Here’s an idea, a 531 loading and progression scheme, but every 5th week is a 3rm max effort test week to provide the challenge I crave, without overdoing it.
Take a look at my log, that’s very similar to I do. Old Guy Doing 5/3/1 - #1295 by OTHSteve On my 3’s week (days 3 and 4 of my current cycles. since I’m doing 2 whole body days per training ‘week’), instead of going for max reps on my last set, I stick to 3 reps, then do 1-2 heavier joker sets of 3 reps to get my fix of heavy weights in. I do this to because like you, I sort of feel like I haven’t worked hard enough unless I push some heavy weight, but it keeps me from hurting myself while doing it since I’m doing sets of 3 instead of singles. I also never do a set that I’m not sure I can make. I don’t ever miss a rep while doing 5/3/1. All bets are off when I’m doing strongman event practice though, I don’t know the implements well enough to be 100% sure what I can do until I try it.
This works especially well in the early stages of a cycle when my training maxxes are normally significantly less than my true max. Once I get ten cycles in or so, I’ll have to start backing off because my training weights start becoming a more significant fraction of my true max. About the time I start being unable to hit 10 reps on the final set of 5’s week is when I have to start backing off on the joker sets.
1 Like
Skipping today. Knees are sore, and I realized my plan had a squat day right after deadlift day. That I know is not a real good idea for me. My cns recovery is great, but my muscle recovery is slower. My deadlift form, which is kind of a hybrid between standard and sumo, hits my legs pretty good and last time I did squats and deadlift back to back it was too much. I’ve had a good bit of climbing at work this week too, so err in favor of recovery today. Ordered some knee sleeves. With multiple meniscus tears that have not been treated beyond cortisone, it can’t hurt. Last fall my right knee swelled up so bad I couldn’t move it for weeks while awaiting an mri, having it drained twice, and finally cortisone. It’s probably close to a miracle that I can climb and lift and escaped surgery. My left knee sounds like it’s grinding grain or something, but never got bad enough to treat. Tree climbing spikes are hell on knees. I look forward to trying out the sleeves.
Modified program to avoid deadlifts and squats on adjacent days and only bench press once per week with a second day involving accessory exercises that should help my bench/chest development, but minimise risk to my shoulder, as long as it holds up to dips.
91° f and sunny in my backyard gym today, so I decided to abbreviate todays session to avoid dying. I need a canopy or one of those giant umbrellas so at least there is some shade.
Squat from safeties:
135x3, 185x3, 215x3, 215 5x1 cluster
Dips:
Body only x5, +20x5, +29 5x2
Zercher squat:
135x5, 155x5, 175x5
Doing squats from the safety bars, I noticed was only comfortable with a slightly wider stance than I think I usually use. I will have to look at that again on saturday and see if the stance is wider, and if that feels better in a normal squat. Dead squats feel wide and hard as fuck, but I like them.
The second working set of dips was easier than the first. Add weight next time.
Zerchers felt good and hard, but not too hard. I’m sure I could have pushed more weight for 5 reps, but I’m really trying not to over do it. Add 10lbs next time.
Half day at work and off day for lifting, but I gotta do something right?
Power snatch, bar x3, 95lbsx3, 115x3, 135x3
Overhead squats, barx10
Form is feeling better. Can’t bounce the bar off my waist because my arms are too long, so I just accelerate the bar in a straight line from the floor to top. I’m never going to compete in weightlifting, so I figure if it works, it works. Switched to open grip and it helps my wrist position greatly. Do people snatch with an open grip? Probably not. It would probably be a major limiting factor to the weight one could handle, but it feels much better on my wrists
Bought the 531 e book. I wanted to stay with the program I designed for 4 weeks to try it out, but as hot as its been here, tomorrows workout looks insane and I am already thinking I want a set progression rather than challenging myself to a rep max every workout. So with a bit of free time today, I am working on adapting 531 to my plan.
