A La Madre! 531 Fullbody!!

Good day everybody,
So I’ve decided to start a training log in here, since I’ll begin with 5/3/1 Fullbody training this afternoon.
Some info about me:
Height 182 cm (I think that’s close to 6ft)
Weight 125kg (275lbs, give or take)

I train to be stronger and look good doing it. Strength is my top priority but I don’t want to look like a tub of goo so I take care of not eating junk food, but I’m not so strict about what I put in my mouth or how much since I need the fuel to hoist them heavy weights. I had to buy a smaller belt this last weekend so diet is in check. However I am open to overhauling it if my waist starts to get bigger again. But I’ll cross that bridge if I get to it.

Ok, I’ve been running 5/3/1 for 8 cycles now. My PR’s from my first cycle were:
PRESS 100x15 = 149.5 1RM*
DEADLIFT 235x9 = 304.8 1RM
BENCH 160x17 = 249.8 1RM
SQUAT 160x20 = 265.61RM
*As per Wendler’s 1RM formula in his book.

And my current PR’s are:
PRESS 150X6 = 179.7 1RM
DEADLIFT 315X3 = 346.19 1RM
BENCH 225X5 = 262.125 1RM
SQUAT 255X6 = 305.49 1RM

So, why change to FBT? Not a particular reason. My current 5/3/1 template (Bodybuilding) is working, but 8 months is a long time and am kind of tired. Upon reading the fullbody template on the 531 second edition I was hooked, so I figure what the hell, right? It’s still 5/3/1 and it’ll still get me stronger. Plus the on the extra day off (I was training 4 times per week, FBT is only three) I can get some personal stuff done (Girlfriend, my writing, schoolwork, etc).

So here’s the plan: Run all phases of FBT (There’s 4 of them) for two cycles each.

These are the training maxes I’ll start from:

PRESS 165
DEADLIFT 330
BENCH 240
SQUAT 295

*** EDIT ***
What am I working for, you ask? Here are my goals.

1RM GOALS (Proven, not calculated with no formula):
DEADLIFT = 585 (I believe that’s 6 45lbs plates on each side of an Olympic bar)
SQUAT = 495 (5 plates)
BENCH = 405 (4 plates)
PRESS = 275 (2 plates + 25lbs on each side)

Why these numbers? Cause they’d make me the strongest mofo at my gym and into the top 5 in my city. What happens after? Dunno, maybe I’ll take up bodybuilding and work towards being the strongest and biggest dude in Mexico, but I’ll cross that bridge until I get to it.

*** END EDIT ***

And today the onslaught begins with SQUAT DAY!!! YAAAAAAAY!!! (Notice I like doing squats)

SQUAT 5/3/1
Worksets
1X5 190
1X5 220
1X5 250 (I’ll shoot for 7 reps)

GUILLOTINE PRESS 3X10 135lbs.
(I’ve been doing DB Benches for 8 weeks, need a change and these are fun!!)
CHINUP NEGATIVES 3 sets.
(I can’t do a single chinup, so I’ll follow a coaches’ advice at my gym and begin with negatives. I have no idea how many I’ll be able to do. I’m shooting for 5 reps per set)
DUMBELL ROWS 3X10 100lbs
AB WHEEL 2X15

Finish off with 20min on the treadmill @ 15% incline (Whatever the hell that means, that’s what the screen says and it’s pretty steep) at a speed of 2mph (Pretty light, I know).

I’ll let everyone know how it went tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

Frank.

Man do I feel like shit today. Take wisdom from my experience, brothers: If you’ve been sick, FUCKING EASE BACK into training, don’t jump right back in.

Background: I got sick last Friday. Nasty cough, throwing out phlegm and body feeling like crap. Your classic cold. Took my meds, skipped Friday’s training, and rested all weekend. Yesterday I felt fine, but in retrospect I was not at 100%.

That didn’t stop me from training like I WAS 100%. Man was I in for a rude awakening. Here it is:

SQUAT 5/3/1
1X5 190 lbs
1X5 220 lbs
1X7 250 lbs
I pulled off the 7 reps and felt like I could have done one or two more. Up until now everything went as planned.

GUILLOTINE PRESS 3X10 45
Again, easy enough.

CHIN UP NEGATIVES 3X3
These were brutal for me! I’ve never done these before but I managed to do three sets of three very slow descents. Loved the feeling I got on my lats and back. Question for the more experienced folk: Is it normal to also feel the chest being worked at this exercise? Or was it that I trained chest before doing these? Just wondering.

