Djeclipse's 3 x 8 journal....

Here is a link to my previous 5x5 journal.

http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=471637&page=1&pp=20

It has all my diet and progress info in it.

I'm back after taking 6 days off form lifting. My lower back feels a lot better, but still not 100%, i’d say like 95%.

I am down to 177.5lbs or so BW, that's about 20lbs total BW loss. I look and feel much better, my gut has gone from 40" to 36.5".

For a while I've been contemplating changing the rep scheme up a little and I think now is the time. I will try a 3 x 8 instead of the 5x5.

1. The weights will be lighter so my lower back will have more time to heal/ get stronger.

2. I should be out of the gym faster a it is the summer and I need my tan .

I am not sure what to do with wed though. I think I will stay away from deads for a while and was thinking of subbing in powercleans for deads. Is this ok or should I really try to keep deads in there.

With the deads I think my lower back needs at least a day to heal and it's not really getting that with playing soccer the next day. I think that was the cause of the "injury". it sucks because I really like deads and was still making progress on them.

Anyway here is my new journal, any comments, suggestions are always welcome as usual.

I don’t know my 8 rep maxes but I will take my 4th set form my 5x5 journal and use that as my 8 rep max. I will punch those maxes into the madcow spresd sheet and use set 1, 3 and 5 for my 3 sets.

Friday I was thinking of repeating monday but adding a heavier tipple.

Wed I’m not sure if I should stick with the 4 x 5 set up or go 3 x 8 for military press.

The 8 rep maxes I will be using are

Squat = 210
bench = 190
Rows = 170
OHP = 120

I assume these are a little conservative which sill be good.

After punching the numbers into the spread sheet todays workout will look like this.

Squat
95 x 8
145 x 8
195 x 8

Bench
85 x 8
135 x 8
175 x 8

Rows
80 x 8
120 x 8
155 x 8

Hypers

Sit ups.

We'll see how it goes today.

Here's something that might be useful if you're not DL:http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0886.htm
My thinking is that no DL=more time+energy. This is something sport specific and the increase in stablity and balance should translate to a better situation for your lower back when you return to DL. Unilateral work can often be a useful resource.

fortunatesun said:

Here's something that might be useful if you're not DL:http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0886.htm
My thinking is that no DL=more time+energy. This is something sport specific and the increase in stablity and balance should translate to a better situation for your lower back when you return to DL. Unilateral work can often be a useful resource.

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I am already squatting 3x per week. And still need some kind of a pull on Wed.

The one legged squat.. has anyone actually done these? I'd be afraid it could potentially do more dammage then good...?

Ja, 3x is enough. One leg squats are good for sports that involve running. I suggested it as an assistance exercise that probably wouldn't interfere with game day and would have useful carryover. Here's another link:http://www.elitefts.com/documents/pistol_power.htm

Nice. I think you'll like this as a break from the heavier weights, especially while cutting.

Repeating Monday's workout on Friday would be one option. Another possibility would be to make it a "link" to the following Monday as in the 5-rep version with a ramp up to a lower-rep set with the weight you'll use for 8 on Monday (5 or 6 reps). Then you could follow that with an even higher rep backoff (10 or 12 reps for TEH MAD PUMP) or a heavier triple like you're currently planning to do.

I don't see any reason not to do 8 reps for OHP. It's not like front squats or Oly lifts where you'd want to keep the reps lower (for reasons of staying conscious and form, respectively).

Cynical Simian said:

Nice. I think you'll like this as a break from the heavier weights, especially while cutting.

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That was kind of my thinking. i know some people have also contemplated doing a 3 x 8 after the 5x5 but no one has posted a journal. I still expect to make gains in the 8 rep range, but I think my body will thank me as am much more active in the summer which hurts recovery. especially while cutting.

Repeating Monday's workout on Friday would be one option. Another possibility would be to make it a "link" to the following Monday as in the 5-rep version with a ramp up to a lower-rep set with the weight you'll use for 8 on Monday (5 or 6 reps). Then you could follow that with an even higher rep backoff (10 or 12 reps for THE MAD PUMP) or a heavier triple like you're currently planning to do.

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I was kind of thinking the same thing. Set 3would be mondays weigt for 6 reps and set 4 would be a heavier tripple. But I guess I could do a set to 10 or 12 reps but do I really need that "pump". I am expecting to get more of a pump with the higher rep working sets anyway.

Which do you recommend for he 4th set, the heavier tripple or the lighter 10-12 rep set.

