Carry on, don't mind me. I'll learn something too

Do you guys work with RPE for assistance exercises?

lol assistance exercises

/my take

I'll take that as a no then

Depends what you mean by accessory. Yes for secondary (ie variants of comp lifts, heavy back work), no for tertiary (facepulls, curls etc)

Yes I meant secondary.

5/3/1 Bench C7 week 2 TM92,5 Reset
Thursday, 4 May 2017 at 12:22

Bench Press 5/3/1
Set 1: 65 kg × 3
Set 2: 75 kg × 3
Set 3: 82,5 kg × 7
Set 4: 65 kg × 5
Set 5: 65 kg × 5
Set 6: 65 kg × 5

Chin Up
Set 1: 10 reps
Set 2: 8 reps
Set 3: 8 reps
Set 4: 8 reps
Set 5: 8 reps
Set 6: 5 reps

Dumbbell Row
Set 1: 90 kg × 13
Set 2: 90 kg × 13
Set 3: 90 kg × 15

Lbs

Incline Dumbbell Press
Set 1: 25 kg × 10
Set 2: 25 kg × 10
Set 3: 25 kg × 11

Rear Delt (Machine)
Set 1: 39 kg × 13
Set 2: 39 kg × 12
Set 3: 39 kg × 12

Bicep Curl (Dumbbell)
Set 1: 20 kg × 15
Set 2: 20 kg × 13
Set 3: 20 kg × 13

https://strong.app.link/nJ6RLUzPRC

Fasted workout, not much energy. Reasonable workout otherwise, not much to report. Lost some reps on chins, did another set of 5 because of it.

Yes, becausenyou want to assess progress in secondary exercises too. Lots of people go too easy or light here and giving up gains as well.

5/3/1 Deadlift C7 TM145
Saturday, 6 May 2017 at 20:47

Deadlift 5/3/1
Set 1: 100 kg × 3
Set 2: 115 kg × 3
Set 3: 130 kg × 7
Set 4: 110 kg × 8
Set 5: 110 kg × 8
Set 6: 110 kg × 8

Romanian Deadlift
Set 1: 100 kg × 12
Set 2: 100 kg × 13
Set 3: 100 kg × 13

Squat (technique)
Set 1: 80 kg × 8
Set 2: 80 kg × 8
Set 3: 80 kg × 8
Set 4: 80 kg × 8
Set 5: 80 kg × 8

Abs
30 minute incline walking

https://strong.app.link/Z0W99tWLVC

Reasonable workout. I tried something different with bracing but resulted in my back not setting as well as normal. It wasn't too bad though.
More technique work on squats with band, felt good.

Been playing around a bit with some ideas for strength and hypertrophy meso cycles. Would be cool to hear some comments if it's reasonably in the right direction or if i'm way off.

I was waiting around for smarter and more experienced people to reply. My opinions based on my interpretation of the book and the experience I've had with my hypertrophy block so far:

(please take these opinions well-salted)

- I feel like the benefit of a two-consecutive-day rest each week might be more than what you would be getting on the 5th lifting day, especially in the strength block.

- The book suggested that the daily-undulating periodization of programming higher and lower intensities in the same week is (somewhat) inferior to block periodizing and doing one or the other for extended periods of time. This would seem to go against your inclusion of "strength" and "volume" days in each program. Of course, these types of programs are very common so obviously a lot of smart people disagree.

- On a related note, I feel that it makes a bit more sense to have a primary squat day and primary deadlift day that each has lower-intensity secondary work in a variation of the opposite lift. For example, in your strength block I'd rather do heavy squats then SLDL on day 1 and heavy deadlift and paused squat on day 4. Can you really perform at 100% on deadlift after having just done 5 heavy triples and a heavy single/double of squat?

- I'd rather have upper days prior to lower days, with the logic being that upper body soreness/fatigue is less likely to affect a subsequent lower day than the other way around.

- Your volume and intensity may be scaling a little too steeply from week to week. For example, in your hypertrophy block, you go from doing 4x5 @72.5% on week 2 to 5x5 at 75% on week 3. Ignoring the observation that those percentages are probably a bit low, you shouldn't expect linear progress in a block-periodized program, but instead look for mesocyclic progress. I think I saw a JTS video that said you don't even make gains during the accumulation phase, but rather gains are realized after the deload when you're able to do the same volume at an increased training max.

I've actually been reading this book (about 75% through) as well after renton recommended it and its applicable to my studies for the CSCS exam. I agree with the bolded and think it would be easier to do block periodization and do a month or 2 of hypertrophy training followed by a couple months strength training.

Totally agree with all of renton's points. I'd add that a deload every three weeks might be necessary as a true advanced lifter (e.g. CWS) but is overkill for a novice or intermediate lifter. I would rather you autoregulate and use a longer block.

A 4 to 1 accumulation to deload ratio seems to have been about right for me, so far. Only two cycles though, and I was cutting. It seems like you could make any ratio work though just by pushing the last week or two before the deload that much harder to "earn" the deload when it comes.

Thanks for your thoughts guys. appreciate it. My thoughts on your comments below.


Perhaps you're right and I don't need a deload so often. So would you do away with percentage based training altogether? I'm slightly wary of doing that because I don't have that much experience with RPE so I'm bound to make mistakes in my perception versus actual RPE.

Another good week cutting but starting to feel pretty low energy. Lots of weight lost but I suspect some of that is carryover from last week. Will slow it down a touch this week just to be safe, and aim for 2300-2400kcal. Feeling skinnyfat.

