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Slicin' and Dicin'

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gphagan1 said:
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I asked her if we could do a big strawberry patch this year. like 100+ plants, hoping for 1-2lbs per plant, to harvest and make some strawberry wine or brandy in the fall and she said lets start small cause she has no luck with strawberries. now I know why!!! we fight the critters so much out here. she was on someone elses farm last week and they had row after row after row of strawberries and she told them how jealous she was that they don't fight the animals like we do lol.
 
Bench
Cycle 2
Week 2

H/S incline
3 x 10 x 90

Bench
5 x 110, 140
3 x 165

3 x 195, 220
6 x 250

Joker
1 x 270, 280


BBB - paused
5 x 5 x 195

Incline bench
3 x 10 x 135

DB bench
2 x 10 x 80

Dips
3 x 10

Notes
Came short of cycle PR but I doubt I've ever done 6+ at this weight anyways and I'm still clearly beating the RX by a margin, so stay the path. It did NOT torch me nearly like last weeks AMRAP though.

Subbed 5 x 10 at 145 for 5x5 at 195 paused on the BBB. Seemed like a good mixup since pauses tend to have good carry over for me.

Holding off on any slingshot work until the last week before deload.


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Dustin07 said:
Bench
Cycle 2
Week 2

H/S incline
3 x 10 x 90

Bench
5 x 110, 140
3 x 165

3 x 195, 220
6 x 250

Joker
1 x 270, 280


BBB - paused
5 x 5 x 195

Incline bench
3 x 10 x 135

DB bench
2 x 10 x 80

Dips
3 x 10

Notes
Came short of cycle PR but I doubt I've ever done 6+ at this weight anyways and I'm still clearly beating the RX by a margin, so stay the path. It did NOT torch me nearly like last weeks AMRAP though.

Subbed 5 x 10 at 145 for 5x5 at 195 paused on the BBB. Seemed like a good mixup since pauses tend to have good carry over for me.

Holding off on any slingshot work until the last week before deload.


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Benching 250 x 6 is impressive no matter if it was a PR or not.💪
 
gphagan1 said:
Benching 250 x 6 is impressive no matter if it was a PR or not.
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Thanks man, I'm basically sitting at historical plateau in some ways so if I can avoid injury, burnout, and fatigue for another cycle or two bench should see a PR. Deads and squats are going to take more work but everything has been hard and I think that's good.
 
OHP
10 x bar
5 x 75, 85
3 x 105

3 x 125, 135
7 x 155

Joker
1 x 175, 175, 185
3 x 205 pushpress

BBB
5 x 10 x 95

I did belt up for working sets today even though they were light to see if it would give me an edge.

Limited on time but got the meat and potatoes in.

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H/S leg press
15 x 90
10 x 180, 270

Squats
5 x 115, 145
3 x 175

3 x 205, 235
10 x 265

Joker
1 x 285, 305

Abductor
5 x 10

Adductor
5 x 10



RX was 10 x 260 or 9 x 265 and no 2.5lb plates so I went up 5lbs and took my ten. Buried them, too..
Generally speaking I'd say squats are improving. honestly, I may have had 15 in me with better conditioning, I should bring back some GPP work. these were by far my best squats since hurting my knee back in Dec in terms of ROM, form, etc.

I do not like sets of 10 when strength training lol. that is the downfall to these amraps.
my last squat session, I did not have the wherewithall to add jokers. today after a few minutes of rest I wanted to take a few joker sets so that tells me I'm improving in strength and possibly conditioning. I told my buddy it was an interesting juxtaposition cause my head for once was eager to go but my legs were shakey and tired after the amrap. I'm pretty close to normal historical plateaus here. 315 would have been an easy single. so when I get into my third month/3rd cycle I think we'll start to see meaningful progress.

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Bro sesh

Bench
20 x bar
5 x 110, 140
3 x 165

5 x 205
3 x 235
5 x 260

Slingshot
1 x 280, 300, 315
0 x 330 (PR attempt)

Board press
3 x 275 paused

Raw
11 x 225

BBB
5 x 10 x 140

Facepulls
2 x 15

Notes
My buddy Ian came through! Found micros at a garage sale which are now in my bag

Week three, final before deload, so overloaded. 315 was smoothe like butter so I thought 330 was a possibility.

Hella good bench day though, especially with 11 at 225 after all that heavy work. Probably one of the best bench days of my life in some ways.

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Dustin07 said:
Bro sesh

Bench
20 x bar
5 x 110, 140
3 x 165

5 x 205
3 x 235
5 x 260

Slingshot
1 x 280, 300, 315
0 x 330 (PR attempt)

Board press
3 x 275 paused

Raw
11 x 225

BBB
5 x 10 x 140

Facepulls
2 x 15

Notes
My buddy Ian came through! Found micros at a garage sale which are now in my bag

Week three, final before deload, so overloaded. 315 was smoothe like butter so I thought 330 was a possibility.

