Also, I thought we already had two other lol jdock threads, not sure my subscription page has room for one more

Not sure I see the point of this "transition." If you cut the volume but maintain the intensity then it is too heavy to be a deload and too light to be a switching phase. Pretty much the only defense for this would be if you're feeling exceptionally run down, and even then 2 weeks is a long time, you might be surprised how much you'll detrain. Better to just make it a full blown deload for a week and hop straight into SmolovJr after that.

Sounds good, I'd ask for advice from people who have successfully run cycles to see how they recommend you handle the deload week + PR week.

Palms up band pull aparts. Warmup is also as important as accessory work for SmolovJr.

If your goal is to peak your deadlift I think you should abandon 5/3/1 now. You're hoping to pull something above 365 and the heaviest you've pulled in recent memory is what, 335x5? You can probably tell if the following would be too much, but how do you think you'd fair with this?

Week 1 Day 1: 285x3, 305x3, 325x3x3
Week 1 Day 2: 285x2x3
Week 2 Day 1: 305x2, 325x2, 345x2x2
Week 2 Day 2: 285x2x3
Week 3 Day 1: 285x3, 325x2, 365x1x4-6
Week 3 Day 2: 285x2x3
Week 4 Day 1: off
Week 4 Day 2: 285x2x3
Week 5 Day 1: 285x1, 305x1, 365x1, 385x1
Week 5 Day 2: 285x2x3
Week 6 Day 1: 285x1, 305x1, 365x1, Max

Makes sense; I'm only going to be able to lift for two or three days that week prior anyway, so a straight deload seems fine.

Will do.

So band pullaparts + a bunch of lighter bench work to warm up? Then a pulling exercise afterwards?

This seems doable and appropriate -- thanks! I'm assuming I'd be lifting five days a week on this program? Or should I just bolt on the volume deads onto one of the bench days and cut out additional back work for that day only?

I'd do 3 days a week:

Bench + DL + bench prehab
Bench + Squat + bench prehab
Bench + DL + bench prehab

For warmup, I am 100% loving my current plan:

-25 hard strokes on the C2. Strokes per minute should be 11-13, so a very slow cadence. Try to set a distance PR each time. 500m in 25 strokes in 2 minutes is a good goal IMO.
-25 strict pushups. I do 5 just inside shoulder width, 5 just outside shoulder width, 5 wide, 5 just outside shoulder width, 5 just inside shoulder width. Do them continuously, never leaving the plank position. Go deep but also not super fast.
-25 deep split squats on each leg. Try to really stretch the hip flexor of the trailing leg and fire your quads on the front leg.
-25 palms up band pullaparts. Squeeze your shoulder blades back and down with your middle back. Do not allow yourself to shrug.
-25 bodyweight squats. Don't go super fast, you want to get a little bit of burn in the quads and stretch in the groins.
-25 scap wall slides. Go slow and focus on opening up your chest as much as possible. Think about keeping your wrists behind your elbows and really flatten your scaps against your rib cage

This gets your heart rate up to >120 without being too strenuous, warms up your whole body, mobilizes your shoulders in all 4 directions, and helps open the hips. Takes about 7-8 minutes. If 25 reps all around is too fatiguing, start with 15 and work your way up.

I love the C2 as part of my warmup routine. Split squats too. Hadn't thought of a lot of the other things, but those sound good. I think it was DFII who a while back said that a thorough warmup is worth the benefits even if that slightly diminishes your strength for main work. Agree with that, too.

DFII,

Seems reasonable all around, although I think most of my bench prehab is going to consist of lighter facepulls if I'm going to be pulling beforehand two out of the three days. For squatting, would you recommend something in the medium-ish 3x5 range, or something different.

I've been reticent to add warmups because I'm lazy, but I know I probably should. I'll give this routine a try.

The above would've definitely ruined me back when I did pure PL training and my thought of cardio was a 5rm. But IMO that's really an indictment of how polarized the strength pursuit mindset can be. If you can't do 7 minutes of light exercise without ruining your performance for the next 2 hours then that's a massive problem.

