A Homecoming in August

I'm back!

In the time that I haven't blogged, I've had some ups and downs, death in the family, new job (although at the same workplace...more money, but also more stress), and some sickness too. Just the sort of things that pop up in life. However, I am recommitted to training again, and for the past several weeks, I've gone straight back to my old favourite training method:

Jim Wendler's 5/3/1

I tried cutting loose for a while from it, experimenting with two days per week using a template of an upper body push movement, lower body movement, one pulling movement and a grip training movement. It didn't provide as good of a workout as 5/3/1, was quite boring actually, and the challenge of hitting hard reps at a certain weight percentage was no longer there. The issues are behind me and after finishing up my training on my new job at work (six months of job training), I am now back in the groove and have been churning out the reps again in the gym. I've lost a lot of my former strength, but in the few weeks that I've been back on the program, I am noticing my numbers going up, my physical condition and endurance has improved, and I'm putting on some muscle which had previously dissipated.

Today, I am in the 5/3/1 week of the program, and I trained the dead lift.

My calculated working weight based on an initial 1 RM x 90% = 405 lbs.

After the warm up sets, it was 75%, 85%, and 95% respectively:

305 x 5
345 x 3
385 x 10

The air quality in the gym was bad and the weights were feeling heavy today on the warm ups (it's a shitty day out there, wet and humid) and I'm still sore from Friday's squat session. I added one single at 405 and walked the bar onto the pins on the outside of the rack. Stripping it down, I worked on barbell shrugs:

225 x 2 x 25
245 x 10
255 x 10
265 x 10
275 x 10

I was planning on throwing some chin ups in, but I cooled down while coaching my son. It's his second day at the gym working out. 16 years old, tall and lanky, he's ready to put on some muscle and strength, and why not do so with the old man?

So, I'm blogging again, journalling my workouts, using this blog as an aid to myself and to others who may be interested in sharing their results on this program. In my training logbook, which I always carry to the gym, I have a dated committment to this program, whereby I plan on using it exclusively for one year, sticking to the full template and especially the conditioning.

Stay tuned.

PS -- Added three hill sprints tonight an hour after supper. Time to put the hills back into action for conditioning.