DUMBBELL ROWS 3X10 100lbs
Super set with AB WHEEL 3X15
HERE IS WHERE EVERYTHING WENT SOUTH! Between sets I started getting this massive cough attacks that almost made me throw up. I pushed through and finished the sets but I felt like complete crap after. Throat was sore and that nagging feeling of throwing up would not go away.

TREADMILL
So humiliating. Set at an incline of 10 and at a speed of 2, the treadmill made me its bitch. 3 minutes in I was panting and grasping for air, holding on for dear life. 10 minutes was all I could take. A man has his pride, you know. LOL.

To make matters worse, I could not sleep because I was coughing all night long. Only had about two, maybe three hours of sleep spread out through the night. I feel like a zombie right now, ready to eat brains and looking like it. Good thing today is an off day. I am most definitely getting to bed very early today and I’ll try to take a nap at my lunch break.

What’s up bro.

Checking in - good to see your log up and running, and great to see another Fullbody Template log on here.

You’re a big dude - my height plus 32kgs… a good base to build a monster from! Do you play any sports?

I love the 3 day per week template. It’s so much easier to fit in my (non-existent) social life with 4 days not dedicated to heavy lifting. But don’t expect it to be easy… particularly when you hit the later Phases and end up squatting your starting max daily haha.

P.S what is a Guillotine Press???

[quote]panzerfaust wrote:
What’s up bro.

Checking in - good to see your log up and running, and great to see another Fullbody Template log on here.

You’re a big dude - my height plus 32kgs… a good base to build a monster from! Do you play any sports?

I love the 3 day per week template. It’s so much easier to fit in my (non-existent) social life with 4 days not dedicated to heavy lifting. But don’t expect it to be easy… particularly when you hit the later Phases and end up squatting your starting max daily haha.

P.S what is a Guillotine Press???[/quote]

Thanks for the heads up!

Nope, only have time to write, study and work. The only physical activity I get is in the gym, with my girl, and running around playing with my nephews hehehe

A Guillotine Press is basically a bench press with a wide grip and lowering the bar to the upper chest/neck.

Ok, ready to go today. Still have a slight nuisance inside my throat but not as bad as Monday.

Here’s what today is gonna look like:
SQUAT
1X5 120
1X5 150
1X5 175

BENCH 5/3/1
1X5 155
1X5 180
1X5 205 (Shoot for 7)

NEGATIVE PULLUP 3X3
I did negative Chin-ups last Monday. I’ll give Pull-ups a whirl today. I’m going to superset these with the Bench work sets.

REVERSE CRUNCH 3X15
EZ BAR CURLS 3X15 75lbs

TREADMILL
10 incline for 20 minutes. Hopefully I’ll be able to handle it better than I did on Monday.

Input tomorrow. Happy Wednesday.

Frank.

This was a great workout. Felt so much better than the last one.

SQUAT
1X5 120
1X5 150
1X5 175
Felt easy, as expected.

BENCH 5/3/1
1X5 155
1X5 180
1X7 205
Benching in the Power Rack at my gym was tricky, couldn’t get comfortable and my back was still very sore from Monday’s workout so I wasn’t able to tighten up as I usually can. Those last seven reps went pretty easy, felt I could do two or three more, but I had to save my strength for what came next.

NEGATIVE PULLUPS
1X3
1X0
1X1
That second set was me almost dropping without control. My forearms and upper back was killing me after the first set, I took five minutes to rest but I was only able to do one more rep. Man I’m weak at these!

EZ BAR CURLS 3X8 75lbs supersetted with REVERSE CRUNCH 3X15
I knew I wasn’t going to be able to pull out 3x15 for the curls, so I set my goal to 8 reps and do them nice and slow. Felt good.

TREADMILL
Who’s the bitch now?!?! LOL No problems here.

HEALTH UPDATE: I am finally getting this shitty cough out of my system. I predict that by Friday I’ll be at 100%.

See you all tomorrow!

Good day everybody,
TGIF! Not because of the party (This weekend is Mexican Independence Day), but because today is Deadlift day. I love Squatting, but Deadlift is by far my favorite lift. I’m finally at 100%, right now I only have a slight itch in my throat which I guess will disappear this weekend.