I don't see any reason not to do 8 reps for OHP. It's not like front squats or Oly lifts where you'd want to keep the reps lower (for reasons of staying conscious and form, respectively).

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Ok so I'll use 8's for OHP also. My starting max weight for those will be 120 x 8 as I’m not sure if I could get 125 x 8 (which was my last warm up set).

I am leaning towards power cleans on wed also but I think I want to keep it to 4x5 asI don't want to be doing so many reps on a lift I need to learn still.

Sorry to take so long to reply. I had to go a couple minutes after making that last post.

For the last set on Friday, I think it's mostly personal preference since the set isn't a maximal effort or something you'd be pushing a lot from week to week. You could even just do another set of 8 if all you want to do is add volume, although I've found that a different number of reps is a nice change of pace. You wouldn't be in danger of having too much volume with a 10/12-repper since the ramping keeps overall volume pretty low. The only possible issue with a triple would be weight acclimation, since even with the ramped sets of 8 as a warmup you might have to do a single or two to get to a non-trivial weight to use for a triple.

Basically, just experiment with it. Trying, say, a 12-rep backoff in week 1 then a 3-rep backoff (backon?) in week 2 won't hurt your progress since it's the 8s that're driving your strength gains anyway. You might find that you (or your joints) want a complete break from anything below 5 reps or, alternatively, that triples (or singles or doubles if you want to do that instead) are fun and make that top set of 8 feel/seem lighter the following Monday.

That was a lot of rambling for a non-answer, huh?

Cynical Simian said:

Sorry to take so long to reply. I had to go a couple minutes after making that last post.

For the last set on Friday, I think it's mostly personal preference since the set isn't a maximal effort or something you'd be pushing a lot from week to week. You could even just do another set of 8 if all you want to do is add volume, although I've found that a different number of reps is a nice change of pace. You wouldn't be in danger of having too much volume with a 10/12-repper since the ramping keeps overall volume pretty low. The only possible issue with a triple would be weight acclimation, since even with the ramped sets of 8 as a warmup you might have to do a single or two to get to a non-trivial weight to use for a triple.

Basically, just experiment with it. Trying, say, a 12-rep backoff in week 1 then a 3-rep backoff (backon?) in week 2 won't hurt your progress since it's the 8s that're driving your strength gains anyway. You might find that you (or your joints) want a complete break from anything below 5 reps or, alternatively, that triples (or singles or doubles if you want to do that instead) are fun and make that top set of 8 feel/seem lighter the following Monday.

That was a lot of rambling for a non-answer, huh?

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It was a good reply, I understood the rumblings. You do bring up a good point though about the tripple. One of the reasons for doing the 8's is to be lifting lighter weight and give my back a rest. The heavier tipple kind of defeats the purpose, os maybe I'll stick with the 12 repper and get that m3d puMp Yo!.

You're not going to like me . . .

CS said:

I think you'll like this as a break from the heavier weights, especially while cutting.

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This isn't a bad idea, but not the best either, IMO. I'm not saying there's only one way to do it, so don't get pissed, but IMO, cutting is a good time to keep it heavy. I"m not talking going super heavy, pushing max's, etc. b/c calorie deficit + superheavy = injuryville . . . but a good way to help your body dump calorically-expensive muscle is to underfeed it while withdrawing the heavy stimulus. The heavy weights tell the body, "Hey, we need that muscle b/c we're working hard!!" LoL If you start doing pumping type stuff and stay away from the heavy stuff, you'll send the good ol' hypertrophy signal, but won't have any calories to back it up . . . and you won't grow any muscle (or very little) but you might start losing some of it b/c your body thinks it doesn't need it anymore. E.g., sit on the couch long enough, your muscles start going away . . .

Maybe 8s are heavy enough that that won't happen though. On 2d thought, they're probably just fine. I could see this being a problem if you started doing light sets of 15 though, which you aren't so . . . I have no point.

FWIW, I went from 200 (38.5" waist, 27% BF) to 157 (31" waist, 13%BF) over the past year or so. I also ran a 5x5 cycle, contemplated a 3x8 cycle, even posted about it in my journal, but w/in 2 weeks, I'd "tweaked" it and guess what . . . wound up w/ something awfully close to 5x5 again. LoL Now, I just do 5x5. LoL

I see your point, but hopefully the 8's and the progression (adding weight to the bar every week) will be enough for me to make strangth gains.

Off to the gym now, we'll see how day 1 goes.