Hac's 5/3/1 Training Log

Hi!
I’m posting for the first time on T-Nation forums though I’ve been lurking and soaking up information for a while now. I decided to have a serious go at lifting weights about 6 months ago and started with Stronglifts 5x5.

After stalling and hurting my lower back a few times I realised it might be a good time to jump ship and start with something that makes more sense. I have no idea what my lifts were when i first started out here are a few approximations from before I began 531. I weigh 82kg and am 175 cm tall.

Squat: 130 kg
Deadlift: 155 kg
Bench: 100 kg
Overhead press: 60 kg

These were my lifts after my first cycle of 531 with BBB assistance work:
Squat: 8 x 100 kg (ORM: 140 kg)
Deadlift: 8 x 125 (ORM: 168 kg)
Bench: 5 x 85 kg (ORM: 101 kg )
Overhead press: 9 x 50 kg (ORM: 64 kg)

I also do a bit of judo so my current goal is to get as strong as possible at a bodyweight of 81 kg. I started my second cycle of 531 with the new 3 times per week full body template and will post mondays and todays workout a bit later.

Monday 22.8.2011 - 1. day 1. week of 2. cycle

Squat: 5x50 5x60 5x75 [10x80 10x80 10x80]
Deadlift: 5x55 5x70 3x82.5 [5x90 5x102.5 5+x117.5 (managed 11 reps)]
DB Bench: 12x22 12x22 12x22
Chin-up (bodyweight): 4x8

My goal for chin-ups is 50 in 3 sets about 4-5 times a week before I even think about adding weight.

Wednesday - 24.8.2011 - 2. day 1. week of 2. cycle

Squat: 5x50 5x60 5x75 [10x80 10x80 10x80]
Bench Press: 5x40 5x50 3x55 [5x50 5x70 5+x77.5(10)]
DB Row: 12x25 12x25 15x25
Chin-up: 3x10

Yesterday I did a bit of hang and power cleans. I managed 2 singles at 60kg. My technique sucks dog’s balls. After that I went and did 6 hill sprints but I felt really slow compared to last saturday.

Friday - 26.8.2011 - 3. day 1. week of 2. cycle

Let me start out by saying last nights ne-waza session was brutal. Some of that stuff felt more like MMA than judo but it was all good fun. Surprisingly I woke up feeling great. That is until I put the warmup weights on my back. I was barely able to get the required reps in.

So I’m going to either switch monday and Friday since I can usually still deadlift well even when I’m not at my best or move Friday’s session to Saturday. Probably going to switch monday and Friday around first because I can’t stand the weekend warrior crowd stealing plates of my bar.
Anyway … Today’s lifts.

Squat 5x50 5x60 3x72.5 [5x77.5 5x90 5+x102.5(5)]
Standing press 5x22.5 5x30 3x35 [5x37.5 5x42.5 5+x50(5)]
Chin-up 3x10 3x7

I won’t even bother doing conditioning today so I’ll to run some stairs or hills tommorow.

Monday - 29.8.2011 - 1. day 2. week of 2. cycle

I switched Monday and Friday around and proved to myself I was just too tired last Friday to do anything except the required reps. I’ll see how I do on deadlifts this Friday and decide whether any further changes are necessary.

Squat 5x50 5x60 3x72.5 [3x85 3x95 3+x107.5(10)]
Standing press 5x22.5 5x30 3x35 [3x40 3x45 3+x52.5(8)]
Chin-up 5x10

An old foot injury’s giving me some trouble when walking so I’ll have to take it easy for a few days with conditioning. Some complexes and judo should still do the trick I guess.

Wednesday - 31.8.2011 - 2. day 2. week of 2. cycle

Squat 5x50 5x60 5x75 [10x80 10x80 10x80]
Bench press 5x40 5x50 3x55 [3x65 3x72.5 3+x82.5(5)]
DB Row 15x25 15x25 15x25

My bench press feels weak compared to other lifts. Any ideas how to fix this? Would adding let say a hundred push-ups ever other day help?

