The Jungle

[400Lb Gorilla]

Hello any and all that show up.

I always loved journaling before so I figured I would get back at it. Right now I am currently using a program called Specialized Strength Training. It has a lot of the same principles as 5/3/1 so you will see similarities. Like 5/3/1 it has big focus on the assistance work around the big lift to strengthen weak spots.

Right now I am currently sitting at 204 pounds and my main goal for the near future is getting my lifts back to where I was at. Suffered a small injury a while ago and had to lay off any of the big compound lifts.

Where I am:
Squat: 385
Bench: 315
Deads: 585
Press: 205

Where I was and trying to get back to:
Squat: 495
Bench: 355
Deads: 615
Press: 250

The injury was in my knee. I twisted it pretty good at work and, although it didn't require surgery, it did leave me out of the weight room for a while. Obviously my pulling strength did not suffer terribly but the rest of the lifts have a ways to go before I get it all back. So, if you decide to stick around I am currently on Wave 2 Week 2 of my routine. There 3 Waves of 4 weeks and then the 4th wave is where I test progress.

Next post will be one with lifting in it

[400Lb Gorilla]

SST Wave 2 Week 2
Assist Work Day

Press
45x16
95x5
135x5
165x5
195x2

Single-arm DB Press(standing)
65x5
65x5
65x5
65x5

Prehab and mobility work followed. This was not a lot of work, but I actually got all my assist work in this week. This day is a catch-all type of day for things I missed through the week. If there is nothing I missed or I don't miss a lot, I tend to make it a press day and use the rest of the workout for mobility work and prehab/rehab work. Today it was mostly focused on hips and shoulders.

[safcpaul]

Hello any and all that show up.

I always loved journaling before so I figured I would get back at it. Right now I am currently using a program called Specialized Strength Training. It has a lot of the same principles as 5/3/1 so you will see similarities. Like 5/3/1 it has big focus on the assistance work around the big lift to strengthen weak spots.

Right now I am currently sitting at 204 pounds and my main goal for the near future is getting my lifts back to where I was at. Suffered a small injury a while ago and had to lay off any of the big compound lifts.

Where I am:
Squat: 385
Bench: 315
Deads: 585
Press: 205

Where I was and trying to get back to:
Squat: 495
Bench: 355
Deads: 615
Press: 250

The injury was in my knee. I twisted it pretty good at work and, although it didn't require surgery, it did leave me out of the weight room for a while. Obviously my pulling strength did not suffer terribly but the rest of the lifts have a ways to go before I get it all back. So, if you decide to stick around I am currently on Wave 2 Week 2 of my routine. There 3 Waves of 4 weeks and then the 4th wave is where I test progress.

Next post will be one with lifting in it

In on thread. Will be watching your progress. Hope your knee is feeling better

[Woody-5]

Bout time you start journaling again!

sucks about the knee injury, always sucks to get derailed like that.

[400Lb Gorilla]

In on thread. Will be watching your progress. Hope your knee is feeling better

Welcome to the Jungle. thanks and yeah the knee is 100%. Catching back up on squats he been a humbling experience lol

Bout time you start journaling again!

sucks about the knee injury, always sucks to get derailed like that.

Thanks Wood. Good to be back in it. Really bad thing is I cant even blame it on the gym lol. I did not realize just how important strong legs were for benchpressing until I tried to bench with a bad knee.

It was humbling but it also gave me a chance to drop bodyweight. Those pre-injury lifts were when I was between 255-265 pounds(never tested benchpress at my heaviest) and now I am down to 205 pounds so I am not completely unhappy with my starting maxes this go round since I am doing them at a weight I havent been at in 10 years

[400Lb Gorilla]

SST Wave 2 Week 3 Squat Day
Bodyweight: 204 pounds... I only weight in on squat day

Squats
Warmups
135x5
185x5
225x5

Working Sets
285x4... miscounted
320x3
355x1
375x1

Reverse Band Sets
395x1
315x3
365x3
365x3

Big But Boring Sets
225x8
205x10
205x10
205x10


Pretty much standing on jelly after this so I called it a day. Got some videos of the working sets and some reverse band sets. Might post those up later if I can remember how. This is not how a normal squat day goes for me. Usually there are block sumo deads, front squats, and even some goodmornings thrown in there but I am trying to adopt a wider stance so trying to hammer down form. Use more legs and less lower back.

