*** The 2012 Gym Rats Thread ***

[LiE]

Nope, 210's my PB. Failed 220 just before Christmas but felt stronger a few weeks ago and would've expected around 215 had I attempted a new PB which is roughly what 190 x 5 equates to.

190 x 5 roughly works out at a 1RM of 213, so the numbers are about right. The issue is if you're finding it tough now you'll stall soon. See how it goes on the next cycle, if you're not seeing an improvement then I'd drop the weight a bit.

It's important to be realistic with the weights. I did a 200kg squat then went and did 3 weeks of non 531 training. When I came back to the program I put my 1RM in as 190 to allow me to work up and past 200 again.

 

[Begbie]

531 is all about strength. It's a great program but you need to understand it's purpose. It's a long term, very slow/steady strength program.

If you're still making progress on 5x5 then I'd continue. 531 is more advanced.

Not doing stronglifts, just do 5x5 on my main lifts. Will do 4x6 or 3x8 on the rest its a bit of a mess at the moment really. But it seems to be working for me, making some pretty big gains just now.

Is there any good reads for 531 or is T-Nation the place to look? I assume there all the same but don't want to stumble on some BB re-hash.

 

[Disco Boy]

Enjoyed my session today

Dead lift 8x35, 8x37.5, 8x40, 8x50, 8x50
Calf raise 10x30, 15x35, 15x35, 10x40
Shrugs 8x30 8x35 8x40 8x40 8x40
Lying leg hip raise 8 8 8

Then tried for a 1 rep max of bench press and I got 50kg... Just. My goal for the year is to do 3x8 of 60kgs... So watch this space!

I'm feeling better with my dead lift form now. I'm upping the weight pretty much every set every time so I'll hope to be doing at least 60kg for 8 reps next time.

 

[LiE]

Not doing stronglifts, just do 5x5 on my main lifts. Will do 4x6 or 3x8 on the rest its a bit of a mess at the moment really. But it seems to be working for me, making some pretty big gains just now.

Is there any good reads for 531 or is T-Nation the place to look? I assume there all the same but don't want to stumble on some BB re-hash.

If you're making good gains (is that strength or size?) on your current program then I don't see a reason to change?

 

[LiE]

Enjoyed my session today

Dead lift 8x35, 8x37.5, 8x40, 8x50, 8x50
Calf raise 10x30, 15x35, 15x35, 10x40
Shrugs 8x30 8x35 8x40 8x40 8x40
Lying leg hip raise 8 8 8

Then tried for a 1 rep max of bench press and I got 50kg... Just. My goal for the year is to do 3x8 of 60kgs... So watch this space!

I'm feeling better with my dead lift form now. I'm upping the weight pretty much every set every time so I'll hope to be doing at least 60kg for 8 reps next time.

Wouldn't worry about doing 1RM to be honest. I trained for at least 6 years before I even knew what a 1RM was and I was bench pressing 100-130kg for most of that 6 years (yea, progress sucked )

 

[Pigeon_Killer]

190 x 5 roughly works out at a 1RM of 213, so the numbers are about right. The issue is if you're finding it tough now you'll stall soon. See how it goes on the next cycle, if you're not seeing an improvement then I'd drop the weight a bit.

Gonna weigh myself at the end of the week and see if I've lost any more weight. Don't think that would really explain such a dramatic loss of power on squats (every other lift seems to be fine) but I may up my calories and see how that goes in to the next cycle.

 

[LiE]

Can you upload your spreadsheet so I can take a look?

 

[Pigeon_Killer]

Can you upload your spreadsheet so I can take a look?

http://www.sendspace.com/file/tz4489

 

[LiE]

Cheers.
To me it looks like you just had a bad session. It happens on 531, just need to focus on the next lift and not ponder on it.

I had a bad lift this cycle on deadlift. Week 1 167.5x7.. today I did 187.5x8. Go figure lol.

