are just stupid.) then i did 225 again for 12 reps.
Dumbbell Curls-30x10,50x6,60x4
Facepulls superset with neutral grip pullups- 15x20, 25x20,25x20/5,7,7,4.
Did some kind of machine high rows for fun with a couple of friends that I have currently taken under my wing and are training. those were fun i worked up to my last set being 115 lbs being on each side of the machine and i did it for like 8 reps with 3 seconds on the eccentric portion.
tuesday 3/15/11
side raises/front raises/rear lateral raises-5lbplatex10 for 2 sets
bench-135x5,135x5,225x5
inverted rows-3x5(after each set of benching)
incline dumbbell press-50x10x5 supersetted with pullups-bwx5x5
db rows-50x10x5
band tricep pushdowns-3xfailure(didnt keep track of reps but i did a lot)
calf raises on leg press-a plate each sidex20,2plates each sidex20,3plates each sidex20
wednesday 3/16/11
decided to do a tabata workout today instead of run…I am out of shape!
I just did pushups and bw squats for the normal tabata time of 20 sec on, 10 sec rest for 8 sets, and I made it all the way through but was dieing at the end of it. I will definitely be doing this more often and I am going to take one from jim wendlers book and do hill sprints on occasion as well. Because I have never felt more out of shape as far as conditioning goes. And to think I used to play 90 min soccer games running around like a mad man. But that was also 25 lbs ago. I currently weigh 185 for anyone that cares.
3/17/11 thursday
Happy St. Patrick’s day!
It is pretty warm out today, so I went for a 2 mile run this morning, and I just got done with my workout.
Worked out at home today because it’s deload week and I decided to do an arm workout today at home.
This workout only took me 18 min. and the first exercise I used the German Volume Training principle 10 sets of 10 reps. I wasn’t sure of what the rest periods should have been so I just rested 15 sec. in between sets since I was doing one arm curls.
1 arm Fat Grip dumbbell curls(alternating arms)-25lbsx10x10
This was actually not that difficult next time I will use 35lbs for this. I did get a good pump though.
This next exercise I made up.
1 arm close grip Fat Grip Dumbbell floor press with an elitefts pro mini band-25lbsx10x5sets
There was no rest on this exercise, I just went back and forth between each arm.