[400Lb Gorilla]

Nothing special here, just like posting videos for validation

Srs, though, if any of you see me doing something wrong or something I could be doing better, let me know please. My squat, pre-injury, got near a quarter ton because I took advice when it was given.

As I mentioned before I have a wider stance so I have found it is basically like having to relearn squat.
The Do-Wins are staying in the closet from now on. For some reason the made it hard as hell to sit back into squat today. The Do-Wins are for front squats from now on and maybe overhead press.

Any other advice is welcome and appreciated

[Woody-5]

Killer squat sesh! no wonder the legs were jelly after.
Squats all looked strong. Love that big reverse band rep with 395, great grind to finish that one.
Also great job on the weight loss, that's a lot of poundage to drop

[AlexSays]

In and Subbed

What's the progression like on this program?

Good luck, hope the knee doesn't give you any bother

[400Lb Gorilla]

Killer squat sesh! no wonder the legs were jelly after.
Squats all looked strong. Love that big reverse band rep with 395, great grind to finish that one.
Also great job on the weight loss, that's a lot of poundage to drop

Thanks Wood, I have been trying to kill the legs since I decided to switch to a more fully "powerlifting" style squat. That 395 was supposed to be a raw single lol but after unracking the weight twice, I decided I was not going to come back up with it if I sank into the hole.

The weight loss was a combo of being on purpose and being on accident. The doc told me to lose 40 pounds and I ended up going way too far with it. She(doctor) told me a big part of why I hurt my knee was all my joints were having to carry around my fluffy a$$ all day, twisting and bending in and out of the tight spaces at work, and then putting even more work on them by squatting improperly.

In and Subbed

What's the progression like on this program?

Good luck, hope the knee doesn't give you any bother

It is a lot like 5/3/1 in that the assistance lifts get more emphasis than the big lift. But the designer of the program knows that dudes want to have some heavy singles so he added them into as a way to track progress. Such as was 375 easier yesterday than the last time I went that heavy? They are also good for finding out where the real weaknesses are in the lifts.

The biggest difference between this program and 5/3/1 is that you actually test out the lifts every 4th "wave". Like 5/3/1 each wave has 3 working weeks, 1 active recovery week, and then you move on to the next. 5/3/1 has you carry on until you cant meet the demanded weight. Oh, and there are no AMRAP sets unless I want to add one in on the assistance work

[400Lb Gorilla]

SST Wave 2 Week 3
Benchpress Day

Benchpress
Warmup
45x8
95x6
135x4
185x2

Working Sets
230x5
260x3
290x1
300x1
310x1

Reverse Band Set
325x3

Push Press
135x5
185x5
185x5
205x3
205x3
205x3

Seated Press
135x5
135x5
135x5
135x5

Rear Delt DB Flyes
25x8
25x8
45x7
45x7
45x7

JM Press
95x7
95x7
95x5
95x5

DB Curls
25x12
25x10
25x10
25x10

Prehab on shoulders followed.
Today went much better than I feared. That 310 had me a little nervous going into it because of the work before it. But it was not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. The rest of the work was just some more abuse to the shoulders and arms since I am pretty sure triceps are a weak spot in my bench. The shoulder work is because I like pushing weight overhead.

[400Lb Gorilla]

SST Wave 2 Week 3
Deadlift Day

Deadlifts
Warm up
135x6
225x5
315x5

Working Sets
400x5
450x3
500x1
520x1

Front Squats
135x1 quads and hamstrings were super tight

Pullups
BWx5,5,5,5,5.3

Broke the foam roller out for the first time in years lol. Never have I had my legs feel that tight going into a squat. I mean the kind of tight where it was actually difficult to drop into the hole. After the pullups my motivation level dropped out, it was way too hot in the garage today for lifting. Hopefully, if I got time tomorrow, I will get back in and get the front squats and some more upper back and shoulder work in.
Next week is a recovery week so nothing exciting.

[AlexSays]

Thanks Wood, I have been trying to kill the legs since I decided to switch to a more fully "powerlifting" style squat. That 395 was supposed to be a raw single lol but after unracking the weight twice, I decided I was not going to come back up with it if I sank into the hole.

