NorthStrong's Training Log

[NorthStrong]

Hello all, and welcome to my log. I am a beginning lifter who has been at it for about 7 months. I just finished up "The Juggernaut Method" and now it's time for me to go back to 5/3/1. I have a meet picked out next year, June 7th and 8th, 2014. It will be my first ever meet and I will be training 5/3/1 to build myself a base of strength and athleticism.

This isn't purely a powerlifting log, as I am focusing on a few things that most powerlifters don't, such as a some jumping, throwing, sprinting and bodyweight movements as I think the novice stage is not only a good time to develop a base of strength, but a base of athleticism as well. I will be posting it in here since I am competing in a meet though.

I am 19 years old, currently around 185lbs, 15-20% bf, looking to get stronger, and faster. I've played hockey most of my life, golfed, played rugby as well and am currently involved in ultimate frisbee.

Maxes / Training Maxes

Squat 315 / 285
Bench 215 / 195
Deadlift 360 / 325
Press 145 / 130

Those numbers are based off of either ME singles or triples.

The version of 5/3/1 I will be training on is the one I started a thread about previously; it's Chad Wesley Smith's suggestion as he feels beginners need more volume to improve technique and build more muscle with. Instead of the regular percentages of 5/3/1, it is as follows.

65x5, 70x5, 75x5, 80x5, 85x5+
70x3, 75x3, 80x3, 85x3, 90x3+
75x5, 80x4, 85x3, 90x2, 95x1+

I hope to have some of you along for the journey leading up to my first meet, and beyond. First workout tomorrow.

[NorthStrong]

5/3/1 C1W1

Went late and grumpy today.

Defranco Agile 8
Weighted box jumps 5x3 - 15lbs
Squat 185x5, 200x5, 215x5, 230x5, 245x6
Deficit Deadlifts 3x8 - 185
Ab wheel 4x12
Back Raise 3x10 - 45
Farmers Walks, down/back/down/back 4x - 70
Stretch for 10 mins

Good session. Lots of squatting volume. Coulda hit a lot more reps on the big set, but felt tired and am in a caloric deficit currently. so don't wanna interfere with my recovery too much. Deficits were great and fast. Light weight so they were very easy, but that's what we want with assistance.

[NorthStrong]

5/3/1 C1W1 Bench

1 hour of ultimate frisbee, won 8-4

Diesel Crew Shoulder Warm Up
Med Ball Bench-toss 5x3
Bench 125x5, 135x5, 145x5, 155x5, 165x8
DB bench 5x10 - 50s
Pullups : 85 reps
Face Pulls 3x12 - 50lbs
Straight Bar Pushdowns 3x10 - 50lbs

Van pushes, 5 reps.

Now eating a steak, manliest evening I have had in a while.

Overall it was a good workout, the 165x8 was pretty easy. I am enjoying the 5 sets version. I noticed a while back that I am very weak with DB work so I have made it a priority to get good at it which should help my bench. The pullups were all different grips. Then the rest was good, got a decent triceps pump. The Van Pushing after was brutal seeing as I had done the hour of frisbee for conditioning prior to the workout as well.

On days that I have frisbee post-benching I should be able to get some more reps on the bench.

Have a good night!

[NorthStrong]

Frisbee game with friends for 45 mins, foam roll, stretch etc. Decent off day, as my body is feeling better now than it did at the start of the day. Looking forward to deadlifting tomorrow.

[NorthStrong]

531 C1W1 Deadlifts

Broad Jump 3x2
Power Clean 3x3 - 155lbs
Deadlifts - 205x5, 225x5, 245x5, 255x5, 270x10
Front Squat 3x8 - 135lbs
Hanging Leg Raise 4x5
DB Swings 3x10 - 40lbs

10 Hill Sprints

Fantastic session today. First time doing power cleans in a long time and the form was beautifully brutal. They served as a nice warm up to deadlifting though. 270x10 was pretty easy and I felt no form breakdown. Been very happy with my pulls lately, I think it has a lot to do with me improving my breathing. Front squats were easy at that weight. Rest of assistance served its purpose and the hill sprints were about as fun as you'd expect after doing that work prior to.

Overhead tomorrow.

