Persistence and Tenacity

Crossroads/Dilemma

As I sit here typing I can’t help but feel at a crossroads in my training.

I’ve been doing monthly physical challenges, and with the weekend left to decide for May’s challenge I feel at a loss.

I’ve been toying with Lunging a 1/4 mile on Sunday the 30th to cap off the month of lunges. Doing so would be the second gut check this week after Monday’s modified Iron Marathon.

Well I’d programmed pressing this month as part of the challenge, and I think that the next few month’s challenges will be to actually program. To run Wendler’s 531 as written or very near it.

Gut Check Work Outs + Training With Intensity

Now this is exactly the problem: I like doing psycho stuff in the gym. It’s given me a hell of a work capacity, and ability to recover, even allows me to hit roughly my 1rm cold. But there is a problem to my non-method method non-method method of madness.

I can hit my ~1rms cold, but not much further. In the 9 months at the new gym( can I call it new at this point?)  I’ve gone from a 310 to 325 bench(consistent at 315), down from 455×2 to 405×2 squat(last I tried), and am consistent but not progressing past a ~500 deadlift (515 PR) All the best #s were reached ~7 months ago, and have since semi regressed. However my madness has gained me size, vastly improved my grip strength and endurance, and my Power Clean has gotten far better.

(50lbs in the 9 months isn’t bad for sporadic training)

Powerlifting Total

I do care about my total. I need it to go up, and I figure the simplest way is to do 5/3/1 as written.

Mentally for me to do 5/3/1 I’d have do something crazy like do Boring But Big at ballpark 70%, plus a fuck ton of calisthenics, assistance work, and sled/prowler work.

Personally I really like going to the gym and just training. I also like hitting lifts more than once weekly.

Is the above described Psycho 5/3/1 even 5/3/1?

I need to progress on the big lifts. The problem, I love frequency.
I’d been thinking do the 4 main lifts, and treat it somewhat like a bodybuilder on the corresponding assistance, do some chins/dips/lunges daily or near it, skip rope, and do sled/prowler work. Just allow myself once a week for each of the main 4(the hard part, if I squat I prefer doing it daily or not at all), and slip in power cleans or box jumps at the beginning ~2x weekly.

The idea to sneak in lots of extra sessions ala Westside Barbell in the form of PT + calisthenics at home and prowler/sled work at the gym struck, but would it be a bad thing to only really train 4x weekly, to only go to the gym 4x instead of my habitual 6-7x weekly?

I hate driving, particularly when I have to deal with traffic. 4x weekly? Tue/Wed/Sat/Sun would work. The weekend traffic is light, and the gym crowd is different. Maybe this isn’t a bad thing after all.

5/3/1 as written would guarantee a 405 bench Training Max in 2 years, and i know from the bastardized use of the program that the ability would happen far faster, 6 -12, most likely under 9 months being not only possible, but very probable.

Bodybuilding assistance, Chin/Lunge/Dip,  and Prowler/Sled, only hitting each lift once a week. This may be a trade off I’ll have to accept. Plenty have gotten strong on bodybuilder splits, which is essentially what 531 is to me, plus when’s the last time I trained in that manner? It will be a new frequency of stimulus.

However I won’t deload every 4th weak. My recovery is higher than necessitates that, I’m not that strong (1rm wise), and I am not that soft. 4 cycles in 12 weeks, followed by a fun reps week is more me.

The gym acquaintances will shit themselves seeing me actually following a program, written by someone else, and not made up on the spot on the gym floor.

How hard could this be?

The Program

Press Day:

• Chins
• 531 Press
• BBB Press 5×10
• Power Clean -Easy Singles
• Lat Pull and/or Seated Row

Deadlift Day:

• • • Chins
    • 531 Dead
    • A Week:Good Morning 2-5×10-15
    • A Week: Seated Row- Fat Bar High Rep
    • B Week:Shrug/Rack Pull/Hand And Thigh (Strapped)
    • B Week: Deadlift – Overhand Fat Bar BBB or Singles or Timed Hold

Bench Day

• Chins
• 531 Bench
• BBB Bench or Dips (Probably Alternated A/B weeks)
• Bent Rows Fat Bar
• 1-2 sets Kroc Row Strapless
• Power Clean -Easy Singles

Squat Day

• Leg Curl- For Pump
• Front Squat Warm Up To Decent Single
• 531 Squat Sets
• Squat 350 Method (Paul Carter)
• Leg Curl More
• Prowler/Sled

End every session with either lunges or sled/prowler work to get some more volume. I’ll probably use the fat bar or alternate between it and regular for the press/bench/deadlift 531 sets as well.

