Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Thanks for dropping by my log...always great to speak to a fellow 5/3/1'er! I'll have to keep track of your log:)

Can't say enough good things about the program, so stay the course! What version of the three day split are you following?

Hey Veggie, thanks for stopping by. I've currently programmed bodyweight as my assistance exercises with only one exception, dumbbell rows on bench day. Figured I'd give the bodyweight stuff a go as I'd really like to up my endurance on them a bit.

My current 3/week, 5-week cycle program looks like this:
Monday:
Military 5/3/1
Dips
Chins
Wednesday:
Deadlift 5/3/1
Glute ham raise
Hanging leg raise
Friday:
Bench 5/3/1
DB rows
Chins
Monday:
Squat 5/3/1
Lunges
Ab roller

Today

Jump rope: 5 sets alternated with sets of x2 pullups

Bench press:
5x130 lbs
5x150
8x170

DB rows: 10x20 lbs, 3x10x25, 30x30
Hanging shrugs: 5x5

I was hoping to get more reps on the bench, but just didn't have it in me. Rows seemed harder than I though they should be, but I've never this much volume in rows before. Totally sapped my upper body strength for the pullups I wanted to do at the end, so finished with hanging shrugs at about 5" ROM to at least get some more work in. Doing the pullups during warmup probably wasn't a good idea, although I doubt I would have been able to do more than 2 reps per set after the rows anyway. I won't be lifting on Wednesday as I'm off work for the holiday, so I have the whole week to recover from today.

I'm looking forward to getting the volume up on the bodyweight exercises. It would be nice to be able to do sets of 10 pullups. This weekend I was horsing around at a friend's house and decided to see if I could do a flag pole. Almost, but not quite. I could hold my legs out for a small fraction of a second before they dropped to the floor again. That's something else that would be cool to be able to do.

The body weight stuff's great for feeling fit. If I do BW dips I do no less than 100 reps.
Regarding the pull ups, I found doing sets of five between warm up/working sets worked well. Until I got the 50 . Before 5/3/1 I would do mainly hammer grips, once I could get 4x10 I started adding weight.

What I found was once I got onto 5/3/1 & tried Wendlers protocol of pull/chins between OHP/bench sets I could easily doing the 5x10 twice a week with my body weight. Just this last week I added in weight again but my pull up volume is double what it was 6 months ago (body weight)

Borit but big is fantastic, give it ago:)

Thanks VS, I'm enjoying the BW stuff so far. I'm looking forward to getting a bit more work on pullups in to get my reps up. That's the one BW exercise I really feel lacking on. As far as BBB, I'm not really interested in hypertrophy so that's probably not an option I'm going to take.

5/3/1, Cycle 1 Set 1

5 sets Jump rope alternated with 5 sets x3 pullups

Squats:
5x175
5x215
10x245

pullups 5x3

Didn't feel like taking the time to do the programmed assistance today, so just did more pullups. It was a late workout and I just wanted to finish so that I could go home. I alternated pullup sets in between the squats as well to cut down on time spent. I should have gone ATG on the final set of squats, but just wasn't feeling it so went parallel and left it at that.

5/3/1 Cycle 1 Set 2

Monday's work:

5 sets jump rope

Military Press
5x45 lbs
5x75
3x95
3x110
8x125

Dips 4x8xBW
Pullups 5x4xBW

Today's work:

5 sets jump rope

Deadlift
5x175 lbs
5x210
3x255
3x290
8x325

Glute ham raise 5x5
Hanging leg raise 5x5

My gym doesn't have a GHR bench, so I've been doing them on a back raise bench. I've never done them before let alone in a proper GHR bench so I don't know if I'm missing anything. In anycase I am definitely feeling the work in the hammies so it must be doing something. It feels a bit awkward on my knees though, but no pain or discomfort.

Now I just need to figure in a way to get some conditioning back into my workouts...

5/3/1 Cycle 1 Set 2

Today's work:

5 sets Jump rope

Bench:
5x45 lbs
5x95
3x140
3x160
8x180

DB Row: 10x30 lbs, 10x40, 23x60
Pullups: 3,3,3,2,3,3,3 alternating grips each set

Just like last week, pullups were shit after DB rows. Really happy about hitting 8 reps on the 90% bench weight. Last week I could only hit 8 reps at the 85% bench weight and was a bit disappointed by it. So far I've been able to hit 8 reps on all my 90% weights and I'm predicting squats won't be any less. Went a bit heavier on the rows this time, as last week was pretty easy. I'm pretty worn out now though

5/3/1 Cycle 1 Set 2

Today's work:

5x100 Jump rope

Squats:
5x135 lbs
5x175
3x205
3x235
6x265

Lunges 5x10 each leg
Ab wheel 5x5 on knees

Strength was a bit lacking on squats, ended it with only 6 reps. Should have been able to do 8, although I did go a little deeper than parallel. Someone in the gym commented that I need to keep my chest up so that I don't bring my torso forward as much. I didn't realize I was doing it, so I'll have to pay attention in the future. Since my workouts were sporadic the past 2.5 months or so, I haven't been squatting as much and I'm probably getting sloppy with my form. Also, I was up to 330 lbs for reps 2.5 months ago. I couldn't have lost that much strength that quickly?

