Trivium's Quest to 4/3/5

Training Logs
1

Currently doing 5/3/1.

Training Maxes
Press - 140
Bench - 235
Squat - 300
Deads - 310

A note on the deads, I did a single at 375 and just missed 405 two weeks ago, so I am starting way below 90% here. Im struggling with my squat. My bench and Press have been going up though.

I will not be taking any deloads unless school gets in the way. I plan on doing 30 straight weeks, taking days here and there for recovery/studying.

My split looks like this.

Press (5/3/1 sets)
Bench (5x10)
Pullup (Increasing #'s)
Curls (3x10)
Face Pull (3x10)

Squat (5/3/1 sets)
Deadlift (5x10)

Bench (5/3/1 sets) (paused reps)
Press (5x10)
Kroc Row (Increasing sets of 10)
T-Bar Row (This slot has been changing a lot lately)
Skull Crusher (3x10)
Triceps finisher

Deadlift (5/3/1 sets)
Squat (5x10)

I will start logging next week. This week is all messed up already due to the new year and all.

Thank you for reading my Log. I hope this goes well.

2

Heppy New years everyone.

I didn’t mention in my last post. I am going to try to limit my weight gain to up to 230 lbs, and keep my waist measurement below 36 in. If I fail either of those, I’m gonna clean up my diet and possibly add some cardio.

Again, I’ll start updating this log in the new year. All the weight rooms in my area are closed today and tomorrow, and the gym at college opens on the 2nd. Hopefully there aren’t too many new years resolution people there this year.

3

Bench Press
45x5
135x5
170x3
195x3
220x5 (spotter said he helped get #6 off my chest. Still a disappointing lift.)

Kroc Row
4x10 @ 100 lbs

Press
5x10 @ 95 lbs (felt real beat up)

Skull Crusher
3x10 @ 70 lb ez bar

Meadows row
3x10 @ 50 lbs (two 25 lb plates) on each arm.

Time in gym: 1.5 hours.

Weight: 204

Not happy with this lift. The press was a grind. I literally had to stop and go to rest pause after the 2nd set so that I wouldn’t start failing reps. Went like that for the rest of the sets until I got to number 5. The bench reps were low. I have been sick with a cough for the last week or so, but I’ve been eating and sleeping well so this is inexcusable. My lifts earlier in the cycle (the “5” week) were much better. I feel like I can rep the hell out of stuff sometimes, but my lifts suffer when I get to heavier weights. I’m not sure what the hell is going on.

4

do you think it’s with your breathing? I have to pretty much plan out how I’m going to breathe before a set, as it changes a bit for different rep ranges.

5

[quote]browndisaster wrote:
do you think it’s with your breathing? I have to pretty much plan out how I’m going to breathe before a set, as it changes a bit for different rep ranges.[/quote]

I don’t think so. There’s a lot you have to take into account with me. So I’ll give you a short back story.

I’m not sure what is happening with this my life at the moment (not the program’s fault). When the program was working the best, it worked like magic for about 6 months. Literally, weight just came up like you wouldn’t believe, then I started failing reps when my life became a mess.

I refused to accept less than 10 reps on any of my last sets and I couldn’t eat because of school, which also makes me have to occasionally take a week completely off resulting in dropping 5 lbs, which I constantly have to regain. School also causes me a significant amount of stress and flares my IBS. Yeah I know too much info, but it does happen. If I am able to go, I go. The only things that keep me from going to the gym are school and violent vomiting/diarrhea. Ive lifted through pneumonia, hangovers, not eating for a couple days, no sleep, etc…

Now I just rep out every workout, which may be beating me up and causing me to stall, but I feel like it is better because, at the bare minimum if I have to take a week off or miss workouts I’ve already torched my muscles. I’m only going to deload when I cannot maintain the minimum amount of reps, then maybe if school isn’t looking that rough (I am doing all of my scheduling and test planning in the next couple days) then I’ll do things a little more intelligently. Also I have not been able to cook because my room mates are quite possibly the messiest people on the planet, and I dont have time to clean their messes before I cook, and then clean up again. In my eyes, it is better to do too much than too little. Stalling is better than losing.

This program (it has changed a little over time, but is basically the same)took me from 162 to 214.3 in 7 months. Yeah, I gained a little bodyfat, but my waist only gained an inch or so. I can detail my diet from when I was cooking if anyone is interested. It takes no time at all.

Right now my diet is all over the place.

Thanks for posting man. I might go workout later tonight. (I have decided to do every other day rather than the normal split for BBB.)

6

it’s interesting that we’re at the same strength levels, as my weight gain has been similar to yours. I feel you on the living situations, I lived in a frat house last year and the place was a health violation (literally). I think the only thing that helped was that I worked at a restaurant, but even then I lost tons of weight, especially when overwhelmed with school/life stress. I guess if I was in a similar situation again I would just drink a lot of shakes and then a bunch of microwavable carb sources.

I think going for max reps every session and doing BBB is a good idea. I’ll follow along unless you become a bish with your diet and fall back more. For what it’s worth yogurt daily solved my friend’s IBS, but I have no clue what it’s like to have it.