The weight loss was a combo of being on purpose and being on accident. The doc told me to lose 40 pounds and I ended up going way too far with it. She(doctor) told me a big part of why I hurt my knee was all my joints were having to carry around my fluffy a$$ all day, twisting and bending in and out of the tight spaces at work, and then putting even more work on them by squatting improperly.



It is a lot like 5/3/1 in that the assistance lifts get more emphasis than the big lift. But the designer of the program knows that dudes want to have some heavy singles so he added them into as a way to track progress. Such as was 375 easier yesterday than the last time I went that heavy? They are also good for finding out where the real weaknesses are in the lifts.

The biggest difference between this program and 5/3/1 is that you actually test out the lifts every 4th "wave". Like 5/3/1 each wave has 3 working weeks, 1 active recovery week, and then you move on to the next. 5/3/1 has you carry on until you cant meet the demanded weight. Oh, and there are no AMRAP sets unless I want to add one in on the assistance work

Sounds interesting. Can see how that kind of real-time monitoring on big lift singles/maxes would be useful, it isn't really provided in most programs

Looking strong on those bench singles

[400Lb Gorilla]

Thanks Alex. Bench day actually went well this week lol. Squat day and deadlift day were kind of "meh", but sometimes that happens.

[safcpaul]

Thanks Alex. Bench day actually went well this week lol. Squat day and deadlift day were kind of "meh", but sometimes that happens.

All looking good. If that's how your meh days go then i wouldnt mind a few meh days myself lol

[400Lb Gorilla]

All looking good. If that's how your meh days go then i wouldnt mind a few meh days myself lol

lulz dont get me wrong, none of the workouts were bad, just kind of blah as far a feeling them went. It made 520 feel like 570

SST Wave 2 Week 3
Assist Work Day

Front Squats
95x5
135x5
185x3
225x3
250x3
275x1
300x1


Press
45x12
95x5
135x5
185x3
185x3
185x3

Standing Calf Raises(feet flat)
185x20
185x20
185x20
185x20

Not too shabby. I realized the other day day(Friday) that the heaviest front squats I have done this year was a set of 225x3 back in Wave 1. So, I took these heavier than I normally would just to see what I could do. I didn't want to go maximum effort on these so I stopped at 300. Presses are coming back to strength at a good pace. Calf raises are going back into the program because I got a good look at my calves in that deadlift video and realized it looks like I skip leg day lol

[400Lb Gorilla]

[Woody-5]

killing it with volume in here, fuk yea.

always mirin your pressing strength, plus those couple 500+ pulls

How's the knee feeling? nice push on that 300 pound front squat,

[400Lb Gorilla]

killing it with volume in here, fuk yea.

always mirin your pressing strength, plus those couple 500+ pulls

How's the knee feeling? nice push on that 300 pound front squat,

lol thanks Wood. Yeah, I try to sneak in a little more volume when time or energy permits

Knee is feeling awesome. I contribute this mostly to the weight loss and checking my ego on a regular basis. Before the knee injury I would have hit that 300 and probably went for 315-325 just cause I knew I would get it. Now, I leave a little left in the tank just to keep everything operating correctly And, honestly I feel that 300 front squat was by far a more stringent test of my knees than any squat or deadlift I have done.

[400Lb Gorilla]

SST Wave 2 Week 4- Active Recovery
Squat and Benchpress Day
Weight: 203 pounds

Squat
Warm-up
135x7

Working Sets
160x7
195x7
230x7

Benchpress
Warm-up
45x7
95x7

Working Sets
125x7
155x7
185x7

Front Squat
95x7
120x7
150x7
150x7

Wide-ish Grip Pull-ups
BWx7,7,7,7

DB Curls
25x7
25x7
25x7

Had to combine squat and bench days cause one of my doggos had a doggo doc appointment. Nothing bad, just an annual check-up. This week is an active recovery week as noted above. The designer of the program does not call it a "deload" because he says it gives the impression that this week is not important. When I was using 5/3/1 I would often skip out on this week but after hearing the man describe why this week is important, I am now believer in doing the work. It allows the muscles to get moderate activity without stressing them to the point heavy weight does.
It allows the tendons and joints a chance to recover. It gets the blood flowing to those same muscles, tendons, and joints to help the process along. I could not tell you the effects on the central nervous system in detail but VoxExMachina has a thread all about active recovery/deloading in the Exercise Forum of this site. Mentally, it is just nice to get in, get sweaty, move some weight around, and KNOW that there is nothing in the plan of the day that is gonna be difficult

