Gettin it Going!

So my first post = my log.

I’m a student who’s taking the summer off to finally kick his ass into something productive. I’m just starting Wendler’s 5/3/1 and hope to run through a bunch of cycles before I stall, I’m no newbie but I think I’m at a stage (weak haha) where intensity will give me essentially beginners gains. I’m also pairing 5/3/1 with Carb Cycling which I’ve never done before. So drop in, throw out some tips and most of all bust my ass a few times. I want give a shout out to Alpha, the guy was extremely helpful in helping me get this initial plan laid out so props to him.

Starting Maxes:
Bench: 235 - Tested June 10am
Front Box Squat: 235 - Tested June 10am
Dead: 385 - Tested June 10pm
OHP: 135 - Tested June 10pm

The Big Plan:
4 days a week of lifting with complexes following upper body days and 3 days of sprint work.

June 12, 2009

Day 1: Week 1: Cycle 1

OHP 5/3/1: 5x80, 5x90, 9x105
Estimated Wendler Max: 136----this is what I’m aiming to beat each week

Neutral Pullups:
50 total: 10,9,6,5,4,4,3,3,3,3
10 f**king sets, I would have never thought that number, hopefully I’ll reduce it to 6 at some point

Dips:
12xbw
I wanted to do 100 total because Wendler loves them but I’m just not made for dips, to much pain soooo…

DB Bench:
10x55s, 12x45s, 11x45s, 11x45s, 11x45s

Complex: Row, Clean, Front Squat, OHP
3x6x75
Damn did this feel hard at the end of the workout. I’m hoping to hit 8s on bench day and then shoot up the weight.

June 13, 2009

Day 2: Week 1: Cycle 1

Dead 5/3/1: 5x225, 5x260, 11x295
Estimated Wendler Max: 403

Back Raise:
15xbw, 15xbw, 10xbw, 10xbw, 10xbw
I expect to improve on this big time in the following weeks

Cable Crunch:
15x140, 20x160, 20x160, 20x160, 20x160

Decent start I guess

June 14, 2009

20 hill sprints
Hot, humid morning, no water, not fun.

Your doing good bro, Its great to see this up!

You have no excuses now…so let’s see what you can do!

June 15, 2009

Day 3: Week 1: Cycle 1

Bench 5/3/1: 5x140, 5x160, 12x180
Estimated Wendler Max: 252

Neutral Pullups:
50 total: 11 sets
More sets than on OHP day but about half way through I realized I was bouncing out of the hole, so the rest of the way I’m keeping these extremely strict so I can really see what kind of progress I can make.

DB 1 arm Row:
10x90, 10x80, 10x80, 10x80, 10x80
Figure I’ll stick with 80s next week and do 4x10 and then an all out fifth set.

Complex: Row, Clean, Front Squat, OHP
3x7x75
I really am shocked at how 75 pounds can feel so damn heavy but I added a rep to the sets so I’m happy with that.

June 16, 2009

Day 4: Week 1: Cycle 1

Front Box Squat 5/3/1: 5x140, 5x160, 8x180
Estimated Wendler Max: 228
Shit, shit, shit! My legs were feeling fine but my core just seemed to have a hard time keeping the weight up, the last few reps I was falling forward and so I am not happy at all with an 8. My squat is sad.

Leg Press:
5x20x270

DB Rom Deads:
5x10x85s

And to top it all off I got issued a red light violation in the mail. Such BS $230 fine for a rolling right turn at 1am on empty roads-----triple shit!

June 17, 2009

Went to the gym and did some rowing:
250m sprint
500m sprint
250m sprint
500m sprint
250m sprint
500m sprint

I think I’m going to stick to rowing sprints rather than hill sprints. I live in the prairies and it is flat flat flat here, so I have drive just to go this little hill and it’s just so much easier just to head to the gym. I think I’m going to add some sort of complex on these days as well, along with increasing the number of sprints I do.

Also I learned that in a complex you do all reps of the movement before moving to the next, I was doing 1 rep of each haha (I’m a dumbass).

Hey bro, numbers and everything looks great, but I saw you said your core could not handle it. What kind of abdominal work are you doing. Weighted abs 3-4 times a week will allow you to sky rocket all your lifts. Your core should never be an issue.

[quote]SouthofHeaven wrote:
Hey bro, numbers and everything looks great, but I saw you said your core could not handle it. What kind of abdominal work are you doing. Weighted abs 3-4 times a week will allow you to sky rocket all your lifts. Your core should never be an issue.[/quote]

Honestly, I’d never really done much core work but after that day I’m definitely adding it in. You have any favorites?

June 18, 2009

Day 1: Week 2: Cycle 1

OHP 5/3/1: 3x85, 3x95, 10x110
Estimated Wendler Max: 147

Pumped about the OHP, 5 more pounds and 1 more rep than week 1, so I’m super happy. Number 10 was a major grinder, I really wanted to beat last weeks number.