For squats, whatever. You're not trying to set any PRs there. 3x5 seems about right, but anything between 3x3 and 5x10 would probably be defensible.

DFII,

I'm pretty sure my current work capacity is such that I should be fine, but I guess we'll see.

I'll just mess around with 3x5 and see what happens; outside of light to medium trolling from QB, I don't think there's a downside to keeping it reasonable and not really pushing it too hard.

Weight this morning: 190. Sick again and feeling kind of run down. Yay winter.

1/23: Vertical Push/Pull

OHP: 10x45, 7x75, 5x95, 3x115, 2x135, 1x150, fx165, 5x1x160

Superset A (90 seconds rest):
Standing DB Press: 10x5x55
Weighted NG Chin: 10x5x+15

Didn't have it in me to do the rest; I'm probably just going to DL and front squat tomorrow and then try to relax for the rest of the weekend. Was hoping that I could do singles at 165, but I just didn't have it today.

Wow, 190. 180s on the horizon.

Feel better Monte. The gains will be waiting for your return.

I've been pingponging between 188 and 193 for the last few months, but thanks. And I just had a donut to compensate for my sickness and I may have another. My lunch had 130 g of protein so it seems fine to me.

Too bad your body can only use 30g of it. No wonder you have the salts.

Most of my meals are 45-60g of protein. Lol 30g.

ITT someone's sarcasm detector is as withered and flabby as his arms and abs now are.

Good night, sweet orange prince

After sitting though 6 hour block on laws/2 hours of PT, every detector is currently out of service. Btw, even with my flabby arms and abs, I am still top 3 in aesthetics here. Too many fat powerlifters of peace.

Hope you feel better soon.

Try not to lose too much weight,man. I'm currently 189ish right now.

Weight this morning: 194.0. Felt like crap all weekend so I decided to get really drunk and eat junk food on Friday and Saturday night. No ragrets.

1/27

Bench: 10x45, 10x95, 5x135, 3x185, 2x215, 3x3x240

Superset A (90 seconds rest):
Incline DB Bench: 10x5x80
DB Row: 10x5x100

Still feeling a bit under the weather so I chopped off the accessory stuff; given I got four at 235 last week, only 3 at 240 was mildly disappointing, but I'll chalk that up to being sick. Still don't quite have my wind back.

Getting excited to go to the strength block; 3.5-4 months on DF2arding and 4-6 weeks on strength seems like a good way to satisfy my program wanderlust. We'll see, though.

Weight this morning: 191.8. Solid day yesterday food-wise, still a bit under the weather, though, so I cut out the accessories again.

1/27

Squat: 10x45, 5x95, 5x135, 3x175, 2x205, 5x5x225
DL (Speed): 10x135, 5x185, 3x235, 3x2x285

4.5-5 minutes between squats and 3 minutes between DLs. Everything's fine, but I still have to fight to sit back and keep my knees out during the later sets. Lol monte squatting and all that.

Hey, at least you're squitting with 2 big boy plates a side!
I've pretty much given all hope to ever achieve that.

What are you trying to do BW-wise btw?
Seems like you've been treading waters between high 18X's and low 19X's forever now.

Squat-wise, I'm just trying to do volume squats at respectable weights for a while, and not really worry too much past that. Seems ok.

BW-wise, I wouldn't mind getting a bit more lean, but it's the winter and I like dessert, plus I'm going to be starting a strength block in a few weeks. I'll probably eat at maintenance or a very slight surplus for that period of time and then start cutting for the summer after that. Seeing my abs would be nice, but it's hard to get that low without the wifeacore noticing and scolding me during relations.

Slowbulk ~5 lbs followed by slowcut ~5 lbs.
Direct AB-work at the end of every gym session.

I'd be shocked if still no abs.

Ab work at the end of each workout always guarantees abs.

it certainly doesn't hurt

Yup.

Monte's ~lean enough, just need some more hyberbrophy in the abzzz region.