Ended up doing DL today, I thought it was bench! It actually makes sense to avoid going into PR sets/Jokers with both Bench and Press close to each other.
C9W1D2
Squat
Main sets
5x5x77, focusing on exploding up, slowing down the descent
SS with weighted pulls ups, 5x5 with 7.5kg
DL
Main sets
3x87
3x100
10x113, Pretty big PR I think. I’m glad because DL hasn’t been a priority. I know that when I was doing 5x5 FSL as recommended by Mark I felt more confident with it. I am not sure I miss hitting volume with it though, it is quite tiring. I think that as long as I can make progress with doing 5’s Pro in the leaders, and PR sets in the anchor, I’m happy.
(Hang) Power Clean
Just a little try… I’ve been practising with a broomstick (don’t laugh!) at home, watching the tutorials by Max Aita and Mark Rippetoe.
I think I am making contact and jumping too fast, I should wait that the bar is a bit higher. Please give me any feedback! I quite like the movement. My upper back got pretty fatigued, especially after the DL. (I should have done it at the start of the workout…).
The videos are with 40,50 and a single at 60kg. My hands were on fire, my thumbs got crushed because of hookgrip, first time I used it. In the first one I’m doing a drill to feel where the bar should touch before jumping.
Bench
5x5x45, pretty easy to work on technique and rest before Friday.
Assistance
DB Incline Bench 5x10 with 20kg
Straight bar curls, 5x10 with 20kg
DB SLDL 5x10 with 20kg in each hand
Triceps push downs 3x20
I ran an unplanned trail 10k race this week end and ended up with a pretty bad IT band, making it very painful to walk yesterday. It’s not the first this happened so after a lot of stretching I was ok this morning.
Squat
5x75
5x85
5x95
Press
5x36
5x41
5x47
Assistance
100 total pull ups
5x10 DB shoulder press with 14kg
5x10 ab wheel from knees
Weight; 82.4kg, I was away this week end and ate VERY well (read: tons of food).
Assistance
5x5 weighted chins with 10kg
5x10 barbell curls 20kg
5x10 Incline BB bench with 40kg
5x10 SLDL with 40kg
Weight 82kg,
One more workout before 1’s week, which will be exciting!
After next friday I have two weeks before going home. I will start doing one of the full body templates from 531 Forever where I’ll do 5’s PRO+ BBB for squat bench and press. When I get home I will be cycling around a lot for 3 weeks to enjoy the weather, hence a switch to two days and A/B workouts for this period. I will keep doing 5’s Pro+ BBB for squat and bench and switch to 5’s Pro and 5x5 FSL for the other two.
@MarkKO, quick question. Do you think doing BBB or Widowmaker (1x20 FSL) are comparable in terms of hypertrophy ? The total amount of work is different, but standing with that weight for a long time is challenging and fun (I find). It also is less boring aha
One of the templates in Forever has it done twice a week. I would only do this for two weeks before going home and switching to the A/B template, where I would do the widowmaker only once a week.
I was looking at the 531 rest-pause challenge (which is a two day a week plan) and it includes it for the squat, hence my question. I know the widowmaker works as I did it on the monolith and I noticed some change.
C9W3D1, I went for a run on saturday and got IT band pain again. After stretching it felt better again.
Squat
Main sets
5x82
3x94
1x105
1x119, dropped a bit slow, corrected that for the next two
1x130
1x140, PR! I went from 115 to 140 from mid-april. Very happy with this.
Any feedback is welcome!
OHP
5x42
3x47
8x52.5, PR which ties my 50x10 from two weeks ago.
Assistance
Front plate raises 5x10
SLDL 5x10 with 40 kg
Total of 100 chins
Weight: 82.3kg
I’ve been enjoying doing PR sets again for the OHP. I don’t think I will be testing my 1RM for any lifts after this week until December/January.
I think that doing PR sets gives you a good indication of your strength while building it. As Mark has told me before, PR sets are a staple of 531 and I haven’t done them in a while. I am also not a powerlifter, even though lifting heavy is quite fun and challenging.
After my two next leaders, my anchor will include them. The two leaders after that will be strength oriented, probably doing sets of 5 with SSL or BBS again.
