The Syla5 Files

so week 2 of the 10s has started

Workout A this morning everything 2x10

Squats 90kg
RDL's 47.5kg
Inclined DB Bench 20KG
Lat Pull downs 50kg
Dips BW+7.5kg
seated Row 45kg
Overhead Press 37.5kg
Calf Press 175kg
Cable Crunch 35kg

Squats were better then i was expecting as i had a terrible nights sleep on saturday, and slept on my front last night so back was tight this morning. Lower back is a little tight now, but planning on getting on with some rolling and mobility at home to help sort this out.

Weighed in this morning at 11St 1 3/4lb so after a week of full bulk diet calories i have remained pretty stable. Sticking with this diet until the end of this first cycle (4 weeks including this one and a deload) and if weight stays the same i will add more calories :)
 
Workout B coming close to the end of the 10's in cycle 1 now.

Deadflifts with the new positioning are still feeling strong. Got a vid this morning of my first set:

95kg x 10


rest of the workout was good, getting tired towards the end but close to all my 10rm's what can i expect :)

really looking forward to 5's next week
 
Yeah keeping this first cycle reasonable. I think I could have done 110 for 10 but I am focusing on keeping rest between sets to 1 minute to help with conditioning a bit. Next week is the numbers week ;)
 
Yeah I am unsure wether I should push for a 10kg increase or not due to each cycle taking 2 months! We shall see I might do 5's for 3 weeks and us week 4 to test new 15/10/5 maxes :).

Diet plans to increase cals, more of a note to self from a reply I made in another thread:

Well I try not to go to excessive on my protien. Check my log for my current diet it's in the first post. I actually upped my fats and uppedy carbs as my protien was fine. Changed from peanut butter to mixed nuts as. Nothing to major really just more brown rice and about 5g more nuts :). Oh and I added good oil back in twice a day. Next adjustment will be more rice, then a 3rd helping of good oil and that should see me at 2600/2900. If I am not gaining weight then I would be shocked!
 
So its time for the 5's. Training in the afternoon today as i hadnt emailed my routine home so good excuse to get in a later session.

The diet control seems to be working to some extent. I weighed in this morning at 11st 1/2lb so over the last week i have managed to drop 1lb ish. I shall stick with this calorie intake for the next week and then up things accordingly.

5's session tonight as follows:

Squats
Pull Downs
Dips
OHP
Calf Press

the weights are less then i ended on last week, however i am hoping to ramp up to close to my current 5 rep pb's (done before any HST prep) by the end of 5's week 3. That should then give me a weeks rest and i will recalc rep pb's and push on through cycle 2! thats where the fun begins.
 
icecold said:
I've never started the 5 rep phase with less weight than I finished he 10s, and to not finish at your PB seems like a wasted opportunity.
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the 5's will cross over to heavy weight then my 10's by then end of week 1. This is manly due to the smaller gap that i no doubt have between my 15 rm's and my 5 rm's that you have :)

The only reason i will be getting close to my current 5rm's is because it wasnt the 5rm's i setup the cycle with. Basically i fully prepped my HST cycle at the end of my cut, and also I was keeping a little in reserve so that i could bed the routine in through the first cycle.

Squats as an example my 5 rep max from before HST and during bulking was 125x5 or 130x5 somewhere like that.

My prep for HST was 115x5 because i had to be able to do it for 3 sets as well, and wanted to keep a little back. By week 3 of the 5's in this first cycle i should be squatting 122.5x5 for 3 sets, so this will be a pb as far as my HST cycles go, but not as far as all time pb's go. Given that i am 10kg lighter now as well, i would consider 122.5kg pretty good for my first cycle to end on.

So for the big 4 my first cycle should end like this, all weights for 3 sets of 5 reps:
Squat 122.5
Deadlifts 130
bench 75
ohp 57.5

comparing these to my pre cut 80kg bw 1 rep maxes i think its a good end to the first cycle?

dl 155
squat 150
bench 100 (missing inches :(, so 95 if i am being totally honest)
ohp 67.5
 
i thought the progress through each mirco cycle was to build up to said cycles max? as such 5's week 1 for me is lighter then 10's final day, but 5's week 2-3 are heavier by quite a margin.

to make sure i start the 5's cycle on the same weight as the end of my 10's my 5rm would need to be 130, and sadly it was a conservative 115, because at the time of testing and prepping for the cycle 115x5 for 3 was tough!

i am expecting to loose the cross over as i move out of cycle one, but as far the spreadsheet says i am doing it all right, maybe i need to step outside the bounds of the spreadsheet, and do my 10's final day rm's until my 5's cycle tells me to increase weight.
 
