Bench press Thursday

For many people the bench press comes easy. It's the primary movement on which most of their effort is focused. When someone wants to know how strong a guy is, they'll ask how much they can bench. The bench press is easily the most overrated weight lifting movement. Far too much emphasis is placed on it.

And it doesn't come easy to me. It seems I've always struggled with it. From time to time I've made good strides, but very seldom have I ever felt confident that I could beat personal records.

Today was another of those days it just didn't come easy. You would think that the OHP and bench press would go hand-in-hand, at least to some extent. Doing 8 reps at 115 on the OHP was easy the other day. Today, doing five at 195 on the bench was not. I might've been able to do six or seven reps, but I was expecting to be able to do 8 or even 10. I was really thinking 8. It was the number I had in mind from the start of the workout.

The bar just seemed to have my number today. But I'm only in my second cycle of 5/3/1, so the PRs may yet come. Did I lift the weight at or above the rep total the plan calls for? Yes, but it was just more difficult than I expected. I did an extra set of dumbbell bench press and Kroc rows to try to make up for the disappointing bench press numbers. As with the squats, I often feel I'm just not doing enough on the bench press sometimes.

In the next cycle of 5/3/1 I expect I will be seriously pushing the envelope on my limits. I'll have to wait and see how it works out. The PRs on the bench press are still several months down the road. On the deadlift, squat and overhead press, they're just around the corner.

Yes, it's logged on Fitocracy.

Makeup day

Normally, Tuesday is deadlift day, but because I was a little busy attending my son's fifth grade graduation, I skipped the workout with plans to make it up on Wednesday. Finding myself preoccupied with other matters, I wasn't very motivated to do that makeup workout, but I didn't want to let it slide. So I compromised.

Instead of doing the full workout I abbreviated it a bit and focused primarily on completing the deadlift sets. I was able to do 5 reps at 280 in the last set, which puts me in good shape to be able to do some reps at 295 next week. I expect to be able to do at least 5 reps at that weight.

I realized during the workout that I'd performed the Monday OHP incorrectly. Well, not in terms of form or anything, just that I performed more reps than I was supposed to. The plan is called 5/3/1 for a reason. In each of the first three weeks of a cycle, the intensity increases and the reps decrease. Week one is the 5-rep week, week 2 is three reps in each working set, and in week 3 the working sets are 5-3-1. But I completed five reps in each of the OHP sets on Monday instead of three. Duh. Obviously, I'm no worse for wear. Plenty of time to recover before next Monday's workout.

Likewise, I have to remember that I'm doing three reps in each set of the bench press this evening. Three. Three, three, three. Except in the last set. In the last set, you're supposed to do as many as you can without going to true failure. Yeah, it's kind of a weird concept, but I can't argue with it because it seems to be working. I'm especially happy with the improvement on the OHP.

Yes, the progress is slow, I admit. If I were trying to hit my 5RM each week, I could be lifting 120+ on the OHP right now. But the mistake I've always made in the past is pushing too hard and being too impatient. The Wendler system is working for me, so there's no reason not to keep going with it. Slow and steady = constant improvement = no frustration.

The change I made to yesterday's workout was to ditch the hanging leg raises and good mornings, opting instead for ab crunches on the Powertec Workbench and close-grip chin-ups. I supersetted the three exercises to abbreviate the workout. I shuffled things a bit, but since I completed the main movement for the workout as prescribed, I don't think it's truly a violation of the plan.

Today, it will be business as usual with the bench press, dumbbell press and Kroc rows.

The deadlift workout is, of course, logged on Fitocracy. (I may have linked to an incorrect URL in previous posts. Oops.)

Wendler 5/3/1 Cycle 2, Week 2

Week two of this cycle kind of sneaked up on me, in part because of the holiday. I've grown accustomed to working out in the evening after work, so it felt a little weird to be doing it so early in the afternoon.

Today I did 8 reps at 115 on the shoulder press, which is clearly a big step forward after hitting the wall at 115 earlier. I've done 5 reps across 5 sets before, but then as other exercises—particularly the squat—ramped up, I found I just couldn't move past 115 and even dropped down in weight for a while. Being able to complete 8 reps is a minor achievement, and I'm confident I will continue to move forward if I stick to the 5/3/1 plan.

In spite of achieving something of a personal record on the press, I felt like I was really just going through the motions during this workout. I didn't feel energized at all; I was just trying to get through it.

I guess in that sense I should consider it something of a success. Even though I was just getting by, I still managed a good lift on the OHP and pushed out 8 reps on weighted dips at 65 lbs. I've done as much as 75 lbs. on weighted dips before, but 8 reps at 65 is pretty good right now—especially considering that I weigh considerably more now than I ever have before. I'm actually lifting an additional 15 lbs. more than when I was dipping with 65 lbs. a few years back.

I continued with the plan to mix in Pendlay rows. Instead of cutting short on the chin-ups, however, I supersetted them with the OHP and completed five full sets. I did the Pendlays in supersets with the dips for four sets.

All in all, not a bad workout. I have wonder, though, how much better it would have been had I been more rested and invigorated. See Fitocracy for the gory details.

Tomorrow is supposed to be deadlift day, but it's going to have to be postponed until Wednesday because I'll be attending my son's 5th grade graduation ceremony.

Another farmer's walk Saturday

It has become obvious to me that I need special equipment for the farmer's walk. The hex-head dumbbells work well enough, but regular dumbbells with collars, not so much. I think I'm ready to make the leap and get some farmer's walk handles.

The problem with the dumbbells is that it's just too awkward to walk with plates constantly banging against my thighs. I have to take tiny shuffle steps, which means I'm barely covering any distance at all. I might as well be walking in place.

I started out at 105, and I was hampered more by the dumbbells and plates themselves than I was by the weight I was having to support. I could only manage 30 feet at 105. With different equipment, I'm sure I could go farther. At one point the collar slipped off one dumbbell, sending the plates on one side clattering to the ground. I didn't count that set.

That brings me to another problem with the collared dumbbells. Those collars are not very reliable. Granted, these things were not designed to be abused like this, but it's hard to get them secured well enough to feel confident they're not going to fall apart midway through my set.

I followed up the three sets at 105 with some sets at 95—which weren't much easier, though the weight was easily manageable. I finished up at 65 with the hex-head dumbbells. Yes, they feel like paperweights after lugging the 105s, but because of the way they're built, it's much, much easier to walk with them.

No, I'm not going to run out and buy some bigger hexheads for the sake of farmer's walk. They're just too expensive. And what do I do when I want to increase from 105? Buy more dumbbells? I think not. No, I think the best solution is to invest in the farmer's walk handles.

I finished up today's workout supersetting push-ups, barbell curls and triceps pushdowns. It's all logged on Fitocracy. And I still say Fitocracy does not award enough points for the farmer's walk.

Squat Friday

Today is squat day. It's also Friday. And for me that's usually not a very good combination. You see, Friday is typically the day I find it the most difficult to get motivated to work out. I often postpone it until Saturday or do a very abbreviated version of my regularly scheduled session. Today, I'm determined not to allow the low-motivation factor to affect what I do. In fact, I'm planning on making this a big workout. The kind that will give me momentum to push through the following week with ease.

I'm following 5/3/1 to the letter in terms of the working sets on the squats. After that I'm going to strip plates off and do some higher-rep work in addition to leg press for assistance-type exercises. I'm cutting a couple of sets off the leg curls to do some lunges and step-ups. This ought to give me my legs a good workout without the risk of overtraining. I'm doing lower weights and high reps for everything after the working sets of squats. I topped out today at 205 on the squats, performing 5 reps. Yeah, I should've done a couple more in that last set, but since I'm doing the extra assistance work today, I didn't see the need.

I dropped down to 175 on the squats after the set at 205, completing 10 reps. I followed that up with another set at 175 for 8 reps and then moved to the vertical leg press at 355 for 12 reps, supersetted with standing leg curls at 20 lbs. for 15 reps across three sets.

