Apexaviour's 5/3/1 Strength Training

ApeXaviour

I've been getting tired of just going for 3 or 1 rep maxes. Read about this and thought it was almost ideal for me. Wendler seems to emphasise recovery, slightly higher reps than I'd be used to and steady progress with constant PR psychological rewards. It also allows you to incorporate your own assistance exercises. I've got a lot of traveling and an uneven schedule over the next two months so with this I can stretch it to a 9 day or squeeze it to a 4 day "week" if needed.

Current stats:
27years old, 175cm (5'9"), 72kg, estimated bf% ~12%.

Current estimated 1RMs:
Squat: 115kg
Deadlift: 140kg
Bench: 77.5kg
Press: 50kg

My squat and deadlift are half decent but my presses are woeful... hoping to see some improvement in them especially now that I'll be training them regularly.

For my assists (spread throughout the week) I've added:
Squat cleans (same style of progression), thinking of switching this to powercleans (any thoughts?).
Weighted Dips (with progression)
Weighted Pullups (with progression)
1 mile run for time
2k row for time
Situps and Bicep curls

Just for a bit of history, dabbled in:
Crossfit: great, feels like home, I love it and will always end up going back to it.
UD2: Actually bulked up on this after an injury which was weird, learned a lot about my body and recommend it for cutting, but not for feeling good.
Starting Strength with GOMAD. Learned a lot, put on a stone and made some significant progress initially before stalling rather abruptly. Felt like my body was in ribbons. Really don't think there was enough recovery in there for me, that's why I think 5/3/1 will suit very well.

Any tips, thoughts, comments...? All are very welcome.

brianthebard

thoughts/comments; boring but big assistance plan is balls, don't do it you'll just feel bet up and it won't help your lifts. At best it might be useful as conditioning, that's it.

Kevpants worked out his own little squat assistance percentage plan, so that might be worth a look. He has since left 5/3/1 behind however.

All the assistance plans suggested in 5/3/1 are sub par imo but some like the bodyweight ones at least might be useful. Basically you'll have to figure out the best assistance stuff from scratch for yourself.

ApeXaviour

So just finished Week 1 of Cycle 1 yesterday (4 weeks in a cycle). I Figure the best way is to post my new weekly estimated 1 rep maxes as a scale log my progress!
1RM are estimated using the formula in the book: weight*reps*0.0333+weight = 1RM.
So if I bench 60kg for 10reps that's 60*10*.0333+60 = 80kg estimated 1RM

End of Week 1
New times and estimated maximums:
Press | 49
Deadlift | 139
Bench | 80 (PB!)
Squat | 108
2k Row | 8.21
1M run | 8.37

Did squatting right after rowing 2k and think it screwed my squat performance up a little. Gonna swap the rowing to after from now on methinks! Have never really run before so was expecting a crap time. Same with row so was was surprised I think that's an okay time!

Edwardius

ApeXaviour wrote: »

175cm (5'9")

Has UD2 made you taller ?!

ApeXaviour

Hah! Cheers for that ed. I slouch but pretty sure I'm 175 unless the tape is calibrated wrong. Maybe one of your lasers can measure me more accurately?:D

ApeXaviour

End of Week 2
New times and estimated maximums:
Press | 54 (PB)
Deadlift | 153 (PB)
Bench | 80
Squat | 114
Squat Clean | 66
2k Row | 8.08 (PB)
1M run | 8.20 (PB)

It was a bit of a jump for my Deadlift... but that's because I pounded out 9 reps of 117.5kg with awful awful form, bouncing it off the floor and nearly doing myself an injury. I shall be more respectful of form in future! (even at the expense of reps)

My weeks are getting pretty stretched due to travel getting in the way... pretty sure this means I can just launch into the next cycle without needing a de-load week, recovery isn't a problem atm.

Am mixing up the assist exercises too as I'm in a weird YMCA gym here in US. Think I might throw some hiit/tabata/metcon in, get my aul' BMR and VO2 max up.