Repair and prepare - my journal on the road back to 5x5

[enigma4dub]

must be late if the boys in england are up! 8x3 does seem a lot to ramp up with. you planning on running a linear program?

 

[blut wump]

Take a look at Prilepin's table. It should indicate total sets you ought to be aiming for depending on your workload. When I was running my "Conjugate Wump" before Christmas, I settled for progressing at a flat 5 sets of 3 on my heavy days. If you are running a ramp then I think 8 sets is fine. If you feel that you've reacclimatized to working out then you could push for singles and doubles but you might find them taxing.

 

[enigma4dub]

Take a look at Prilepin's table. It should indicate total sets you ought to be aiming for depending on your workload. When I was running my "Conjugate Wump" before Christmas, I settled for progressing at a flat 5 sets of 3 on my heavy days. If you are running a ramp then I think 8 sets is fine. If you feel that you've reacclimatized to working out then you could push for singles and doubles but you might find them taxing.

just curious as to what others do when not running a cookie cutter 5x5 what type of program were you running at the time and what did the volume look like for the rest of the week?

 

[anotherbutters]

Ah, Prilepin's table - I've looked at it before, but never used it. Thanks. You're probably right on the doubles and singles, and there's going to be plenty of time throughout the rest of the year to play with them. So now I'm thinking flat 5x3 on Mondays and ramping 8x3 on Fridays, independently setting PRs in each (for bench and rows). I might try 5x3 on military too.

I'd like to start all the lifts at a point such that I don't stall on one lift well before the others, but squats and deads are going to be a bit of an unknown quantity. So I'll just pick a weight that ought to be easy for the next couple of weeks on bench, rows and military and take it from there. If they stall early, I'll just reset them, possibly reverting to 1x5.

enigma, yes, this is basically SF 5x5 with linear gains. I'm just playing with sets and reps, but I'm not intentionally trying to change the overall workload. When I stall, I'll probably go back to standard SF 5x5 sets and reps.

I intend to run the SF 5x5 for the rest of the year, resetting and trying different ways of getting the gains going as I have to, journalling all the way.

 

[RipStone]

AB- You probabaly already said this, but why do you want to change the standard SF 5x5 and instead do (maybe) straight sets of 5x3 on mon and then prymiad up the sets using 8x3 on friday? What advantage is this for you over?

 

[anotherbutters]

Doh, keep up man! We're only on post 15 and you're behind already

My arms went up from 13" to 14" on my first run of the SF (I know, small) and they're still the same, even though I've lost strength. So I'm wondering, instead of resetting even further back, maybe I should try to regain some of the neural efficiency by working with triples for a while.

Size hasn't changed, but strength has gone down, so I guessed it would be beneficial to work with lower reps for a while. I'll stick with triples until I stall on them and it won't be forever. This is for bench, rows and military press. I'm taking my time with squats and deads.

 

[Cynical Simian]

Great to see you back to working out and journaling, AB.

Less than a day and I already have to thank you/blut wump. I had coincidentally also decided to change the rep scheme to triples this week but had completely forgotten about Prilepin's table.

 

[Introspective]

Good luck with the new journal butters

 

[anotherbutters]

Week 1, Wednesday

Bodyweight: 81kg (178lb)

Front Squats (kg)
bar x 2 x 9 ......... warmup
30 x 5
35 x 5
40 x 5
45 x 5
52.5 x 5 ........... (116lb)

Deadlift (kg)
SLDL 40 x 9 ....... warmup
60 x 5
70 x 5
80 x 5
90 x 5
105 x 5 .............. (231lb)

Military Press (kg)
bar x 9 .............. warmup
30 x 5 ............... warmup
38.5 x 5 x 3 ........ (85lb)


Comments

I haven't really pushed front squats before. I think this is a PR, but it's so low, I'm not going to declare it. I did these out from the rack rather than clean them from the floor and they were ok this time. I don't think I get the bottom of my upper arms parallel with the ground, but the bar's already hard into my throat under the Adam's apple and I can't lift them any higher, so I'm happy with my rack. The bar's sat on my shoulders nicely and there's no discomfort at all.

Deads highlighted that my grip strength has deteriorated a lot. Even with a little chalk, straight, then hook grip were failing on the top set and I had to resort to mixed. Even then my grip was slipping and I had to slow the final rep's descent by run the knurling of the bar over the skin of my knee. No damage done to the bar.

On military, I wasn't sure how tired I'd get doing 5 triples. I haven't done flat sets for a long time, but they were ok. Today's weight was supposed to be light and I'll be bumping these by 1-1.5kg each week from here.

I'm going to start doing pull-ups on Thursdays, along with abs. I just don't have time in the mornings to do them on Wednesdays. Anybody see a problem with this? My only concern is that I'll be hitting back and biceps on Thurs with pull-ups and Friday with rows.

EDIT: I'm sure I'll be fine ramping deads back up again

 

[nelmsjer]

Even then my grip was slipping and I had to slow the final rep's descent by run the knurling of the bar over the skin of my knee. No damage done to the bar.

Good thing...your gym owner would have been pissed.