So my plan was squats, vertical leg press + leg curls, squats, lunges, step-ups. Lower weight, lots of reps in the second round of squats.

I made one minor miscalculation, however. It's really, really difficult to do any-rep squats after you've already completed eight sets followed by five sets of leg presses. So when I went back to the squats with 155 loaded on the bar, I found that seven reps was the most I could do without my legs going on strike. As it was, they threatened a walk-out on that seventh rep, but I convinced them to stick with me at least until I racked the bar.

I went down to 135 on the next set, and my legs didn't protest as much, but they sure weren't happy either. Next Friday I may wake up and find them missing.

And then I was staring at those dumbbells for the lunges, and they leered back maniacally. I was ready to give up, but, dammit!, I will not be taunted by a set of 35-lb. dumbbells! So I compromised with my ego and did one set of lunges supersetted with one set of step-ups.

At that point I said, stick a fork in me; pizza's waiting in the kitchen.

As always, the entire debacle is logged on Fitocracy.

The importance of planning workouts

You see people all the time in the gym with their logbooks, penciling in everything they do. That's great. It's important to log what you're doing. But it's far more important to plan what you're going to do for some very simple reasons that have nothing to do with charting your linear progression or having something to show off to your friends or would-be lovers.

It's really not that difficult to keep track of what you've done. On very few occasions have I carried a log book to the gym with me. I know how much I can bench press; I know how much I can squat. It's not difficult for me to remember that I did 8 reps at 185 in yesterday's bench press workout and that if I wanted to improve on that number, I might go for 9 or 10 in the next workout. Do I log my workouts? You bet. And now that I have multiple automated systems for doing so, it's a lot easier. I've logged my workouts while I was performing them, after each set, but I've also logged workouts the day after I completed them. Is it the most important part of my program? Not by a long shot.

Is it good to track what you've done? Sure. And if you're obsessed with it, you can keep a spreadsheet and turn it into some colorful graphs that show how much stronger you've gotten over the last several months. It's a tool to quantify progress if you feel the need to do it at a high level of detail.

The importance of that, however, doesn't even come close to the planning that should occur before you even set foot in the gym.

It's possible to just wing it every time you go to the gym and do whatever you want. And I'm sure more than a few people got themselves into great shape by ad-libbing their way through workout after workout. But even most of the ad-libbers probably had some kind of mental plan in place, one likely based on previous workouts.

The best way to approach any exercise program is to put a plan in place from the start.

Now, the highly success-oriented fitness gurus will tell you to set goals and determine what it will take to achieve those goals. Do you want to get stronger? How much stronger? Do you want bigger muscles? How much bigger? Do you want to get leaner?  Do you want to lose weight? A fitness consultant will ask you all of these questions and more. Depending on what goals you set, you'll then work on an exercise plan and a diet plan. You'll find yourself micromanaging aspects of your life you've long taken for granted.

While I admit that's a smart approach and will no doubt lead to success—assuming that you follow through with all of the micromanagement—a simpler approach may be all you need.

It's as simple as this: Put your workout plans on paper. I'm not talking about plans for losing weight or any of that. I'm talking about the nuts and bolts plans: the physical work you plan on doing when you walk into the gym or into the yard or onto the street or whatever.

Your plan should cover at least a couple of weeks. It will encompass which days you plan to work out, how much time you plan to spend on the workout, and exactly what exercises you are performing in each and in what order. It's a road map.

And the road map, I argue, is the number one key to a successful fitness regimen.

One reason this is true is because it commits you to doing exactly what you ought to do in each workout. If you start with a vague idea about doing some exercises in the gym or going for a run, chances are, you'll stop just short of a good workout. Without a road map, there's nothing quantifiable you intend to achieve, so any little thing you do feels like enough. Most of the time, it's not.

Putting a plan on paper also provides incentive for following through. Once you write down what you intend to do in the next workout and the workout after that, it becomes a binding contract between you and yourself. It burdens you with a sense of obligation that reaches beyond the vague feeling of, "Oh, I ought to go to the gym today." You can't look at that list or that spreadsheet without thinking that this is what you said you were going to do, so you're obligated to do it.

And you might pencil at the top of the contract the phrase "No excuses."

Drawing up a workout road map can also be a good motivator. Would you design an elaborate Lego construction and not try to build it? Okay, well, maybe you might. But I've always found that the minute I had something in place that told me exactly what I was going to do each day of the week for the next few weeks, it always made it a lot easier for me to do it. There's a psychological element to it. How can you do anything if you really don't know what you're going to do? It's always easier to go to work when I have a clear idea what needs to be done and how I'm going to do it.

Another positive aspect of a good, detailed plan is that it removes some of the guesswork and to some degree automates the whole process. Yes, you still have to put in the physical effort required, but if you plan it the right way, you don't have to sweat the details about how you're going to increase your 1RM on the bench press. Just follow your plan. That 1RM is in some respects just an irrelevant number. As Jim Wendler points out in 5/3/1, too many people are obsessed with the 1RM when gains can be quantified in increased reps at lower weight.  Wendler notes that powerlifters usually record personal records at competitions never having lifted that weight in training. Training always takes place well below the eventual PR and new 1RM.

The point is that if you follow the outline as written, you don't even have to think about that 1RM number. You do the reps at the weights prescribed and the rest takes care of itself. The best part is, the whole process of developing a plan has been automated, depending on which you intend to follow. All over the internet you can find workout planners based on various philosophies. I'm currently using Black Iron Beast for 5/3/1, but if you want to follow something like SL 5x5, you'll find that the plan is the ultimate in simplicity. You might also give Black Iron Beast for Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength a try.

What your road map looks like will vary depending on general goals. Just get it on paper or on your computer screen and sign the contract with yourself to follow it through.

Bench press Thursday

Thursday is bench press day. This is the one day I'm not going to meddle with much in terms of assistance work. I like the Kroc rows, so I'm going to stick with them for a while longer. I did add a few sets of chin-ups because Wendler recommends doing them between pressing movements. I didn't want to do much, though, because it should not interfere with the main exercises.

The bench felt pretty good, and I was able to complete 8 reps at 185. I don't know if I've ever done that many reps at 185, so it's an encouraging sign. On the dumbbell press, however, I could only do 12 reps with the 65s when I'd completed 15 across 5 sets before. After a few sets at 65, I dropped down to 50 and finished a total of 10 sets.

The Kroc rows were great today. I recently purchased some dumbbell bars and more plates, so I did my first two sets of rows at 105 lbs. I wanted to get in some good rep work, though, so I dropped back down to 95 where I was able to do 10 reps. Previously, I was doing 8 reps at 95, so, again, another small step forward. I intend to keep going heavier and heavier on the Kroc rows. I supersetted the last five sets of dumbbell press with the Kroc rows.

One could make the argument that I'm not doing true Kroc rows and that I'm not really following it as Wendler prescribes. Kroc rows are supposed to be performed at a very heavy weight and in such a way that you have to cheat a bit to squeeze out every last rep. As with some other movements, Wendler says do 20 reps in a set on this one. My plan at the current time is to work into that. I want to go heavier, but I also want to get the rep work in, so I may drop down to 75 in the next workout after a few heavy sets and go crazy with them.

I'm considering one minor adjustment to the assistance work on bench press days. I experimented with some workouts from Tom Venuto's web site a couple of years ago. One of them involved doing supersets with incline dumbbell press in which you perform several sets back to back, lowering the incline between each set until the last set is almost on a flat bench. This might be something to try on bench press days after the barbell bench press and Kroc rows are out of the way. One thing I remember from doing this is that I really felt it in my triceps.

