5/3/1 Training Log

So what's the deal with the other exercises under your four mains? And how do you work this over four days straight? Sounds like a recipe for overtraining if you're doing four days of squats, but I suspect I'm missing how your schedule works.

Yeah, it's not laid out in a way to understand it without some extra context.

First off, I'm concerned about four days straight, so I may have to switch it up somehow, but I'm going to give it a go. That said, this program does find a way to play nice with your CNS.

This is what next week might look like:

Monday, Jan 20
Squat 85/5, 115/5, 140/5, 170/3, 185/5, 215/5, 245/10
TRX Ab Rollout 8, 8, 8
Single DB Lunge Walk 120/8[HTML_REMOVED]8, 120/8[HTML_REMOVED]8, 120/8[HTML_REMOVED]8 (I don't know how to shorthand this nicely.. essentially hold a dumbbell in one hand and do eight steps, swap to the other hand and do eight more. This is more a core exercise for me than lower body as I get plenty of quad work in my funtime)
Farmer Walk 100's, 100, 100 (walk as far as I can go with 100 pound dumbbells)

Tuesday, Jan 21
Bench 50/5, 65/5, 80/5, 95/3, 110/5, 125/5, 140/11
Wrist/Bi Curls (I have a bunch of physio/surgery related wrist stuff I do here and superset it with bicep curls) 8x3, 8x3, 8x3
Dips whatever I can do. Try for 30-50 total in as few sets as possible
Incl Bench 50/8, 50/8, 50/8

Wednesday, Jan 22
Deadlift 115/5, 155/5, 190/5, 230/3, 250/5, 290/5, 330/9
Barbell Curl 60/10, 60/10, 60/10
DB Rows 100's/10, 100/10, 100/10
Reverse DB Lunge 50's/8, 50/8, 50/8 (per leg)

Thursday, Jan 23
Military Press 35/5, 50/5, 60/5, 75/3, 80/5, 95/5, 105/8
Chins whatever I can do, try to get 20-40 in as few sets as possible
Shrug 130/10, 130/10, 130/10/105/10/80/10/50/10/25/10
Face Pull 50?/10-12 a bunch of times

Then it's time for week two and the weights go up with reps are at 3 (except last set).
Week three is more weight, with reps going 5/3/1.
Then it's an easy deload week.

Adjust my new 1RM and start again.

Does that make more sense?

ha, I'm surprised that it took this long for someone to spot that ;)

Math is for me so I don't have to think when I'm near passed out in the squat rack. It's ((total weight - 45) / 2). How much plates I have to put on each side of the barbell.

I've never had a thing for bench. I got to 10 pounds short of six plates before the carnage started happening, and now with my wrist I don't know what to expect.

I love and loathe squats. I too got over 400, but fuck me.. don't make a mistake.

I used to love bench until I hurt my shoulder. My best lift on it was 315 for 8 reps. But, I kind of kick myself for never doing a 1 rep max.

Squats were fun too. Best on that was 450lb. But, you do have to watch yourself. I collapsed on time and thank God the squat rack was bolted to the floor!

This looks like a fun program.

If there's one good thing from the lack of snow is that I now have plenty of time for other activities. I started the program today and it was pretty blah. Only got 5 reps on my final set.

[B]Deadlift[/B] 0/7, 0/5, 95/5, 135/5, 185/5, 180/3, 255/5, 295/5, 335/5, snatch grip 90/5 [B]Barbell Curl[/B] 60/10, 60/10, 60/10 [B]DB Row[/B] 90's/8, 100/8, 100/8 [B]DB Reverse Lunge[/B] 55's/8, 55/8, 55/8

Two more to go after this one and my first cycle is complete. I forgot at how "easy" this program is relative to my usual once-a-week shitfest where I do everything to full intensity.

[B]Bench Press[/B] 45/8, 45/5, 95/5, 135/5, 135/3, 155/5, 165/13, 135/6 (I threw in an extra set for fun) [B]Wrist Curls &[/B] 10/20/12.5/10/25/10, 10/20/12.5/10/25/10, 10/20/12.5/10/25/10 [B]DB Bicep Curls[/B] [B]DB Pinch Holds[/B] 15, 10 [B]Dips[/B] 10, 5, 6, 5 (wrist still not enjoying this at all) [B]Incline Bench[/B] 45/8, 95/8, 135/5, 135/5, 135/5

So I finished the first cycle.

[B]Squat[/B] 45/8, 45/8, 95/8, 45/8, 135/5, 155/5, 195/5, 215/5, 245/11 [B]TRX Ab-Rollout[/B] 8, 8, 8 [B]DB Lunge Walks[/B] 60's/4&4, 60/4&4, 60/4&4, 60/4&4 (four steps per leg) [B]Farmer Walks[/B] 100's 1/2, 100/1, 100/1, 100/1, 100 1/2
[B]Military Press[/B] 45/8, 45/8, 65/5, 75/5, 85/5, 95/5, 105/10 [B]Chin[/B] 7, 5, 5, 5, 5 [B]Shrug[/B] 130/10, 130/10, 130/10/105/10/80/10/55/10/30/10 [B]Face Pull[/B] 35/10, 42.5/12, 50/10 [B]Rear Delt Flies[/B] 10/15, 10/15
I'll post my results on my next first cycle.

