Maple Syrup Strength (littlesleeper)

I’m definitely thinking more beach-body condition than shredded to the bone. I can’t confidently say that I’ve ever held a body fat under 10%, so if I was to set an arbitrary goal it would be to be sub 10%BF. Since BF% is often tough to measure (especially just with my cheap calipers), my main goal is to be in the leanest condition that I have ever been in. I currently sit at 5’8" and anywhere from 208-215.

I think if I get myself down to a 190 or 185lbs I will be by far the leanest I have ever been, but by no means do I think that would be stage-ready.

I think you should aim for 180s, which is very big at 5’8".

I’m 5’9" on a tall day, in the morning, with socks on…oh and did I mention I’m HYOOOGE?

But yes I know, I saw the weights that you and Rob got down to after prep and it was mind boggling. If I do get down to that scale weight it will be a real eye opener, but it will likely make me be more mindful of my weight during my ‘off season’, ‘bulking’ phases.

11/01/2016
5/3/1 Hardgainer’s
Week 1 Day 2

Agile 8 and 10x box jumps

Bench Press
185 x 5
225 x 5
255 x 5 x 6

Assistance
Superset

Dips
20, 20, 15, 15, 15 (with some Rest-pause (r/p) reps to finish set), 15 r/p

Zercher Thoracic Extensions(pulled from @strongmanvinny2 's log)
45 x 15
65 x 15
75 x 15 x 5

Stayed light with these as it was my first time testing them out. I really felt my thoracic muscles after doing some heavy log work one day and after seeing these in Vinny’s log I figured I would give them a shot. Here it is an hour after my workout and I can confidently say I will feel them tomorrow, even with that light of a weight.

Then I went outside and dragged my tire sled for ~30m six times. I was roasted, my glutes were burning by the end of these.

11/03/2016
5/3/1 Hardgainer’s
Week 1 Day 3

Agile 8 and 10x Box Jumps

Deadlift
225 x 5
315 x 5
365 x 5
405 x 10
315 x 5 x 5

Straight Arm Red Mini Band Pulldowns
20 reps x 5 sets

Mini Circuit
Ran through this circuit 3 x

DB Waiter’s Carry
60yards each hand (turn at 30yards)

85lb Sandbag Carry
60yards (turn at 30yards)

Circuit was fun, had me sucking some good air. Those waiter’s carries were really exhausting my shoulders, I’ll definitely be playing around with these again. I feel like these will be a good exercise to build the shoulder stability and in turn may help relieve some of the pain/discomfort I’ve been having in them.

11/05/2016
5/3/1 Hardgainer’s
Week 1 Day 4

OHP
135 x 5
155 x 5
185 x 3
205 x 3
225 x 3 ← Rep PR
135 x 10 x 5

Assistance
Superset
Axle Deadstop Incline Press
115 x 10
165 x 10
165 x 10
165 x 10
165 x 10

Bodyweight neutral Grip Pullups
10, 10, 10, 10, 10

Farmers Walk
100ft x 110lbs/hand (3 turns)
100ft x 110lbs/hand (3 turns)
100ft x 160lbs/hand (3 turns)
75ft x 160lbs/hand (2 turns) - left handle started spinning and lost grip on 3rd turn
100ft x 160lbs/hand (3 turns)

Then took the dog for a 30minute walk. I’m going to be off work all next week and a the hunting camp. Drinking, eating unhealthy and no workouts…my before picture for this Jan 1st competition is going to be beautiful :wink:

Video of my PR set for OHP:

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Awesome PR man, congratulations!

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Thanks man, I appreciate it! I was pleasantly surprised when it went up once let alone 3 times.

11/14/2016
5/3/1 Hardgainer’s
Week 1 Day 1 - Re-doing Week 1 since I was away at the huntin’ camp all last week. Not a healthy week…but I’m back at er’ full force this week.

Agile 8 and 10 box jumps

Squat
275 x 5
315 x 5
345 x 10 Rep PR
265 x 20 Widowmaker ← This was tough

Superset
BW Dips
15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15 ← Happy to hit 15 reps with all of these sets. Fairly smooth.