So another bench press day in the books and on to squats tomorrow. I keep feeling like I'm not doing nearly enough for my legs, so after the standard Wendler barbell squat routine, I'm going to throw in 3-4 sets of higher rep squats before moving on to the leg press. I'm adding a few sets of lunges as new assistance work tomorrow, shaking things up just a bit without overcomplicating the workout. Fridays are always the toughest days of the week to get motivated. There's a part of me that just wants to brush it off and play games instead. Tomorrow I have to stick to the plan.

Wendler 5/3/1: Cycle 2, Day 2

Deadlift Tuesday.

Come rain, snow, sleet, hail, thunderstorms or heatwaves, Tuesday will always be deadlift day.

For my second cycle on Wendler's 5/3/1 plan, I've decided to work in some new assistance work. I was missing some movements that had been a part of my workout before I switched to 5/3/1, and I wanted to mix in some new stuff to help work on weak areas. In Monday's workout, the extra assistance came in the form of Pendlay rows, which I was performing one or two days a week on the 5x5 plan. Even though Kroc rows are part of 5/3/1, I feel it's important to include the barbell work. Most of the assistance work I'm finagling in relates to improving grip strength, which will be important to improving my deadlift.

For Tuesday's workout, I decided the primary new addition out to be shrugs. They're recommended to help improve grip and to strengthen the upper back for deadlifts. Since the workout already called for hanging leg raise, I decided to cut the number of leg raise sets in half and then make up the difference with ab crunches on the Powertec Workbench Multisystem. I confess, part of the reason for the change-up is that I despise hanging leg raises. Don't get me wrong; it's about the best ab exercise you can do. I just hate doing them. I used to have some support straps for leg raises, but now I have to hang from the pull-up bar. First of all, that's actually kind of painful on the lats. It ends up becoming as much a lat endurance exercise as an ab movement. Okay, fine, two exercises in one, but on the day after deadlifts and Pendlay rows, it's just murder. So three sets instead of five and then some ab crunches. I think that's a fair exchange to prevent me from despising my workout.

I've taken to supersetting some assistance movements to get out of my workouts more quickly. One of the basic principles of any workout plan I follow has to be getting in and out in as short a time as possible. The more time you spend in the gym lifting, the less time your body has to recover. You do not get stronger while you're lifting; you get stronger when your body is recovering. The sooner you end the abuse, the sooner your body can start mending. I was so anxious this week to get the leg raises out of the way that I actually supersetted deadlifts, hanging leg raise and ab crunches, performing them back-to-back-to-back. Since I'm only doing three sets of hanging leg raises, it's easy to get them out of the way during the warm-up sets of the deadlifts. I would not recommend supersetting any movement with the working sets of the deadlift unless your goal is to burn as many calories as possible in as short a time while simultaneously trying to assert your invincibility. Deadlifting requires a lot of energy. The more you expend on other work, the less you'll have for the really serious lifting. That's especially important in Week 3 of the 5/3/1 cycle when you're performing your heaviest lifts.

I was able to do eight reps at 265 on the deadlift and was feeling a bit drained by the time I got to that last set. I think I've actually done more at that weight in a previous workout, so for week 2 I'm going to have to make sure I get enough to eat before the workout and maybe go back to having that protein shake at the start to give me a little boost. When I'm really in need of a jolt, I mix some coffee into my workout shake. I may be doing that today.

I hadn't done shrugs in years, so I had no idea how much I could lift. Wendler prescribes high reps for shrugs—20-40 reps each set! I tried 225, and it was too heavy. I tried 185, and it was also too heavy to get into a good rep range. I eventually settled in at 135. It's going to take some getting used to. When I performed shrugs before, I was doing it all wrong. Back when I started lifting, rolling the shoulders from forward to back was recommended. Wendler and many other says, no, that's not how you do it. So I am untraining myself when it comes to the shrug.

And so it goes.

Nettles: Avoid them

Yesterday I finally cured a little foot problem I'd been suffering for the last three weeks. It started when I stepped on something while walking around barefoot in the back yard. At the time, I was measuring the length from one end of the yard to the other so I could somewhat accurately record my farmer's walk distances. After stepping on the mysterious object, I experienced pain in the area below the base of my small toe. I convinced myself that I'd simply bruised my foot stepping on a rock. I have since discovered that it was something else altogether. It just amazes me that something so small could cause so much pain. So my advice to you is, don't go walking around barefoot where nettles are growing.

Today on back yard monsters we take you to the humid subtropical suburbs of Louisville, KY. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon in early May, and I'd dragged my son away from his video games to help me stretch a tape measure across the back yard. At some point I stepped on something that was immediately unpleasant but caused little direct pain on initial contact. When I looked down, I saw what appeared to be a harmless but nonetheless ugly weed and dismissed the incident.

Later that day I noticed that whenever I put weight on my foot in a certain way, I experienced excruciating pain. Luckily, it was just under the base of my small toe, so it didn't interfere with my walking or other activities, as long as I didn't turn my foot a certain way or lean my weight on that side of my foot. It was just a bruise, or something, I told myself. It will go away in a few days. I did, after all, step on something in the yard, right? I poked and prodded and inspected but could never find anything obvious that would cause the pain. There was a tiny area I could put pressure on and feel that something wasn't quite right, but it still just did not explain why the pain was so bad when I put my weight on it. Surely, I had no broken bones. It just wasn't possible, was it?

A few days went by and then a week, and the pain was still there. Then in the next few days it seemed to fade a bit. I was sure I was on the mend. Another week or two went by with nothing serious having occurred. Yes, just a bruise all along, I told myself. I pronounced myself healed.

And then there was my deadlift day on Tuesday. Every Tuesday is deadlift day. I decided to wear my Vibram FiveFingers Komodosports. As soon as I put the shoes on and started walking around, I could feel that familiar pain all over again. Very strange. Could it be the shoes? I had worn them the same day of the "incident" in the back yard, but I was barefoot at the time "injury" occurred. Could it be that the shoes had caused the injury in the first place and I had simply mistakenly linked it to some nefarious object in the back yard? No, I could not accept the idea that my brand spanking new Komodosports could ever have done such a thing.

The issue did not interfere with my deadlifting, but I did step down once in just the right way to cause that pain to flare up with a hot, katana-wielding vengeance.

Again, I dismissed it.

The following day, yesterday, I accompanied my son on an all-day school field trip. I wore the Komodosports and was on my feet for several hours. Nothing serious occurred with the injured foot, but the nagging pain was still there, waiting to make its presence known.

When I arrived home, I peeled off the shoes and went about the business of getting ready for the next day. My foot was in great pain. Good grief! I thought. Maybe it really is the Komodosports! I decided it was time for a re-inspection of the injured area.

I sat, tossed my foot up onto my knee and began to scrutinize the sole. This time I could clearly discern a very tender area, slightly raised. When I looked closely, I clearly saw what appeared to be a splinter. Most interesting. I got myself a bottle of alcohol and applied it generously for several minutes. And then I used what was left to clean the tender area.

I used a pin to probe and pry until I got the "splinter" out of the skin enough to grasp it with a pair of tweezers and pull it free of the skin. On closer inspection, it looked more like the stinger of a bee or wasp than a splinter.

And then it hit me: those damned nettles! All along it was those barbed monsters that had loosed an attack upon my vulnerable foot, dispatching a secret mole into my tender skin to harass and weaken me.

Admittedly, I'm no plant expert, so I can't say for sure that it was nettles, but pictures I've pulled up seem to indicate that's what it was. All I do know is this: I stepped on a spiny weed that speared me with a tiny splinter that somehow caused me great pain for more than two weeks. It's kind of sobering, really. Human beings are very fragile things when you think about it. Our skin can be cut and pierced and our bones can be broken.

Lots of people have jumped on this barefoot running craze, citing volumes of medical and anecdotal evidence about how great it is. Though the Vibram FiveFingers brand grew out of this trend, I have always outright rejected the idea of truly barefoot running. Human beings invented footwear for a reason. Our feet are not invincible. And I really don't care how manly you think you are by running around barefoot, you are risking injuries you don't even know are possible. I'm not talking about the whole natural mechanics of how the foot moves. I'm not talking about the pounding and punishment the foot takes in being situated in that regrettable position at the bottom of our legs. I'm talking simply about all of the external things that can injure our feet: sharp rocks, broken glass, sticks, thorns, black widow spiders ... 

