Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

It's obviously something he put together after numerous people asking about using it along with a bb routine.

I am uncertain if it is  pre second edition but programmed assistance is essentially a mass building program; It has you hitting the whole upper half twice a week as well as lower. All be it lighter work,  it's still almost a bb template. The two loadable lifts per session  keeps strength the main element.

Bodybuilders for some reason need days to be specified by body area like back day & the like. We on the other hand go by the main lift.

Yeah, the BB-specified one is a lot like PHAT but cuts out the purely aesthetic lifts - like having two different kinds of calf raises, for example - and actually gives military presses their own day, something I started doing towards the end of PHAT anyway since it's not even a part of the program.

I did my first run-through of 5/3/1 today for squats with BBB - gonna do a write-up about it (along with my PHAT re-cap, finally) but, damn, those 10x5 set of squats even with lowered weight had me smoked for a bit.

Edited to add: Tonight's pizza night.

It's defiantly wise to start with the lower percentage. Doing squats then a leg press is one thing but another 50 reps on squats is a killer. It's up to you though how you do the 5x10 sets, same weight like on the sheet with the percentage or a high to low sets as he lays out, whatever really.

I had pizza to, 5 hr train journey I was starving  but I ate to much. Unlimited salad bar :/

Always underestimate with your percentages, MUCH better than overestimating.

Hope you enjoyed your pizza, mmmmmmm.

Definitely used the Excel percentages - so it was only 80 and it was the last set that had me sweating, nothing serious just a not-so-surprising surprise.

Today's eats have been seriously epic. Expect a "real" update tonight. Just been really busy living life and doing things not involving my laptop for once.

03.10.12
5/3/1 Pre-Cycle, Week Zero, Day Six

NUTRITION
15/125/63 (+4 oz. whiskey)

VIGNETTE
The nutrition numbers are not incorrect. I did, in fact, give myself a pre-emptive 800 calorie buffer for the upcoming week. Why, you might ask? Well, my girlfriend’s little sister will be in town and, as she’s never seen the mean streets of Cleveland, we’ve planned to take her to all of our favorite haunts.
Up first on the chopping block is my current place of employment, Melt Bar and Grilled. And even though I’m not currently concerned with losing fat, I’m not trying to gain any either and, when it comes to Melt, the food tends to pack quite the caloric punch. Taking a page out of Dan’s book and creating a pre-emptive deficit when it was convenient for me, however, will allow me to eat freely without affecting my gains, body composition, or sanity. Some might call this “unnecessary” or “anal” but it’s the easiest way to “beat” the system without missing out on life or adversely affecting your gains.

SESSION
Off

03.11.12
5/3/1 Pre-Cycle, Week Zero, Day Seven

NUTRITION
56/135/182

VIGNETTE
The caloric deficit here wasn’t intentional, especially since I went out for a ride. However, on my way home, my girlfriend called me and asked if I'd ride with her to pick up her sister - her car had broke down about half an hour away from our place on the "wrong side" of town. I couldn't say no and, by the time we made it home, I fell asleep pretty unceremoniously before getting my last shake in but I don't think this is going to be an issue. Like I said, the added calories from "sight-seeing Cleveland" (i.e. bar and food seeing) will undoubtedly make up for this.

SESSION
Cycling: 50 minutes, 7.5 miles

03.12.12
5/3/1: Cycle One, Day One
Boring But Big Template Test

NUTRITION
53/151/203

PROLOGUE
My internal clock has been all over the place as of late, most likely because I actually like getting up to go to work these days and my anticipation to actually start 5/3/1, instead of just talking about it, reached its peak with the end of 1RM testing last week. Prime example: I woke up before 9:00 a.m., jumped into my sweatpants, peanut butter’d some toast, cleaned my kitchen, and, it should be noted, and I gave myself a pat on the pack for, not even thinking about starting a pot of coffee or waking up my girlfriend or her sister while doing these things. It didn’t occur to me until I actually walked into the gym that, just maybe, I wouldn’t like 5/3/1: for all intents and purposes the program is vastly different than PHAT – the volume, weight, and variety are all significantly lower than what I’d grown accustomed to since December. What if I’d hyped it up for nothing?

SESSION
Warm-up: 4:00 minutes, 4% incline, 4.0 pace, stretching, light leg extensions.