Friday - 2.9.2011 - 3. day 2. week of 2. cycle

Squat 5x50 5x60 5x70 [10x80 10x80 10x80]
Deadlift 5x55 5x70 3x82.5 [3x97.5 3x110 3+x122.5(9)]
DB Bench 12x22 12x22 12x22 12x22 12x22

Apparently it’s better that I deadlift on friday. So I will :slight_smile: I read up on the whole push up thing and it seems it won’t do shit for my bench.

[quote]hac wrote:
Wednesday - 31.8.2011 - 2. day 2. week of 2. cycle

Squat 5x50 5x60 5x75 [10x80 10x80 10x80]
Bench press 5x40 5x50 3x55 [3x65 3x72.5 3+x82.5(5)]
DB Row 15x25 15x25 15x25

My bench press feels weak compared to other lifts. Any ideas how to fix this? Would adding let say a hundred push-ups ever other day help?[/quote]

Welcome to the boards.

If you want to get your bench up, there are a couple thing you can do. 1) add some chest or tricep assistance work on your non-bench days. 2) throw additional chest/tricep work on bench day and blow the hell out of those muscles, 3) do some benching with deload percentages as a warmup for your non-bench days.

In the end, it’s a marathon not a sprint. The thing that will improve bench the most is consistency with training AND DIET.

Thanks for the advice and the welcome scj. I’ll throw in some dips on my non-bench days and do more assistance work on bench. I’ll see how that goes and adjust accordingly.

Monday - 5.9.2011 - 1. day 3. week of 2. cycle

I must have screwed something up when I was calculating this months program so I ended up with a bigger increment on my overhead press then on my squat. So I will take a bit off and go from there next cycle.

Squat 5x50 5x60 3x72.5 [5x90 3x102.5 1+x112.5(10)]
Standing press 5x22.5 5x30 3x35 [5x42.5 3x50 1+x55(3)]
Chin-up 5x10
Dips 3x10

Wednesday - 7.9.2011 - 2. day 3. week of 2. cycle

Squat 5x50 5x60 5x75 [10x80 10x80 10x80]
Bench press 5x40 5x50 3x55 [5x70 3x77.5 1+x87.5(2)] 10x60 10x60 10x60 10x65 10x65
DB Row 15x25 15x25 20x25
Chin-up 5x10

I’ll start doing more pressing immediatly and see if I respond better to more volume and for the next cycle I’ll take first cycle’s percentages. I try to think of it as taking one step back so I’ll leap forward later but it sucks because my lower-body lifts seem to be progressing fine.

Friday - 9.9.2011 - 3. day 3. week of 2. cycle

Squat 5x50 5x60 5x70 [10x80 10x80 10x80]
Deadlift 5x55 5x70 3x82.5 [5x102.5 3x117.5 1+x130(7)]
DB Bench 12x25 12x25 12x25
Dips 3x10
Chinup 50 (10,10,10,8,6,6)

Monday - 12.9.2011 - 1. day deload week of 2. cycle

Squat 5x50 5x60 5x70 [10x80 10x80 10x80]
Standing press 5x20 5x25 5x30 [10x35 10x35 10x40 10x40 10x40]
Chin-up [10 10 10 8 6 6]
Dips [12 11 12]

My foot feels fine again so it was time to dedicate a wrokout to some cleaning and conditioning.

One arm kettlebell swing 10x12kg
supersetted with
one arm clean and press 10x12kg
both sides.

One arm kettlebell swing 10x24kg
supersetted with
one arm clean and press 10x24kg
both sides.

