Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Two things:

1. Your deadlift is super impressive!

2. That guy sounds like such a d-bag! I'd get really ticked off by that as well.

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vegan for the win!

Thanks, my deadlift is ok, I guess!

Haha, good to know someone understands. I don't like passive aggressive not-exactly-saying-anything-wrong-but-attempting-to-make-you-mad kind of crap. I suppose I have to deal with a few people I don't care for anywhere I go, though.

Sounds like a moron.

More to the point, have you signed up for your first meet yet? Or put any more consideration into it?

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My training log

YUCK! I hate gym drama! Think about him everytime your pulling some heavy weight! Nice job on the deads!

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http://www.myspace.com/MaryStellaStab
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IMO opinion, if they allow him to train clients there, then they get to be responsible for his gym etiquette ..... just saying.

And yes, your deads are VERY impressive!

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I tell people I'm too stupid to know what's impossible. I have ridiculously large dreams, and half the time they come true.

Before you started 5/3/1 did you actually buy the book or did you just do some reading online?

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vegan for the win!

Also, do you still do overhead press day? (sorry if you talked about that somewhere and I missed it and/or forgot about it)

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vegan for the win!

Sorry I haven't been online much lately, guys! To answer a few questions, I have been looking around at meets in my area, but I'm still not sure I understand and have all the stuff I need. For example, for one meet I'm supposed to have some sort of suit, even if I compete raw. Something like a wrestler's getup, I think? So I'm not quite ready. There's a lot of other stuff going on in my life lately so I have been kind of behind on planning to compete this summer. I'm probably not going to make it.

I didn't buy the book on 5/3/1, I just got the basic gist of it online. I think there's an article on T-Nation's website where they interview Jim Wendler and he gives the basic program.

I don't do overhead press day anymore, even though I prefer doing them to bench, because most meets have you compete in bench instead. One trainer told me that a lot of powerlifters just focus on either bench or overhead press for a while because it's so difficult to gain in both lifts simultaneously. Since I have so much trouble with bench, I just wanted to focus on it for a while.

Thanks for all the compliments, I'll just have to keep training so I have an even more impressive deadlift, ha!

Yeah you need a singlet/leotard or whatever you want to call it.

I think a lot of stuff that works for advanced powerlifters doesn't apply to novice lifters like ourselves. They've put in years of doing the main lifts consistently before doing things like substituting even the main lifts for other exercises for bouts of time, and know where their weaknesses are and how to work on them effectively. I think for us when we suck at a lift the best way to solve it is to practice it more.

I doubt you were overloading your shoulders/tri's with 1 top set a week on 5/3/1 on press/bench, and with no OHP all you're doing to strengthen the tri's/shoulders are bodyweight pushups (not to mention they'll only be getting worked once a week now) . More importantly I think the bench volume (for top sets) is probably too low. 3 heavy sets every 4 weeks.

I've just recently added OHP back in, it's a good way to work the medial/posterior deltoids to balance it out from the bench a bit. Most of the powerlifters I train with do bouts of some form of overhead pressing for assistance.

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My training log

You're probably right. It's partially because I was also struggling with finding enough time to devote to four days a week of strength training. My cardio days definitely don't take up nearly that much time, so it has made a big difference to go in three times instead of four. I could work OHP this month and not work bench for a while, I guess. I really don't like bench press anyway! Oh and also, I've asked a lot of people for help with bench and what assistance exercises to do and nobody has been able to help me. Or maybe they don't want to. So I know I'm hardly working my tris, just not sure what to do for them. I seem to aggravate my old back injury by doing those one dumbbell behind the head thingies. That's another thing, I may fool a lot of people, but I'm actually pretty retarded about lifting weights. I don't know what anything is called. So I'm not sure if what I'm describing is a tricep extension or not. Seems like I'm extending my triceps, but I could say that about a lot of other similar lifts. Aaaaanyway. Thanks for the advice. If you have any specific tricep exercises I could add in that would help, I'm all ears.

It's quite simple - do your 5/3/1 Press after Squats on squat day. And do an assistance exercise for tris/shoulders/chest at the end of Bench and Squat day. Options;

Bench assistance to choose from;
DB bench
Close grip bench
Incline bench
Overhead tricep extensions
Dips (careful with your shoulder)
Pushups



To be honest I think a program where your benching heavy 2x a week would be better for building your bench - I think the muscles are underworked rather than overworked. Have you considered going back on Madcow? Still ramps up to a top set like 5/3/1 (press/deads unaffected), it's 3x/week, bench/squat heavy twice so plenty of practice, and the assistance is uncomplicated (i used to get a sore head trying to figure out what to do)

If you were to pick numbers that would be hitting your 5RMs on everything round about week 4/5 you wouldn't burn out quickly, and when you eventually started failing weights you could switch back to 5/3/1 if you wanted.


Whatever you do remember overall - out of the powerlifts bench will always be the slowest to progress because it's the smallest muscles involved. You just have to work them hard and eventually it will come around.

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My training log

Thanks for the encouragement. I wish I had seen this post yesterday since I had my squat day and just did my normal stuff. I never really thought of doing assistance for a different lift than what I was doing for the main lift in one day, for example doing heavy squats and then working lighter bench assistance, but actually I was talking to a powerlifter at my gym last night who trains that way. I guess I could try that starting next week, and for this week just do a separate OHP day. That's what I was intending to do tonight since I miss them so.

Hey, I'm fairly new on here and I'm checking out your training log for the first time. Great progress! I'm also doing 5/3/1, and I see that you are looking for the book. I have the ebook file and could email it to you if you'd like

I'd appreciate that, Mosh! I'm interested in the more advanced one too, although I hear the basic gist of it is switching the sets-of-5 week with the sets-of-3 week so you have a mini-deload during week two, and also you're not supposed to go to failure in the last set during week two.

Squat Day

Parallel Squats:

1x5x45
1x5x130
1x5x150
1x5x170

Oly Squats:

3x6x135

Lunges with 45 lb plate held overhead:

3x12 lunges each leg

OHP Press Day!

SOHP:

1x5x45
1x5x50
1x5x55
1x5x60

Push Press:

1x6x65
2x5x65

Press Starts:

1x3x65
2x5x65

Bodyweight Dips:

3x6

Assisted Chin-Ups with supposedly 65 lbs of counterbalancing weight; doesn't sound right to me, but oh well:

1x8
1x5
1x4

It doesn't take much convincing for me to throw in an overhead press day, guys, so thanks for reminding me of its existence! Honestly, what with being a newlywed and a bunch of stuff I've been worrying about lately, I guess I just sort of forgot about it. I never intended to abandon the overhead press.

It's been a while since I've done front squats and since I've gotten the ok that it's normal to grip with just a few fingers if your wrists are not that flexible, I'm ready to give them another try. Ever squash your fingers between the bar and your own collarbone? Yeaaaah...working on that whole clumsiness thing.