Spartigus 5/3/1

[BendtheBar]

Spartzilla...seeing PRs and weight going up. Nice job.

[Spartigus]

Originally Posted by LtL

Looking strong again Spart. Great progress. I can see a strong total at your first meet next year.

LtL

Originally Posted by big_swede

Awesome DL singles buddy!

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

Spartzilla...seeing PRs and weight going up. Nice job.

Thanks guys!!!

[markievicz]

Originally Posted by Spartigus

Friday was Deadlifts
Deadlift
60kgxlots
100kgx10
120kgx5
140kgx3
155kgx2
175kgx1 (+5kg)
175kgx1 (+5kg)
175kgx1 (+5kg)

Deadlift
140kgx5 (+5kg)
140kgx5 (+5kg)
140kgx5 (+5kg)

Weighted Situps
20kgx10
20kgx10
20kgx10 (+2 reps)

Overall pretty happy


On Saturday I did some conditioning

Conditioning
Hill Sprints (5 intervals with 45 second rest)
Car pushing (3 reps) - Pushed my car up a hill 3 times

thats two great sessions right there Spartigus.. hope you had a recovery day sunday! badly needed after that deadlifting and conditioning!

[Spartigus]

Originally Posted by markievicz

thats two great sessions right there Spartigus.. hope you had a recovery day sunday! badly needed after that deadlifting and conditioning!

Thanks! Hahah it was a food day!!!!


With Fazc's guidance, I have made a few changes. Mainly increasing the volume (on squatting and benching day) and increasing the singles across the board from 3 to 5. Also the backoff deadlifts are getting too hard to recover from, so they are going to go to 2 assistance lifts. Here is the outline.

Day 1:
Bench Press - 5 singles
Bench Press - 5x5
DB Row - 5x10

Day 2:
Squat Day
Squat - 5 singles
Squats - 5x5
Reverse Hypers - 5x10

Day 3:
Bench Press - 3 sets of 10
Chins - 3 sets of 10
Seated Press - 3 sets of 10
Row - 3 sets of 10
Close Grip Bench - 3 sets of 10 Don't go ultra close here, shoulder width (or slightly wider) is about right.
Rearward Shrug (do it on the cable row machine) - 3 sets of 10

Day 4:
Deadlifts - 5 singles
Rack Deadlifts - 5 sets of 5 (1" below knees)
Heavy Shrugs - 5 sets of 5
Abs - 5 sets of 12


Anyway, today was bench day.

I didnt account for the extra volume and so on, so I missed some reps on the pressing. It gave me a good lesson on intensity/volume and I also know what I plan to lift next week. I have been stuck on 115kg for 4 weeks now, so I plan on dropping the weight by 5kg, so doing 110kg, which was evident today.

Bench Day
barxlots
20kgx10
60kgx8
80kgx5
100kgx2
115kgx1
115kgx1
115kgx0 (ouch!)
110kgx1
110kgx1
110kgx1

I succeed in 5 singles, next week I will go for 5 singles at 112.5kg. That should be good I think, see as I made 2 singles at 115kg and 3 at 110kg.

Bench
95kgx5
95kgx5
95kgx3
90kgx5
90kgx4

Last week I hit 92.5kg for 3x5, for some reason I thought I could add 2.5kg and 2 sets of 5 ontop of adding extra singles (22 year old ego). Turns out I cant. I will stick to 90kg for 5x5 next week, and progress from there.

DB Row
50kgx8
50kgx8
50kgx8
50kgx6
50kgx6

Happy with these, last week I hit 50kg for 3x8, so I maintained those reps and added the extra 2 sets at 6 reps. Next week I will add reps to the last 2 sets.

[tank]

Originally Posted by Spartigus

Thanks! Hahah it was a food day!!!!


With Fazc's guidance, I have made a few changes. Mainly increasing the volume (on squatting and benching day) and increasing the singles across the board from 3 to 5. Also the backoff deadlifts are getting too hard to recover from, so they are going to go to 2 assistance lifts. Here is the outline.

Day 1:
Bench Press - 5 singles
Bench Press - 5x5
DB Row - 5x10

Day 2:
Squat Day
Squat - 5 singles
Squats - 5x5
Reverse Hypers - 5x10

Day 3:
Bench Press - 3 sets of 10
Chins - 3 sets of 10
Seated Press - 3 sets of 10
Row - 3 sets of 10
Close Grip Bench - 3 sets of 10 Don't go ultra close here, shoulder width (or slightly wider) is about right.
Rearward Shrug (do it on the cable row machine) - 3 sets of 10

Day 4:
Deadlifts - 5 singles
Rack Deadlifts - 5 sets of 5 (1" below knees)
Heavy Shrugs - 5 sets of 5
Abs - 5 sets of 12


Anyway, today was bench day.

I didnt account for the extra volume and so on, so I missed some reps on the pressing. It gave me a good lesson on intensity/volume and I also know what I plan to lift next week. I have been stuck on 115kg for 4 weeks now, so I plan on dropping the weight by 5kg, so doing 110kg, which was evident today.

