Road to First Meet

28/07/18
Shoulder feels pretty much back to normal, so rest day tommorow then by monday when im benching, will be fine
Squats
Warmups
Bar 5-10
60kgx3

67.5kgx3
77.5kgx3+ , Got 7 reps which im very happy with, squats feeling great

2 Singles 85kg
This is the heaviest ive gone in i think about 3 months but felt better than ever, it felt like it would have been about the last warmup set before an opener.

High bar 50kg 3x7, was supposed to do front squats but i have a dodgy wrist so i think i will just stick to high bar squats as the variation for a while.

30/07/18
Bench day

Warmup
Did some chest press and face pulls
Barx5-10

60kgx3
70kgx3+ Got 6 reps, i got 7 before but that was a while ago when i just did touch and go and bounced them off my chest

2 Singles @75kg, doing these singles are great confidence builders for me as they are weights i know not to mess with, but i usually smoke them so its great.

Feet up close grip bench 50kg 3x8

Rowed 5 mins with final 30 sec sprint, think i did about 1.4km, im always going to do this on bench days as i think it will be a benefit for my shoulder health aswell as some conditioning.

31/07/2018
Trying to remember to ewigh myself every morning again
BW: 73.6KG

My favourite day, deadlift day (:smile:

Warmup
60kgx3 Conventional
60kgx3 Sumo (from now on)
90kgx3

110kgx5
115kgx5+ Goal was 10 reps and that what i got, happy with that, predicted max is higher than precious pr currently and typically i am better at singles so 1rm usually higher than predicted

Knees start to hurt a little after a set like that of sumo, nothing bad just always had bad knees, so for my back downs i did conventional

1x10 100kg
3x10 90kg

8 min row, around 1.4km i believe (i need to remember to check before leaving lol)

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02/08/18
BW: 74.0KG
OHP day, really dont look forward to this day because OHP just doesnt interst me atm, might have to add some light bench in here just to make it a bit more enjoyable for me

25kgx5
40kgx5
45kgx5+ , got 7 reps, alright with that

did 4x10 at 32.5kg and got outta there

03/08/18
BW: 74.9KG
Sqwaaat day
Really happy with how my squats progressing

Warmups
Bar x5
50kgx5

55kgx5 (basically warmup)
60kgx5 (still basically warming up but thats the program)
72.5kgx5+ Hit 10 reps, super happy with that, i think i am just about at my best when it comes to squat so far, hope this keeps up, my form is feeling a lot better

high bar squats beltless
3x8 55kg Also progressed 5kg on these + they felt easier than last week

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What I liked most about this was how you didn’t randomly add weight. You’re learning.

Haha, thanks, the biggest lesson i think i have learnt is kinda hard to word but slow progression is better than rapid progression; because it will actually last

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04/08/18 (yesterday)
Bench

50kgx5
55kgx5
65kgx5+ got 8 reps. all paused, happy with that

55kg 3x10

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07/08/18
Deadlift (Onto week 3)

60kgx5 conventional
90kgx3 sumo (from here on sumo)
105kgx5
115kgx3
127.5kgx1+Max reps, got 6 reps, kinda hoped for at least 7 as i have done 132.5kgx5 but ill take it, will still progress

pendlay rows 72.5kg 3x8
Lat pulldown 65kg 3x8

08/08/18
OHP day
I am going to be throwing in some bench singles before my OHP work, just because OHP isnt very important to me in comparison and its a way of getting a bit more bench frequency. I feel doing more heavy singles will also help me because i noticed whenever i have failed a bench PR attempt, its usually because i miss-grooved it, normally because i push the weight back towards my eyes to quick which causes my elbows to flare and fail the lift.

Bench
2 singles @77.5kg, may have cut the pause a bit short on the first set so i made sure to 2 count on the second, i feel i could possibly do this weight for a double which is a good sign, and the next day i bench i will do 3 singles at this weight.

OHP
heres where things got a lil funky

5/3/1 week so heres wat i did
Barx5
40kgx5
45kgx3
52.5x1+ So, i achieved 2 reps of this, was hoping for at least 3 and think i could have got it, however, i failed the first rep i attempted, i think this was a slight miss-groove but i could tell it was a hard weight aswell. I didnt rack it and did 2 reps, i think i should have just racked the weight then tried again just to reset my mindset, and think i would have got 3 reps, but you live and you learn i guess.

