Maple Syrup Strength (littlesleeper)

No disrespect to Jim, but that’s BS. Remember, 5/3/1 isn’t for powerlifting as such. It needs to be modified for that. Lots of people think they need to feel heavy weights to be able to do them, but they don’t.

It’s simple: accumulate fatigue, peak, rest, perform. During accumulation your strength will ‘drop’ because of the load of fatigue you’re carrying. That’s meaningless. So is hitting heavier singles to ‘feel’ heavy weight. What you feel doesn’t mean jack shit. It tells you nothing.

Do what you like, but know that you never need to go heavy or do singles outside of a peak.

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Could you recommend me a good peaking cycle? I’m pretty new to lifting, haha.

If the hamstring is truly tweaked then you should get some ice on it ASAP.

Don’t stretch it. Ice for 20 min 2-3 times a day for three days and then when you can’t localize the pain begin the starr / rippietoe rehab protocol.

Ice post workout and alternate heat every 5 min for 20 min.

If it’s just a twinge and not a tear then it would be different…

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Yes.

Go into it five weeks out from your meet. Don’t deload before unless your deload falls the week immediately before the peak. Your five weeks ends on meet day.

Week 1 (Mon/Tue/Thur)
Main lift3x1x90% of your working max
Paused squat/close grip bench/snatch grip DL 3x3x60% of your working max

Friday air squats, push-ups, inverted rows, back raises 25-50 reps each

Week 2 (Mon/Wed/Fri)
Work up to a small PR for each lift
No supplementals

Week 3 (Mon/Tue/Thur)
2x1x90% of week 2
Paused squat/close grip bench/snatch grip DL 3x2x60% of week 2

Friday air squats, push-ups, inverted rows, back raises 25-50 reps each

Week 4 (Mon/Wed/Fri)
3x1x80% of week 2
No supplementals

Week 5 (meet week)
Six days out
Squat 5x2x50% of week 2
Bench 5x3x50% of week 2
Deadlift 5x1x50% of week 2

Meet day
Squat and DL
Attempt 1 90-93% of week 2
Attempt 2 100-102.5% of week 2
Attempt 3 103-105% of week 2

Bench
Attempt 1 90% of week 2
Attempt 2 100% of week 2
Attempt 3 102-103% of week 2

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Thank you. I’m assuming I’d be squatting on Monday, Benching on Tuesday, and Deadlifting on Thursday? And 3 x 1 means three singles?

Correct on all counts.

It’s basically a carbon copy of what Greg uses. It works.

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I think for shits, once I’m done the program I’m on now and prior to starting the new one I’ll give this a go and see what the last year of general training has done for my powerlifts.

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It was just a twinge. It’s better now, surprisingly. Thanks for the advice though! You messed your hamstring up pretty bad a few years ago, I remember.

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Awesome. If I may ask, who’s Greg?

Greg Panora. Google him.

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Haha, thanks man!

:+1:

Thanks Mort, the 2 plates felt like an empty bar after doing those heavy squats. Although after about 10 reps, it started feeling extremely heavy…

Basically what @MarkKO said. For me, not typically considering myself a powerlifter, “meet prep training” is just training that is very specific to the big 3 lifts and my weaknesses.

So find where you’re going to fail a movement and try to hit that weakness with your assistance/supplemental.

These movements may differ depending on your weaknesses. Mark gave a list of some common exercises. I personally, do not like paused squats so I’ve been adding some volume in to the end of my squat session often with box squats and/or varied stance (feet wide in my case). I like JM presses, close grip bench and the use of a SlingShot for overloading the top end of the bench. Since I pull semi-sumo in deadlift, I often use conventional as my supplemental.To be honest though, time limitations have left the work outside of the big 3 quite minimal.

Oh, also, don’t forget about/neglect your rowing. Chinups/pullups, BB rows, 1 arm rows, inverted rows, facepulls, band pullaparts, etc. At a minimum, do some form of rowing for each bench workout, but I find that the back feeds off of volume/frequency.