Granted, wearing thin-soled, next-to-nothing coverings like the Vibrams isn't exactly armor, but it is, plain and simple, better than nothing.

I like the freedom of movement and the separation of the toes the Vibrams provide, but I will never, ever run foot naked—especially after the painful lesson the nettles taught me.

Wendler 5/3/1: Cycle 2

Yesterday I started my second cycle on Wendler's 5/3/1 plan. After the deload week my first step was to recalculate my theoretical 1RMs for the main lifts. I know this time around I have seriously raised expectations. Week three of cycle 2 will be tough, but based on what I've accomplished to date, I'm sure I will continue moving forward. I've already seen the kind of gains that boost my confidence in this plan—not only in the plan itself, but also that it's the right plan for me.

That's an important distinction I feel must be made. There are multitudes of cookie-cutter weight training, powerlifting and bodybuilding plans you can follow, the real trick is often just finding out what works best for you and your body type.

Yes, you can certainly find programs tied to the concept of somatyping (assuming, of course, you believe the  system is valid). Somatyping classifies body types into three broad categories: endomorph—people who tend to carry and store more fat; ectomorph—people who tend to be skinny and small; and mesomorph—people who tend to be lean and muscular.

Naturally, it's the mesomorph body type that most people aspire to have. Mesomorphs just naturally have leaner, more muscular bodies. It doesn't much matter what they do in the weightroom or in their jogging shoes because getting lean and strong is in their genes.

The only problem with somatyping is that most people likely don't fit neatly into one of the three categories. The study acknowledges that fact; the problem is, how would you devise a workout plan tailored to whatever hybrid you are? By this classification system, I define myself as somewhere between endomorph and ectomorph. I've never in my life ever been truly lean. I've always carried a padding of fat around my midsection even when I was a scrawny high schooler. Even when I was running three to five miles a day and lifting weights three days a week, I was still not lean. For years I ate a very lean diet and avoided sugar altogether. But still I was not lean.

At the same time, gaining strength and muscle mass also comes hard to me. I would go to the gym anywhere from three to five days a week, achieving neither noticeable mass gains nor leanness. Yes, I did get a little stronger, but the gains were not as significant as one would expect from the effort I was putting into it.

I discovered that all I really needed to know is that I am a classic hard gainer. It was Stuart McRobert's Brawn that entirely changed my approach to weight training.

I am convinced one of the reasons Wendler's 5/3/1 plan works well—especially for guys like me—is because it follows the same basic principles as McRobert's Brawn: basic heavy movements, split routines, plenty of rest days and shorter, lower volume workouts.

Yesterday's workout provided a good example of how I've improved on 5/3/1. In the last week I followed SL 5x5, I was able to do 5 reps at 115 on the overhead press (OHP). But I was really hitting the wall at that point. In yesterdays OHP workout, I did 9 reps at 110 and could have done a couple more (part of Wendler's plan calls for doing as many reps in the last set as possible above the target of 5, but he does not advocate working to failure). It's easy to extrapolate and predict where I will be next week. The periodization aspect of Wendler's plan is a valuable element that ensures success.

The key is patience. People follow straight linear progression plans because they want to see constant improvement. The problem is, obstacles on the tracks are always waiting to derail you. Periodization actually helps you avoid those obstacles; you just have to have the patience to stick to the cycles as prescribed.

For my second cycle on Wendler's plan, I decided I wanted to mix in some different assistance movements, such as shrugs, Pendlay rows and lunges. I just wasn't sure how to do that without sacrificing other assistance work I want to continue performing.

The solution—at least on paper—is to reduce the number of assistance sets of one exercise and mix in a few of the new. For example, yesterday's OHP plan called for 5 sets of chin-ups. Instead, I did three sets of chin-ups and then mixed in three sets of Pendlay rows. I supersetted the chin-ups and rows with dips. Wendler advocates doing pull-ups or chin-ups between pressing movements, so I'm going to try to do as many pull-ups and chins as I can, whenever I can. The workout, as usual, is logged on Fitocracy.

Today's deadlift workout calls for hanging leg raises and good mornings for assistance work, but I want to work in shrugs and ab crunches as well. So I'm cutting the 5 sets of hanging leg raise to 3 and working in three sets of ab crunches on the PowerTec Workbench ab machine. The shrugs will come at the very end. Wendler advocates high reps for shrugs, so my plan is to do three sets of 20 or more. I'm not sure right now how much weight that will be since I haven't done shrugs in years, so I'll have to experiment a bit. Between the shrugs I'll be doing on deadlift days, the Kroc rows on bench press days and the farmer's walk on weekends, I think I'm in good shape to improve my grip strength. I'm curious to see how this will affect my deadlift in coming weeks.

Cycle 2 is off to a good start, and I'm looking forward to the upcoming workouts. Oh, and incidentally, I used the Black Iron Beast 5/3/1 calculator to devise the base workout, but I had to create my own spreadsheet to customize. The important thing is to have a plan on paper as a contract between you and your workout routine.

More farmer's walk

I followed the 5/3/1 script for the most part today. It's the end of my fourth week, deload week, so I kept the weight pretty low. Instead of going strictly by the plan, however, I did lift a bit heavier on the squats and did two sets of 13 reps at 155 and one set at 175, both more than was called for in the routine for deloading.

Even though I kept the weight lower, I still wanted to do as many reps as I could at the lower weight. I was torn between just continuing with the 20-rep squat experiment and sticking to the Wendler plan. I guess doing the two higher-rep sets is kind of straddling the fence. Next week for the start of cycle two, I'm going strictly by the book and following a plan I created with the Black Iron Beast 5/3/1 calculator.

The assistance work after the squats was strictly according to the plan. Five sets of leg presses on the vertical leg press at 355 and five sets of standing leg curls on the PowerTec WorkBench multisystem.

As usual, I've logged the details on Fitocracy. I still feel I'm getting shorted in workout points for the farmer's walk. It's harder than it looks.

After the regular workout was out of the way, it was time for the farmer's walk. I found some old Olympic dumbbell bars in the garage and loaded them up with 100 lbs. each. The hard part was that I didn't really have enough plates of equal weight to really load them up properly. I had two 25-lb. plates and a whole slew of 10-pounders. So I put a 25-pounder on each and then loaded up with 10s and 5s to make each side of the bar even.

It wasn't a perfect solution, but it would do for now. I was never able to go more than 60 feet with 100 lbs. in each hand. Most of the time I was lucky to get to the 30-ft. mark. After several sets with the 100-lb. dumbbells, I dropped down to 80 and did a couple more. I finished up with three sets with the 65s I carried last weekend. I was to go 150 feet with the 65s after multiple sets with the 80s and 100s.

Besides really kicking me in the pants, it also made me realize that I need more plates.

So I went out to Dick's today and bought two more 25s and four more 10s. I really wanted a couple of 35s as well, but they didn't have any. I have two 35s, and it would be nice to have four to be able to load up two dumbbell bars. Finally, I also grabbed two new Olympic dumbbell bars.

So I think I'm set for now. My plan is to keep going as heavy as possible on the farmer's walk and then drop down for greater time and distance under load.

While having lunch with my wife and son at Old Chicago, I watched the women's Crossfit Games on ESPN. It made me want to rush home and do some front squats and weighted pull-ups. Watching these women several months back is what inspired me to get back into shape in the first place.

I've made some progress, but seeing what these women can do makes me realize just how out of shape I really am.

