5/3/1 Building the Monolith W6D3 (FINAL DAY!) Squat
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 5
375 x 3
425 x 3
475 x 5 350 x 20 - widowmaker PR
Press
115 x 5
170 x 5
170 x 5
170 x 5
170 x 5
170 x 5
170 x 5
170 x 5
I was supposed to do 10 sets of press, but I called the workout after laying on the floor for 5+mins after that widowmaker set. The press was pretty easy at that weight, so I didn’t feel as though I was missing much there anyways. I will get the assistance done tomorrow.
Just the thought of doing 20 reps with squats makes me feel sick. They I look at your session and you did 20 reps with a weight I would be happy 3 reps. urrrgghhh
Doh! I suppose that’s what I get for blindly following the spreadsheet of the program from the Reddit group rather than actually referring to the direct source itself (I do see it has been updated/corrected since I first printed it).
06/12/2021 DEEP WATER BEGINNER W1D1 Light Axle Deadlifts
165 x 10
165 x 10
165 x 10
Squats
305 x 10
305 x 10
305 x 10
305 x 10
305 x 10
305 x 10
305 x 10
305 x 10
305 x 10
305 x 10
Whew, these sucked. Not close to failing a rep, but I was not looking forward to each subsequent set. Big pump, and lots of heavy breathing. I’m not looking forward to reducing rest times.
BB Lunges
135 x 10
135 x 10
135 x 10
I’ve never been a fan of lunges and it turns out I’m still not. I feel these in my knees more than anything else. I know I should run the program as prescribed, but I’m already considering a substitution here. Anyone care to talk me into staying the course on these?
SUPERSET Situps
20
20
20
Back Extensions
20
20
20
06/14/2021 DEEP WATER BEGINNER W1D2 Pullups
21
15
12
8
Bent Over Rows
135 x 10
185 x 10
185 x 10
185 x 10
185 x 10
A great back pump after these two movements. I had a bad headache coming into this workout, and the bent-over rows seemed to make it worse. I had planned on getting 205-225lbs on my top sets but just kept the reps slow and controlled and they felt good.
Clean Pull
225 x 10
225 x 10
225 x 10
Another movement I’m not sold on, probably because I feel like a fish out of water on any movements involving technique. Sloppy awkward shrugs/short high pulls.
SUPERSET Plank
60s
60s
60s
Situps
20
20
20
Not too bad of a workout overall. My legs are still feeling the squats from my last workout.
X2 on the reverse lunges. Stepping forward is a crap shoot in terms of how far you step, and as a result, what angle your front leg ends up at, but stepping backwards means you can just stop your rear foot moving once your front foot is at whatever angle you want it to be.
For the clean pulls, you have two options - one, look up youtube videos and use it to really practice that explosive hip extension which will make the cleans better, or two, go full @T3hPwnisher mode and embrace the bad technique in order to make things worse for yourself which will manifest in greater gains. I don’t think you can go wrong either way, and with Jon talking in his e-book about doing 101 reps of cleans, he can’t care much either, because there’s not an oly lifter in the world who’s going to maintain technique through that many reps.
Thanks all for the suggestions on the reverse lunges. I’ll try those out next workout. After destroying my big toe a couple of years ago lunges have just increased in suck for me. It tends to bother my toe, and I don’t have much ROM for it bending upwards. Either way, I’ll try the reverse lunges next squat workout.
I did watch some YouTube videos prior to the workout, but the clean pulls still felt awkward. Can only go up from where I am now in terms of technique!
I was in the similar boat, never having done a clean pull or a power clean before starting the program. I didn’t work on technique very much other than watching a few videos… I just gave up trying to learn and embraced the terrible form and am still doing terrible looking power cleans haha.
