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.