Thanks. I’ve read the article many times, the section below is why I was using my actual 1RM.
“I do a seminar basically every week,” Wendler says, his voice rising. "Every time, without fail, when I ask someone what their one-rep max is, I get this: ‘Wellll, about three years ago I hit 365 for a triple, but that was when I was training heavier …’ Most guys just don’t have a fucking clue.
“By using the 90%, I account for this bullshit. By using weights they can actually handle, guys are building muscle, avoiding burnout, and most importantly, making progress every workout.”
I had hit them all recently, there wasn’t any bullshit in the 1RM’s. I was however thinking I might have gone too heavy the first cycle. Most logs I see have guys doing more than 2 or 3 reps on their 1+ sets week 3.
Thanks again. Not gonna give you my sob story but money is tight right now, I do plan on getting one of your ebooks soon.
Deloading this week and I’ll reset things for next week. I’d like to get up to 250 on bench, 315 for a few reps on squats and feel this program is an efficient way to do it.
I’m a recovering alcoholic and lifting has become an important part of my “recovery.” A lot of guys might laugh at my 165lb weight but I feel a hell of a lot better about myself (and get a lot of compliments) at 165 then I did at a skinny fat 136 when I drank.
Jkgoblue
p.s. I watched UFC 114 with Matt Kroc. Coincidence, first time I met him. He speaks very well of the EFS team and represents you guys well as you can imagine.
[quote]mjnewland wrote:
for bbb, my caculated max from reps on bench is 323, but I do the 5x10 at 185 which is about 58%. on deadlift, my calculated max from reps is 456, and the 5x10 is at 235 which is about 52%.
Moral of the story: 50-55% of caculated rep max is a great place to start. I only progress the weight on the 5x10 portion when 5x10 is so easy that I feel guilty.
All you have to do is pick a place to start, and pick the method by which you will progress it, then just do it.[/quote]
Except Deathtongue is a much better animated band than Dethklok.[/quote]
WAIT
Deathtongue? I will search the internet immediately.
I noticed that deathklok is really cannibal corpse in disguise. who does deathtongue pretend to be?
[quote]mjnewland wrote:
I noticed that deathklok is really cannibal corpse in disguise. who does deathtongue pretend to be?[/quote]
Not quite, lead singer is based on the lead singer from cannibal corpse but other members are based on other rock/metal icons. And for recording I believe Brendan Small, the creator, does the voice and most of the instruments.
yeah, forget about all that 1-2 rep stuff all the time. I went with the 90% of max as the book suggests, estimated my max on the lighter side and am getting 7-10 reps in my second week. Did the same the first week, so making progress already.
That REALLY heavy lifting all the time did nothing for me except overtrained me and lead to a nice bout of adrenal fatigue.
moral of the story, buy the book and do what it says…
I imagine Jim would get his new bikes even quicker if he got a dollar for everyone in here who says
“Read the book and do it as written, it’s awesome” - the reason it’s said so much is that its true.
Jim - whilst your here, in the front page article this week you say that 531 for PL will discuss steroid cycles and the like. However, this flies against a Q&A post on EFS that Dave answered Tuesday. I don’t care either way, i’m interested in how gear works, and what is used and why, but Dave’s stance seems reasonable and logival (He doesnt want any individuals or the company getting in shit from someone who takes the advice the wrong way)
[quote]sidewalkdances wrote:
I imagine Jim would get his new bikes even quicker if he got a dollar for everyone in here who says
“Read the book and do it as written, it’s awesome” - the reason it’s said so much is that its true.
Jim - whilst your here, in the front page article this week you say that 531 for PL will discuss steroid cycles and the like. However, this flies against a Q&A post on EFS that Dave answered Tuesday. I don’t care either way, i’m interested in how gear works, and what is used and why, but Dave’s stance seems reasonable and logival (He doesnt want any individuals or the company getting in shit from someone who takes the advice the wrong way)[/quote]
Fair enough. I’m looking forward to the book, anything that will help me dial in getting close to a meet without needing to make HUGE adjustments to a plan that is working is good news.