Squats
65x5
95x5
105x5
120x5
140x10 (PR)

BBB squats
85x10x4
75x10
I wrote down the wrong percentage for these; they should have been 80. Regardless, the first four sets weren’t anything but a peanut until the very last rep, where things got a little dicey in terms of depth. Since I’m sticking with Wendler’s philosophy of leaving reps in the tank, I decided to drop the weight on the last set. As I don’t know if I’ll be running BBB as opposed to the other templates I’m trying out, I don’t need to overthink how I’d “correct” going over my percentage just yet.

Leg curls
70x10x2
60x10x2
60x11
Despite the light weight, these felt a lot heavier. My legs felt smoked by the very last (extra) rep – thanks, Pantera.

Hanging bent knee leg raises
10x5
These were done between the BBB squats and without a hitch. Strict, straight-legs are up next on my way to “above parallel” raises.

Cool-down: Lots of hip flexor stretches.

EPILOGUE
Disregarded prologue; acquired affirmation: if this session was any indication, I’m going to love 5/3/1. I set a rep PR but was still humbled by the effort of higher reps with lower weight; I focused on my flexibility and core more because I lifted less; my legs ached but I didn’t feel over worked. In short, I came out of the gym knowing I had accomplished some things but will accomplish even more as a result of this session. I trained for a purpose, to get stronger, not just for that day, but for the coming days as well – an excellent motivator and mood booster, though, with my current mindset, I didn’t need either but they were both welcomed.
Since I hit the gym so early on my day off, I was able to enjoy the afternoon with the old lady and her sister, playing tag-along as they went thrifting (where I picked up the pretty ridiculous, yet awesome, tank top pictured above) and then mall crawling (yawn) until they wanted to do my kind of shopping – the grocery kind. The results? I restocked my peanut butter shelf, made myself four mini-zuhs for diner, and, because the girlfriend and sister wanted cupcakes but we are cupcake pan-less, I made them a not-so-red velvet cake. I was tempted to write “Spring Caaaaaaaake” on it since they’re both on spring break but decided against it last minute. Regrets, I only have that one. And that they've already destroyed most of the cake and I haven't had any ...

03.13.12
5/3/1: Cycle One, Day Two
Boring But Big Template Test

NUTRITION
90/110/170*

PROLOGUE
After finishing my training on Sunday, Tuesday was supposed to be the day I was thrown to the, albeit a small number of, wolves. That is, week-days tend to be much slower than weekends but the p.m. shift, which I was originally scheduled for, picks up quite a bit – a nice balance for my first “solo” shift. However, one of my co-workers needed someone to switch her opener for a closer and, since I have open availability, I was more than welcome to oblige – I figured either way I’d end up pretty busy and finally get the chance to “prove” myself as being worthy of my job …
“Slow” is not a strong enough word for how business was yesterday. To give you a better idea of the day’s pace I will just say that an entire hour went by without anyone walking in the front door. At past jobs, I would have found this mind-numbing and tedious –superiors would start micro-managing to keep everyone from relaxing, hours would have been cut to “save” labor and people expecting a certain amount of pay would end up shortchanged to keep profitability high, and, instead of taking the time to get to know one-another, co-workers would be busy watching to clock and bemoaning the contradictory feelings of “I don’t want to be here/I want to make money.” None of this happened yesterday and, surprisingly, the only time my shift started to drag was the last hour because I can literally see my gym when I work the front station.
As it crept closer to 5:00 p.m., I saw the regular curlbros pouring into the parking lot and knew, undoubtedly, I would have to wait a bit before I could knock out my first 5/3/1 bench session. I wasn’t too miffed about this initially since the beauty of the program is that the first few weeks/cycles aren’t as time consuming as later ones but then I remembered: we were going to eat at my work after my session. I’ve overcome my annoyance with CurlBros standing in the way of me and the rack – my patience with lifting has grown exponentially the last few weeks; what I will never overcome is a bro standing between me and my food.

SESSION
Warm-up: Stretching, walking, dips.

Barbell bench press
45x6x2
50x5
60x5
65x11 (+1)
Definitely wanted more from this but a one rep improvement is improvement. Progress was made without compromising form or later progress, so I have no real complaints.

BBB bench press
45x10x5
Focused on spreading the bar, “rowing” the bar with tucked elbows on the descent and pausing at the bottom.

One arm dumbbell rows
20x20
20x15x2

Assisted pull-ups
10x5
Mixed grips throughout sets, first three sets with 90lbs, fourth with 100lbs, and the last with 110lbs.

