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.