Conclusion

Really the only issue I have is hitting everything once a week. I’m gonna just have to suck it up, enjoy the new schedule and rest days, and allow myself to grow (not just only as a gym rat).

Time to build my strength (top end) again. This will also allow more mental effort to be in other places. However with this programming, what will I be filming for YouTube? I’ll come up with something.

Do What You Must.

-J

 

College Football Strength

I’m unsure of what exactly was the source of inspiration for using this as a guideline, but I’ve felt for a while a good all around goal for the gym would be to be as strong as a college football player while still maintaining athleticism.

I know Dan John recommends at a bare minimum being as strong as a high school football player(205 front squat,power clean,bench). I believe Jim Wendler once listed power clean #s for comparison to D1 players with 275 as an average to not feel ashamed of yourself for. Also either Basbarbell or Strength Villian (maybe both) had a philosophy of training to be like a linebacker. Big,strong,fast,agile etc.

I highly agree with this sentiment. When one performs and is built like a linebacker you’re in a great place athletically, and could relatively easily switch focuses from a very solid start off point.

Performance Abilities

As a bigger guy at 6′ ~255 I have decent athleticism. Decent cardio from the run myself into the ground years, and fairly high work capacity as well. I always do calisthenics, and run sprints regularly. Basically I keep from being a fat ass by maintaining a minimal chin up ability, and the minimal sprint ability. I primarily train to get stronger. Aesthetics are not a focus. Aesthetics are a side effect of performance increases, the stronger I get, while maintaining (or even improving) the chin/sprint performance and I’m guaranteed to look better. I joke that the only aesthetic I care about is neck size. I’ve been looking to build that Mike Tyson neck since 15 years old. (still can argue that this performance based goal though)

Power Clean

Back to being as strong as a college football player. Wendler listed 275 as not to be ashamed of. Well, last night after probably 2 months of fighting with the number I hit that bitch.

Initially I had went to the gym and was thinking do a crossfit like session of 50 singles of 225. I hit 4 singles, and dumbfounded at how light it was decided to up to 255. Which I hit for 5 easy singles. Realizing if I didn’t go for the PR it may not be close again I upped the weight. Got It. Then as usual got greedy and went for 300. At that point pop was gone. No matter. 275 was a 10lb PR, and was at a far easier perceived effort than 255 (normally not consistent) is.

Booyah!

Yes I wrote this much to say I hit my former nemesis weight of 275 in the Power Clean.

How I Upped My Power Clean

Well I stopped letting myself fail reps all the time. That probably had something to do with it. AND……

Sled work.

I’ve already written about pushing cars and sleds, I’ve also done some very heavy pulling(using the fat bar) and moderate to heavy rowing with the sled and fat bar.

All the sled work adds to the driving ability of the legs, and the fact I’ve been involving my hands in the rows + drags comes into play consolidating my ability to grip and rip.

The sled rowing is somewhere between a bent row and a power clean. It’s also done with the fat bar. There is no negative, and it seems to have added some upper back mass and more horsepower to my back work.

In essence I strengthened the system. Legs,glutes,(lunges could play in here) traps, and forearms are bigger and stronger. That’s what upped the clean. The Lattimer status clean portion is getting closer and closer. I know that I’ll power clean 405 in my lifetime.

-J

Now I’ve always felt movement better for calves than exercises ie walking is better than calf raises. Incidentally the two people I know with the largest calves do just that. One walks and runs stupid mileage , the other hikes as often as possible. Both have calves that would make a mass monster bodybuilder jealous.

If you’re going to do something other than pedestrianism it’s best to make it hard contractions and/or a crazy hard pump. Bodyweight calf raises with very hard squeezes or for stupid high pump inducing reps always did more for mine than any weighted gym exercise.

