I can't remember if I had mentioned it here yet or not but over the past however long, as various lifts' progress has been slowing and feeling the need for a little more rep work, I had been contemplating switching up from the standard "fives" linear progression and diving into Jim Wendler's good ol' 5/3/1 for Powerlifting. I have done regular 5/3/1 in the past and liked it a good bit, made some decent progress on it.
Having come from the conjugate/block world fairly recently and then with the "fives" progression prescribed previously, however, I have been digging the "A/B" schedule concept, though, so of course I had to mess with the program a bit.
As Wendler would tell you, and I am pretty sure he wrote in the book- the program, then, is no longer 5/3/1.
And I concur. So much so that I didn't buy the book (chill the crap out, I bought the original and second edition) and ran forward with what I perused in a sample of the ebook I had on my Kindle.
Which is, of course, not the full program.
Ignorance being bliss, I went ahead with my programming concept, defiantly, and went to the gym for bench and deathlift day. Here's what occurred:
- Warm up, traction, etc - about 10min
- bench - 5xbar, 5x95lbs, 3x135lbs, 3x155lbs, 4x170lbs, 3x10x135lbs
- deathlift, sumo edition - 5x135lbs, 5x225lbs, 3x265lbs, 3x290lbs, 6x335lbs
- Tbar row, paused, high elbow - 3x8x55lbs
- Reverse hyper, HITO - 3x10x90lbs
- Shoulder series - x2
My grand plan, since I had neglected to make myself an expert at 5/3/1 for Powerlifting (but have no fear, I read the sample on my KINDLE!), the plan was to go for threes as I noted one of the main differences between standard 5/3/1 and 5/3/1 for Powerlifting was the 3/5/1 progression to allow for heavy singles afterward.
However, one of the philosophies of 5/3/1 is that you intentionally use a training max lighter than your actual one rep max so that you can really push and get more reps on the last working set. But one of the tenets of 5/3/1 for Powerlifting is that you do not push the last set on certain days so that you can push into heavy singles.
Keep in mind that I did not buy the book, nor borrow it, or in any other way facilitate the inclusion of all of the knowledge that makes up the program.
Hey! I'm not unusually proportioned, I'm big boned!
The result? I got half retarded in my head (don't get offended, Captain PC, it's a legitimate word when that is what describes the situation) on the last set of bench and did four, which is neither only getting the day's prescribed reps NOR going all out for max reps.
It would help if I read the book, but I'll get to that later.
Bench vid, last set:
Not bad, looking kinda sexy. Stability is decent at that weight, will push more later.
Deathlift vid, last set:
Deathlift vid, last set:
Groovy.
Soooooooooooooooooooooooo like I said, I didn't read the book before I started programming which, of course, left me with the previously mentioned confusion on some of the programming.
What to do... what to do...
Oh yeah. Maybe buy the book and read it.
Thanks again, Red. Always an inspiration.
So after reading a few reviews on it (because I obviously needed further convincing), I went ahead and dropped the ten whole dollars (American) on the Kindle version and read it in one sitting. The book is well worth it, Wendler's writing is almost always entertaining and the information contained therein, while pretty basic, is pointed and useful- it's not rocket surgery, it's powerlifting.
I won't get into the particulars of the program (go buy the damn book if you want the program, eh), but needless to say, even with my modifications, changes need to be made. My questions were answered, fallacies brought to light, etc. Was also reminded of some accessory work I can switch out from time to time.
Alles ist gut, we have time.
In the meantime, enjoy the new offering from Crowbar. This is "Walk With Knowledge Wisely" off of their new album, Symmetry in Black. Crowbar owns.
Go forth and destroy.
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