7/4/2020
9:45 am 82° f high humidity sunny heat index 88°
Cycle 1 week 1
- Squat tm 285
75% 215 x5
80% 230 x5
85% 245 x7 at least 1 in the tank… I think.
2a.Front squat slow eccentric (se)
Warm up 135 x6, 155 x5 se 155 x6
2b. Bodyweight pullups
10, 8, 10
- Hip Thrust Mmtor
Warm up 135 x6, 185 x6, Mmtor 205 x8
I had planned lateral raises and bent over lat raises, but it was too hot and the sun was threatening to hurt me. Excuses, but it’s just an extra and has nothing to do with my main goal of getting stronger on the big lifts.
7/05/2020 Sunday 9:00 am. 75° f lower humidity
Week 1 cycle 1
1a. Bench press 531 tm 200lbs 3x5
Barx10, 135x5, 75% 150x5, 80% 160x5,
85% 170x8
1b. Pendley row all lifts identical to bench
2a. Db fly
30x8, 35x10 Mmtor
2b. Cable lat raise
10x10, 15x8+6 rp
3a. Cable Diagonal front raise
15x10, 20x12+6 rp
3b. Cable bent over lat raise
15x6, 20x12+6 rp
- Cable rope hammer curl
50x6, 50x7 MmTor
Started 1 hour earlier than yesterday to avoid some of the heat and direct sun. It felt great. Lat raises were programmed for yesterday but I didn’t get them in, so I did them today. When programming accessory isolation exercises I normally do minimum warm up sets and one all out work set, but that is when the muscles have already been used significantly on multijoint lifts. In hind sight, the lat raises should have more volume on this day due to minimal involvement in the other lifts. Why do lat raises at all? I want bigger shoulders, just for aesthetics.
So I decided to give the 531 programming a try for the big lifts and move pullups to accessory position. So my 531 lifts will be the normal 4, plus pendley row, which will just be done as a mirror image to my bench. It is very convenient that my bench weight and row weight are the same and it will be interesting to see if they stay the same. Last week served as a good 3rm test and my 3rm’s from last week will be my tm’s for 531 cycle 1. Yes, I find it hard to stick with a program for long. I did 8 weeks of Best Damn Strength and even though I liked the program, I was just dying to do something new by the 6th week. 4 week cycles of 531 might just help, and I can shift accessory work at cycle shifts if I please. Light olyimpic work can be done on off days, but not a priority. One day a week will also be used to hit a couple squat variations at 80-85% rpe so I hit squats twice a week and get some different angles and will not include a 531 lift.
Brian Alsruhe (the guy who’s program I’m running) is a big proponent of being equally as strong in row as bench and always includes rows in his program before bench, so your in good company and its a good goal to keep them the same, might be the variation of row will need to change as you get stronger in the bench though.
1 Like
It’s good to know at least somebody thinks it’s good. Compare my dumbbell press to dumbbell row and they are not even close. As I recall, I can get around 8-10 reps at 100lbs from a one armed bent over row with the other arm on the bench. I can’t even get a 100 pound dumbbell into position to try to press it.
1 Like
7/06/2020 Monday
Off day for lifting, half day at work due to 95° high temperature.
Light exercise for recovery session.
Plyo push up 10x2
Plyo lunge 10x2
Band pull apart 20x2
Vertical jump 10x2
(Done as superset)
V ups to failure then straight to reverse crunch to failure x2
Yea getting DBs in to bench position is an art form, I only train with adjustables as well so I tend to stick mostly with BB bench varieties.
07/07/2020 Tuesday
Week1 cycle 1
Short on time today, so main lift +1 accessory set only.
Deadlift: tm 350 3x5 75%, 80%, 85%
135x5, 185x5, 235x5, 265x5, 285x5, 300x9
Rdl+shrug:
1 set, 235lbs 10 rdl’s and 7 shrugs
Rdl+shrug set done as rdl with shrug at top of movement. Only 7 shrugs because I could do more rdl’s than shrugs today.