Can you post your spreadsheet?

I just realized I can upload a zip file.

If anyone wants to buy the book:
http://www.t-nation.com/workouts/beyond-531-program-1-2

So, how is the progress after the first cycle? Feeling stronger?

Wrist surgery is complicating matters. Couldn't do dips this week without support.

That, and I'm old, so I likely won't see anything tangible for a few more weeks.

I'm looking forward to the first session after deload week.

I've just finished up the first three week cycle. Next week is deload, which works well for me because it should be puking snow.

The third week cycle I took my final set to three reps (regardless of how many more I had in the tank), and then kept going up by singles to see what my 1RM max was. Pretty much everything was up across the board from three weeks ago which is nice. I should also note, I got hit by a nasty cold on the 29th and needed to adjust the intensity/volume during the worst of it.

Two weeks from now I start anew, but with more weight on the bar.

I've updated my spreadsheet even more so I don't have to think at all when adding plates to the bar. It's attached.

Here's what the last two weeks looked like:

1/26
Deadlift 45/5, 45/5, 95/5, 135/5, 185/5, 225/3, 275/3, 295/3, 345/5, snatch grip 135/8
Barbell Curl 60/10, 60/10, 60/10
DB Row 100's/8, 100/8, 100/8
DB Reverse Lunge 55's/8, 55/8, 55/8

1/27
Bench 45/10, 45/8, 95/5, 115/5, 115/3, 135/3, 155/3, 185/10, 90/5
Wrist Curls 10/25/15/10, 10/18/15/10, 10/15/15/10
DB Curl 25/10, 25/10, 25/10
DB Pinch 12.5, 12.5
Dips 5, 2, Super sore wrist. 40/5, 40/8, 40/7
Incline DB Press 45's/10, 45/15, 45/15

1/29
Squat 45/8, 95/5, 135/5, 155/5, 205/3, 225/3, 265/10
TRX Strap Ab-Rollout 8, 8, 8
DB walking lunge 65's/8, 65/8, 65/8

1/30
Military Press 45/5, 45/5, 45/6, 65/5, 75/5, 85/3, 95/3, 105/3, 115/10, 95/10
Chins 7, 6, 4, 4
Shrug 130's/10, 130's/10, 130's/8
Face Pull 50/14, 50/11, 50/10
Rear Fly 10/15, 10/10, 10/10

2/2
Deadlift 45/5, 135/5, 185/5, 225/5, 275/3, 305/5, 345/3, Fuck Fuck Fuck. Wrong sheet. I was using the template sheet that had a higher Max Lift # than the one I'm one (Cycle 1). 365/3, 405/1, 425/1, 435/1 terrible form, 455/0 - got it two inches off the ground then quickly bailed, 405/1/315/2/225/9/90/5
Barbell Curl 60/12, 60/10, 60/10
DB Row 100's/8, 100's/8, 100's/8

2/3
Bench 45/8, 45/10, 95/5, 95/5, 115/5, 135/3, 145/5 Fuck did it again. Wrong sheet, 155/3,175/5 Saving for max, 185/3, 205/1, 225/1, 235/1, 245/1, 255/1, 135/8
Wrist stuff 12.5/15/15/10, 12.5/15/15/10, 12.5/8/15/8
Dips 8, 5, 40/9, 40/8 (40 pounds support)
Incline Bench 95/5 long pause at bottom, 135/8, 135/8, 135/6

2/5
Squat 45/8, 45/8, 135/5, 135/3, 185/5, 215/5, 245/3, 270/3, 295/1, 315/1, 335/1, 345/1/315/1/225/3/135/8
TRX Strap Ab-Rollout 8, 8, 8
Walking DB Lunge 65's/7, 65/7, 65/7
Hammer Curls 30's/10, 30/10, 30/10

2/6
Military Press 45/8, 45/8, 65/5, 65/3, 95/5, 105/3, 120/3, 135/1, 155/1, 135/3, 95/8/65/8
Chins 8, 6, 3, 4, 3/1
Shrug 130's/10, 130's/10, 130/10/105/10/80/10/55/10
TRX Straps Face Pull 8, 8, 8

So, I had an extra deload week in here due to the snow. Today I started on the second cycle.

My all out deadlift set was 345 pounds for 9 reps. Heavier than this time last cycle, and almost double the reps.

This program likes me, and I like it.

Nice job on the lift. I will have to give this a try after the weekend!

I need a change to get rid of some tendinitis I have developed.

This will fit the bill.

If there's been on consistent message on this program, err on the side of setting your 1RM too low as opposed to too high.

I'm interested in keeping tabs on how it works for you.. would love to know if it's a panacea or just suited for me for some reason.

5/3/1 is a good choice!

I definitely agree that you should be setting your training maxes to be low. It will take some time to get into new territory on strength (3-5 cycles, or months), but you will be able to get comfortable in the rhythm of the routine without stalling. Plus, if you want to work harder, you can push the number of reps on your top sets, or work harder on the assistance sets (depending on the 5/3/1 template).

Very cool to see some other riders interested in strength training (although I'm just getting back into riding).