Improvising

Today is bench press day with dumbbell bench press and dumbbell rows for assistance exercises. I wanted to increase the weight on the DB row because the biggest dumbbell I have is 65 pounds, so I was forced to improvise:

Yes, I basically use a chain to affix several olympic plates to the handle. Not quite the same as a regular dumbbell, but it gives me a lot more growth room in terms of weight without having to go out and invest heavily in a set of giant dumbbells.

Hurray for deload week!

Today starts week 4 of the 5/3/1 routine (Triumvirate). It's the last week of cycle one, which means, gasp!, it's deload week. And when Wendler says "deload," he means deload. I hadn't peeked at today's workout until I was standing in my home gym, and I was shocked at how much weight I was pulling off the barbell.

Yes, I breezed easily through those sets of OHP at a maximum weight of 65 lbs. I confess I did more reps than the five recommended. It was just too easy, so why not? I'm not going to be doing OHP again for a week anyway.

My body seriously needs a break after last week. I worked out six days in a row, with Sunday being my only rest day. So week 4 arrived at just the right time. On the assistance exercises, I'm really not backing off, though. I added more weight for the dips, mixed pull-ups and chins, trying to squeeze out a couple more reps, and even supersetted between the dips and pull-ups/chins (alternating between the two after each set of dips).

The full workout is recorded on my Fitocracy page.

The oddest thing about following periodization plans is that it actually takes some discipline to decrease the weights when it's time to cycle back. Yes, there's a part of me that's screaming, "Yes! Thank you!" But the other part wants to forge full speed ahead.

All last week I debated with myself whether I was really going to follow the plan and drop down on everything. When it dawned on me that Sunday was the only rest day I'd taken in a week, I figured it was probably a good idea to trust to the Wendler wisdom.

I've dabbled in periodization plans before like a burgeoning artist experiments with oils, and, frankly, I either lacked the discipline to follow them strictly or worried that not pushing myself each workout would result in a loss of strength. Linear. My mind was trained to think linear when it comes to weight training. That thinking is probably also what has led to much of my discouragement.

Throwing myself into Wendler's 5/3/1 is as much retraining the way I think about weight training as it is about performing the lifts themselves. I get the idea that heavy barbell training is the way to go. I get the idea that splitting the big lifts out on their own days makes sense, especially for the hardgainer like me. What's hard for me to swallow is that I make progress when I consciously decide to decrease the amount I'm lifting instead of increasing it.

And, yes, if you know 5/3/1, then you're no doubt wondering what I was doing working out six straight days. The simple answer is, I went off script to try improve my standing in the challenge in the 5/3/1 Raw Strength group. It was in fact the challenge that led me to question whether I should be deloading in the middle of competition. I did more sets than I was supposed to, lifted more weight, even performed lifts that were nowhere in the plan. All to stay out of the basement of the challenge standings.

In the end, my commitment to the Wendler plan has won out. I will likely finish in the bottom of the challenge, but it's the right thing to do for the routine and for my body. So, hurray for deload week!

Rest days

Today I'm taking a much needed recovery day from the workouts. I slept well, ate a big breakfast, took a little nap and have basically spent the entire day doing not much of anything. When I think back on the past week, I realize my body really needed this break.

I usually don't work out more than four days a week, but this past week, I lifted six days in a row. In retrospect, I realize that's probably overdoing it a bit.

On the 5/3/1 plan the scheduled work days are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Instead of taking off on Wednesday, I did a set of 20-rep squats followed by barbell and dumbbell curls. Scratch one rest day. On Saturday, I wanted to try out the Farmer's walk and performed a total of six circuits around my backyard course. Scratch another rest day. I essentially robbed my body of two important recovery opportunities.

On paper, it looks really good. People say, wow, you're really working out a lot! In truth, this is more than likely just a setup for disappointment. Those recuperation days are as important as--if not more important than--the workout days themselves. It's only during the recovery period that your body actually gets stronger.

Admittedly, a lot of people can do this and not only get away with it, but even thrive on the constant activity.

But not me.

For one thing, I'm not a young guy any more. When you start closing in on that half-century mark, you realize you may not be able to push yourself as much as you used to and continue to make any progress. For another, I've always been the classic hardgainer. For many years I made the mistake of trying to follow some cookie-cutter bodybuilding and powerlifting plans to no avail. When I finally wised up to what would really work best for me, I found myself working out far less than I used to.

At first I followed the three-day-a-week, whole-body workout plan, the old standard. It was fine to some extent, but here's the problem: To do cover all the bases in one workout, you may find yourself in the gym for two hours or more at a time. My workouts eventually ballooned to three hours, three days a week. One big problem with that is it's hard to find that much time in a day to work out. The other problem is that you rob your body of recovery time. The longer you spend working out, the less time your body has to recuperate. And the best recovery comes in the time period immediately following the workout. If you go from doing a set of heavy squats to doing heavy bench press, your body is expending energy that could be spent on rebuilding those broken down quads.

So the best plan is to get in and out as quickly as possible and give your body time to recover. And that almost certainly means splitting your workout in some way.

Believe it or not, the most difficult thing for me was to honor those rest days. I split my routine so I benched only once a week, squatted only once a week and deadlifted once a week. Weekends were strictly recovery days. And every time I rested, I felt lazy.

But the bottom line is, I got stronger. So I learned how important those recovery days are.

Now it seems I may need to relearn how to restrain myself as I did when I first discovered the value of logging much-needed rest days.

Farmer's walk: Improve your grip strength

Today I gave the Farmer's walk a try with my 65-lb. dumbbells. I'll have to experiment with other options to be able to increase the weight. Right now, I think it's enough to do multiple laps around my "course" with the 65s. The course consists of the back yard. I measured from one end of the area I'm walking to the other at 60 feet.

I completed six "sets." The farthest I was able to go in any one set was about 240 feet, which amounts to four laps.

As you can see from the log on Fitocracy, I was wearing down fast in the last couple of sets. It was all I could do to complete two laps in the last set. The dumbbells were dangling from my fingers.

The one thing I learned from this is that if you want to improve your grip strength, I can think of nothing better than Farmer's walk.

 

Yep, still cheating. Big time.

Yesterday was bench press day. In an effort to stay in the running in the 5/3/1 Raw Strength Brawl for It All challenge, I went a little off script. Again. Not terribly, really, but in the spirit of periodization, I'm committing serious sins here.

I'm violating the foundational principles of Wendler's program by working at a higher percentage of my 1RM than I'm supposed to--and by performing more sets than is recommended. All to get me more points for my workouts for this silly challenge.

But, you know what? It's not like nobody else is cheating. When I looked at the recent workouts completed by the current challenge leaders, I found that they are way off the Wendler script. Their workouts don't even come close to resembling 5/3/1. I didn't feel at all bad about yesterday's workout after seeing what these other jokers were doing. Frankly, I have trouble understanding it. If you're going to be in the 5/3/1 group and voluntarily sign up for a challenge in said group, why would you completely change your workout for the challenge? Seems to defeat the whole purpose of the group and of adopting a specific plan in the first place.

I called my workout "cheating," but I see now that I'm just fudging a little compared to what they're doing.

I wasn't supposed to go near my 1RM on the bench press, but I did 2 reps at 215, sandwiched between sets of 205 and then descending sets after that down to 155. Yes, way off the Wendler script. The DB bench presses and DB rows were, however, well within plan guidelines.

I finished up with three sets of triceps pushdowns. That was cheating pure and simple because there are few isolation exercises in the Wendler plan. In fact, the only isolation movement I can think of that's part of the Triumvirate is the leg curl. I'm not even sure why the leg curls are included as an assistance movement, given that there are so many others that hit the posterior chain, including deadlifts and good mornings.

Today is squat day, and I'm frankly not sure what I'm going to do. I've sort of been cheating the 5/3/1 plan on this anyway because of the 20-rep squat experiment. I want to stay in the labrat maze with that, but I think today instead of doing 3-4 sets of 20, I may start with one set at 20 and then do several sets at a much higher percentage of my 1RM--just like I did on the barbell bench press. For the points, of course.