Ok, so today I have a small reunion in the evening so I’ll stick to the bare minimum of FBT, like so:

SQUAT
1X5 120
1X5 150
1X5 175

PRESS 5/3/1
1X5 105
1X5 125
1X5 140

DEADLIFT 5/3/1
1X5 215
1X5 250
1X5 280

Depending if I have time to spare, I’ll do the treadmill same as other days.

Notes tomorrow. Cheers!

Nice benching man! Get some vids up when you have the time/technology. Always good to get form pointers and such.
One of the beauties of FBT is you can just rock the bare minimum and still get an epic full body workout.
I must try out that guillotine press sometime, sounds interesting. I tried JM presses for the first time the other day, pretty cool.

P.S update time! Haha.

[quote]panzerfaust wrote:
P.S update time! Haha.[/quote]

LOL, hang on, hang on, had some business to take care off. I’m updating as we speak.

Training Notes Sept. 14th, 2012
Howdy,
I was running a bit late so I decided to cut my rest times. However, being sick all week I haven?t had a lot of sleep and today the lack of recovery took its toll. It turned out to be a great session up until the Deadlift. Details below.

SQUAT
1X5 120
1X5 150
1X5 175
The last set felt a bit heavy. Guess it?s my body getting used to the frequent squatting and the lacking of proper rest this week.

PRESS 5/3/1
1X5 105
1X5 125
1X7 140
Really had to grind it on the last set. This is where I figured my lack of recovery was gonna kick my ass on the Deadlift.

DEADLIFT 5/3/1
1X5 215
1X5 250
1X5 280
Before I started the first workset in my warmups I felt this exercise very brutal. I decided to just do the required reps and get the hell out of the gym and into my bed ASAP so I can take a much deserved recovery sleep.

All in all it was a good workout.

Monday, September 17th, 2012
Feliz día de la independencia! (Happy Independence Day)
Actually, that was on Sept. 16, but most of Mexico had the day off work on Monday, so I took the change to get to the gym a lot earlier than usual (2pm). I loved training at this time since there were so few people at the gym, which was great since I could talk up to the gym receptionist (Who is very cute, by the way, I’ll see if I can get a pic posted. Too bad she’s married and I’m engaged :stuck_out_tongue: ) and have her play some AC/DC and Metallica while I trained. Was awesome.

Ok, on to the session:

SQUAT 5/3/1
1X3 205
1X3 230
1X5 260
Felt pretty good squatting today. For some strange reason the second set felt heavy, but when I had them 260 pound bar on my back I felt good so I let it rip with 5 reps.

GUILLOTINE PRESS 3X10 45
Some brats were hogging both Bench Presses, but one of them had a 45 loaded on each side. I asked if we could take turns. Hell, I was finished with my three sets while they “rested” checking some girls’ ass. Don’t take me wrong, she was fine, but a quick glance was more than enough to appreciate it. I tell you, kids these days don’t have no respect anymore.

PULLDOWNS WITH SHOULDER WIDTH SUPINATED GRIP.
3X10 180LBS
I tried the Negative Chinups again, but I felt a sharp pain on by back while I did one. I assumed it was because I needed a good warmup, so I did sets of 3 on the pulldown with a supinated grip until I felt good and ready. I tried again but felt that same pain again. Weird. I decided not to risk a tear or injury, so I stayed on the pulldowns and went as heavy as I could for sets of 10.

DUMBBELL ROWS 3X10 100
Ah! I never get tired of these.

AB WHEEL 2X15
Now these I don’t look forward to! But hey, gotta work the abs.

TREADMILL. 20 min, 10 incline.
Nothing to note here.

Good workout, can’t wait for Wednesday.

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012
Howdy!
Had a nasty stomach bug yesterday. I could not live more than fifty feet from a restroom. Took a hell of a lot of water and some Pepto Bismol, and today I feel good enough to hit the gym hard.

Here’s what today is gonna look like:

SQUAT
1X5 120
1X5 150
1X5 175

BENCH 5/3/1
1X3 170
1X3 190
1X3 215 (I’ll shoot for 5 reps)

PULLDOWNS WITH A WIDE PRONATED GRIP.
3X10 150+LBS
Since Negative Pullups where a miserable failure last week I’ll stick with these until I can pull the entire rack of weight.

REVERSE CRUNCH 3X15
EZ BAR CURLS 3X10 75LBS

I’ll let you know how it went tomorrow.

Have a good one!

Good and hard work so far sir, good luck with the fullbody template.