Having looked in to it a little more, it appears that this cross over between micro cycles is very common, and known as "Zig-Zagging" and allowing this to happen has shown no adverse effects, and infact is suggested that "zig-zagging" rather then setting up your entire macro-cycle using your 5rm max is generally better.
 
Would you suggest I take smaller increments then during the cycle? I am open to suggestion, and did think the dropping to lower weights was a bit strange.

Here is my current calculates 10's and 5's.

10's for squats
Day 2 80x10
Day 4 90x10
Day 6 100x10

5's
Day 1 77.5x5
Day 3 92.5x5
Day 5 107.5x5
Day 7 117.5x5
Day 9 122.5x5

I assume you would suggest the following for 5's, and similar for the move from 15's to 10's

5's Based on a 115x5 Rm

Day 1 100x5
Day 3 107.5x5
Day 5 112.5x5
Day 7 117.5x5
Day 9 122.5x5

I think I am inclined to agree I have been a little cautious going in to this first cycle, soon at the end mind so I can crank things up next cycle, and tune out the zig zagging :)
 
Yeah 125x5 is Pre cut pb. At the end of this cycle, rather then do 4 weeks of 5's I am going to do 3 and in my 4th week I will do a standard deconditioning week and then I will be upping the numbers for cycle 2, possible by some margin given how easy cycle 1 has been. I am also still sailing upmy bulking diet so hopefully I will hit a nice balance come the start of cycle 2 and that's where the true work begins.

As far as HST goes for me, it's an exercise in gaining size not strength, I plan to put on some good mass, and then jump to a more traditional strength routine for a few cycles to really utilise the benefits of the new mass, aims by Christmas is rep my current rep maxes, let's serif I can do that with just HST. If I can then maybe 3-4 cycles of wendler in the new year will see me setting some nice new rm pb's
 
15's and 10's it's 2 sets and 5's it's 3. The 15's is more conditioning work to be honest and the only session that takes close to 1 hour is the last session of the second week.
 
The end of the first 5's week is upon me, i have completed the training with no big suprised, or numbers for that matter, so next week will be ramp up time.

I have however now got a strange pain in the back of my left hand. Its only when under load, and there doesnt appear to be any visable cause, i will keep an eye on this over the weekend and next week. Any thoughts welcome.
 
i will be doing 5's for 3 weeks and then doing an SD week while i set up cycle 2 as i feel i have been a litle conservative with some of my lifts, and also i am going to see how avoiding zig zagging affects my overall ability to complete the program.
 
3-4 depending on how good the mass gains are. I will then be going to more focus strength routine to make the most of my new mass, and then switch back. Hoping to stay lean throughout now, we shall see.
 
Yeap i will be redoing 15's, my focus with this is size, also i feel the conditioning gained from smashing out 15's every cycle for a couple of weeks is an added benefit. If i was doing this more for strength i would probably drop the 15's

week 2 of the 5's began this morning, and boy were my deadlifts slow!!

110kg went up fine but it just felt heavier then i remember, i am hoping as i get back to shifting some proper numbers this feeling will disappear.

Rest of the session felt oddly light!

Bench 60kg
RDL 70kg
Leg Press 245kg
BB Curls 30kg (changing these next time around for chin ups)

actually looking foward to deads again on friday as even though things felt slow the lifts felt solid and i get the feeling that my new stance is still a change in the right direction now i am getting to heavier weights again.
 
Chris1712 said:
What happens at the end of each cycle? Am I right in saying you basically hit your previous RM in the final session of each rep range cycle? When do you actually 'improve' as such? Just guess and do the cycle again with a different RM?
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well, the macro cycle is either 7 or 9 weeks, 2 weeks of each 15's 10's and 5's. Then for the 7 week cycle you take a week for standard deconditioning and after that you should either increase your previous cycle rep maxes by an amount you consider reasonable and go again, or you use an extra week to retest your 15/10/5 maxes.

For the 9 week cycle you carry on 5's for a 3rd and if you like 4th week and this would give you your new 5rm. You then take a week for SD, and you can comfortably retest your 15 and 10 rep maxes during this week as that shouldnt be to tasking and shouldnt hamper the SD part of the process.
 
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