[NorthStrong]

531 C1W1 Press

Diesel Crew Shoulder Warm Up
Press 85x5, 90x5, 100x5, 105x5, 110x9
Pushups 100 reps
DB Row 5x10 - 70
Rear Delt Flyes 3x10 - 10
E-Z Bar Curls 3x10 - bar plus 2 10s.

5 van pushes no rest. 3 mildly downhill, 2 mildly uphil. Huge difference though...

Good session today. Pushups gave me a crazy pump and the rows / flyes hit the upper back just like I wanted them to. Curls were cool too, I like the e-z bar, much easier on wrist and elbow etc. 110x9 is nowhere near a personal best, but it was alright considering I hardly rested between sets. I am enjoying the 5 set model a lot.

[samsont]

nice work dude, keep it up.

[NorthStrong]

Hot day out today

20 hill sprints.

Usually push the conditioning even harder on saturday, doing 30-40, but it was too hot to exist today. Need to get a bit more strict with the nutrition again, so I can just be done with this fat loss phase and start doing something productive. Going to get groceries now. Read a great article today, maybe some of you will like it...

http://articles.elitefts.com/trainin...to-the-basics/

I will be using that food list as my grocery list. Gonna have to keep myself full with clean food instead of junk food as I reduced my calories just a bit. I had lost weight, going from 196 to 185 ish in just over a month while eating 2600 cals a day, but it's time to drop it down to 2400. Can't wait to eat again.

[NorthStrong]

Weighed in at 184.5 this morning, down from 186.5 last week.

531 C1W2 Squats

Agile 8
Box Jumps with 15lb DBs 6x2
Squat 200x3, 215x3, 230x3, 245x3, 255x5
Deficit Deadlift 3x5 - 205
Ab Wheel 4x12
Back Raise 3x10 - 45lbs

Not too bad of a day, considering how poorly I felt going into it. The squats were easily the worst lift of the day which sucked because it's easily the most important. I need to start just putting more effort into the top sets of the day.

Saw a friend at the gym, who is actually doing something productive so I helped him out with his form on squat bench and deadlift which was good, and I dont think I was too much of an ass because he asked for more help on Friday.

[NorthStrong]

1 hour of ultimate frisbee prior to. We won 8-6.

531 C1W2 Bench

Diesel Crew Shoulder Warm Up
Med Ball Bench Toss
Bench Press 135x3, 145x3, 155x3, 165x3, 175x4, 135x14
DB Bench 5x12 - 45s
Pullups - Total 80
Face Pull 3x12 - 50
Straight Bar Pushdown 3x10 - 50

Was fairly disappointed with 175x4 since it was light weight, but today was after a frisbee game, and that exhausts you a bit. 175 is light but I guess with this higher volume version of 5/3/1 the top set is not going to be for as many reps as it would be otherwise. Assistance was all good, got good contractions in all the muscles.

Happy update - starting a "lean bulk", so I will be eating more to slowly put on weight which should help my strength shoot up quite well, since an extra several hundred calories a day can give a massive difference in energy / performance.

Also enjoyed doing the "first set last" today, with the 135. Jim highly suggests this in his book and I feel that it will help my bench start to move with a bit of speed (progression wise not bar speed).

[NorthStrong]

531 C1W2 Deadlifts

Agile 8
Broad Jumps 3x2
Power Cleans 3x2 - 165
Deadlift 225x3, 245x3, 255x3, 270x3, 290x6
Front Squat 3x5 - 155
Leg Raises 3x10
DB Swings 3x10 - 40

Good workout, the power cleans felt really solid comared to last session, as did the front squats. Decently happy with the 290x6, considering the work done before it.

[samsont]

Nice work. Reminds me I gotta do some hill sprints but its rained for like 20 days straight fuuuuuark lol.


me and my friends used to play ultimate Frisbee back in college, miss it. we do some disc golf here and there these days tho

[NorthStrong]

Nice work. Reminds me I gotta do some hill sprints but its rained for like 20 days straight fuuuuuark lol.


me and my friends used to play ultimate Frisbee back in college, miss it. we do some disc golf here and there these days tho

Haha right on, yeah usually the weather here is a crappy due to rain / cold but lately it's been brutally hot and oppressive. Played some pseudo-disc gold last night after throwing around with a buddy for a while, good for accuracy practice.