The best I’ve done with this weight was 3 reps at the start of the year. I managed to stay tight and I felt better than two weeks ago with 10x113.
Bench
5x5x57, focused on technique and exploding up
Assistance
5x10 curls with 20 kg
SS with diamond push ups 5x10
5x10 ab wheel roll outs from knees
I didn’t want to fry my triceps doing push dows or incline because I’m testing my 1RM on friday for the bench so it didn’t seem to be a productive option.
5x10 Db rows with 30 kg
DB OHP 3x10 with 14kg, 2x10 with 12 kg
Farmer’s walk EMOM with 34 kg in each hand, walked for 25s, rest 35s
First time for me doing these, I enjoyed it! I might do them once a week from now on. The forearm pump was insane, same for my lats and upper back.
This is the end of this program, where I did two cycles of BTM, two cycles of full body with BBS for squat/bench and finally one cycle of full body with PR sets and Jokers. I am very happy with my progress, I put 25kg on my squat, 15 on my bench since mid-april at the start of BTM, added reps to my press and DL.
I am now starting a volume phase with a mix of widowmakers for the squat, BBB for bench and press, 5’s PRO for the DL on a three day split. This will last two weeks before switching to A/B workouts when I go home. and I’ll adjust the supplemental a bit.
When I’ll be going home in two weeks I am going to cycle a lot and probably won’t have time to go to the gym, so I decided to start my next cycle today instead of deloading. My last deload was 3 weeks ago and I feel great!
Today was a tough workout. Because of my IT band pain I had in the past few weeks I did some unilateral work beforehand: balance exercices etc. The final exercice was a rear foot elevated lunge, supersetted with jumping lunges and that fried my quads. I didn’t think it would be that tough!
And then I had to do a widowmaker on the squat… So if you are wondering whether unilateral stuff before squatting is a good idea, let me tell you it is not! ahha
So this is the start of my 10th 531 cycle already!
TM’s: I decided to repeat the same TM for the bench, go back one cycle on the press and keep going as normally on the squat and DL. My TM are in tune and I will do the 7th week protocol after this 3 cycle program.
Squat 115
DL 130
Bench 75
Press 52.5
C10W1D1
Bench BBB
5x10x52.5
I’m not used to do reps but I felt good, I was more thinking about my quads at this point!!
Squat Widowmaker
Main sets
5x56
5x69
20x80
I felt pretty good! Bar speed was good, the last 3 slowed down but nothing dramatic. I had to take extra rest from the 11th rep, but not much. Good point the bar does not burry into my shoulders as much as I remembered from BTM, where I finished with a 20x75 I think.
Assistance
Total 100 chins
No push, I was done after the squats
And I did the single leg stuff beforehand. Jim doesn’t recommend doing this on the full body programs, and I’ll keep it this way.
The actuall barbell stuff is done pretty fast because there are just a few sets!
Surprisingly the most painful leg is the one that is elevated, not the one doing the lunge! My quads were tensing up so bad, not like a cramp but just burning like crazy!
They feel so different compared to the normal lunges I do with both feet on the ground.
That’s your hip stretching I think. Yet another good reason to do them. Also, once you’ve done them for a while lunges are easier to do, give less DOMS and seem to work better.
Mark, I was re-reading your post above on assistance work.
How would you pick a weight for a Kroc row ? i guess there is nothing better than trying, but to have a rough idea ?
I do DB rows either 5x20 with 20kg, or 5x10 with 30kg, these being pretty strict. I’m a bit bored of sets accross and I was going to give this a try when I recalled you suggested them.
Should I aim for a 20kg DB for 30-40 rep with body english ? A 30 kg DB for 20-25? Jim suggests 50-100 reps on one day of my program and I like your idea of back off sets to just get the reps in after the main one.
Thanks again for all your help and info!
edit: also, how do you do them ? I have put my knee and my hand on a bench when I do my rows, but it seems that Kroc rows are done both legs on the floor, one hand on something to support yourself, is that correct ?
I’d say find the heaviest DB you can row, without straps, for 20 using body English. When you can do 30, add five kilos. What you need to remember with Kroc rows is you to one top set; you should not be able to do another set at that weight afterwards.
Oh, and personally I’m not a fan of knee on bench. I prefer hand on bench with body around 45 degrees to bench.