DB Bench:
10x50s, 10x50s, 10x50s, 10x50s, 15x50s

Thought I would get 4 good sets in and then have it on the last one. Once I can hit 20 on set 5 I’m going to bump up the weight.

HS Pulldown 1 arm:
R: 12, 12, 12, 10, 10 x80
L: 12, 12, 12, 10, 10 x80

Cable Pushdown: 3x10x110, 1x12x140
Cable Curl: 3x10x70, 1x16x100

Same thing as with the DB bench, get in a few working sets and then go hard. Once I hit 15 reps I’ll jump up the weight.

So…I’m still tweaking my weekly plan along with my accessory work a little bit but I think I have it pretty much figured out:
Day 1: OHP
Day 2: Dead
Day 3: Row Sprint + Complex + Ab work
Day 4: Bench
Day 5: Squat
Day 6: Row Sprint + Complex + Ab Work
Rinse and Repeat

Ya , southofheaven’s totally right on the core. I do a core only day once sometimes twice a week depending on how I’m feeling and ever since, I have felt stronger on every lift. It has to be a core day and hard day tho. There are a ton of exercises that I love to do for core that can really help jack up all the CORE lifts haha.

Good log man, I wanna try 5/3/1 maybe when the summers over.

[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
Ya , southofheaven’s totally right on the core. I do a core only day once sometimes twice a week depending on how I’m feeling and ever since, I have felt stronger on every lift. It has to be a core day and hard day tho. There are a ton of exercises that I love to do for core that can really help jack up all the CORE lifts haha.

Good log man, I wanna try 5/3/1 maybe when the summers over.[/quote]

I definitely feel like I need to dedicate a lot more time to core work and will get it going this week. And I think 5/3/1 is probably a great program for most people. So many people seem to be exploding with it.

June 19, 2009

Day 2: Week 2: Cycle 1

Dead 5/3/1: 3x240, 3x275, 10x310
Estimated Wendler Max: 413

The AMAP set is basically where a good workout started to get screwed. I was deadlifting with no shoes and in the middle of the set a worker at the gym come and stands literally right in front of my face to tell me to put shows on. I mean come on, she couldn’t wait until I finished my set, and never mind the fact that most of the football team goes shoeless in there, WTF. She told me it was a liability, ya because if I drop 300 pounds on my foot with a shoe on I’ll be safe, just pissed me off.

Back Raises:
15,15,12,12,12xbw

This is where the workout really sucked the bag. I’m not sure if I overextended my back or what but I was hurting bad. My lower back and down my right leg hurt so much that I could barely put any pressure on my leg. I tried to do some leg press after but just shut it down because I thought I was just lucky enough to get a pain that will last a few days. But I walked around for a while and then took a long long shower and now everything feels good, so that’s a plus. I guess on the bright side, my AMAP set was all right but I’ll have to make up for the rest on bench day ROAR!

June 20, 2009

My family came in Friday night so the weekend was a big test for me. I managed to get up early and hit the gym for some energy systems work.

Row Sprints:
4x500m - 1 min rest between sprints

Row-Clean-Front Squat-Push Press Complex:
6x3x95

June 21, 2009

Day 3: Week 2: Cycle 1

Bench 5/3/1: 3x150, 3x170, 10x190
Estimated Wendler Max: 253

DB Mil Press:
R: 10, 10, 10, 10, 10 x 32.2
L: 10, 10, 10, 8, 7 x 32.5

T Bar Row:
20x95, 20x120, 16x120, 13x120, 10x120

Skull Crush:
4x15x55
Pre Curl:
4x10x55

The workout was ok. 10 for AMAP was a min I wanted to hit, the last rep wasn’t the greatest, the ass came up and it was slow but it went up.

Overall I was happy with the weekend, I got my workouts in and didn’t stray to far from my diet with the family up, if anything I under ate all weekend.

June 22, 2009

Day 4: Week 2: Cycle 1

Box Squat 5/3/1: 3x155,3x175,9x195
Estimated Wendler Max: 253
I’ve come to the conclusion that I can’t squat worth shit. I’m going to switch to the BBB template for my squat days because I’m just not comfortable with my movement and seem to switch set to set, I need to find a groove. You should not bench what you squat.

DB RDL:
4x12x85s

Leg Press:
4x10x360

I think next squat day I’m going to resort to A2G squats and find a max. In the end that’s the movement I need to work on the most so that’s the one I’ll do. I’m going to essentially be behind one cycle on my squat but that doesn’t matter much

June 23, 2009

My body is pretty sore with DOMS and I wanted to take it easier today, sort of an active recovery day with no sprint work.

10 min cycle
2 km row

Row-Clean-Fr.Sqt-OHP Complex:
6x3x105

Planks: 3x30s
Rev Sit: 3x10
Cable Crunch: 1x10x190,1x20x150,1x7x190,1x20x150