AB's 2007 log

[anotherbutters]

New Year, new journal (previous journal). I'm at or near PRs in some of the lifts (most importantly squats), so I'm going to declare my comeback complete and add some structure to my workout schedule.

Inspired by Practical Programming, I like the idea of the weekly 'periodized' workouts with heavier workouts at the start of the week and a light workout at the end and I think they're a good match for me right now. The SF 5x5 workouts always seemed to be a hard slog on each of the 3 days, so it'll be interesting to see how I fare with two harder days and a proper light day.

Here's the plan:

Mon (done heavy)
Squat: 3x5
Bench: 3x5
Row: 3x5

Wed (done heavy)
Front squat: 3x5
OHP: 3x5
Dead: 1x5
Chins: 3 sets to failure

Fri (4x5 warmup sets, then Mon's weight for 3 reps; no backoff sets)
Squat: 1x3
Bench: 1x3
Row: 1x3

I've had a week off for Christmas, so I'll start tomorrow with weights that were just under the weights I did a week ago.

I'll throw in ab work and maybe some reverse hypers a couple of times a week and I'll be doing relatively hard cardio (30 min interval training) on Tue and Thu because I like it. I'll scale back the cardio when progress on the lifts slows.

I'll start slowly bulking too. At 174lbs, I really shouldn't be worried about a bit of a gut (36" at the belly).

 

[blut wump]

You could consider swapping Squat or Bench/Row such that the easy day is Monday and the heavy day is Friday. It'll help to spread the load and not leave you with a crippling day to avoid looking forward to.

That's the approach taken by the DF 5x5 which has Squat 5x5 on Monday, 1x5 on Friday and has Bench/Row 1x5 on Monday, 5x5 on Friday.

Maybe you already did consider it so I'll shut up now. Good luck with this new phase in your rise to greatness.

BTW, it's still 2006 over here.

 

[anotherbutters]

Thanks BW.

The SF 5x5 has the load spread fairly evenly too, and of course there's nothing wrong with that. However, after reading PP, I thought I'd try something slightly different. In this case, I'm specifically trying to create an uneven balance, so I use the harder workouts at the beginning of the week to stimulate an adaptation, and the end of the week to recover (weekly periodization, if you like). The light day really is supposed to be a light day and it's an important part of the week in terms of recovery and maintaining neural efficiency. I was very tempted to make it a low volume 3RM attempt day, but I think that would defeat the purpose, so I held back.

In the long term, according to PP , I'll eventually find that the work on Mon and Wed won't be enough to drive an adaptation. The book contains a table (page 194) that shows how you can progressively add workout days to the week, so that over time, you add more and more load to the beginning of the week, but keep the light day on Friday. So the plan I drew up above is really the beginning of a whole series of plans, which my overly planning-zealous mind likes . And of course, when there's so much work in one week that you can't recover from it before the following week, you have to start spreading it over two weeks and it starts to look like a DF workout.

It's scary. I almost sound like I know what I'm talking about

BTW, it's still 2006 over here.

I haven't done my first workout yet

 

[blut wump]

I see, you're trying to shock your muscles after the weekend to confuse them into growing. It's all standard bodybuilding methodology as expounded by Arnold in his training and posing book.

It does sound a little perverse, though. It seems that the main effort goes into a single major work day and then you don't really work the lifts again for another week, except for some maintainance work to keep conditioning in place.

I'll be fascinated to see how it unravels over time. It also goes to show that the standard BB approach really is just the bottom-most rung on the training ladder.

 

[anotherbutters]

Ouch!

Yet, what's the DF 5x5 if it isn't a shock event, followed by a period of recovery? The shock event just happens to last 3-4 weeks. In my case, it happens within the confines of the beginning of a week. And to be fair, the work is spread across two days, not a single shock day, and they're still full-body workouts.

The above plan contains HML (heavy, medium, light) days, which, over time, will turn into HHL, HMHL, HHHL, etc, building up to potentially 6 days a week if you can still recover on a weekly basis with that workload.

 

[Deleted member 33117]

Interesting split. Keep us posted on how your strength and body composition changes on this. Any idea what your BF% is at right now?

 

[anotherbutters]

I've no idea. My abs have their winter blanket on. I'd guess at 15%.

 

[Cynical Simian]

Always the trailblazer, eh? I'll be interested to see how it goes.

 

[Deleted member 33117]

I've no idea. My abs have their winter blanket on. I'd guess at 15%.

Yeah have not tested mine in a few weeks. Still slowing dropping weight while my strength is going up rapidly. I am about 16% right now. I'm focusing on pure strength gains and getting leaner until I hit 10-11%. I'm not overly concerned with hypertrophy until I'm lean enough to take my shirt off in public again.

I think your routine could benefit from more frequency. You are doing low volume, with heavy weights. I see no reason why you could not do your squat and bench 3 times a week.

What are your goals in this period of your training exactally?

 

[blut wump]

AB has run a program before that had him doing Squat, Bench, Dead each 3x per week, the Korte 3x3.

This current program looks as though he'll be ramping frequency over time.