[NorthStrong]

531 C1W2 Press

Diesel Crew Shoulder Warm Up
Press 90x3, 100x3, 105x3, 110x3, 115x7
Incline Bench 3x5 - 115
DB Rows 5x10 - 70
Rear Delt Flyes 3x10 - 15
E-Z Curls 3x10 - bar + 25

Good session, worked through it really fast. Felt like I got run over by a truck today, was dragging myself around work half asleep all day, so I was decently happy with how the press turned out. First time doing Inclines in a while, and they, just like my deficit pulls and front squats, will be programmed with intention of increasing them to increase my big 3. Inclines aren't hurting my shoulder anymore which is heartening. The rest of assistance was alright, though my form could have been stricter on the flyes / curls but that doesn't matter anyway.

[NorthStrong]

531 C1W3 Squat (#SquatsForScooby)

Agile 8
Box Jump 7x1 w/15lb DBs
Squat 215x5, 230x4, 245x3, 255x2, 270x5 (PR)
Deficit Deadlifts 3x3 - 225
Weighted Planks (45 on back) 3x30sec
s/s
Back Raise 3x10 - 45lbs

Overall a good session. 5 was my goal number for this week and I hit it, which was good. In his new book Jim says "Train to keep your TM as a true 90% of your real 1RM" so what I did was calculate in advance what it would take for my top set to be 315 so that 285 is a true 90% max. I am doing this for all lifts, for all cycles, so that I can have a proper goal in mind each time. For me it always ends up being 5. Here's the math on how to do this, using my numbers for an example.

285 (TM) x 1.1 = 313.5 (round to 315, which was my real 1RM to base TM off)

Top set of last week of cycle was 270lbs.

270 x 5 x 0.0333 + 270= 314.95 (round to 315)

So there you go, anyone who is running 531 currently I'd recommend you do this to have a goal in mind at the end of your cycles. I'm only calculating this for my top week as on the first and second week I like to leave more in the tank, plus the 1RM formula works best from 2-5 in my experience.

#SquatsForScooby today. I doubt many of you in this PL/Strongman section will know of Scooby, but he was a great guy and is now leaving his YouTube behind and being forced to relocate homes, etc, all due to some idiot on 4chan who got a hold of, and posted his information online. Scumbag...you can read more about it on the misc if you dare to venture there. The man's internet presence will be missed. I came across him when I first started searching for fitness videos a few years back, when I was doing P90X at home to try and stop being so unhappy with my body and be able to perform better. He gave good advice and was always very helpful. Hell I was even a member of his AskScooby forum, in one thread he even responded to me which meant a lot as a pudgy kid without a clue. Although I am on a very different "fitness" path today than I once was, I still owe credit to scooby for helping me get the ball rolling. I was even exposed to things like 5x5 / SS through his forum which lead to 531 eventually.

Auf Wiedersehen...

[NorthStrong]

531 C1W3 Bench

Diesel Crew Shoulder Warm Up
Med Ball Bench Toss 7x1
Bench Press 145x5, 155x4, 165x3, 175x2, 185x5 (PR)
DB Bench 5x10 - 50s
Pullups - total 70
Face Pulls 3x12 - 50
Triceps Pushdown 3x12 - 40

Great workout, best the bench has felt in a while, very happy about it. The 185x5 is a big PR for me, as my old PR at that weight was 1. Also it means that I hit my goal reps for this cycle, keeping my training max as 90% of my real max (explained in more detail in my last post). The assistance was all good, got a good pump, worked quickly and left.

[NorthStrong]

531 C1W3

Agile 8
Broad Jump 4x1
Power Clean 3x1 - 175
Deadlift 240x5, 255x4, 270x3, 290x2, 305x5
Front Squat 3x3 - 175
Abs 3x10

Felt like **** after last rep of deadlift, was bad form. All assistance was good, and the cleans were too. Deadlift pr at that weight, and a power clean pr too.