Hella good bench day though, especially with 11 at 225 after all that heavy work. Probably one of the best bench days of my life in some ways. View attachment 261368
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Yeah man, that was a great bench day. Man that sucks you have to bring your own micros, but glad you found some.😎👍
 
My abs are crazy sore today, makes me think that yesterdays work was somehow better than usual. I'm not used to having such a completely wrecked core from a bench day, lol.

Hyde said:
Hey going for it was the right play! The timing was perfect for joker work with deload coming since you were feeling good.
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Thanks man this has been another perk to just sticking with and following a program like this right now, even a simple one like 531. its like cruise control.... steady, steady, BAM go for it! annnnnnd rest.

honestly I think with some heavy weight practice and hitting it fresh rather than after an amrap I had that 330. so we'll see what happens after another cycle and give it a go again at the end of the next run.
 
Dustin07 said:
Bro sesh

Bench
20 x bar
5 x 110, 140
3 x 165

5 x 205
3 x 235
5 x 260

Slingshot
1 x 280, 300, 315
0 x 330 (PR attempt)

Board press
3 x 275 paused

Raw
11 x 225

BBB
5 x 10 x 140

Facepulls
2 x 15

Notes
My buddy Ian came through! Found micros at a garage sale which are now in my bag

Week three, final before deload, so overloaded. 315 was smoothe like butter so I thought 330 was a possibility.

Hella good bench day though, especially with 11 at 225 after all that heavy work. Probably one of the best bench days of my life in some ways.

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Whew what a bench day!
 
H/S leg press
20 x 90
2 x 10 x 180

BB rows
20 x 95

Deads
5 x 155, 195
3 x 235

3 x 275, 315
9 x 355

Rack pulls
1 x 405, 425

BBB
2 x 10 x 195

Back ext
20 x BW
15 x +25lbs


Notes
Somehow I screwed up my rotation and this appears to be week 2 of deads so I might skip week 3 so I can go into my deload after my next squat and OHP which are this week.

Doesn't make sense to me to start deloading bench, then squats, then OHP, only to go apeshit on deads in the middle of it.

So we did a few rack pulls as joker sets, light accessories and called it. All in all I think this was a good session.

realistically speaking 9 x 355 vs 10-13 x 385 vs 6 x 405... like I'm in the hunt again while sorta on cruise control so things are going pretty well.



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Training looking good, how is the aesthetic holding up?
 
MrKleen73 said:
Training looking good, how is the aesthetic holding up?
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194.5lbs this morning, which has been really consistent. so at least 5lbs higher than I want and probably 10lbs from decent abs. The mirror at the gym is complimentary with downlighting from 20ft away, so thats always good but when I catch myself in the security camera I can tell the mid section and love handles could use a fair amount of trimming 😂

I think right now I'm in a fairly good place because I'm not restricting food, the meal prep seems to be dialed at a good maintenance level, output at the gym is not requiring more food yet, recovery is good so at any moment when I get that bug up my butt for a mini cut a 10lb shave should be pretty reasonable!
 
Sounds like WINNING to me!

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OHP
5 x 75, 85
3 x 105

5 x 135
3 x 145
5 x 165

Joker
1 x 185
4 x 205 pushpress
1 x 225 pushpress

BBB
2 x 10 x 105
10 x 115

Cable OH ext
3 x 15-20

H/S dips
2 x 10 x +180

DB laterals
2 x 10 x 30s


Notes
Not bad! Might have hit that sixth rep if I didn't come off deads yesterday idk. 185 was relatively easy. Should have brought the Micros in and gone for 190!

Last day of cycle so overloaded a bit more pushpress etc.
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Dustin07 said:
OHP
5 x 75, 85
3 x 105

5 x 135
3 x 145
5 x 165

Joker
1 x 185
4 x 205 pushpress
1 x 225 pushpress

BBB
2 x 10 x 105
10 x 115

Cable OH ext
3 x 15-20

H/S dips
2 x 10 x +180

DB laterals
2 x 10 x 30s


Notes
Not bad! Might have hit that sixth rep if I didn't come off deads yesterday idk. 185 was relatively easy. Should have brought the Micros in and gone for 190!

