Long Day

Continued logging of Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 program: I'm liking it so far. It's a noticeable change from my old routines. Total volume is comparable, but it's focused in new places.

To me, a strength program makes a lot of sense. My priorities/goals affiliated with devoted training, whether it's on the bike or in the gym are thus:

1.) I train because otherwise I would have to take drugs to make it through the day.
2.) I train because I want to be stronger/better than I am now.
3.) I train because I am constantly striving for a measure of positive self image.

Yes, vanity has something to do with it. Though if I had to give you a breakdown of percentages, my motivation for training is probably 60%, 30%, 10%. There you have it.

Since I prioritize strength and athleticism over looks, I lean toward strength programs. Hence, I'm giving 5/3/1 a whirl.

Monday: Military Press

3 x 55
3 x 60
14 x 70

Yeah yeah, I started light on the military press. It's a tough lift. Did some assistance (dips, rope climb, inverted rows) and conditioning (LCCJ, MTN climber, Med Ball slam in a ladder type circuit) and headed to work.

Tuesday: Deadlift

3 x 180
3 x 205
8 x 230

I both love and hate the balls-out effort on the last set for DL's. My shins are scraped and bruised. I'm probably bleeding. And I grunted enough to get some looks. Not that I was going for that per se. But pulling a weight as many times as you can rather than trying to pull a weight for a fixed number of--possibly highish--reps is definitely a challenge that taxes all systems in a new way for me.

Afterwards did some split squats and sandbag carries and went to work.

I was thinking about the 5/3/1 program logistics a bit today. To me, the beauty is that your entire month is laid out in a spreadsheet. Every weight for every set is calculated. No going by feel. No doing an extra set. No skipping a set. No guessing about what the right weight to use will be. It's prioritized very heavily toward your key four lifts. It's kind of a nice template to have in place that takes some of the compulsion out of training. I also think--and I look forward to testing it in the long term--that Wendler has a very basic and solid program with the submaximal lifting and small, steady, incremental progression. It's kind of a slow and steady mindset that I can get behind.

5lb or 10lb increments monthly don't seem like much, but in a year you could conceivably increase your working loads in the lower body lifts by over 100lbs and upper body lifts by over 50lbs. That's pretty significant considering my max DL about this time last year was 275 and my max DL now is about 295. Granted, I didn't necessarily train to improve that specific lift. But I WAS deadlifting for most of the year.

It will be interesting to see what the winter holds, but so far my conclusion after one week is that there are far stupider training methodologies than 5/3/1.

Tomorrow will be another lovely dance with front squats. Joy, joy, joy...down in my heart.