7

[quote]browndisaster wrote:
it’s interesting that we’re at the same strength levels, as my weight gain has been similar to yours. I feel you on the living situations, I lived in a frat house last year and the place was a health violation (literally). I think the only thing that helped was that I worked at a restaurant, but even then I lost tons of weight, especially when overwhelmed with school/life stress. I guess if I was in a similar situation again I would just drink a lot of shakes and then a bunch of microwavable carb sources.

I think going for max reps every session and doing BBB is a good idea. I’ll follow along unless you become a bish with your diet and fall back more. For what it’s worth yogurt daily solved my friend’s IBS, but I have no clue what it’s like to have it.[/quote]

Thanks man. Its gonna be motivating to have someone else follow along. Are you natty?

The IBS thing for me is brought on mostly by stress, so I have physical signs of when my body is being overwhelmed by psychological factors. I have all the indicators for it as well. It doesn’t really slow me down all that much. A lot of people are overly dramatic about it.

8

Deadlift
135x5
185x5
225x3
260x3
290x15

Squats
5x10 @ 185 lbs

Weight: 207.1 lbs

Deadlifts were nuts today. This is an all time PR. Took my good old time getting the squats in afterwards. My legs felt like jello.

9

Military Press
45x5
95x5
115x5
130x3
140x6 (new PR at 140…I think)

Pull Ups
7 sets of 4

Bench Press
5x10 @ 135

Curls
3x10 @ 60

Face pull
3x10 @ 10 on cable stack set at 22 height
I did a few more reps at a lighter weight as well.

10

From 2 days ago…

Squat
45x5
135x5
185x5
235x5
265x3
295x7

Deadlift
5x10 @ 185

Improved on the squat, but my knees keep caving in after the 4th rep. On rep 8 I tried to keep my knees forced out and just couldn’t get the weight up. Hamstring focused work on the horizon??? Haven’t been falling forward at the bottom as much recently though. My deadlifts were shitty form that day due to just being beat up from the squats. My back is still a little sore, so I may or may not lift tonight (I don’t like to do an upper body day if any part of my upper body is sore). We will see how the rest of the night goes. I really want to keep setting new post deload PR’s, so I am taking my time to let my body recover before I move to the next thing. I don’t want to burn out due to there being no deload weeks (aka weeks where school is more important) on the horizon. (The semester just started.)

11

Bench Press
45x5
135x5
185x3 (stopped early…oops) Immediately got set back up. 185 x 3
205x3
230x6

Kroc Row
3x10 @ 100 then 1x15 @ 100

Press
5x10 @ 95

Skull Crusher
3x10 @ 70

Meadows Row
3x10 with two 25 lb plates

T-bar Row
1 x 10 with four 25 lb plates.

Weighed in at 208 even.

Spent a lot of time in the gym today. The struggle today was with the press. Just wouldn’t go up for the life of me, so I had to grind the reps rest pause style.

I have gotten dramatically stronger in the last 10 days. More reps at more weight. Im gonna try to keep this pace. I am happy with this.

12

I like your style! I’ll be following along.

13

Obligatory.

14

[quote]csulli wrote:
I like your style! I’ll be following along.[/quote]

Thanks my man. I’ll try not to disapoint!

15

[quote]detazathoth wrote:
Obligatory.

How did you ever know I like this song?

16

Kroc rows treated me well, so I took an extra day to let my back recover a little. Im gonna sleep well, and slay my DL tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll weigh in at 209+. I can feel it haha. I’m not sure how I’m gonna handle the next week that my weights go down. Since my last cycle seemed to have given me some big gains (more weight and more reps every week) maybe I’ll stop at 10 next week and work on form, and then work on rep maxes again the next 2 weeks. Thanks for all the support guys. It is much appreciated.

17

nice lifting, volume on the accessory back work kicks ass

18

Deadlift
135x5
185x5
225x3
240x5
275x3
305x10

Squat
3x10 @ 185

My back felt tight the whole time, and my hips/knees felt beat up during the squats. I may or may not take a day off tomorrow. I should go, but again, I want my back to feel good for the OHP. Either that or I’ll take an easier week and just stop at 10 and work on form, or whatever. I need some movitavion. I want to keep progressing, but I think every time I feel good I just get my little heart set on a new PR on everything and then I burn out haha. Have a good night everyone.

19

Press
45x5
95x5
100x5
115x5
130x7
135x3 (Extra set. No pause at the bottom.)

Pull Ups
7 sets of 5 (Hope I did these correctly. Used a new pull up bar.)

Bench Press
5x10 @ 135

Preacher Curl
3x10 @ 60

Face Pull
3x10 @ 10 on cable stack 22 height

My lower back was trashed all day. I think 7 is gonna be the magic number this week. That set at 130 was all I had to give. I hope I get stronger next week. not sure how that works. Im just gonna keep the effort high and let the weights take care of themselves. I want my back to feel better. When its sore I don’t even feel like going to the gym haha. I really hope that my pullups and face pulls were good as well. I dont know. We shall see.

20

do you do anything to help your lower back? foam rolling, stretching, bodyweight extensions, or just plain moving around always helps cut down recovery time for me