Two arm kettlebell swing 10x32kg 10x32kg 10x32kg

Hang clean 5x20 5x30 5x35 [5x40 5x45 5x50]

And to finish off in a puddle of sweat a Complex consisting of: 1.Deadlift, 2.Romanian deadlift, 3.Bentover row, 4.Hang clean, 5.Front squat, 6.Push press, 7.Back squat and 8.Good mornings
I used 30kg and decreased the pauses and reps after every cycle.
7 [35s] 6 [30s] 5 [25s] 4 [15s] 3 [5s] 2 [0s] 1

Wednesday - 14.9.2011 - 2. day deload week of 2. cycle

Squat: 5x50 5x60 5x70 [10x80 10x80 10x80]
Bench press: 5x40 5x50 5x55 [10x60 10x60 10x65 10x65 10x65]
Chin-up: 3x10
DB Row: 15x25 15x25 15x25

Friday - 16.9.2011 - 3. day deload week of 2. cycle

Squat 5x50 5x60 5x70 [10x80 10x80 10x80]
Deadlift 5x50 5x60 5x70 [5x80 5x90 5x100]
DB Bench 12x25 12x25 12x25
Dips 3x12
Chinup 50 (10,10,10,7,7,7)

Michael Boyle’s article reminded me to start doing farmers walks again. I have no idea why I stopped actually.

1x120m@(2x25kg)
2x60m@(2x30kg)

Hill sprints 5x

Saturday - conditioning/cleaning/burning last nights beer calories session

One arm kettlebell swing 10x12kg
supersetted with
one arm clean and press 10x12kg
both sides.

One arm kettlebell swing 10x24kg
supersetted with
one arm clean and press 10x24kg
both sides.

Two arm kettlebell swing 10x32kg 10x32kg 10x32kg

Hang clean 5x20 5x30 5x35 [5x40 5x45 5x50]

Complex consisting of: 1.Deadlift, 2.Romanian deadlift, 3.Bentover row, 4.Hang clean, 5.Front squat, 6.Push press, 7.Back squat and 8.Good mornings - done with 40kg.

5 [30s] 4 [20s] 3 [10s] 2 [5s] 1

Monday - 19.9.2011 - 1. day 1. week of 3. cycle

Squat 5x50 5x60 3x75 [5x80 5x92.5 5+x105(13)]
Standing press 5x22.5 5x27.5 3x32.5 [5x37.5 5x42.5 5+x47.5(8)] 10x35 10x35 10x40 10x40 10x40
Chin-up [10 10 10 10 10]
Dips [12 12 12]

I should have taken a longer pause before that last set. Lesson learned? I sure hope so!

Wednesday - 21.9.2011 - 2. day 1. week of 3. cycle

Squat: 5x50 5x60 5x70 [10x80 10x80 10x80]
Bench press: 5x40 5x45 3x55 [5x57.5 5x67.5 5+x75(10)] 10x60 10x60 10x65 10x65 10x65
Chin-up: 3x10
DB Row: 15x25 15x25 15x25

Metabolic pair or whatever these are called: 4x(12x40kg Clean, 12x Burpee, 2min pause)
Didn’t fell like doing complexes today so I did this. I’ve got to read up on this stuff for the next time the janitor locks me in and I’ll have time to kill.

Considering I felt like shit when I got to the gym I’m not completely devestated by the fact that I got one rep less on the last set than on my first cycle at the same weight. If I grow a pair of balls by the afternoon I’ll go do some hill sprints.

Friday - 23.9.2011 - 3. day 1. week of 3. cycle

Squat 5x50 5x60 5x70 [10x80 10x80 10x80]
Deadlift 5x60 5x70 3x85 [5x92.5 5x105 5+x120(12)]
DB Bench 12x25 12x25 12x25
Dips 3x12
Chinup 50 (10,10,10,10,10)

Farmers walk 4x60m@(2x30kg)
Burpees 8x8 (10s pause between sets)

Monday - 26.9.2011 - 1. day 2. week of 3. cycle

Squat 5x50 5x62.5 3x75 [3x87.5 3x97.5 3+x110(13)]
Standing press 5x22.5 5x27.5 3x32.5 [3x40 3x45 3+x50(8)] 10x40 10x40 10x40 10x40 10x40
Chin-up [10 9 8 7 8 8]