[quote]florelius wrote:
Good and hard work so far sir, good luck with the fullbody template.

[/quote]

Thanks man!! Loving it so far

Training notes Sept. 19th, 2012
Well, this was interesting,
Remember that stomach bug I had on Tuesday? Well, it decided to make a comeback… Right on my training session! Seriously, I had to make three trips to the restroom. Never had the people at my gym seen such a large man sprint that fast. LOL It was funny for those who watched, and for me now that I think about it.

SQUAT
1X5 120
1X5 150
1X5 175
Easy peasy, no problems here.

BENCH 5/3/1
1X3 170
1X3 190
1X6 215 followed by a 20 meter sprint to the restroom.
Yeah, I literally almost shit myself while benching.

PULLDOWNS WITH A WIDE PRONATED GRIP.
1X10 150
1X10 120 + restroom sprint.
1X10 120
I pushed my ego away with these. The first set I did with terrible form, so I opted for a lower weight that I could handle properly. I’ll progressively add weights to the stack.

REVERSE CRUNCH 3X15
EZ BAR CURLS 3X10 75LBS

I finished the workout with a final sprint to the John. Jesus, I did not have the stomach, literally, to go onto the treadmill tonight.

I’m fine now, by the way. Hope that bug is out of my system permanently, I’d hate to see it return tomorrow on Deadlift day :stuck_out_tongue:

See you tomorrow!

Friday, September 21st, 2012
Great day to you all! Hope your week was just as fantastic as mine was in spite of the stomach bug. I’m at the office right now but can’t wait until the afternoon because, you guessed it, IT’S DEADLIFT DAY!!!

Here’s today’s plan of attack.

SQUAT
1X5 120
1X5 150
1X5 175

PRESS 5/3/1
1X3 115
1X3 130
1X3 150 (Goal is 5 or more)

DEADLIFT 5/3/1
1X3 230
1X3 265
1X3 295 (Goal is 4 or more)

And, depending on how trashed the Deadlift leave me, I’ll finish off with these.

PULLDOWNS WITH SHOULDER WIDTH SUPINATED GRIP
1X10 190LBS
2X10 180LBS

LANDMINES 2X15 25LBS PLATE

I’ll try to get the workout notes out tomorrow or on Sunday.

Have a great Friday!

Training notes Sept. 24th, 2012
Ok, I got some explaining to do. On Friday I got home and decided to take a small power nap to get ready for my lifting session. Thing is, I forgot to set the alarm so instead of a quick 30 min. nap I took a 3 hour sleep and would have continued had my girlfriend not called me and asked me if I was OK (I had told her I’d call her at 8 and I’m always punctual, so by 9 she was worried). Hell, it was too late to go to the gym so I had to postpone my day to Monday since I have no time to hit the gym on the weekends.

Anyhow, what was supposed to be Friday’s session turned into Monday’s. Good thing too because the extra rest gave me the motivation to rip out a hell of a workout. Here are the notes:

SQUAT
1X5 120
1X5 150
1X5 175
No problems here. Although I DID feel I went deeper than usual.

PRESS 5/3/1
1X3 115
1X3 130
1X6 150
Yeah! 6 reps! I matched my previous PR!!

DEADLIFT 5/3/1
1X3 230
1X3 265
1X7 295 = 1RM of 363.14 Rep PR!!! (Previous was 1X3 315 = 1RM of 346.18)
All right!!! Initially I was only shooting for 5 reps, but after I felt I could pull another one, then another one!! Seven reps was amazing! This is why I love the deadlift!!

LANDMINES 3X8 25LBS PLATE
Ok, I really need to start writing down the extra work I plan to put in. I was supposed to do 2x15, but I was under the idea of doing 3x8. All the while I was like “this is too light”. Meh.

PULLDOWNS WITH A V-BAR
3X10 120LBS
I tried doing these with 150, but it felt really heavy, so I dialed it back.

Great workout. I won’t be able to go to the gym on Wednesday because it’s my anniversary with my fiancé and we’re going to diner. Naturally, extra rest will mean pushing it beyond my expectations on Friday.

See you later!!

^Good session man :slight_smile:

Its always good to have days where everything feels great btw.

[quote]florelius wrote:
^Good session man :slight_smile:

Its always good to have days where everything feels great btw.[/quote]

I know, man! They get you all pumped up and ready to take on the world the following sessions.

Come Friday, I’ma gonna rip a new PR on my squat.