Bench Day
barxlots
20kgx10
60kgx8
80kgx5
100kgx2
115kgx1
115kgx1
115kgx0 (ouch!)
110kgx1
110kgx1
110kgx1

I succeed in 5 singles, next week I will go for 5 singles at 112.5kg. That should be good I think, see as I made 2 singles at 115kg and 3 at 110kg.

Bench
95kgx5
95kgx5
95kgx3
90kgx5
90kgx4

Last week I hit 92.5kg for 3x5, for some reason I thought I could add 2.5kg and 2 sets of 5 ontop of adding extra singles (22 year old ego). Turns out I cant. I will stick to 90kg for 5x5 next week, and progress from there.

DB Row
50kgx8
50kgx8
50kgx8
50kgx6
50kgx6

Happy with these, last week I hit 50kg for 3x8, so I maintained those reps and added the extra 2 sets at 6 reps. Next week I will add reps to the last 2 sets.

Great work, bro! I look forward to seeing your progress; I plan to do 5/3/1 after madcow, myself.

[Spartigus]

Originally Posted by tank

Great work, bro! I look forward to seeing your progress; I plan to do 5/3/1 after madcow, myself.

Thanks!!

I ran Starting Strength, then I ran Madcow, then I ran something I made for Oly lifting, then I ran 5/3/1. Though I am not on 5/3/1 anymore.

[JarHead]

I like the look of your routine Spart,strong lifts

[Pull14]

Great work Spart, bench is still looking strong despite the minor set back.

[Spartigus]

Originally Posted by JarHead

I like the look of your routine Spart,strong lifts

Originally Posted by Pull14

Great work Spart, bench is still looking strong despite the minor set back.

Thanks guys!!

Today was squat day, I was aiming for 150kg for 5 singles (last week I made 155kg for 1 before my knees hurt and back hurt a lot), so I was going to cut 5kg, the week before that I made 150kg for 3 singles. On the 5x5 I was planning on 100kg, cutting intensity slightly and upping volume, last week I hit 110kg for just 3 reps because of my knees and back, week before was 105kg for 3x5.

Squat Day
Squats
barxlots
60kgx15
90kgx10
110kgx5
130kgx2
150kgx1

By now my knees were sore again, so I called it on singles. I made the choice then to next week cut the singles to 140kg, and I would up the intensity slightly on the 5x5, those would start today.

Squats
110kgx5x5 (I guess a PR for the backoff sets?)

What I did notice was on the 3rd rep of 1st set, I went down a bit faster and activated a stronger hamstring reflex, I realised I wasnt doing this enough. I also noticed my knees felt a lot better.

After the 5x5 sets my knees felt less sore, and I felt more explosive out the hole. I was thinking more and I found I wasnt getting that hamstring reflex out the hole and it was putting a lot of stress on my knees. I think this might of been the reason for my sore knees?

Reverse Hypers
5x10 (bodyweight)

My back is feeling pretty good, and my knee issue I think is sorted out .


Next week, the plan is 140kg for 5 singles, and 110kg for 5x5. That should get me back on the progression train, and hopefully give my knees a slight break. I will probably keep the 5x5 at 110kg until my 5 singles hit 150kg, unless the 140kg feels pretty light (which hopefully it will).


It has been interesting upping the volume and seeing how to adjust the intensity, good lessons .

Friday is Deadlift day, now last week I made 175kg for 3 singles, that felt pretty light still, so I think I will keep 175kg and hit 5 singles. Though I dont want to run into the same problem of not reducing the intensity enough. I dont know if I should reduce it to 170kg, but I dont want to reduce it too much.

[Spartigus]

Hey guys

I am wanting a bit more heavy volume on the lighter pressing day (at the moment its that "lighter pump" day) on Thursday, I want to try keep the 5x5 on bench day as long as I can. I am going to make an attempt at making a change to Pressing day. I still have LOADS to learn about programming, so tell me if its a bad idea, I will list my reasons for the changes too. Hopefully it makes sense and isnt rubbish haha.


So I thought I could alter Thursday, so instead of:-

Press 5 singles
Press 5x5
Chins 5x10

I could try:-
BTHP 5x5
Chins 5x10
CGBP 5x5
Face Pulls or Rearward Shrugs 5x10
Curls 3x10

Reasons (Hopefully they are valid):-
1. I think it will be easier to recover from than the original one, this will hopefully allow me to stick to 5 singles and 5x5 on bench day for longer, as this day will add less stress over the week. So even though its still "heavy" doing 5x5, it will be easier to recover from, and hopefully mean my bench day can stay 5 singles + 5x5 for longer.
2. BTHP will hopefully create more shoulder balance, otherwise I will be doing a lot of front delt heavy lifts (bench press and overhead press).
3. CGBP will strength my triceps to help with bench press.

So let me know what your thoughts are