Last day of cycle so overloaded a bit more pushpress etc.
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That 225 Pushpress is impressive.💪😎👍
 
Man, I remember back in the day working with some pretty heavy weights in the push press. I don't even think I could bench what I could push press back then.
 
gphagan1 said:
That 225 Pushpress is impressive.💪😎👍
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MrKleen73 said:
Man, I remember back in the day working with some pretty heavy weights in the push press. I don't even think I could bench what I could push press back then.
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My PR power clean and push jerk/split jerk was 270. being able to get 225 overhead is a pretty big deal for me cause I can tell my core strength is coming back, when I take a while off from overhead movements I can tell that I lose that core strength, where having 225+ on my shoulders is crushing the diaphragm. can't breathe, strand up straight, or get a good position on it. 531 has been a good choice for me since its training that vertical strength and not just horizontal/pull strength like I've focused on so much the past couple years. I'm starting to feel that fire in my belly as numbers get back up into "chasing PR" zones training wise...

on that note, I'm feeling thick at only 193lbs. generally my recovery and training protocol feels on par with when I'm 205ish lbs. I'm sleeping awesome, energy is pretty high, and honestly TRYING to eat quite a bit. so being down 1-2lbs this morning after a big feed day yesterday is cool.

I've had food on cruise control for the past 6 weeks or so, dropped back into my old maintenance routine of eyeballing my proteins and carbs and greens every sunday for my weekly 8 meal mealprep. (thats tuesday - Friday, with monday being a 20:4 TRF training day.)

I need to sit down with a calculator and hash out my actual protein intake and see where I can boost that some. motivation is increasing again so I want to tweak things a bit, see how much I can increase protein and possibly eek out like a 1/2lb per week loss while training through this next 531 cycle.

I don't have any need to have a hard cut, so intelligent nutrition while training I think could yield some awesome results this summer. I defintely want to be in the 180s before fall hits though so I have some slop room for a winter coat.
 
I also think that even though I don't need hard long fasts for weight loss right now, and I definitely don't want to go into a steep deficit that hurts training, that throwing in the occasional 36hr fast is still smart from a health perspective. so we'll probably see those pop up again soon here and there.
 
Unless your protein is low at the moment, I don't really see a big reason to up it and increase your costs when you are recovering well. Carbs and fattier meats are cheaper if you want more anabolism and calories. Now if you think you aren't getting in around .7gm/lb of weight then maybe go up but without being on gear there really isn't a huge reason to push protein that high. You don't have the additional MPS from the gear to put it to use. A base of 1g/lb is going to ensure you are hitting more than adequate protein a day.

By the way the .7g/lb is not a scientific number you will find anywhere it is my personal low protein threshold.
 
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MrKleen73 said:
Unless your protein is low at the moment, I don't really see a big reason to up it and increase your costs when you are recovering well. Carbs and fattier meats are cheaper if you want more anabolism and calories. Now if you think you aren't getting in around .7gm/lb of weight then maybe go up but without being on gear there really isn't a huge reason to push protein that high. You don't have the additional MPS from the gear to put it to use. A base of 1g/lb is going to ensure you are hitting more than adequate protein a day.

By the way the .7g/lb is not a scientific number you will find anywhere it is my personal low protein threshold.
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I just pulled an average day from this week based on my normal average eating and came out around 185g protein but with a whopping 115g fat and around 100-125g carbs. avg cal intake is likely around 2500 right now which is a phenomenal baseline for me. I don't think the fats need to be that high, but those are 90% animal fats and avocado.

I mean all in all without doing any real planning but sinking into old routines these numbers seem pretty reasonably close to what I would have aimed for anyways. in a perfect world I might have flipped to higher carb and slightly lower fat but this particular portioning has left me feeling pretty satiated too.
 
I don't see anything wrong with those macros and honestly don't see any real reason to address protein unless you just want to for some other reason. If you were focusing on bulking up I would say to lower fats some and skew toward carbs more, but for what you are doing now as long as you enjoy it I am sure you are golden.
 
dapack said:
Workouts looking solid. 225 push press is really good
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thank you!

MrKleen73 said:
I don't see anything wrong with those macros and honestly don't see any real reason to address protein unless you just want to for some other reason. If you were focusing on bulking up I would say to lower fats some and skew toward carbs more, but for what you are doing now as long as you enjoy it I am sure you are golden.
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Maybe what I'll do for now then is generally leave it alone and see if just adding a little extra GPP here and there gives me a tiny deficit weekly. I also haven't been hitting the sauna like I did in the winter, which can provide a similar (albeit tiny) cardio impact. so maybe just trying to get one sauna + swimming day in per week could accomplish that for me.
 
Dustin07 said:
thank you!



Maybe what I'll do for now then is generally leave it alone and see if just adding a little extra GPP here and there gives me a tiny deficit weekly. I also haven't been hitting the sauna like I did in the winter, which can provide a similar (albeit tiny) cardio impact. so maybe just trying to get one sauna + swimming day in per week could accomplish that for me.
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If you are enjoying it currently and getting the results in the gym you want then it is a good base diet for you. All of your little tweaks and what not will take care of the rest. Once you decide to give another push for lean size drop fats, increase carbs, and add 100-200 cals a day so you stay lean while growing.
 
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