After moving to a new gym at the start of the year (Muscle Pit) i've been training 4/5 days a week using Westside Barbell methods of Max/Dynamic Effort and got some good results, my deadlifts and squats both added ~40kgs and my bench moved a whopping 10% (10kg ;P) but since training to go over east to Nationals (set a squat PR of 200kgs and a DL PR of 225kg @95kgs (lifted 227.5 but hitched it or rolled my shoulders or something and didnt get it passed) I did well over there in terms of experience and my own lifts, but obviously got crushed in the sense of compitition.

I've been too burned out too train properly since August and have just been sampling too many fine Rogue beers and basically just doing SFA with the odd workout here and there lacking any real plan or direction. Also I have a 1 year old son and lifting with the people at my gym requires me to be there at 630pm each night and it's too much of a strain to get out of the house in time, so with this workout I can train on my own, with my brother or work in with them when I can get out. Plus it means I wont be coming home at 930pm needing to cook dinner and wind down before bed and inevitably getting up at 5am to hang out with the little guy.

So I've decided to give Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 program a go. I've been in a couple of times in the last week to work out my current 1RM's and wasnt really expecting a whole lot though I still managed to pull 220kgs, Press 55kgs, bench 105kgs (bench and press have always been huge weak points for me, when I was younger I was always more interested in Squatting & Deadlifting and just ignored bench, i'm hoping this is really going to help me bring them up) and I didnt have time to do a Squat session but using the same % decrease of all my other lifts im assuming ~180kgs atm & the program outline pushes that starting too light is much better than too heavy so I'm happy either way.

In addition to this its just hit Spring in Australia so i'm fixing my bike this week and I will be taking advantage of living next to the River and riding a few days a week. Along with all the usual drink less beer, eat better food etc etc.

tl;dr: Trained WSB all year, no longer has the time or current desire to work towards competing. Doing Wendlers 5/3/1. Cant bench or press ****.

4/10/09 Sunday
Week 1, Workout 1. Bench.

Bench Press
Warm up.

67.5kgs x 5
80kgs x 5
90kgs x 5 (last set is as many as you can do, just failed before lockout on #6)

Tate presses x3
15kg DBs x 8
17.5 x 8
17.5 x 8

Really focussed on pausing on the chest and relaxing my arms and firing the rep to lockout, really hits the triceps down by the elbow better than anything i've done.

KROC ROWS (High rep DB rows) 20+ each arm x3
35kg x 20
35kg x 20
35kg x 15

I was planning on doing some abb work after this but these things are seriously the most brutal thing i've done in a while. If i'd actually been lifting the past month I might not have had to spend a few minutes lying down after the 2nd set, but I really think these are amazing.

First workout down, pretty happy with how it went. Cant wait to squat tomorrow!

531 is nice. I like it a lot and it's long term approach to lifting and a pretty flexible schedule. You seem to do the "Trifecta" for assistance work. I'm looking forward to reading your log.

Who gives a fk, because you can:

Very impressive.

Good luck with the 5/3/1 program.

Jealous of your squat and dead nice numbers. +1 to who gives a **** about bench and press....although press is kind of weedy even I can do more.

"The Triumvirate" at Wendler calls it.

I just find that after a solid ME excercise that doing more then 2 or 3 extra parts becomes too much and I just dont focus or get enough out of it. Plus one of my goals with this routine was to get in and out of the gym with maximum returns ASAPs.

As for the bench and press stuff, it doesnt bother me all that much, just be nice to have a bench number that is somewhat relative to my Squat/Deadlift.

Excited to see how this workout goes.

+1 to Kroc Rows being the ****

doing these will also help your deadlift imo

wats the difference between a kroc row and a regular old dumbell row?

nothing technique wise...it's just named after a powerlifter that trains w/ Tate and Wendler who uses super high rep db rows w/ heavy weight

Wendler describes these as doing 20+ reps w/ a weight you can barely do once

oh ok I thought there was some subtle difference I was missing.

Massive amounts of momentum turning it into a full body exercise is the difference. I really feel those in my grounded leg as well as back.

Kroc Rows being performed by the guy they are named for...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7jAIdoORxI

05/10/09
Workout 2 Week 1

Squat

Warm up

Bar x 15
60kgs x 10
100kgs x 5

Work sets.

117kgs x 5
130kgs x 5
152kgs x 5 (Last set as always is to failure, was pretty much crushed by my first squat session in forever, may have set the bar a little high but we'll see how we go, im sure i'll be fine once I get back in the swing of things)


Lunges

Bar x 15
40kgs x 20
50 x 15
55 x 14

Glute Ham Raise

BW x 8
5kg chain x 8
5kg chain x 4 then 4 w/o chain

Kneeling pulldowns (or whatever they are called)

85lb x 15
100lb x 10
100lb x 5

Not feeling too sore after my first workout, though im pretty sure my legs are going to be useless for a couple of days. Good thing ive got a decent break before deadlifts!