Cool-down: 10 minutes walking, 4.0 pace, 0.65 miles.

AFTERWARD
One of the regulars in my gym asked me, somewhat accusatorily, if there was a reason I was benching “just” the bar for “so many” sets. I was taken aback for two reasons. First, I didn’t know anybody paid that much attention to what I was lifting and, two, I didn’t realize what I lifted mattered to anyone else expect for myself. I casually explained the 5/3/1 and Boring But Big principles to them as succinctly as possible and their response was not surprising: “Wouldn’t you get stronger by maxing out more often?”
Sadly, I was already running behind the time I had told the old lady I’d be ready for dinner so I suggested my interrogator look into the 5/3/1 handbook. I also mentioned that, if they were going to be around on Thursday or Friday, I could give them a better explanation. I definitely wish I’d had more time to talk to them about the benefits of not going to failure every work out but I also didn’t want to keep my girls waiting just to debate bro-science when it could be done, and undoubtedly will be done, at a later time.
The only other noteworthy thing is the sandwich pictured above, i.e. the reason behind my weekend calorie buffer and why my (estimated) macros are so, well, insane (and probably also inaccurate).
What you see up top is half of a Vegan Reuben Melt served with a small side of fries. I actually ate twice the amount pictured plus a heaping pile of sweet slaw but didn’t bother snapping a photo until I decided to eat my “left-overs” late last night. Thought about finishing it off with a bowl of Reese’s Puffs but, with all of the bread, I barely got my nightly shake down. I’ll live to cereal another (read: every other) day.

what are BBB squats? Awesome job on the regular squats. And this thread is extremely pornographic.

With 5/3/1 I think it's important that you tailor/tweak it to your own specific needs and requirements. Different people handle the workload in different ways and progress through their programme at different speeds; the main problem I come up against is that my body isn't always ready to produce the black and white numbers on the page that I'm expected to hit on a certain day. That's why aiming for pre-determined percentages doesn't always work for me.

I understand the benefits of having your lifts all mapped out in advance, and to a certain extent that's what I do. But I never 100% train by inflexible percentages. I guess I'm a bit old school in the sense that I lift based on how I feel on the day. Sometimes I feel unstoppable and I could train for hours, some days I feel like shit and other days I'm weak even though I feel absolutely fine. I would hate to work to the numbers from a computer screen and find myself missing lifts and having shitty 'important weeks' as that would probably start to affect my confidence in my lifting.

Confidence in your own ability is everything in powerlifting, your mind almost needs to be stronger than your body

I'm a huge supporter of adaptive training - which is why I'm okay with pyramiding down on the BBB sets/assistance work. I like having a "plan" but if I'm really feeling it one day, why should I stick to my numbers and vice versa.



"Boring But Big" - it's the assistance template I'm trying this week with 5/3/1; essentially, it's just doing 10x5 squats with a low weight after doing your "main" work.

Key here being it didn't work for you mate:

I personally love having my main lift mapped & also my assistance. If I haven't even got 5, 3 or 1 reps in me on those respective days then something would be seriously wrong. I also don't believe in tweaking the program, in all respects who are we to alter his work? He was a high end competing powelifter who lifted well above his weight, so my knowledge & know how in reality is nothing compared to Wendlers. Why bother to follow a program to then alter it? Just don't do it

W

Written by my powerlifting/strongman friend whom I train with

http://community.myprotein.com/content/ ... ewald-943/

Blogs up btw

Haven't dropped in in a while, nice to see you're doing 5/3/1! Boring but big is a great template. Lots of volume, few exercises, no bullshit.

I got something similar like that on Monday with DB Bench. I do 3x10 but progress it only one set at a time. For example if I was using 25s for 3x10, next week I'd do 25s for 2x10 and 27.5s for 1x10, next week 25s for 1x10 and 27.5s for 2x10, and then finally 27.5s for 3x10. Basically I only move the weight up for 1 set per week. Some guy saw me do my last set with 27.5kg and was like "that's too easy for you big man, you would manage 35's no problem".

I simply explained to him that I look at strength training more like a marathon, and that I'll be hitting up the 35's in the months ahead. I've seen the way he trains and he maxes out every set and spends his full session frustrated that he's not hitting bigger numbers. That's not for me. I use my training to build strength, not to test it.