Tomorrow I'm going to see what I can do with the farmer's walk. I will probably do as many sets as I can with 65-pound dumbbells just get a feel for it. After that I can cook up ways to increase the weight and the intensity. Hopefully, the weather will hold up.

Depending on where I stand in the challenge after Saturday's freelancing, I'll either go back to the Wendler script and deload next week or push onward in the true spirit of cheating. If other guys are going to throw the plan under the bus just to win the challenge, then there's no sense in my putting any real effort into it. Why would I wreck my whole routine just to get a virtual pat on the back from a bunch of people I don't even know?

At this stage in my life, it's good enough that I'm just doing something.

Adventures in 20-rep squatting

I'm cheating.

I admit it openly and with no shame.

Today was supposed to be a rest day. The training calendar shows a big blank spot for this day. But I just couldn't do it. I had to do something. The reasons are pretty simple, one defensible, the other? Well, you decide.

On the one hand, since I'm doing the whole 20-rep squat thing, I've decided that I need to squat more than once a week. Please do not scream at me like that. Even when I followed the hard-gainer plan I developed for myself after reading Brawn and Beyond Brawn, I felt that I needed more than one day a week of leg work, so on deadlift days I'd squeeze in some leg presses in addition to the squats I'd do on designated leg days. It worked well, so I see no reason not to continue sneaking in an additional set of squats here and there.

Once I made up my mind to give the 20-rep squats a try, I'd already planned on squatting more than once a week. Since Wednesday is nicely sandwiched between deadlift and bench press day, it seemed the perfect opportunity for at least one set of squats.

So that's one reason I cheated. The other is, well, more a matter of vanity or competitiveness, I suppose. You see, I signed on for a challenge on Fitocracy in the 5/3/1 Raw Strength group. Whoever earns the most points by May 21 wins. Wins what, you ask? Um ... nothing tangible, really. Just a bunch of people saying, "Way to go!" Because of this, I added several sets of barbell curls and dumbbell curls to the workout. My routine doesn't even call for biceps curls! I feel so cheap and dirty.

Sadly, I'm currently fourth out of six participants. Six!

And that's why I have to flipping cheat!

If I follow this Wendler 5/3/1 plan to the letter, then next week is actually supposed to be a deload week. Am I going to deload and risk embarrassing myself in the competition? Hell, no! I'm going to throw those barbells around with reckless abandon!

Tomorrow is bench press day with dumbbell bench press and Kroc rows thrown in for assistance work. No messing around in this workout. I'm going to go running in like Bruce Banner's pea-green alter ego and screaming like Sean Cassidy's Banshee.

Only problem is, the heaviest dumbbell I own is a 65-pounder, so I'm either going to have to do a lot of reps and a lot of sets or find some practical way to increase the amount of weight I'm lifting in each set. The bench press is no problem; I have well over 300 pounds of weight to throw on that bar. The question is how I can milk the most point-value out of the dumbbell bench presses and Kroc rows.

You see? It's crazy! I'm thinking like a crazy man just because I signed up for the "Brawl for it All" challenge.

Fitocracy makes me crazy.

Time to push

I feel like I've turned the corner in my routine. It reached a point where I felt I was struggling to get through each workout. Each lift just felt heavy, and each rep was fighting me. But now, I believe I've weakened the evil Dr. Gravity's defenses. His weapons affect me less and less each day. Today, I dealt Dr. Gravity a serious blow.

It was deadlift day in my 5/3/1 routine. It's also week 3 of the cycle, which means this is the heaviest week followed by a deload. I was supposed to finish off my deadlift with at least one rep at 290. Instead, I did three reps at 295. But it felt too easy. It was an anticlimax to my victory over Dr. Gravity. So I followed that up with a set of three reps at 315. No, it's not the most I've ever deadlifted, but it is the most I've lifted in at least two years. I finished with a set of five at 275 as a warm-down.

Tomorrow is an off day, luckily, and if the weather holds, I'm going to mow the lawn so I have a nice flat space to do my farmer's walks on Saturday. I still need to find a big fat tractor tire, though. Not sure where to begin looking, but somebody around here's bound to have one lying around, overgrown with weeds.

After the off day it's bench press, and my plan is to follow the same pattern as today. Yeah, I'm kind of cheating on the 5/3/1 plan, but it feels too good right now not to push the envelope and do as much as I can. If I'm truly making next week a deload week as the plan instructs, then I might as well go all-out this week and raise the bar. But I would like to see that deadlift get back into the mid 300s where it was before. I think I could very well do it next Tuesday if I don't deload. Maybe I'll do the one heavy set and then follow up with some lighter work. Maybe.

The old strength is returning, and the vile Dr. Gravity is beginning to know the icy embrace of fear. Now, I just need to get my diet in order. That means climbing the mount once again and returning to the teachings of the Exalted One, Tom Venuto. BFFM, here I come.

Wendler 5/3/1 Week 3

I've just started week three of Wendler's 5/3/1 plan. Next week is supposed to be a deload week, but I may instead crank things up a notch. The reason is simple: My body feels rested and ready to be challenged. The structure of the plan means that I'm not overworking myself--my body has plenty of time to recover. Too many cookie-cutter routines just aren't suited to everyone. For me, the Wendler plan had a clear ring of truth to it.

The last couple of weeks, I started realizing how much the SL 5x5 plan was taxing me. But don't you want to be taxed? Isn't that the point? In a word, no. Yes, the idea is certainly to challenge your level of fitness, to challenge your muscles to grow and get stronger (don't get me started on that whole hypertrophy vs. strength crap again). The problem is, without proper recovery, the only result is going to be frustration.

You can see progress on any program--and I mean any program--for at least the first few weeks. It's what happens in the following weeks that should tell you whether it's the right program for you or not. SL was great--for the first two months. After that, I started to hit the wall and was facing those same old frustrations all over again. Let me state quite clearly right now that I have nothing against the SL 5x5 plan. Many, many people will follow it religiously and will have a lot of success with it, but I suspect more than a few others, like myself, will hit the wall.

It's natural when that happens to blame yourself. You make all kinds of excuses that point to you: Oh, I was trying to progress too quickly; I wasn't eating enough; I wasn't trying hard enough, etc.

Often these roadblocks occur for none of these reasons. It often boils down to a simple issue: You're probably overtraining. You're probably following a plan that just isn't right for you.

When I started lifting decades ago, I followed all kinds of ridiculous plans that were tailor made for guys who had a genetic predisposition toward bigger muscles or for guys who were using performance enhancers. Yes, I made some progress, but you'd hardly know it from looking at me that I lifted regularly. I was getting nowhere. Finally, at some point, I stopped blaming myself and my commitment and instead started thinking in terms of following a program that was geared more toward regular guys.

That brings me to why Wendler may be the better program for me. First, it's a split routine. For some reason I cannot fathom, it seems that "split routine" is becoming a dirty word (okay, two words). The idea of the whole-body workout is coming back with a vengeance. Back in the olden days when I was first getting into weight training, the Law was to do three full-body workouts per week. Again, that's a fine plan and will work just great for many people--for the first month or so, maybe two.

Split routines have a number of advantages, the most important of which is that you typically don't do multiple "big" lifts in the same workout. Think about it: If you do five sets of squats at a weight close to or at your 5RM, how much are you going to have left in the tank to do a set of deadlifts? Every ounce of effort you spend on one big lift takes away from another.

Following a split routine lets you focus more one big lift at a time and gives your body more time to recover for the next workout.

I discovered early on that I made the fastest and biggest strength gains when I separated the big lifts.

Another reason the Wendler plan fits me better is that it incorporates periodization. This is another strategy to slowly ramp up workout intensities and to occasionally give your body a break to recover. You build up to your most intense week and then back off before ramping back up. Experts keep recommending it because it works.