I alternated the assistance work sets to cut down on time. I've never done either exercise before. The ab wheel was tough, even from my knees. Damn I thought my core was tougher than that! I need to find a pad or mat to put under my knees - doing it on cement sucked! The lunges wore me out and kept my HR a bit elevated, which was nice. My abs and legs are sore now!

Good work in here mate, will be stopping in from time to time. Good to see another person using the 5/3/1 system, I can't praise it highly enough. Simple and pefectly effective.

Thanks Mini - So far I'm enjoying it, but I think I'll have to get a few cycles in at least before I can pass judgement on it myself. Since I'm doing 3/week, that should take me just under 4 months. I got really good results from Stronglifts 5x5, but that was as a beginning lifter. I had also thought about switching to Stronglifts Intermediate or Madcow, but since there were a number of other strength lifters here working through 5/3/1 and praising it I figured I'd give it a go. Mostly because I liked the assistance work aspect of it.

5/3/1 Cycle 1 Set 3

Today's work:

5 sets of x100 Jump rope alternated with 5 sets of x2 pullups

Military:
5x45 lbs
5x85
5x105
3x115
5x130

Pullups: 6x4, alternating grips
Dips: 5x8

Felt great today. I fully expected to hit 5 reps at 130, so I'm happy I didn't disappoint myself. Pullups were easy. I originally planned for 5x4, but threw another set in at the end. Next Military day is a deload, so I'll be deloading on the pullups as well. Next cycle I should be able to hit 5x5, maybe add a set.

I'm sure it will work well, once you get to know it and how you respond to it you can make little tweaks here and there to suit you better.

How's your week been, much planned for the weekend?

We'll see how it goes, Mini. This weekend I'm looking forward to hanging out with my 1 year old son as my wife goes out to party Saturday and Sunday for her friend's bachelorette party.


5/3/1 Cycle 1 Set 3

Today's lifts:

5X100 Jump rope alternated with 5x2 Pullups

Deadlift:
5x185 lbs
5x235
5x275
3x315
6x345

Glute Ham Raise: 4x6, 1x7
Leg Raise: 5x8

Happy about my lifts today. Was only going for 5 on the final DL set but felt good so went for another. I might have even been able to squeeze out 7, but called it good at 6. I could also have done 5 sets of 7 on GHR - next time. Leg raise was hard at 8 reps.

On a side note, I smiled to myself when I overheard a couple guys talking while weighing themselves. One of the guys looked to be close to my height, perhaps an inch or two shorter, but looked more muscular than me and leaner (larger muscles, not just ripped). He stepped on the scale and told his friend he was 175 lbs and wanted to get up to 190. I weigh 195 - I guess I just have denser muscles.

Haha, that last sentence made me laugh.

Great DL'ing, impressive weight for good reps there. Keep up the good work MF.

5/3/1 Cycle 1 Set 3

Today's work:

5x100 Jump rope alternated with 5x2 Pullups

Bench Press
5x45 lbs
5x105
5x150
3x170
5x190

Dumbbell rows: 2x10@40 lbs, 25@65 lbs
Pullups: 5x3, alternating grips

I actually hit 6 reps on the final bench set, but my ass came up a bit on the last one so I'm not counting it. I've also decided that I'm going to skip the deload week as I'm coming back from a deload to begin with. I'll see how I feel next cycle if I'm going to skip that one too. I want to keep the 95% sets at 5 reps as that is what I was doing with Stronglifts. I think that should be a possibility as I'm only increasing the target every month instead of every week. I guess I'll find out over time. So far I like the assistance work. I feel like I'm getting a more well rounded workout.

Yeah, I've done that before with regards to skipping the deload week mate. I go heavy, deload and then into a light week so depending on how I feel I might miss either the deload or light cycle.

Good benching btw, nice work.

Thanks, although for some reason I feel my bench should be higher compared to my other lifts, but it is what it is and will advance in time along with the rest of them.

So after that Deadlift session last Friday and the whole "muscles are denser?" thought I started to think a bit more about my body composition. Yesterday I got a bug up my ass about it and tried to do a skinfold fat test on myself, which is pretty much impossible to do, so I just used my best estimate based on my pinches. From my estimates I think I'm in the 18-22% range, which is higher than I expected. I'm sitting around 192 lbs for weight right now, but am a little bit weaker than I was previously when I weighed 196.

Today's lifts:

5x100 Jump rope alternated with 5x2 pullups

Squat:
5x135 lbs
5x175
5x215
3x245
5x275

Ab wheel: 6x6
Lunges: 6x10 each leg

My legs were sore for 5 days after my last squat/lunge workout, hopefully they won't be sore as long this time. Although I could have stretched and foam rolled a bit more often which would have helped. Was hoping for 6 reps on the final weight but settled for 5. I'm a bit disappointed because less than 3 months ago I was hitting 325 for 5 reps on squats. Nothing bad happened other than 6 weeks of inactivity. I can't believe that I lost that much strength in such a short time. Maybe I should have stuck with the Stronglifts schedule until I got back up to my previous level before switching to 5/3/1. Well, I'm going to stick with the new program for a little while anyway. I might just continue to skip deload weeks. If I do that I'll be back up to a 5x325 squat in 5 months, whereas with Stronglifts it probably would have taken only 2.