Right now my calves feel worked. Particularly in a way that I’ve never felt before. It’s good, and I can’t believe I hadn’t done this earlier.

So what have I been doing the last few days?

Heavy pushes. It’s movement, pedestrian,so it’s better than a lift, and it has the potential to be quite heavy. I combined all the methods. pedestrianism, hard contractions, and high reps.

So far I’ve done a variation for 4 days in a row:

Day 1. Prowler with 245lbs plate weight walking
Day 2. Pushing my car
Day 3. Prowler​ 1000lbs plate weight
Day 4. Pushing my cousin’s (small) pickup

While I started doing this with the intention of it being new quad/ham/glute stimuli, with cardio effect, I quickly learned how efficiently it worked my calves.

I imagine that I’ll be seeing some new calf growth from it, in addition to the more important aforementioned effects.

If your calves are a weak point I’d highly recommend you try this. Push something heavy, it’ll have huge benefit.

If you have a sled push it as heavy as possible, if you don’t grab a buddy and the largest car/truck/thing that goes(ha), throw it in neutral and push that. Your body will thank you.

-J

Needing YouTube Content

It had been far too long without filming for YouTube. Last night​ while taking a shit the ideas for today struck. I thought I’d do either amrap axle clean with 205 or amrap overhand deadlift with 255, as well as another vid.

On axle cleans I did a single with 205, based on it I added weight. I’d prefer the 1rm PR to an amrap. 225 was easy, in fact easy enough that I’m shocked how many times I missed it before success back in February. I then failed 245 four times,one of them catching it in a squat clean. I thought I’d axle power clean 255 based on the prior 205 and 225,didn’t happen, oh well, soon.Yes, I failed a few reps. I know I said I wouldn’t fail any this month. I’ve kept it to a bare minimum, and only grip related when PRs are on the table. Without going for them I’d have shorted myself.

Axle/Fat Bar AMRAP Deadlifts

I ended up pulling 255 for 14 fail 15 on the overhand axle deads on video. I was looking for 15+, really hoping for 20+,but it was a PR nonetheless. Last time I pulled 12.

Thought I’d catch 315 overhand axle on video, but failed. Hands were too fatigued at that point. I’ve done it before,I’ll do it,and better again.

Now I went into the gym wanting two good videos. I didn’t mention what the other one was, it was to do some crazy heavy prowler push.

The Prowler

Story time: In 2010 or 2011 I saw video of a guy push a prowler with either 800 lbs total or 800 lbs plate weight. Now since then maybe there are heavier prowler sled videos. I don’t know, nor do I particularly care.

Last night I pushed my car around a parking lot as a test. Based on it, I figured I should be able to push a prowler sled with 1000lbs of plate weight 15 yards.

Who knows if that is the heaviest heavy ass sled push/pull on YouTube.

I did a few warmups of a couple feet to feel heavier and heavier weight.

I loaded it up to 1000lbs of plates. I reran the #s not wanting to be shy on weight discovered after the fact.
The double check was godsend. I had been at 990lbs. I added 10 more.

Desk girl as cameraman. Ballpark 18 yards +/- 1 accuracy.

Did that shit. The worst part was keeping low. The pads got sweaty and I slid up. I stopped for a fraction of a second near the end to get back down and keep from sliding off. It got harder and harder at the end because sweat had me higher and higher, losing more and more of the mechanical advantage of being low.

Let me tell you something. Using the handles instead of drive pads is far harder. 1000+ was drive pad for a reason. Hilariously I bruised my shoulders in the pads. Even more funny was trying to get the sled back to the starting point to unload plates.

Not able to push with the handles I had to unload half the plates, then jerk into the handles (lots of quick hits/pushes,should’ve filmed it too,it was stellar exercise,pulsating is a good description), then turn it,drive it back and unload.

Fun shit overall. Try programming that session though. Sessions like today are why I stress training how you want and not being wed to a program.

It was a blast.

Try it or similar. Everyone has access to a car and parking lot. Grab a buddy and have him ride, but not hold the brake. Holding the brake it ain’t going anywhere.

Get it and have a blast.