Yes, you're right--progress on such a plan is gradual. And it should be. The number one mistake every beginning and intermediate lifter makes is trying to climb the ladder too quickly. For people like me that's an especially huge mistake that will lead to nothing but failure and frustration. In the game of strength and mass building, slow and steady is the way to go. Impatience is never rewarded in weight training.

And then there's the 5/3/1 assistance work. I am a firm believer that no routine is complete without chins and dips. The idea of doing more high volume work after the primary lift makes sense to me. Following the Triumverate provides plenty of variety in the exercise repertoire. And there are no hard and fast rules about what you do--it's entirely up to you. Just go for reps and volume after the main workout. Let me tell you, it feels great.

Sure, I grant you, most plans look good on paper; it's the results that matter. I can provide my own anecdotal evidence that 5/3/1 is working for me.

The first thing I noticed is that the OHP, or standing military press or whatever you like to call it, isn't kicking my butt any more. On SL I made some good linear progress up until I hit 115 lbs. Part of the problem was that after doing five sets of squats at close to my 5RM, I was pretty sapped. In one workout I was able to perform five sets of five at 115. The next time around after the squats nearly did me in, I could barely get three reps. The next week, I pulled some plates off and went to a lower weight. That's obviously not what anyone wants to do. Those offering advice suggested maybe I wasn't eating enough to maintain my energy level. Bull. I know I'm eating enough because I've actually gained weight over the last couple of months. The fact is, I'm heavier now than I ever have been in my entire life. And I'm consuming plenty of protein, so that couldn't be it.

Yesterday, I was able to do 10 reps at 105 in my last and heaviest set. Wendler doesn't advocate working to failure on sets, but he does say on the last set to do as many as you can. Ten reps at 105 was pretty easy, to tell you the truth. If I've erred in any way following 5/3/1 it's that I underestimated my 1RMs on everything. And that's fine. Wendler even recommends low-balling it at first.

If you take a little visit to the Fitocracy forums for the SL group, you'll find a common theme. At least one day a week someone will complain that they're having trouble with the OHP. The idea of switching from the SL plan, however, is never considered. It's always "eat more" or do this exercise or that exercise.

I'm also seeing an improvement in the deadlift. I'll be finishing up today at 295 for as many reps as I can do. Based on last week, I'm guessing I can do at least three. I'm going to try for five.

It's up to every individual to experiment and find out what works best for them. Strict adherence to a cookie-cutter program is likely to stymie anyone who isn't willing to consider alternatives.

Starting to complicate things

In my determination to give the 20-rep squat a fair chance, I stuck to that plan on Saturday, performing two sets of 20 reps at 125 and finishing with a set of 17 at 125. Yes, I probably could have pushed out those last few reps, but my counter/coach (my 14-year-old daughter) didn't know enough to yell at me and call me a wuss when I started to rack the bar at 17.

I followed up the squats with three sets on the vertical leg press at 355 and five sets of 15 x 15 on the standing leg curl.

Not a bad workout, all things considered. What I've learned about the 20-rep squat is this: If you want to do something that will really kick you in the pants, the 20-rep squat is it. I had to call my daughter in to count reps for me because by the time I got to that third set, I was having to pause and take multiple breaths between each rep. Focusing on my breathing and form became so difficult that I just plain couldn't concentrate on counting reps.

Her post-set critique was, "You did really well on those first ten."

I think that's a good motivator.

The only problem is, I feel like I need to do more. I know that I'm going to have to work my way up to doing some serious 20-rep squatting, but one day a week just doesn't feel like enough. I've started doing one 20-rep squat at the end of other workouts and on off days as well. I'd like to be able to do four sets of 20 in the next squat workout this coming Friday. I would be happy if in the next week I could do 20 reps at 135. That would feel like a big step forward for me. If I can add 5-10 lbs. steadily each week, then I'm confident that I can keep doing it and go past 200 lbs. That would be pretty amazing, considering just two weeks ago it was all I could do to get five reps at 215.

In the meantime, I'm getting that itch again to do some off-the-barbell-path exercises. Today I did one set of farmer's walk with 65-lb. dumbbells. My original intent was to do three sets, but then I remembered that I'd originally planned on doing this on Saturday after having done my squat workout on Friday. But I skipped the Friday workout to see The Avengers and made it up on Saturday. I stopped after the one set because I didn't want it to have an impact on Monday's workout. I want to have at least a day of rest before I do a regular workout after doing something like farmer's walk.

And therein lies my current conundrum: How do I continue to follow the Wendler 5/3/1 plan but also work in stuff like farmer's walk and tire flips. Yeah, I want to start doing tire flips too. I just need to start asking around to see if I can find a discarded tractor tire somewhere. I live in semi-rural, suburban area, so tractor tires shouldn't be too hard to find.

One option I'm considering is substituting the strongman movements in place of the current assistance work I'm doing. The drawback to that is that the assistance work is supposed to be lighter, higher-rep sets to supplement the main workout, which employs one of the big four primary barbell movements: overhead press, deadlift, squat, bench press. But farmer's walk and tire flips are pretty taxing. I can't exactly call them "assistance work."

That leads me to lean in the direction of adding a fifth workout day to my schedule on Saturdays. An hour of farmer's walk and tire flips on Saturdays ought to be a pretty challenging workout. And I would have all of Sunday to recuperate. The concern there is that it could interfere with my recovery from the 20-rep squat workout on Friday. I guess I'll just have to eat more and try to get to bed extra early Friday night.

And I'm ready to try some new assistance movements, but I want to go through an entire four-week cycle before I start swapping. I'm still undecided as to what exactly these will be, but I know that bent-over row and shrugs will be two of them. I love Kroc rows, but I don't consider them to be a substitute for bent-over barbell rows. I feel like I could really do without the hanging leg raises. Sure, it's good ab work, but of all the exercises I do, it's the one I think I value the least.

Well, off to see about finding a humongous tire somewhere ...

The grand experiment

One day last week when I was perusing posts on Fitocracy, I stumbled across a question about the 20-rep squat that had elicited a series of responses for many community members, most making the distinction between the kind of work that increases muscle size versus the kind that builds strength. As I am wont to do, I decided to play devil's advocate, and it's led me to my latest weight training experiment.

The question that prompted it was why athletes and weight training enthusiasts don't do the 20-rep squat more often. If it's supposed to be so great, the person asked, why are we doing five sets of five or three sets of five?

Good question. A link was provided to a study that concluded that performing three sets of high-repetitions was more effective at stimulating hypertrophy than performing fewer reps at a higher weight. The research article (will post a link as soon as I can find the original) sparked widespread skepticism across the various factions in the weight training/body building world. Many called the study flawed or pointed out that it drew far too broad conclusions from a very narrow test. All valid concerns, but what about a real-world application of the basic idea it presents?

Most of those responding to the Fitocracy post asserted that the heavier-weight, lower-rep scheme was better for building strength and that strength was the goal of the programs most of the Fitocracy members follow. Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength, Mehdi's StrongLifts 5x5 and Jim Wendler's 5/3/1--all barbell programs emphasizing compound moments in the low-to-mid rep range--are the most popular. These programs, they argued were more effective for building strength than a high-rep scheme would be. I myself am currently following 5/3/1 with the added twist of the 20-rep-squat experiment. I followed the 5x5 program until I started to hit the wall and decided I needed to try something different.

I decided to play devil's advocate at this point. I can't help myself when it comes to matters like these. In the realm of weight training, far too many people adhere to conventional wisdom as if it's made up of etched-in-stone, immutable laws of nature. In the face of such unwavering devotion to any single idea, I become George Costanza and do the opposite.

It's not that I think the conventional wisdom in this case is wrong; it's that I know from personal experience that nothing works the same for everyone, and no one program can be a simple and complete answer. My best gains in terms of strength and size came when I defied the conventional wisdom and created my own unorthodox progression method. Ultimately, following 5x5, Wendler and whatever else I dig up, will lead to my designing an entirely new program that incorporates bits and pieces from all of them.

