This is some high quality video
thanks man. Just tryin’ to keep up with you!
I have my headphones in and music up loud… I am the creepy dude that grunts like crazy in the gym but IDGAF! 
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That still counts as 13 reps but that last one was an adventure lol! Glad you finished it. The bar path was just a little off from the previous ones and it looked like your body decided to shut down for a moment.
Remember, PR sets are taken to technical failure—not actual failure lol!
That’s easier said than done though…especially when you’re calculating your e1RM before the set and trying to be your previous e1RM.
Shoes are lookin sharp as always!
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ha ha, Yeah well, technically, I failed! how’s that for word play?
Seriously though, I thought I had 13 in me but, as you mentioned, it’s like my body hit some black ice or something; it got sideways and squirrely.
12 felt like a 8 RPE so I thought I could bang out 13 at RPE9 but just got all FUBAR on that one.
To be honest, I think it was mental because I had “12” in my head knowing that would beat my e1RM from 3’s week. I think I lost tightness in my back after I locked out 12.
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OK, so tomorrow is my LAST training day on my first 5/3/1 Triumvirate Cycle (6 week protocol).
Next week is de-load week and then I start another 6 week (7 including de-load week) protocol with Triumvirate.
I’ll wait until after tomorrow’s squat session to do a post mortem/lessons learned but I am looking at that last squat 1+ AMRAP set and I have 260 pounds x 18 to best my e1RM from last week.
so, what I’m getting at is, please say a prayer for me (260x18) 
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God speed man
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I don’t even want to do 18 reps…period. As a matter of fact, I think I’m going to bump my weights up for my last three workouts before surgery. I’ll finish my cycle of 5/3/1 tomorrow so I think I’ll up the TM’s by about 20lbs and go from there. I’ll only be doing week one so I’ll be fine. It’ll be fun. I’m also doing Mon, Wed, and Fri’s workouts on Sun, Mon, & Tues. I’m hoping that three full body sessions on back to back to back days will help me keep from falling apart between Wednesday and Tuesday when I hobble back to the gym.
Question for you guys
What sounds like the better approach?
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Take week 7 (next week) as a deload as Rx and then up my TMs in a guesstimate of where my lifts are at for the following cycle
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Use next week’s 4 days lifting to test maxes to get a more accurate reading on where I’m at?
I don’t know how taxing 4 days of 1RM testing can be so don’t know whether that would adhere to the “deload” for week 7 or not.
I can always mess with my TMs (going up again or dropping if I go too high) but I want to be as efficient as I can.
Anybody have any thoughts on this as to the best way to get to a legitimate TM for next cycle?
1RM can be taxing if you’re getting buck-nutty in the gym and shoot for true RPE10 maxes that leaving you seeing stars.
If you take a day to test each at RPE 9-9.5 and don’t do much else I think you’d be fine to continue the next week without feeling drained or anything.
So technically speaking, you wouldn’t be following the prescribed deload, but I don’t think it’ll hurt you to go that route.
Edit: I didn’t see your last line. You could also test for a 3RM which might be a better bet since they’re a little harder cheat through and tend to be a bit less taxing.
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Great point. Don’t really need to go 1RM if I get a more accurate 3RM.
That might be a good middle ground
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You don’t have to work up to a 1rm to test maxes. Just work up to a strong, fast 5RM (~85% of 1rm) and use those numbers as your new TMs
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Take a week to deload and then another to get your fast 5RM as lord_humongous said, I think that’s the best to have accurate TMs!
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@cdmac24 I agree with what @lord_humongous says, but i think you should test 3RM which is closer to 90%. Only because he says 90% of 1RM should be the TM if running 5/3/1 Triumvirate. At least according to the article on Tnation, I havent read the books so IDK if he says 85% in the books. Either way, I would Test Overhead/Deadlift on Monday. Then take a day or two to recover and then test Bench/Squat. Then spend the rest of the week actively recovering.
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I’ve looked at your log and done some math.
OHP TM is currently 135. Your last set of 130 x 10 is an e1RM of 173. 80% of that is 138. I think you’re in a good place with that lift so increase your TM to 145 after next week’s deload.
Deadlift TM is currently 290. Your last set of 275 x 21 is an e1RM of 467. That’s a hell of a lot more than 290. 85% of that is still 397. I think a TM of 365 is safe and it’s a big jump from 290.
Squat TM is currently 275. If you hit 17 reps at 260 then that’s an e1RM of 407. Big jump again. Play it safe and do with 350ish. That’s less than 80% of your e1RM.
Bench TM is currently 200. You just hit an e1RM of 265 with your set of 190 for 12. I think you could go with a new TM of 225 lbs which is 85% of your e1RM.
5/3/1 uses 90% of your everyday gym max. I think by using 80-85% of these recent rep maxes will be a safe approach but also allow you to bump your TMs by more than 10 lbs.
What do ya’ll think?
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He did the math. Thumbs up all around.
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Thanks for all the input!!
I was going to do some math this weekend and ponder this whole thing but you’ve done great work here with the numbers.
The one concern I have is that e1RM cal culations break down at higher reps (higher than 10 but if I stay in that 80-85% range that should give me a little wiggle room.
I will do something inline with what you’ve put out there and we’ll go from there next cycle.
Well, it started out at 90% of 1RM for the TM but I’ve seen many people mention that the Forever book indicates an 80-85%. I think that helps mitigate stalling out early that so many seemed to run into (not 100% certain for the reason).
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Thanks for all the input, everyone.
I’ll certainly let y’all know which direction I take and where I set my numbers.
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Makes sense to me, if you are gonna be running this program for a looongg time(like 6months-year) then you probably do want to start on the lighter side.
for reference, here are my current TMs
OHP 145
Deadlift 305
Bench 210
Squat 290