Oh and thanks for work in the Exercise Index DVD’s. The bench one has helped me out a ton with getting set up on my upper back and finding good foot position.
[quote]Jim Wendler wrote:
Did I mention you should use 90%…or even less?
[/quote]
Did i mention that if you have other stresses, such as rugby, going on only increasing your lower body lifts by 5lbs and even sometime repeating cycles is going to do you a whole world of favours
A question to those who have been doing 5/3/1 for a decent length of time, aside from the strength increases which have been proven, did your body change much - mass, composition etc?
Obviously if you lift competitively, your numbers are all that count, but if you lift for the sake of lifting, it is nice to look good too.
I also get this isn’t a bodybuilder program, that isn’t what I’m after.
I’ll be doing the program myself, and just want to hear the experiences of others.
[quote]nick.down.under wrote:
A question to those who have been doing 5/3/1 for a decent length of time, aside from the strength increases which have been proven, did your body change much - mass, composition etc?
Obviously if you lift competitively, your numbers are all that count, but if you lift for the sake of lifting, it is nice to look good too.
I also get this isn’t a bodybuilder program, that isn’t what I’m after.
I’ll be doing the program myself, and just want to hear the experiences of others.[/quote]
Yes
I got bigger/am getting bigger. Don’t be mislead into thinking a “Powerlifting” program (really just a program focused on the big four exercises) won’t get you big. Keep in mind that because Powerlifting is based on weight divisions, and many powerlifters aren’t looking to put on weight, people seem to think doing a strength based program means you wont grow at all.
[quote]nick.down.under wrote:
A question to those who have been doing 5/3/1 for a decent length of time, aside from the strength increases which have been proven, did your body change much - mass, composition etc?
Obviously if you lift competitively, your numbers are all that count, but if you lift for the sake of lifting, it is nice to look good too.
I also get this isn’t a bodybuilder program, that isn’t what I’m after.
I’ll be doing the program myself, and just want to hear the experiences of others.[/quote]
Definitely. Went from decades of wearing XL T-shirts to XXL and I’m finally starting to develop something that resembles a yoke.
Does anyone else have issues with everything going up except their bench press?? My squat and deadlift go up just fine but my bench seems to eff up every week. WOE IS ME!!!
[quote]Spock81 wrote:
Does anyone else have issues with everything going up except their bench press?? My squat and deadlift go up just fine but my bench seems to eff up every week. WOE IS ME!!![/quote]
[quote]Spock81 wrote:
Does anyone else have issues with everything going up except their bench press?? My squat and deadlift go up just fine but my bench seems to eff up every week. WOE IS ME!!![/quote]
Are you overhead pressing?
Eat more.[/quote]
I don’t know if I could possibly fit a bigger pile of beef onto my plate every morning… crumbs already fall on the floor as it is.
And yes I am over head pressing. My bench press just hates me apparently…
[quote]Spock81 wrote:
Does anyone else have issues with everything going up except their bench press?? My squat and deadlift go up just fine but my bench seems to eff up every week. WOE IS ME!!![/quote]
Are you overhead pressing?
Eat more.[/quote]
I don’t know if I could possibly fit a bigger pile of beef onto my plate every morning… crumbs already fall on the floor as it is.
And yes I am over head pressing. My bench press just hates me apparently…[/quote]
Analyze technique/set-up, programming for muscle groups used (delts, tris, lats, upper back), programming for bench itself (BBB, triumverate,etc), sleep patterns. Also make sure to do like what it said in the book; something along the lines of if you want a good bench day, take it easy on OHP that week and the previous week. I think Jim refers to that as picking your battles.
Why do you think your bench isn’t improving? What’s weak? What’s lacking? Maybe you just need more volume benching.