I'm a min/max'er at heart.

Isn't your squat the most advanced? Seems like if so, then it might have the least "room for growth" relatively in some sense. But yeah, I dno, you seem like a squat beast either way so I'm sure it'll continue to rise.

June 16, 2012

5/3/1: Cycle 1 - Deload

Squat
1x10x45
1x5x155
1x3x245
1x3x265
2x5x175

Knee was feeling tight/weird.

Bench Press
1x10x45
1x5x95
1x3x135
2x5x155

Kroc Row
Right:
1x10x60
1x25x120
Left:
1x10x60
1x12x120

I either need to rest more between sets, or alternate which arm I go first with. I was pretty beat by the time I got to leftie.

June 18, 2012

5/3/1: Cycle 2 - Squat x 5

Squat
1x10x45
1x5x135
1x5x225
1x5x255
1x5x295
1x6x335
5x10x200

Kind of annoyed at how hard this was.

BBB Squats Baby. BBB.

(I was doing my 5x10 at 225 back in the day. Soul. Crushing.)

I was lurking around last night and read the interesting discussion in this log about the 5/3/1 program. Something just occurred to me about a potential reason for people's lack of squat progress on the program. Wendler is a huge fan of conditioning, specifically hill sprints. Martin has said on multiple occasions that sprints are almost equivalent to more squatting. I imagine adding a hill to this would make it even more so. If you add in hill sprints, you are effectively working your squat more than once a week (potentially 3-4x/week not even counting deadlift training day). Thoughts?

Seems like that could help increase squats. Isn't the main complaint about 5/3/1 that there isn't enough squatting volume?

Also, so far for myself I'm seeing solid improvement in squat and DL - much more so than bench/press (which was true for when I did SS too). I'm not as intermediate/advanced as HS and Snitch and others though...but I feel like keeping my squat and DL moving won't be too much of a problem, even if I start a slow cut.

i did zero conditioning using 5/3/1 to add at least 60 lbs to my squat.

I think the key to squat success is WIM. whenever you watch a near max set of squats, be it a single, triple, or AMRAP, once you see the vid, it always looked better than it felt. For me, this applies to the squat more than any other lift. You almost always have more reps in you than you think.

When I first started greyskull LP stuff, I was pussing out on the AMRAP. I think I started in the high 2s, like 275 or 295, and getting 10-11 reps on the last set. I knew i was being a pussy. Eventually I was doing 325 for 15 or somewhere in that ballpark.

When I got good at pushing that limit, that's when I started seeing pounds added to my squat.

Agree with KC. Gotta grind out the squat reps.

June 19, 2012

5/3/1: Cycle 2 - Bench x 5

Bench Press
2x10x45
1x5x95
1x5x125
1x5x145
1x11x165
1x2x205 (SS)
1x1x235 (SS)

Dumbbell Bench Press
1x10x50
5x10x90

Kroc Row
Left:
1x10x65
1x20x120
Right:
1x10x65
1x20x120

Going with my left arm first certainly seems to have evened up the gap.

June 21, 2012

5/3/1: Cycle 2 - Deadlift x 5

Sumo Deadlift
1x8x135
1x3x225
1x5x225
1x5x290
1x9x330

Deficit Sumo Deadlift
5x10x185

Used 35lb plates.

Pallof Press
1x10x50
3x10x65

Ab Wheel
3x12x0

June 22, 2012

5/3/1: Cycle 2 - Press x 5

Press
2x10x45
1x5x75
1x5x95
1x5x110
1x7x125

Crappy set. I got off balance and had to stop/start at least twice.

Dumbbell Press
4x10x70

Pull-Up
3x8x0

Hands are sore/blistered from deadlift day.

June 25, 2012

5/3/1: Cycle 2 - Squat x 3

Squat
1x10x45
1x5x135
1x3x225
1x3x275
1x3x315
1x5x355
5x10x200

Thoughts about this later when I have time to type up a longer post.

Romanian Deadlift
1x10x45
1x10x95
1x8x135
3x10x185

Barbell Curl
1x10x25
1x10x45
3x10x65