[NorthStrong]

531 C1W3

Diesel Crew Shoulder Warm Up
Press 100x5, 105x4, 110x3, 115x2, 125x5 (PR)
Incline Bench 135x3,3,8. 115x12. 85x20.
DB Rows 5x10 - 70s
Pull Aparts 3x10
s/s
Rear Delt Flyes 3x10
s/s
E-Z Bar Curls 3x10

Woohoo. 4/4 of goals hit for my heavy week this cycle, as well as going 4/4 in PRs. The way I do 531 is to kinda leave a bit in the tank on the 5s week, a bit more on the 3s week, then nothing at all on the 531s week, which is were I go hard as I can to break personal records. I do not like the idea of trying to break a record every session because you are setting yourself up for a letdown, and the 531 week is the best week of all to gauge progress since it is the most high intensity where rep ranges will be closer than on the other weeks. I hit my goals meaning that my training max is still 90% of my real max.

Cycle 2 starts monday, with the new training maxes being as follows:

Squat 295
Bench 200
Deadlift 335
Press 135

1 Cycle down, 12 go to.

[NorthStrong]

531 C2W1 Squats

Agile 8
Box Jump 2x3 - 20lbs DBs
Squats 190x5, 205x5, 220x5, 235x5, 250x7 (PR)
Deficit Deadlifts 3x8 - 195
Weighted Planks 3x35 sec - 45lbs
s/s
Back Raise 3x10 - 45lbs

Good workout. Smashed a previous PR of 2 on the squats. Very happy with how my form felt, Chris checked for depth and said it was good. After that it was all fun assistance.

Currently eating a Cookie Dough Blizzard and a can of tuna....just need top ramen...

[NorthStrong]

531 C2W1 Bench

Foam roll / lacrosse ball upper back, delts and pec minor.
Diesel Crew Shoulder Warm Up
Clapping Pushup 5x3
Bench Press 130x5, 140x5, 150x5, 160x5, 170x8 (PR), 135x13
DB Bench 5x10 - 45lbs
Pullups 6x10
Face Pulls 3x12 - 50lbs
Triceps Pushdown 3x15 - 40lbs
DB Curls 2x12 - 20lbs

NOTE: Did this workout after a frisbee game, so was a bit tired.

Well, this was a strange workout. Warm up felt great, paying attention to mobility before and after workouts has made me feel a lot better in general. The clapping pushups were not as explosive as I would have liked them to be. Benching was the strangest part though. 130 felt like 200, 140 felt like nothing, 150 felt ok, 160 felt like 200 and 170 was 170. Only noticed I smashed a PR after my set. I don't have specific goals for my sets on weeks other than my 5/3/1 week.

The assistance all went well, especially the 2 sets of curls I decided to throw in, got an insane pump just from 2 focused sets with light weight. Preparing my food for the next few days currently.

Also, on a side note I bought a Nintendo 64 the other day that came with Mario 64, Mario Kart, Mario Party and a few other games and 3 controllers. Haven't played yesterday or today, but I did on the weekend and it felt fun to go back to the games I played when I was back in the single digit years.

And I am a huge Dragonball, and Dragonball Z fan. I am rewatching DBZ for the third time this year LOL. On episode 74 right now. Frieza and Goku's 1000 episode battle.

Thought I'd just throw those things out there to let you all perhaps get a better feel for who I am. Hope all your training is going well folks!

[samsont]

Good **** on rep PRs


n64? damn i'm only 25 but that makes me feel old. Play some starfox for me

[NorthStrong]

Good **** on rep PRs


n64? damn i'm only 25 but that makes me feel old. Play some starfox for me

Thanks!

Haha yeah it brought me back, and will do if I can get a hold of the game. Currently scouring kijiji in search of the old good games, like Donkey Kong, Zelda Ocarina of Time / Majora's Mask, and Starfox. Wish me luck lol.

[NorthStrong]

531 C2W1 Deadlifts

Agile 8
Knee to broad jump 3x2
Power Clean 3x3 - 160
Deadlift 215x5, 230x5, 245x5, 265x5, 280x5 (PR)
Front squat 3x8 - 145
Decline Sit Ups 5x10 - 10lb behind head
DB RDLs 3x10 - 60s

**** session today. Felt bad going into it, and leaving it. The deadlifts were all very slow. The power cleans were hard, and I am thinking of dropping them as doing 9 pulls from the floor prior to doing the pulls that matter to me is a bit too exhausting, and the jumps provide sufficient explosive work. Just went for minimum reps on deadlifts because I felt like keeling over. The assistance was a bit better though, seemed to get a second wind for it.