-J

I can’t help but laugh at people worrying about the strength carryover of assistance work. I’ll let you in on a little secret. You ready? Good. Stronger is stronger. Unless you are nearing a world record, there is no need to worry so much. (Even then, some people still won’t need to worry)

Shoulders have been a weakness for me over the years. Lateral raises are supposedly “nonfunctional”. Guess what though, doing laterals daily for 10 days added 5-10lbs to my bench max, and having done shoulders everyday in March ( mostly lateral raises, or higher rep behind the neck presses) I came near another 1rm PR, this time a close failure with a 20 lb jump. I had been greedy, a 10lb PR would’ve happened. Lateral raises aren’t functional? I got stronger on them, and my bench went up. Seems functional to me.

Another example: I’ve been doing lots of seated rows with a fat bar for all sorts of mostly high rep ranges. The other day I wanted to practice sumo deadlifts. I hate pulling mixed on sumo, don’t generally like using straps on deadlifts, and was therefore limited to pulling overhand. All the volume I’ve been doing with fat bars, getting stronger on them,particularly building much more work capacity, and wouldn’t you know I doubled past 90% of my overhand PR at a much, much lower perceived effort.

I hadn’t been deadlifting lately, I’d simply been getting stronger hands on fat bars, and lunging. Which brings me to the other point of mentioning sumo pulls. Sumo pulls had always been rough for me, and after 4 days of doing them in a row they became so again. But just a week of doing lunges in, and the muscles involved in my sumo pull fire much more effectively than in the past.

Lots of people bag on bodyweight training. They don’t realize how effective that calisthenics can be. Push the volume high enough, and your body will have no choice but to get stronger.  In years past, and again I’m seeing this with high volume walking lunges. Pushups have always maintained, and gave me slow bench gains. Pullups when I push the volume seem to make my torso appear far more jacked rather quickly. I’d venture to guess that I’ll keep finding strange symbiotic relationships between weight exercises and this month’s calisthenic work.

Getting stronger is getting stronger, and by doing things I haven’t in years, I’m getting soreness again(moderate), am seemingly far hungrier, and getting some cool quick to realize gains.

If you want to train something don’t worry about it’s carryover. Just train, and get stronger.

Another example: Feeling like trying something “crazy” I took a dragging sled, and started with hand over hand rope pulling. Soon I switched attachments to the fat bar. I’d do a set and keep loading. Eventually it was dragging the weight backwards,and with how hard that was I switched to pulling it.

The sled was at this point was loaded to 505lbs. I was dragging, and pulling it via a fat bar. Facing away I did a few sets of  roughly 10 yard sled pulls. I must’ve looked pyscho, breathing loudly, spit flying with my breaths,hissing loudly, I imagine I was turning red, and I know that the position I was in is the same as the start of a sprint. On my final trip one hand gave, and I was suddenly lightened by 500 pounds, and flew forward.

Pull the sled like that, mix in a few 40s, and you’d end up crazy fast. It’s probably a good idea to take grip out of the movement (safety), although it’s also a diesel way to get some some lumberjack/strongman style deadlift and hand gains.

Another thought: People say pulling in general gives you enough hand strength. I’m finding this not true. You gotta prioritize the hands, and make them get stronger by lots of volume with hard to hold implements. I’m finding that overall gains are coming much better now that my hands are ahead of the rest of the system. A love of fat bar work, and then adding more and more fat bar work, seems to be the causation here.

Back to the point.

Don’t worry about carryover.

Get stronger on big lifts, or small lifts. Whatever.

As long as you train the whole system you will get stronger on it all. Will carryover be 100%? Maybe, maybe not. How would you measure that anyway? It’s not like going from getting 100 reps of lateral raises over 3 sets, to being able to grind it out in one set is exactly top end strength, it is strength endurance, and it does add to my bench max . Heavier weight is stronger, more reps is stronger, longer lasting strength endurance is stronger. There are many manifestations of being stronger.

Just train. It will work itself out. Do what you want in the gym. You’ll still make gains. Feel like curling? Do it. Feel like chins? Go ahead. Dumbell rows? Have at it. You are always strengthening the system.

Stronger is stronger. Remember that.

Don’t worry so much about it all.

-J