Landmine Rows with Multigrip handle - varying grips each set
Bar+45lbs x 10
Bar+90lbs x 10
Bar+115lbs x 10
Bar+115lbs x 10
Bar+115lbs x 10
Bar+115lbs x 10

I finished the workout with Axle Deadlifts AMRAP in 60s with double OH grip. Ended up getting 24 reps in 60s. This made my widowmaker squat set feel like child’s play.

Pretty horrible video quality, poor basement lighting and crappy blackberry camera. Couldn’t quite catch @T3hPwnisher with 26 reps, but I honestly did much better than I expected. I immediately regretting this set for the next 15seconds trying not to puke laying on my cold concrete basement floor…

I did manage to get a little 3pt buck this week. We managed to get 3 deer between 7 shares at the hunting camp so we ended up with ~30lbs of venison each. Mmmm, lean protein.

11/16/2016
5/3/1 Hardgainers
Week 1 Day 2

Agile 8 and 10 Box Jumps

Bench Press
185 x 5
225 x 5
275 x 3
305 x 2 ← These grooved nicely, so said eff it and went for a 10lb PR
350 x 1 ← Not a bad rep actually. 10lb PR, might have a few more pounds in the tank!
255 x 5 x 5

I did facepulls in between sets of my 255lbs x 5.

It looks like my week off (completely) may have been what I needed. I’m feeling pretty strong in the weight room so far this week!

A little cardio medley to finish off the workout and get the sweat pouring.

Treadmill 7mph @3% incline for 30s
10 neutral grip chins
Treadmill 7mph @3% incline for 30s
10 neutral grip chins
Treadmill 7mph @3% incline for 30s
10 neutral grip chins
Treadmill 7mph @3% incline for 30s
10 neutral grip chins

Here is the 350lb bench PR from today. Not exactly a competition pause, but the last few times I attempted this weight I went wayyy too slow. This time I just pounded it out to get over the mental hurdle of benching 350lbs.

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11/17/2016
5/3/1 Hardgainer’s Template
Week 1 Day 3

Agile 8 and Box Jumps

Deadlift
315 x 5
365 x 5
405 x 12 Rep PR
365 x 5 x 5

Incline Axle Deadstop Bench Press
115 x 10
185 x 10
185 x 10
185 x 10
185 x 10
185 x 10

Inverted Row- Bodyweight
10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

Workout took about 1hr 10mins. Did not have the energy to start this workout as I am battling a cold (picked it up from the wife who had it earlier in the week) and was outside installing a fence all morning. Before the +set of 405lb deadlift I took a little sniff of nose tork to get things firing a bit. That set went well, but the effects unfortunately didn’t carry through for much of the remaining workout. Hopefully OHP day tomorrow grooves a bit better than today.

11/18/2016
5/3/1 Hardgainer’s
Week 1 Day 4

Agile 8 and Box Jumps

Strict OHP
135 x 5
155 x 5
165 x 5
135 x 5 x 10

Band Pullaparts
33, 33, 33
(11 middle, 11 upper, 11 lower)

Axle Curls
75lbs x 10reps x 6sets

Chain Yoke Walk
135 x 150’
225 x 150’
315 x 150’
315 x 150’

This was the first time testing out the homemade chain yoke. 315lbs humbled me. Walking up that driveway when those weights started swinging a little bit it had me staggering. I did not try and go very quickly on these, just wanted to take this implement for a trial run. I honestly didn’t know what muscles were going to feel this the most, but it definitely taxed my lower back. My lower back was actually pretty pumped up from these walks. I also kept the bar on my back when I reached the end of my driveway and then slowly turned still holding the weight (75ft each way).

11/21/2016
5/3/1 Hardgainer’s Template
Week 2 Day 1

Agile 8 and Box Jumps

Squats
285 x 5
335 x 5
370 x 7 ← Not an impressive +set
285 x 20 ← This was wayyy harder and felt wayyy heavier than it should have.

