Another Single Factor 5x5 Journal

[blut wump]

I'm planning one or two main exercises each session. I might throw deads back in on a light day but concentrate more on box-squats and GMs for lower body. I'll switch exercises around in Westside style and vary reps and sets depending on the exercise and where it sits in a workout.

MTTF workouts with heavy and light upper and lower. I started a trial week last week starting on Tuesday and did:
Tues: Bench 4x8 varying grip width, Row 4x8, MP 5x3. Abs
Thurs: Squat 100Kgx4x8, GM 100Kgx3x8, Hypers, Reverse Hypers
Frid: Bench 120Kgx5x3, backoff of 100Kgx5 Shoulder-width grip and 60Kgx20 narrow grip, MP 4x8. Shrugs, Abs

Edit:
Added some weights I remembered. I can't recall all the weights and my book's in the car but you get the idea. I'll bump weights this coming week and maybe same again the following week and then start to swap exercises out.

 

[anotherbutters]

Five weeks seems a long time to wait before surpassing old records. One of the aspects of the single factor is that it deliberately has low volume to permit adequate recovery. If you couple that with the deload week you've just taken, I think you'd be losing drive rather than gaining momentum. I think you'd be better served by aiming to slightly surpass yourself in three weeks or even two. Still, just my opinion.

I dug out my COC grippers, which I've not used in months after popping a knuckle last time I used them, which, sadly, was during the first week of owning them. I managed 4 full closures with the #1 with each hand after a bit of warmup on the COC trainer. I seem to recall closing it for one rep with each hand when I first got them. To get nine on your first session is astounding enough to make me wonder whether the equivalence to COC #1 is accurate. They are kind of fun, though. I recall a lad at work had some 'normal' grippers which he found hard and I used to annoy him by hammering them out like castenets.

I think my last bench, dead and military PRs were so hard that I need to build up a bit of strength before I get to them again. If that's only three weeks away, I don't know if that will give me enough momentum to carry on setting more PRs later.

It does seem like a long time. I probably should have dropped the weight and started to ramp up again instead of taking last week off. A couple of light weeks at the start of a ramp might have been enough of a deload. I feel like I've messed this up a bit, but it's only a week. It's difficult for me to exercise this amount of patience because I'm desperate to get back to setting PRs, but I'm also scared of getting to them and not being able to pass them.

With the CoC gripper, do you start by crushing it with the outside of your hand, then the whole of your hand once it's half closed? The Ivanko gripper has the pivot much further away, so the bars are more parallel throughout the ROM, which I think makes it easier to close. I'd be surprised if I did 9 reps on the CoC #1, but I'll never know unless I buy one.

 

[anotherbutters]

If I ran SF for 4 weeks, do you guys think it would be good for a few PR's? Since the previous 20yrs training have been 1 bodypart/week, I'd probably classify myself as a beginner, using GP's definition.

I don't know. Four weeks isn't long. Whatever you do would have to have the weights and load selected carefully to run straight off the back of your Korte.

 

[blut wump]

The COC fits between the ball of my thumb and my fingers. I just pull in with my fingers. The more-parallel bars might help, I suppose. I guess that's why there's always a need for standardization. Still, who are we to complain? We can't even sort out the weight of a plate.

 

[anotherbutters]

I'm tempted to pop over to Pullum Sports tomorrow. They have them in for 20 quid.

Actually I've just remembered, I have nearly 200kg of bumper plates on order from somewhere. Must chase those up.

 

[anotherbutters]

Edit:
Changed Heavy 3x5 to 5x3 (5 sets of 3 reps). I get confused with this American way of writing (Sets x Reps) rather than (Reps x Sets)

It's easy when you're doing 5x5

I thought everyone wrote (Sets x Reps) except the Russians. I get confused when people include weight. I've been reversing it to (Weight x Reps x Sets) because I thought that made more sense, e.g. 100kg x 5 reps for 3 sets, but maybe everyone else reads it as 100kg for 3 sets of 5.

 

[blut wump]

It's always made more sense to me to write it that way, WxRxS, especially in my exercise book when I don't yet how many sets I can get through . I was surprised no-one commented during my Korte that I always wrote it out unless sets and reps were equal.

I guess when discussing a workout you'd talk of lifting W for S sets of R so I can see why that would go to WxSxR. Whenever I go to look up a routine, I always scan through the text to get a clear indication of which way around the notation is.

Life's confusing until senility sets in.

 

[anotherbutters]

Week 16, Monday - 1st week of ramping to break through 1st plateau

Bodyweight: 81.5kg/179lb (target: 179lb) - back on track


1. Freeweight back squats (kg)
bar x 9 x 2 ..... warmup (it just makes more sense to write it this way )
40 x 9 ........... warmup
60 x 5
70 x 5
80 x 5
87.5 x 5
97.5 x 5 ......... (215lb)

2. Bench (kg)
bar x 9 .......... warmup
30 x 9 ........... warmup
45 x 5
50 x 5
55 x 5
60 x 5
68.5 x 5 .......... (151lb)

3. Powercleans (kg)
bar x 5 .......... warmup
30 x 5
35 x 5
40 x 5 ........... including 2 perfect catches
45 x 5
47.5 x 5 ......... (105lb)

4. Abs
Planks - 20 secs per side (right, front, left), total 6 min 1 secs!!! ...... PR!
Crunches - 3 x 12


Comments

I'm going to stick with the last plan I drew up and aim for matching PRs in week 19, although that doesn't give many weeks of PRs before the interruptions of Christmas.

Squats and bench were surprisingly hard, even though I've gone back to the weights I was on a few weeks ago. They seemed harder than the weights I tried last Friday. I'll increase by my usual amounts on Friday for triples anyway. I've dropped the warmup weights a little so I can increase those over the next few weeks too. I hope this works.

My left pec started feeling strained during bench, near the arm pit and it's still sore now, an hour later. I had a little twinge a few weeks ago but it was ok the next day. I'll keep an eye on it.

I managed two perfect catches on powercleans, with the bar sat firmly back on my shoulders. Felt great! I think I'll bump these by 2.5kg (5.5lb) per week until they start getting hard, then slow down. The top weight today felt just right - not too heavy and not too light.

I was determined to get 6 or 7 minutes on planks today. I stopped when the sweat was pouring off me at a rate of more than one drip per second

 

[blut wump]

Awesome work on the planks.

Take it steady this week. After even a short layoff, you need a workout or two to tighten everything back up again.

Again, awesome work on the planks. Time to bump to 30s.

 

[anotherbutters]

I was afraid you'd say that. I wondered about 30s today, so I'll give it a go on Friday.

I find it more of a cardio exercise. I was puffing and panting a bit for the last couple of minutes. I find it difficult to keep track of where I'm up to too - I might have done 4' 33" last week, not 3' 33" as reported. I need a notepad so I can tick off the minutes.