Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Chris - 5/3/1 Cycle 3

Weights for Cycle 2:
BP: 185
Squat: 390
Deadlift: 395
Military Press: 132

Notes:
-BP work felt pretty easy, and if I'm nailing 10+ reps on the 5/3/1 day then I should ramp the intensity up further.
-Squat was pretty terrible this cycle. I will take this to mean that I can't get by on just one heavy set a week, so I'll stick in pyramiding assistance work in a similar fashion as my deadlifts.
-Deadlift work... super easy. Yeah. This needs a major bump to more relevant weight.
-Military press seems about right, but I can probably afford to bump it a little more than 5lbs so I can get my 1RM to a multiple of five.

So new 1RMs for Cycle 3:
BP: 195 (+10)
Squat: 395 (+5)
Deadlift: 450 (+55)
Military Press: 140 (+8)

For training maxes of 175.5/355.5/405/126, taking 90% still.

Assistance work besides extra pyramid sets:
Squat: Front Squat
Deadlift: Snatch-grip Deadlift
Bench Press: Dips
Military Press: Chinups

Since this is IAP, I'll probably be able to devote a full 4 days/week to 5/3/1 instead of the two day week that I adopted for cycle 2. My schedule, then, would go something like this:

Military Press Day:
Military Press 5/3/1
Military Press pyramid sets
Chinups
(Bench 5/3/1, no extra reps?)

Squat Day:
Squat 5/3/1
Squat pyramid sets
Snatch-grip deadlifts

Bench Day:
Bench Press 5/3/1
Bench Press, sets across with 135
Dips
(Military Press 5/3/1, no extra reps?)

Deadlift Day:
Deadlift 5/3/1
Deadlift pyramid sets
Front Squat

I am considering adding in extra press work on the appropriate days since one of the main complaints I hear about 5/3/1 is the lack of upper body work, so why not head off that potential complaint now? I admit that two cycles is definitely not enough time to tell whether this "fix" is necessary but hell, I feel like upper body days are kinda sparse as is, so I may do the extra work anyway for the hell of it.

Barbell complexes on two other days, and Sundays off.

Happy, Shanker? :)

4 comments:

  1. I don't see anything wrong about adding exercises, but be careful about monitoring how fatigued you are to make sure you're not doing too much. There's nothing wrong with feeling fresh at the end of a training session.

    Also, complexes on off days why? To burn fat? To get into better condition?

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  2. A couple things:

    1) If this is 4x a week, you don't really need any more upper body work other than 2x/week of benching.

    2) I'd add in 1 day of light complexes, just enough for cardio for the first cycle, just do get used to it. Especially if your going to be lifting 4x/week.

    3) Watch out for the snatch grip deads. When I was doing them I think I worked up to just 275lbs x10, and I tweaked something in my arm. I think it was just because of the extra stress in places that I wasn't used too. Just keep that in mind and work up to them slowly or something.

    4) I think I suggested it before, but I really like the idea that for Press assistance you do some bench stuff, and for bench assistance you do some pressing. That way you have some increased frequency.

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  3. General feedback:
    -The big thing for me would be ratcheting up the intensity. If you just hit a BP for 160x10 do you think having training max of 175.5 is really going to be that beneficial? If I were you I'd use 93% or 95% to calculate your training max. If you're uncomfortable doing this across the board (since the rest of your 1rm's seem reasonable), maybe just do it for Bench Press.

    -I think you'd benefit from more pulling assistance work. (Rows. I know, I know, I always say this.)

    -I'm not sure I would make the effort to increase volume for military press. Instead I'd probably use that time for additional upper body assistance.

    -I think you should push the prowler with us. (This has nothing to do with your plan)

    And that's about it...all of these are, of course, personal preference.

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