One point I tried to make in response to the high-rep naysayers was that they were talking about hypertrophy and strength as if they were mutually exclusive and entirely different ends. Hypertrophy and strength, I argued, go hand in hand. Common sense and a wealth of studies back me up on this. This study, for example, examined the effects of strength training in older men, concluding that "Strength gains in older men were associated with significant muscle hypertrophy and an increase in myofibrillar protein turnover." Though the aim of the study was not to investigate the relationship between strength and hypertrophy, the findings are proof of their integral relationship: strength = hypertrophy.

The position I attempted to defend was that if, as the other study had concluded, performing a 20-rep squat at a lower weight more effectively stimulates hypertrophy, then it is by definition as an effective method to build strength.

I qualify this position by acknowledging that the biggest muscles are not the strongest muscles, that bodybuilders are not necessarily great powerlifters. But certainly a person who has exercised and who has bigger muscles is stronger than the average person. Anecdotally, I attended college with a guy who was headed to the Marines for officer training. He didn't lift weights. Didn't even believe in it. He did push-ups, dips, pull-ups, lunges, bodyweight squats, etc. He was very big muscularly and he was also very strong.

If we adhered to the hard and fast rules of the lower-rep, higher weight ideas, this guy shouldn't have been that strong.

The whole discussion on Fitocracy resulted in my making the decision to be my own guinea pig (as usual). I'm experimenting with the 20-rep squat just to see how following a higher-rep scheme will affect my strength and hypertrophy gains. The fact is, I have skinny legs. I am a small-boned person with a petite, girlish frame. Yes, I sound dainty, but I have over the years packed on some muscle.

So the plan is this: I work out 4 days a week following Wendler's Triumverate plan. Fridays are squat days. Instead of performing the squats as prescribed by Wendler, I'm going to do 3-4 high-rep squats. The first set will be 20 reps at the highest weight at which I can perform 20 reps. I'm doing everything else strictly according to the Wendler 5/3/1 plan.

What will happen? I'm not really sure. But here's how I've thought it through: A few weeks back I did a 20-rep squat at 95 pounds, and it was tough to get those last few reps. The other day I did 20 reps at 115. If I can add 5-10 pounds per week to my 20-rep squat, obviously, I'm getting stronger. How is that any different from another plan where I add 5-10 pounds per week but only perform 5 reps across 5 sets? If two weeks from now I'm performing 20 reps at 145, that's a pretty big improvement over 20 reps at 95. Consider this: If I keep going and all I ever do are 20-rep squats, wouldn't it be better, assuming it can be achieved, to be doing 20 reps a 200+ pounds than doing 5? Based on calculations, my current 1RM on the squat is somewhere in the mid 200s.

One person countered my argument with the idea that I won't have any way to actually compare doing a 20-rep scheme to a lower-rep, higher-weight scheme because I can't do both at once to measure one against the other. True enough. The only thing I have to go on right now is how much I'd been squatting on the SL 5x5 plan. I was starting to push the 5-rep envelope pretty hard at 215. My all-time max on the squat was 310 several years ago. What I know for sure in dropping the weight is that I'll be able to perform the squat with perfect form through a full range of motion. If I can continue to add weight and maintain the form, then by the time I get into the upper 100 range for 20 reps, I'm convinced I will be better off than being able to do 5 reps at 215.

My dream, of course, is being able to do 300 lbs. for 20 reps. Now that would be something.

Barefoot shoes: A rant

I love my Vibram FiveFingers KSOs. They're lightweight, comfortable, versatile. At the beach on vacation for a week, I wore nothing but my KSOs, in and out of the water. I'm convinced they are the perfect footwear for the beach.

I liked them so much, I recently bought a pair of Komodosports, which I'm wearing right now. I could easily see myself wearing nothing but Vibrams for the rest of my life. I mean in terms of footwear, of course.

But I've got one tiny little problem with these and other "barefoot" shoes: I can't help wondering why they're so doggoned expensive. When I first started shopping for a pair of Vibrams, most models were priced at $100 and up. I finally snagged my KSOs online at a discounted price. The Komodosports go for $99.95 online, the LS model $109.95. I bought a pair when I found a coupon that resulted in a $20 discount.

My question is this: Why is it that "minimalist" shoes cost more than traditional shoes? I can understand an argument along the lines of supply and demand, but when you look at the shoes themselves, you'd think they would cost less, not more. Sure, you can find traditional running shoes and athletic shoes that cost a lot more, but I can also walk into any shoe store and find a decent pair of athletic shoes for nearly half what I paid for my Vibrams.

The fact is, in terms of their physical composition, there's not much to a pair of barefoot/minimalist shoes. It's a thin slab of rubber glued to some fabric, sometimes with a velcro strap or two. As much as I like the two pair of Vibrams I own, I also can't help feeling guilty about purchasing them because, frankly, I have to seriously wonder if they're really worth what I've paid.

Don't get me wrong: Like I said, I love these shoes. But I feel kind of the same about making this kind of purchase as I do spending $60 on a video game. It makes me happy, but is it a worthwhile use of my hard-earned money?

Vibram FiveFingers has been something of a pioneer in this style of shoe, but many other competitors are now jumping in, including Fila with its Skeletoes and Adidas with adiPure. I can only hope the competition is good for buyers like me because I want more of them, but I simply cannot justify the expense expect maybe as a once-in-a-while splurge.

Someday I'd like to have a whole closet full of Vibrams, but, alas, I haven't achieved an Imelda Marcos level of success just yet.

State of the regimen--workout regimen, that is

Back in late 2011 I lost it--my motivation to work out, my desire to do anything other than press buttons on a remote. There was no specific reason for it; it just happened.

In January I happened to catch a couple of women's CrossFit competitions (one of the benefits of being a TV Remote Commander), and I was dumbstruck by what these women could do. Their power, strength and endurance were just plain mind boggling. And the thought that hit me was, I need to get back in shape.

Toward that end, I picked up on the SL 5x5 plan. It was simple, involved nothing but barbell work and focused on the big movements that I'd already discovered were the key to get stronger. I followed the plan for about 2 1/2 months. During this time, I also studied other plans, including Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength and Jim Wendler's 5/3/1.

The 5x5 plan worked well, but by the time I'd reached the end of that 2.5-month period, I found I was plateauing on some lifts, especially the overhead press (OHP). When you post questions about this in the various forums (I currently log my workouts on Fitocracy), you get all kinds of responses about eating more and doing this exercise or that exercise to strengthen the deltoids or triceps or whatever. But I knew it was time for a change-up.

So I've since switched to Wendler's 5/3/1. I'm in week 2 of the plan, and I already like it and am seeing improvements. One of the aspects of the plan I like best is the assistance work. I opted for the Triumverate version because I finish off each workout with 5 sets of two different assistance exercises. I believe for some lifts 5 sets of 5 is just too much. When you begin to push that 5RM, it becomes harder and harder to make real progress.

On the OHP, for example, I did 5x5 at 115 lbs. three weeks before I made the switch. In the next workout, I could barely do 3 reps at the same weight. I managed one set of 5 a few sets of 3 and one set of 4 reps. Why? Why such a huge backward slide after I was making such good progress? One reason was because the squat was taking a lot out of me. As you increase the poundages and those 5 reps become more of a challenge, you get spent a lot more quickly on the squat. Everything after that is an uphill battle. The other reason is simply that the progression is too aggressive for a lift like the OHP. Sure, Mehdi suggests making smaller, incremental increases in such cases to give your body more time to adapt, but taken with the other heavy movements, it's just not as easy as it sounds.

The basic idea of SL 5x5 is sound, and anybody can find success on it. But what happens when you hit the wall? The bottom line for me is this: Everything works--for a while. When it stops working, why would you keep doing the same thing over and over expecting it to change? It won't.

So I bid a farewell to SL 5x5--at least for now.