My +set at 370lbs did not go well. Expected minimum 8 here, but I mis-grooved the 3rd rep and almost missed the lift but kept going. Rest of the workout felt sub-par to be honest. After those crummy sets I dragged my ass a bit.

Assistance
Giant Set

Bodyweight dips
20, 20, 20

Ab Wheel Rollouts
10, 10, 10

Neutral Grip Chins
12, 10, 10

Workout took all of 45mins.

11/22/2016
5/3/1 Hardgainer’s Template
Week 2 Day 2

Agile 8 and Box Jumps

Bench Press
205 x 5
245 x 5
265 x 5 x 5

Upper Chest Pushups
15, 15, 20 (rest paused the last few of the final set)

Bodyweight Inverted Rows
15, 15, 20 (rest pause)

11/24/2016
Hardgainer’s Template
Week 2 Day 3

Agile 8 and Box Jumps

Deadlift
335 x 5
385 x 5
430 x 7 30s rest
430 x 5
315 x 5 x 2

So this was interesting. 430lbs actually was grooving well until I felt a rumbling in my stomach. I stopped at the top of rep 7 to evaluate whether setting a rep PR was worth having ‘an accident’…
I was not happy I had to put the weight down, took a brief break to ensure we were in the clear and grabbed the bar and hit 5 additional reps, these were not nearly as quick as the first 7. Bracing for those deadlifts can be dangerous if you had fast food for lunch that day…

Hit some quick assistance after this.

Seated Axle Military Press
115 x 5
165 x 5 x 5

70lb DB Shrugs (2 sec pause at top)
15reps x 6sets

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11/25/2016
5/3/1 Hardgainer’s Template
Week 2 Day 4

Press
135 x 5
155 x 5
175 x 5 ← RPE only ~7
135 x 5 x 8

Did band pullaparts between sets.

Assistance
This was pretty half assed as I was hosting a euchre night with some friends and they started showing up after my first st of each.

Bodyweight Dips
Bodyweight Neutral Grip Chins
165lb/hand Farmers Carries for 50’

11/29/2016
5/3/1 Hardgainer’s Template
Week 3 Day 1

Agile 8 and 10 Box Jumps

Squat
315 x 5 ← not looking forward to widowmaker set, this did not feel easy.
345 x 5 ← Uh oh, this felt way too heavy for what it was
390 x 6 ← RPE 8.5 Nose Tork helped me find some balls for this set.
315 x 20 ← This might have been the most difficult thing I have done in the gym. I was doing breathing doubles and singles after about rep 7. I was definitely using the mental trick suggested by @T3hPwnisher, by counting “5,4,3,2,1,5,4,3,2,1,etc” and I’m positive this was the only way I pushed through this set. Struggling with the weight on rep 8 would have no doubt mentally defeated me. I believe he said he pulled this tip from a Dan John article, so thanks to both of them!

5mins of completely horizontal recovery on the cold concrete floor…then on to assistance.

Assistance
BW Dips
15, 15, 15, 15, 15

Slow 70lb DB Rows (just bought this pair of 70’s - Currently highest DB Pair)
10, 10, 10, 10, 10 (each arm)

Back Extensions (just picked up the roman chair yesterday, I haven’t done this movement in years)
10, 10, 10, 10, 10

I have no idea how you guys (@brady888, @stronkfak, @MarkKO) can do so many damn reps, but my lower back was already starting to blow up. Definitely going to be using this as assistance much more often, I feel like this work will translate nicely to strongman as an assistance movement.

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@littlesleeper I don’t know. I think I can because my back can do reps on most anything because it’s stronger than other parts of me. With heavier movements it’s just not always able to pick up the slack, and then I fail. I can’t explain why that is, maybe it’s the kettlebell sport I used to do? You’re pretty much doing some kind of hinge every day for hundreds of reps a week so even though they’re light reps they add up over a couple of years?

That’s how I do any squat reps. Rep. Breathe. Chamber another round. Rep. Breathe. Repeat.

Yep, sounds like a recipe for a bulletproof back!

Ok, glad to hear I’m not alone. But boy was it a struggle, damn you Jim Wendler, damn you…

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