4x10 @32.5kg

A better way would be to ditch press completely in favour of a second bench day using submaximal loads.

Heavy singles are a shitty way to improve technique.

Hmm, could you think of a way to implement this into 5/3/1? Do you think i should just do maybe a set set + rep scheme and do a linear progression for that day of the program?

Forgot you’re doing 531.

Two possible very easy fixes.

  1. Switch out OHP for bench and do 5s Pro at 5s week loads every week, maybe with 3x5 FSL;
  2. Switch out OHP for a bench variation that you change each week (close grip, wide grip, incline, floor press, Spoto press, etc) doing 5s Pro at 5s week loads every week - this is what I would do.

For both options, assistance would be more bench assistance.

Sorry, My brain doesnt understand xd could you explain what 5s pro and 5s week loads part means, and FSL? Sorry for hassle

No worries :slight_smile:

5s Pro is a 531 variation where you do sets of five throughout the cycle. Effectively you do 3x5 every week. The 531 percentages stay the same.

FSL is a supplemental addition (like BBB) which has you doing the First Set Last after you finish your 531 sets.

What I mean by 5s week loads is that you do the loads for week one (65/75/85%) every week.

I won’t totally agree with @MarkKO
Louie you’re 16 years old right. Don’t specialize know.
I would keep the press, ohp is important for many things among other it keeps your shoulder healthy. You don’t have to push it very hard. And if you keep it then in a couple of years when you don’t wan’t to PL anymore but do strongmanshit then you have to OHP.
My suggestion is a bit like what you yourself are doing.

You do 5/3/1 OG (original) amraps on the last set. You have some BBB 3-5 sets of 10 FSL (first set last) as back of on all lifts, I would change that slightly. I’ll explain later.
For OHP day: start with the OHP do the amraps on the last set as the program requires.
THEN you set up for bench doing a kind of speed work using 75% of TM doing 5 sets of 3 reps, focus on technique get the bar to the chest, engage the lats, slight pause at the bottom explode from the chest doing it fast and furious (but controlled).

For the remaining days, either keep the BBB sets (3-5 sets of 10) or you could do 5x5 with FSL. (65% on 5’s week, 70% on 3’s week and 75% on 531’s week). 3 sets of 5 on DL day.

This is something you should be very careful about. You don’t want to have a bad knee already.

For bracing try this one by Alpha/Brian Alsruhe

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Thanks for the help, and yeah im 17 now, and sorry im not a very talented writer and not very good at explaining myself lol, but im not going to completley throw OHP out of the window, just i didnt want a day just purely based on OHP, i wanted to add some bench as i am training for a meet and am not sure 1x a week bench will cut it. I completely agree its an important movement (i think its better than the bench) however i dont personally enjoy it much and i dont compete in it.

@MarkKO With the 5s pro, are you saying to do that with all my movements on all days or just for the bench day which replaced the OHP day?

09/08/18
Sqwwwaaat day
And i have never mentioned but 70% of the time i go the the gym, i ride a bike there (as in a bicycle) which is 4.5 miles there and 4.5 miles back so often i dont do cardio or even do a thorough warmup i just start with the bar for my movements and build up.

Building up to my 1+ set for squats
Barx5
60kgx5
Put on wrist wraps +belt
70kgx1

80kgx1+ Was expecting around 5-6 reps and i got 8 which i was super happy about but thinking about it, i should have expected that much, still very good progression though, i have an old video of me doing 82.5kg for a terrible triple lol, these reps were a lot cleaner. My squats are typically very slow though or at least feel it as even with 60kg the reps seem slow.

Idiot me forgot to do the singles, will do them on bench day, did some assistance and got outta there.

Just the replacement day.

11/08/18
Bench day, last day of my first 5/3/1 Cycle, i may test my squat as its been a while but nothing else.

Buidling up to 72.5kg for 1 rep or more
Barx5
60kgx3
Belt and wrist wraps on
65kgx1

72.5kg, got 6 reps, really pleased, big pr for me and cant wait to run the next cycle tbh.

1 single @80kg felt okay, didnt want to do a second just because i was very fatigued after the session

pin press touching chest 3x5 60kg

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