1 Like
07/08/2020 Wednesday
“Extra” day
Power cleans: practice form with 145lbs
Zercher Squat:
145x7, 160x8, 180x6, 180x8+2 rest pause
Db rows:
55x8, 75x8, 95x8+3 rest pause (each arm)
Pullups: 8,8, 8+3 rp
I wanted to do more, but 88 fuckin degrees at 6:30 pm. Makes me want to switch back to early morning workouts, but they make me tired for work.
On another note, why can’t I do more pullups? I mean, I climb trees for a living.
Oh, and I seem to have gained 3 lbs. Weighed in at 176 today. I might sweat that off tomorrow on the job site, but I’ll call it a 3 lb gain for the week.
1 Like
Have you historically done nick chin up work? Might just be your body needs to learn the pattern more efficiently to apply your strength?
Also I have no clue about climbing trees (outside of playing around as a kid) so I could be well off the mark, but don’t you use your legs quite a bit tree climbing? Which would make it a very different movement.
Historically I have not done a whole lot of pullups. I always had a fairly strong dislike for them, so even though I wanted to be better at them, I didn’t do a whole lot of them. Fair amount of lat pulldowns, but for some reason that didn’t help much.
When climbing trees, if it is a removal I wear spikes and it’s mostly leg. For trimming we do not wear spikes and there is a lot more arms involved, but it’s not like I’m up there doing reps and sets and when pulling myself up a rope the angle becomes more like a row. I know it doesn’t really translate to pullups, the comment was a little sarcastic.
1 Like
07/10/2020 friday 6:00 am
Week 1 cycle 1
- Overhead Press 3x5
Barx10, 100x5, 110x5, 115x7
2.a. Clean and 3 push press:
145, 160
2.b. Pullup:
10, 8
3.a. Dips
10, 10, 11+3 rp
3.b. Cable Lat raise and bent over lat raise
alternating:
15lbs, 3 sets max reps, didn’t count reps (8-
10 for each exercise)
-
Dumbbell fly: 30lbsx8, 30x10 MmTor
It was only 72 degrees early in the morning today. Felt great!
Two days to catch my log up on.
Saturday, 07/11/2020
Week 2 cycle 1
Squat: 3x3 tm 285
Bx8, 135x5, 185x3, 235x3, 245x3, 255x5
Front squat: slow ecc on last set
135x5, 155x5, 155x8 slow ecc
Hip thrust: MmTor on last set
155x6, 205x6, 225x6 MmTor
Pullup: 5, 10, 12
Toes to bar/knee raise super set 2 sets
Barbell suitcase carry 135lbs, about 15-20 seconds per carry, 2 sets
Sunday 07/12/2020
Week 2 cycle 1
Bench/pendley superset: 3x3 tm 200
Bx10, 135x5, 160x3, 170x3, 180x7
Db fly: MmTor
30x10, 35x9 MmTor
Cable hammer curl: MmTor
50x6, 50x8, 50x7 MmTor
Cable lateral raise/bent over lat raise
10x10, 15xR8 L6, 15x 6+3 rest pause
Diagonal cable front raise
10x10, 20x 12+6 rp
Catching up on log again. I’ve been busy, and it has been very hot at my outdoor home gym, but I got some stuff done.
Tuesday 07/14/2020
W2c1
Deadlift tm 350
Snatch
95x3, 115x3, 135x3, 145x1
Deadlift
235x3, 285x3, 300x3, 315x9
1arm dumbbell shrug
105x8, 115x9
Pullups, bodyweight emom
5, 5, 5, 2, 4, 3
Friday 07/17/2020
W2c1
Ohp tm 135
Ohp
Barx10, 95x5, 110x3, 115x3, 120x6
Clean and push press
145 1 clean/3pp, 165 1c 2.5 pp,
185 clean only x3
Cable lat raise
10x10, 15x7, 15x7
Bodyweight pullups 6x5
1 Like