TL;DR
Active Recovery/Deload is good
For a more in-depth read on this technique read this thread by VoxExMachina, a much smarter and better researched individual than I will probably ever be:
https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...hp?t=121391461

[400Lb Gorilla]

[400Lb Gorilla]

SST Wave 2 Week 4
Deadlift Day

Deadlift
Warm-up
135x7

Working Sets
225x7
275x7
325x7

Deficit Deadlifts(2-ish")
225x7,7,7

BB Rows
135x7,7,7

Chin-ups
BWx7,7,7

Easy and done for the week. Might do some light pressing tomorrow but I doubt it lol. Normally this week I spread into a Monday,Wednesday, and Friday type of split, but this week I had to take the dog to the vet and Friday I have to take the other one to the vet.
Monday starts the last wave before I test to see if I did anything right this time around

[400Lb Gorilla]

SST Wave 3 Week 1
Squat Day
Weight: 205 pounds

Squats
Wamr-up
135x5
185x3
225x3

Working Sets
280x3
315x3
350x3
365x1
380x1

Front Squats
135x3
185x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3
225x3

Had an hour with nothing to do so decided to get some squats in. I am still going to get in there tomorrow to finish up this workout, which will be speed deads, goodmornings, and calf work. There was actually nothing too difficult today. felt good to take tree fitty for a fairly easy triple.
Looking forward to testing squats out in 5 weeks.

[400Lb Gorilla]

Thought I posted this already:

[400Lb Gorilla]

SST Wave 3 Week 1
Bench Day

Benchpress
Warm-up
45x10
95x10
135x5
185x3

Working Sets
225x3
255x3
285x3
295x1
305x1
Reverse Band Set: 315x3

Speed Deads(2" deficit)
***Chains are 75 pounds***
225x2
275x2, 2, 2, 2, 2

Z-Press
135x7
155x5
185x1
165x3
165x3

Hanging DB Lateral Raises
25x7, 7, 7, 7, 7

JM PRess
95x10
115x10
115x10

SL Goodmornings
135x10
185x7, 7, 7

DB Curls
25x12
25x12

I am on "quarantine" from work this week because our project had someone from another project come over this week and they found out he tested positive for COVID. So I get to stay home, with pay, and see if I show any signs or symptoms. If this workout is any indication of health, I think I am doing alright
This workout and yesterday's workout were fasted. I am not sure if I like fasted workouts or not but this one and the squats yesterday were pretty solid so I am not against them so far. The speed deads and SLGMs were supposed to be yesterday's assist work but I didnt have time to get to them, so they got put in today. The Z-press and lateral raises are blue because they are supersets.

[400Lb Gorilla]

[AlexSays]

Massive Z-Press

Really enjoy Z-press, only started using it about a year ago, after the first few weeks of it feeling shiddy, once your core and stability adapts it feels beast mode

[Motiviert]

Honest opinion on the reverse bands on bp? Never tried. Am curious

[400Lb Gorilla]

Massive Z-Press

Really enjoy Z-press, only started using it about a year ago, after the first few weeks of it feeling shiddy, once your core and stability adapts it feels beast mode

Have used them before but never really like them. I fell over on the 185 set which is why it only had 1 rep lol. It is a great way to build some core stability and strength, not to mention it puts more focus on the press form as well.... but if you screw up like I did you turn the exercise into a floor press quickly

Honest opinion on the reverse bands on bp? Never tried. Am curious

I like it. With those bands I got they are probably taking 70+ pounds off at the bottom and giving almost all of that back at the top. This helps with speed out of the hole which is supposed to help with the strength needed for the heavier weight. These sets also give you a "feel" for the heavier weight that will be coming up soon

[Motiviert]

Have used them before but never really like them. I fell over on the 185 set which is why it only had 1 rep lol. It is a great way to build some core stability and strength, not to mention it puts more focus on the press form as well.... but if you screw up like I did you turn the exercise into a floor press quickly



I like it. With those bands I got they are probably taking 70+ pounds off at the bottom and giving almost all of that back at the top. These sets also give you a "feel" for the heavier weight that will be coming up soon

Do you feel better prepared for those upcoming sets, and/or max attempts?