I'm a bit skeptical of them. Work is work, even if it's easier. Two days of not lifting should facilitate more recovery than one day + one light session. I don't think you need to worry about conserving adaptations when the interval is only two days (i.e. that's more of a deload week concern). There's also just the life factor of adding another lifting day. It's another obligation that could potentially add stress to your routine for dubious benefit. It's not just the work you do in the gym, but the routine of getting up, preparing your clothes/bag, being transported there, and so on. It's an ordeal.

In addition, it's probable that doing perfect technique stuff with lunch boxes on the bar is not specific enough to the heavy work you're trying to get better at anyway, so the practice/technique value is low for a non-novice lifter. In other words, you could tweak the percentages down to make sure the light work doesn't affect recovery, but then it wouldn't achieve what you want. And if you tweaked them up, it more becomes work and it may as well be done heavier at that point. Catch 22 situation.

I think when we refer to a "strength" program, what we mean is that strength is the adaptation we want to maximize, but of course, there will still be hypertrophy adaptations and your 1RM will increase. Same with a "hypertrophy" program; you will get stronger and increase your 1RM on high volume/reps, the aim is simply to focus on one type of adaptation over the others.

So there should be little concern of detraining one adaptation by focusing on another one, except possibly with peaking programs, which may have not enough volume to sustain long term hypertrophy in an advanced lifter.

The book's view of DUP as inferior to block periodization is mainly because the book believes strength adaptations take longer than hypertrophy ones (a week plus for strength, compared with a few days for hypertrophy), and are more sensitive to week-to-week accumulating fatigue as well. So a hypertrophy block is going to have more volume and each successive week will be done in a higher state of fatigue, while a strength block will attempt to have you a bit fresher going into each training session so you can hit a PR or rep PR compared to the same week in the last cycle.

There are probably a few ways you could do it. In my program, I went for increasing the %1rm, the total number of reps, and the total number of work sets on each week while decreasing the number of reps per set. So week 2 is 4x8 at 70%, then week 3 is 5x7 at 72.5%. Week 3 is probably harder, and it's definitely more work, but the relative intensity (proximity to failure) in each set is about the same as in Week 2. So, in theory, I could go into week 3 at the same performance level as last week and still hit the numbers. An intermediate program shouldn't expect you to be stronger every single workout.

You could use this table to help you ball park your percentages (RPE table from RTS):

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5/3/1 OHP C7 TM60 reset
Monday, 8 May 2017 at 20:59

Overhead Press 5/3/1
Set 1: 42,5 kg × 5
Set 2: 47,5 kg × 3
Set 3: 55 kg × 5
Set 4: 42,5 kg × 8
Set 5: 42,5 kg × 7
Set 6: 42,5 kg × 6
Set 7: 42,5 kg × 3

Pendlay Row
Set 1: 65 kg × 10
Set 2: 65 kg × 10
Set 3: 65 kg × 10
Set 4: 65 kg × 10
Set 5: 65 kg × 10

Close grip Bench Press
Set 1: 70 kg × 8
Set 2: 70 kg × 8
Set 3: 70 kg × 10

Pulldown (Neutral Grip)
Set 1: 59 kg × 10
Set 2: 59 kg × 10
Set 3: 59kg x 10

Face Pull
Set 1: 22,5 kg × 12
Set 2: 22,5 kg × 13
Set 3: 22,5 kg × 13

Barbell Curl
Set 1: 20 kg × 12
Set 2: 20 kg × 12
Set 3: 20 kg × 12

https://strong.app.link/VTI6SYf7YC

Weak topset, lost reps on downset, so did a small extra set.
After minicut ends this week I'm going to deload and eat at maintenance for a week to let my weight stabilize. After that back to gaining and probably going to do at least one cycle of Candito's 6 week program while I learn more about programming and contemplate if I should get coaching.

Honestly, it's been a while since I read the book and I don't totally remember what it had to say in support of light sessions. I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that its recommendations for a strength block considered the light day to be optional.

Not sure about this. High RPE sets are very taxing so there's only so far you can push this. I'd imagine in a strength block that you'd want your last primary work set to be @ around 9 in each week of the block. At the same time, there's something naturally motivating about lifting heavier weights each week, so lowering the reps in each set makes intuitive sense to me. Others probably have more useful to say about this topic.

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5/3/1 Squat C7 week 3 TM125
Tuesday, 9 May 2017 at 20:31

Squat 5/3/1
Set 1: 95 kg × 5
Set 2: 105 kg × 3
Set 3: 117,5 kg × 5
Set 4: 95 kg × 5
Set 5: 95 kg × 5
Set 6: 95 kg × 5

Leg Extension
Set 1: 69 kg × 12
Set 2: 69 kg × 12
Set 3: 69 kg × 12

Stiff Legged Deadlift
Set 1: 70 kg × 10
Set 2: 75 kg × 10
Set 3: 80 kg × 10
Set 4: 85 kg × 10
Set 5: 85 kg × 10

Workout Notes:
Abs
30 minute incline walking

https://strong.app.link/pouowOaK0C

Squats feeling good today, feel like I'm bracing a bit better. Belt is beginning to get too loose though, and it doesn't go any tighter. Time to start bulking again soon, lol.

Something very weird happened to your knees during the sticking point of that last 95 rep. I'd get one of the H&F neckbeards on the case if I were you.