Do you use the same warmup structure each time?

 

[Begbie]

If you're making good gains (is that strength or size?) on your current program then I don't see a reason to change?

No reason really, still on noob gains at the moment. But I can't see me stopping gaining anytime soon.

 

[Pigeon_Killer]

Cheers.
To me it looks like you just had a bad session. It happens on 531, just need to focus on the next lift and not ponder on it.

I had a bad lift this cycle on deadlift. Week 1 167.5x7.. today I did 187.5x8. Go figure lol.

Do you use the same warmup structure each time?

Had a disappointing squat session last week as well and my projected 1RM has gone steadily down whereas my other lifts are moving up nicely. The only way I'll be able to tell is keep everything the same, follow the spreadsheet as is for another month and see if weeks 2 and 3 are equally as poor.

If they are I'll look at creating a hybrid from different 5/3/1 routines and keep BBB for my upper body and move to something else for my lower. Pretty sure my lower back/hamstring permaDOMS and fatigue can be attributed to the 5x10 sets though.

Warmup's always the same. 60k x 5, 100k x 5 then either straight in to my working sets or a further set of 3 reps. Knew as soon as I did my second warmup today it wasn't going to go well.

 

[LiE]

I'm sure it'll be better next cycle. If you have an amazing week 1 then you'll struggle to beat that in the project 1RM, which is expected.

For warm ups, Jim recommends doing 40%x5, 50%x5 and 60%x3. Take these numbers straight from the deload column for that cycle, job done. Takes any guess work out and also as the weights increase from cycle to cycle your warm up weight do too.

 

[Pigeon_Killer]

For warm ups, Jim recommends doing 40%x5, 50%x5 and 60%x3. Take these numbers straight from the deload column for that cycle, job done.

Thanks, can't say I even thought about doing that. Read about the warmup percentages and just couldn't be bothered to work them out

Edit: Just realised I squatted 142.5 rather than 145 which is what I was meant to do, the session just got even worse

 

[Deception]

Well, had my first failure on Bench Press. Although im 12.5kg over my PB, so I'm still happy ; Just gives me more to work at:

30min mobility
Squats - 87.5kg
Bench Press 92.5kg (5,5,5,4,4)
BB Row - 75kg

I think I will try a session in the evening at one point, tos see how it differs from empty stomach to food in my system.

 

[Lead_Head]

You'll find a big difference. I train in the mornings and on Sat popped down to the gym, felt a lot stronger.

Did a new PB on deadlift this morning. 85kg for 6 reps. Feel there's more in the tank, might even hit the magic 100kg in June.

 

[Elixir]

Then tried for a 1 rep max of bench press and I got 50kg... Just. My goal for the year is to do 3x8 of 60kgs... So watch this space!

Stick with it and you'll get that in no time.

 

[MoNkeE]

Disco Boy, just nail your bench form and your numbers will start flying up - the same was definitely true with me. If you're unsure about your bench form just sat and I'll post up my usual tips - I'm really quite confident with my own bench form =)

 

[Lead_Head]

Disco Boy, just nail your bench form and your numbers will start flying up - the same was definitely true with me. If you're unsure about your bench form just sat and I'll post up my usual tips - I'm really quite confident with my own bench form =)

I'd be interested in any tips you could share.

 

[RobSmith]

Definitely notice a difference in performance between training in the morning (fasted) and evening (fed) - in fact I'm going to completely drop all morning sessions and do them after work. A little frustrating since I have to put up with all the meatheads but worth it though.

 

[LiE]

Here's a couple of my bench press videos if it helps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaB_ou3KKHw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x4LmhXuTeE

Definitely notice a difference in performance between training in the morning (fasted) and evening (fed) - in fact I'm going to completely drop all morning sessions and do them after work. A little frustrating since I have to put up with all the meatheads but worth it though.

It's not all that bad, I've been training peak time since starting the gym. Sometimes the buzz of the gym helps.