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I do some form of back work 4x/week. I do at least 50 chin-ups/pull-ups when I press and squat, and I row on bench day. And then, I deadlift. I will incorporate some of the bench assistance exercises you mentioned this cycle. Thank you!

Also, @MarkKO, this might be a silly question, but how long should I pause the squats for?

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lol, brutal

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Three seconds usually works.

@littlesleeper you’re bang on with exercise selection. What I set out is specifically for the peak. In the accumulation phase, we do a lot more variations and assistance.

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Awesome.

10/27/2018

Squats
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 3
365 x 2
405 x 1
435 x 1
465 x 2
465 x 2 ← Misgrooved second rep, was damn near RPE 10 to save it.
465 x 2
465 x 2
465 x 2 ← The rest of these doubles weren’t too bad. A rep or two in the tank.

Bench
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 3
275 x 2
310 x 2
310 x 2
310 x 2
310 x 2
310 x 2 ← Sets moved well.

Band Pullaparts
15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15

DB One-Arm Row
100 x 10
100 x 10
100 x 10


Bench and deadlift workout scheduled for this evening.
Weight is still hovering around the 220lb mark.

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Lies. Ended up not getting this workout in. I made some Shepherd’s Pie when I got home (which took a little longer than expected) then I edited a letter for my mother-in-law. It was around 7:30pm, and I had lost the ambition to go for a workout.

So now, tonight, I have a shit show of a workout.
Squat: 5x2 @ 475lbs
Bench: 5x2 @ 315lbs
Deadlift: 5x2 @ 585lbs
I’m nervous for those deadlifts.

After this workout, the rest of my training involves only singles leading up to my competition on Nov 14th. Next week is going to be interesting trying to get my workouts in as I’ll be away at the hunting camp, but likely just drive home a couple nights to get the work done.

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You could be that odd dude how brought a barbell and 1000 lbs of plates to the camp along with some stand alone racks and a bench.

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I’m already the “odd dude” to these guys. Eating healthy and doing physical activity that isn’t farm work makes me weird.

So might as well load up the truck with weights! (The camp is only about 1hr away from our house, so it’s not a huge deal to head home for a night or two)

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10/30/2018

Well, I did it…

Squat
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 3
365 x 3
405 x 2
445 x 1
475 x 2
475 x 2
475 x 2
475 x 2
475 x 2

Not bad, nothing above RPE 8. I’m happy the way 475lbs felt tonight, not as heavy as I thought it was going to feel.

Bench - all reps competition pause
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
275 x 2
315 x 2
315 x 2
315 x 2
315 x 2
315 x 2

Again, not bad. Nothing over RPE 8 here. This is currently my competition PR, and my opener from last meet. I’m thinking that my opener will be higher than this for this coming meet, which is exciting to see progress on my stubborn bench press.

Deadlifts - semi-sumo/squat stance
225 x 2
315 x 2
365 x 2
405 x 2
455 x 2 ← double overhand all set including these
495 x 1 < - hook grip
545x 1 < - hook
585 x 2 ← hook almost. Both a little soft lockouts because this is where my fingers scrape my shorts and peel my fingers out of my hook grip. I think the singlet eliminates a lot of this vs a pair of bulky shorts.
585 x 2 < - straps for remaining sets. RPE 8
585 x 2 ← RPE 8
585 x 2 ← RPE 9.5 - wow, that escalated quickly. TOUGH second pull. Long rest of chatting before this pull.
585 x 2 ← RPE 9 - a little quicker than last set, but still form breakdown was close, if not there.

I have a video of my first and last set from my deadlifts, so I’ll try to get that uploaded today or tomorrow.

Entire workout ran about 1hr 50mins. I would have probably been about 10mins less than this but my buddy came down and we chatting a bit between deadlift sets. Felt like I was spending the majority of this workout just loading and unloading the bar!
I’m glad it is over, and satisfied with how things went.

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