07/10/09
W/O 3 Week 1

Shoulders

Strict Military Press

35 x 5
42.5 x 5
47.5 x 8

Arnie Press

15s x 8
17.5s x 8
20s x 7

DB Shrugs

40s x 20
50s x 10 (found the DB's rolling out of my hand on this set as the plates where set much tighter than the 40's so instead of just rolling round they were destroying my grip as they caught on my sides, probably drop the weight and do higher reps next time)

KB cleans over head

24kg x 8 side x 3

09/10/09
Week 1 W/O 4

Deadlifts

Some warm up sets I can't remember.
147kg x 5
170kg x 5
190kg x 7 (pulled a muscle in my lower back again during this set, pretty annoyed about it, wasnt too bad after since I got through all my other sets but I hurt it a few months ago and I was very happy when it stopped hurting)

Good Mornings w/ buffalo bar

60kg x 8
100kg x 8
120kg x 8
140kg x 6

Power Cleans

40kg x 6
60kg x 8
70kg x 7 (*Video coming soon*Lots of things wrong with this I know, thoughts?)
70kg x 5

Havn't done these in ages and totally forgot how technical they are, look forward to working them back in a bit more however.

70 kgs Clean Video

wow. 190 kg deadlift as 85 % of your 90 % in the first week is pretty impressive.

General recommendation is to do power cleans before deadlifts. You're a strong guy but those cleans are sketchy. You're going to hurt your wrists catching the bar like that. Find your front squatting groove and catch the bar there, just above your shoulders.
http://www.ironscene.com/videos/1454...dimas_training

12/10
Week 2, W/O 5

Bench


72.5 x 5 (meant to be 3 duhhhhh)
85 x 3
95 x 5

Tate presses

17x8
17x10
20x7

Krok Rows

35x25/s
35x 24/23
35x20/s

Sit ups
2x30

13/10
Week 2, W/O 6

Squat

Barx10
60x5
100x3

Work sets

125x3
145xx3
162x4

GHR + 10kg plate
X8
X8
X4 - x4 BW

Somehow managed to tear my left hamstring slightly on one of these sets, didnt notice it at the time but when I went over to do lunges felt like my leg was on fire, hence why I did stuff all on them.

Pretttty annoying but not the end of the world.

Lunges

Barx8
40x2

Front squats
Bar x 8
40x8
50x6

These were ok, but not great. Probably should have just left it.

16/10
Week 2, W/O 7

Shoulders (Strict Military Press)

37.5 x 3
45 x 3
50 x 5

Arnie presses
17s x 8
20s x 8
20s x 8

BW Dips to 50
17
11
8
7
7

Kb Cleans
3x8x24kg

17/10
Week 2, W/O 8

Deadlifts

155 x 3
175 x 3
197.5 x 7

GM Buffalo Bar

60x8
105x8
125x8
125x6

20/10
Week 2, W/O 9

Bench

80x5
90x3
95x1 (was meant to do 95%, not 95 kgs :/ ooops)
100x1

Tate Presses

17.5s x 10
20s x 9
20s x 9

Krok Rows

35kg x 30/side
40kg x 25/side

Had a couple of pretty average workouts in there but aside from the Good Mornings I set rep and/or weight PR's on every exercise from week 2 -> week 3 which is awesome. This is the first time i've really kept a log and I wish I'd done it sooner since its really kept me on my toes with the assitance work.

Not sure if this is the best idea but my plan was to keep the same extra exercises for one month long cycle, then switch them for the second month, then return to them in the 3rd month, starting my numbers off my old PR's and trying to aggressively build from there. Any reasons against doing this?

Cleans still need some work but I didnt even do them this week since i've had a pretty ****ty week physically and life wise and blahblahblah whatevers.

Picture of my gym taken on my iPhone using an app called Pano.

I am totally ******ed.

I set all my maxes WITHOUT TAKING THE 10% OFF BECAUSE IM ******ED AND WAS RUSHING AND DITN EVEN READ THE ****IN THING PROPERLY.

Blagh.

Restart next week or what?

yeah probably, you will burn out way too fast otherwise

Not necessarily. The 10 % off is a means to keep people from overestimating themselves. If you had a solid understanding of what you can lift, I see no reason not to keep going until you stall. Then you calculate your new max 1RM, take 10% off and restart. I guess you'll get at least another cycle in and maybe even a third when you have progress. Since you do less than your max for most of the time and even on week 3 you're only going to 95 % of your perceived max 1RM, I don't see why you should burn out. You'll just stall a cycle or two earlier. No big deal, imo.

Edit: I just started cycle 2 and from what I see, in week 3 I will use approx. the weight for the 1RM workset that I stalled on in the 3x5 Starting Strength routine. So the 10% off look a lot like one extra cycle until you hit your previous 5RM.

wut? have you read the book? the point imo is to work higher reps with sub-maximal weights for prolonged periods (6+ cycles are mentioned) as you can see he is only hitting a couple reps over the prescribed minimum, this means his progress will stall soon(Er) and his gains will most likely be less than stellar.