[NorthStrong]

531 C2W1 Press

Foam Roll, stretch.
Diesel Crew Shoulder Warm Up
Press 90x5, 95x, 100x5, 105x5, 115x8 (PR)
Incline 3x8 - 115
DB Row 5x10 - 75
Face Pull 3x12 - 57.5
DB Curls 3x10 - 25s
s/s
DB Rolling extensions 3x15 - 25s
Stretch.

Overall a decent session. Went in feeeling so-so. Energy just wasn't totally there this week, even though it might seem like it seeing as I went 4/4 sessions hitting PRs on the main lift. The Deadlift PR hardly counted though, seeing as it was a PR only due to the fact that I had never pulled 280 for any amount of reps previously. Whatever though.

The incline pressing felt strong and fast today. Very excited about really bringing up my incline, I think it will really help my bench and overhead. Paul Carter wrote a good article in favour of the incline bench a while back that got me to get into it. Asked Ed Coan about how he programmed his secondary barbell lifts if he did at all during his career on his FB page. It might be in a Q/A on YouTube soon. If he answers my question I would be blown away. The guy is nothing short of a hero of the sport. A great, humble, brutally strong, midget and perfect ambassador for the sport. Would love to meet him some day.

Anyway that's my training for the day. Hill Sprints tomorrow, enough with the skimping out on conditioning.

PS - had 2 weigh ins the last 2 days that were lower than the 2 days prior to them...ate a lot of ice cream. I think it is the key to fat loss.

[NorthStrong]

Finally got around to doing some conditioning today.

Agile 8
30 Hill Sprints.

Will upload picture of hill sometime soon.

Just finished cooking up some food for the next few days...7 chicken breasts, 5 steaks, 2 cups of brown rice, and 9 potatoes. Gonna cook some salmon and sweet potato later tonight as well.

This morning I ate potentially the most awesome food. Peanut butter banana and nutella sandwich. PB one side, nutella the other, with chopped banana in the middle. TRY IT.

[NorthStrong]

Quick upper body bodybuilding / active recovery work today.

Chin Ups 5x5
Pushups 5x10
DB Curls 3x15
DB Rolling Extensions 3x15
Rear Delt Flyes 3x15
Lateral Raises 3x15

[samsont]

Coan's main bench assistance were close grip bench and incline. he was also a big fan of seated behind the neck presses (he did 400+ i believe) in offseason. You should pickup josh bryants metroflex powerbuilding book if you got some extra money. lots of good reading in there with stuff that coan, kaz routines and what they did.

[NorthStrong]

Coan's main bench assistance were close grip bench and incline. he was also a big fan of seated behind the neck presses (he did 400+ i believe) in offseason. You should pickup josh bryants metroflex powerbuilding book if you got some extra money. lots of good reading in there with stuff that coan, kaz routines and what they did.

I knew those were his staples but I was just wondering like how he loaded them from workout to workout, month to month kinda thing. Funny you say that too, as I was looking at that book the other day since apparently everyone likes Josh's stuff, will probably be picking it up relatively soon.

[samsont]

I knew those were his staples but I was just wondering like how he loaded them from workout to workout, month to month kinda thing. Funny you say that too, as I was looking at that book the other day since apparently everyone likes Josh's stuff, will probably be picking it up relatively soon.

I'm not a big mark rippetoe fan but find out his videos.. starting strength series i think-- they did an hour interview with marty gallagher and ed coan. great stuff. Ed really big fan of doing high reps (5-8) and then just tapering down as meets got close. pretty much linear style. 2-3 weeks of 10's adding 10-20lbs a week, 2-3 weeks of 8s, 3 weeks of 5's, couple weeks of triplees and then doubles then goto the meet. Never max in the gym.

and yeah. Josh bryant is the man.. His latest bench press book is next on my list to get.

[NorthStrong]

I'm not a big mark rippetoe fan but find out his videos.. starting strength series i think-- they did an hour interview with marty gallagher and ed coan. great stuff. Ed really big fan of doing high reps (5-8) and then just tapering down as meets got close. pretty much linear style. 2-3 weeks of 10's adding 10-20lbs a week, 2-3 weeks of 8s, 3 weeks of 5's, couple weeks of triplees and then doubles then goto the meet. Never max in the gym.

and yeah. Josh bryant is the man.. His latest bench press book is next on my list to get.

I love those interviews, the one with ed, marty, kirk, shane...all really cool to see.