A journal.

[BrotherIron]

Front squats - 135x8, 185x6, 225x3, 255x3, 285x7
Leg press - 650 for 5 sets of 5
Deadlift row - 235x5x5

Definitely could have done more front squats, but lost my grip. Shitty wrist mobility for Olympic weightlifting style front squats, so I cross my arms. It works fine for a single up to a triple, but doing anything higher rep I usually lose it. Tried wrapping straps around the bar and holding them, but that doesn't feel right. Tried zombie squats, but I can't get the bar to sit back far enough on my delts without choking the fuck out of myself. If anyone has any suggestions I'm open to hear them.

Try widening your grip when performing Oly style front squats. It'll make it easier to stay upright, hold the bar, and perform the lift. Cross arm is a recipe for craning over with your upper back when the weight gets heavy.

 

[Iwanttestdecatren]

Try widening your grip when performing Oly style front squats. It'll make it easier to stay upright, hold the bar, and perform the lift. Cross arm is a recipe for craning over with your upper back when the weight gets heavy.

Thanks man I'll definitely try that next week.

 

[Iwanttestdecatren]

12" block pull - 135x10, 225x6, 315x5, 405x5, 440x5, 495x3, 555x5
RDL - 315x5, 365x5, 365x5
Seated cable row - 100 for 3 sets of 10, 100x8, 90x8

Little off program today. The gym was PACKED (yay new years) and I didn't want to hog the platform. Some guy asked me how many sets I had left and asked if I was a professional powerlifter, which was nice, so I decided I'd just do some heavy RDLs in place of deficits. Not much accessory work this week to lower the volume a bit when intensity's up. Because of this I don't feel too trashed, but still glad next week's a deload.

 

[Iwanttestdecatren]

Close grip incline bench - 135x10, 185x6, 205x5, 230x5, 255x7
Close grip bench press - 225 for 5 sets of 5
Superset with band face pulls with red band 5x20
Incline dumbbell fly - 25x3x15

 

[Iwanttestdecatren]

Front squat - 135x8, 185x5, 235x5, 265x3, 300x6
Leg press - 670 for 5 sets of 5
Deadlift row - 240x5x5

Tried different grip widths in the rack position for an Olympic style front squat. Super wide I was actually able to get in there, but hurt my wrists so god damn bad. Gonna look into ways to work on wrist mobility. I think when I switch this movement of out I'll switch to zercher squats or high bar back squats. When it warms up a bit and I can train in my shed I'll get a safety squat bar too to work with. The crossed arm style works for now, I'll just have to really work on the wrist mobility for the next time I have this in my program.

The plan for now is to get all that I can out of this 531 esque program and in the meantime learn all that I can about Juggernaut. I'm reading Chad Wesley Smith's and Mike Israetel's The Scientific Principles of Strength Training to really get a good understanding of periodization. it's really good so far and explains a lot. One take away I've gotten so far is that I'm pulling out a lot of the conditioning work that I was doing to just focus on general strength. I'll throw in more conditioning work leading up to a competition. I feel that I have an active enough job right now to get enough cardiovascular work for general health. Will continue to read and implement more of what I learn as I go, but for right now the goal is just to get plain flat out stronger in the deadlift, press, and various strongman movements like stones and loading.

 

[Iwanttestdecatren]

Log clean and press - 160x5, 185x3, 205x1, 205x1, 205x1, 205x1, 205x1, 205x1
Stone to shoulder - 180x3, 180x3, 210x1, 235x1
Stone to 42" platform - 255x3

Everything definitely felt heavy today. The clean portion of the log felt super difficult. Failed the 210 stone the first time, but worked back up to 235 once I got the hang of it. Tried to shoulder the 255 because I got cocky. Almost went but just decided to do one set with it to the platform just to get the extra work in. Thank god next week's a deload.