Pre-juice 5x5: Darkness on the Horizon

[JL_204]

wow, its seem things are going nicely from friday.

315 lbs front squat....nice.

 

[Madcow2]

FYI - be very careful pushing max singles and max lifts early in a cycle. This is a recipe for getting hurt. Stick to a plan, add volume, add frequency if need be, but random max attempts have hurt a number of people.

 

[Extra_Strong]

cheering you on bro. keep up the good work

 

[blut wump]

I'm stunned. I remember posting a few months back about juice offering the possibility of cramming a year's progress or more into a month or two. To see it happening, not quite in front of my eyes, is jaw-dropping.

Like madcow mentions, I've seen a few stories around of muscle tears coming from exploring your strength before everything catches up, technique with new strength included. It even happened to me natty on my Korte as I'd had a splurge in strength over the volume phase.

Fantastic workout. I can see you're going to be enjoying these next few weeks.

 

[Guinness5.0]

FYI - be very careful pushing max singles and max lifts early in a cycle. This is a recipe for getting hurt. Stick to a plan, add volume, add frequency if need be, but random max attempts have hurt a number of people.

Yeah I got a little caught up in the moment. I think I coulda done even more, but I def. think it would've been better to spread it out a bit.

And thanks for all the kind words guys. I'll try to be smart and keep it steady from now on I imagine I'll add a front squat/push-press/power clean/pullup day, sub out the M/F cleans for rows, and load til a deload is needed. Just an observation - I think I was into overreaching on Friday but it seemed to dissipate almost overnight. Perhaps now that the gear's hit I'll be able to load real hard and come back faster? We'll see....

 

[BiggT]

If you're feeling good, and you want to do more work, you can always make Tuesday a regular training day. You can do snatches, snatch pulls, and rowing. Depending on how long you push and how much work your body can tolerate, you can add OHP on Tues and incline Wed and keep M and F as bench days......again, it takes a lot of conditioning, but it can be built to.

I agree though, up the workload by manipulating frequency/volume rather than hitting a max.....I want to see you at this for a long time.

 

[Guinness5.0]

OK, whattaya think of loading/volume phase like this:

Monday
Squat 5x5
Bench 1x5
Row 1x5
few sets of arm stuff in the 8 rep range

Tues
Power clean 8 triples, same weight, short rest
Front squat 6x4 (6 sets of four reps, same weight)
Push press 6x4 (but working to a top set rather than constant weight)
pullups 5x5
grip/abs

Thurs
Deads 5x5
Bench 5x5
Rows 5x5
arms like mon

Sat
Squat 1x5
OHP 5x5
Pullup 5x5
Grip/abs

Then deloading w/ the 5x5/1x5's going to 3x3/1x3's, the 4's going to doubles, and the triples (cleans only) going to doubles and singles, and building to an intensity phase in which I would come off the gear while not too deep into fatigue. I guess a lot will depend on how many weeks I can load, and how it all syncs up with my 'stash' .

 

[BiggT]

That's a good plan, with the cleaning, you might want to make the deads RDls, GMs, or clean/snatch pulls, but thats just a suggestion....I tend to find that when pushing deads and cleans, the cleans suffer.

I don't want to clutter up the journal, but eventually you can build to a loading phase that looks something like this.....

Monday
Power Clean
Clean Pull
Back Squat
Flat Bench
Incline D-Bells

Tuesday
Overhead squat or snatch balance as a warm-up
Power Snatch
Snatch Pull
Overhead Press
Chins
Calves

Wednesday
Front Squat
Good Morning
Incline Press
Dips
Some bis for good measure, but not so much to fuck up your pulls

Friday
Power Clean
Power Jerk
(or you can just c and j and knock them both out at once)
Back Squat
Jump Shrug
Flat Bench
Close-Grip Bench (as back off sets to the bench)

*some type of core exercises every workout, like decline situps/back hypers supersets or something like that for a warm-up to every workout works well.

Just giving you some ideas, a lot of pulling, but the workload is spread out, and not as taxing on the body in one shot as a Dl session, you can do more work more often and load up nicely.....maybe then work the deads hard on a reduced volume/frequency plan.

 

[Guinness5.0]

I don't want to clutter up the journal...

No worries about that, bud. I really like that program you outlined (I miss inc. DB press) - I'll keep that in mind for my future training cycles. I need to get some practice/teaching on the olympics though, before I do like my squat and do 'em wrong for years

So you think the deads are gonna be a bit much, huh? Do you think I'd be better off ramping 'em, to 3x5 or 1x5? Something else? I really wanna train the dead specifically for this cycle, and I'm not gonna be at this gym much longer. I have a chance to work with someone who will be able to help me get my form perfect and I want to take advantage.

 

[BiggT]

The thing I find with deadlift training, is that once somebody is in the intermediate stage, it becomes a very individual thing, and the workload can add up quick and effect your whole program. With most people, once they build a respectable deadlift, training it weekly for 5 sets of 5 really adds tonnage quick to the workload and can push you too far towards over reaching too quick.

I don't know what you deadlift is, but for a guy your size, I would consider 500 to be about an intermediate level. If your DL is 500 or better, you may be better off with the 1x5 like you said, or even ramping up like this....5-5-5-3-3-3....with all sets increasing in weight to a 1x3. 25 total reps on a DL with over 450 or so for a few weeks in a row can really push you into overeaching before you plan.