Post 11: Program Madness

         As promised, here is a screen shot from my laptop of my adapted conjugate style program with the higher volume. The one I posted a couple weeks back didn't have nearly enough volume for me and I only had any residual pain from the max effort days, and that's what we strive for isn't it? We want to HURT!! So here is an updated version with an extra exercise for each body part for each day. I felt good about my workouts, except the dynamic lower day, that was a mother for my lower back. Yes I know that some of the exercises contradict what I said in other posts when it comes to rotational core movements, and when it comes to overhead athletes, but my playing career is over so I do what I want. Besides that, I like to get experimental in the weightroom, and also like variance in my progressions. The only concern I have about the extra volume is that there is not much in terms of high speed movements on the dynamic days, and I worry that this can take away from their purpose - increasing rate of force development. 

Adapted Conjugate Week - Added Volume

          The other thing I did this weekend was dig up some info on Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 method. I was intrigued by the buzz in some of the forums I read so I figured I'd try to attack it myself. Below is a screen shot of my formatted excel document based on an article from T-Nation by Jim Wendler himself. I watched a couple videos on YouTube from EliteFTS shot by Dave Tate at one of Wendler's "BIG Seminar." I love the guy's attitude and can't argue much with what he said. Check out the first video here: Part 1 of Wendler's BIG Seminar in 2007. In addition, if you've watched any footage of Jim lifting, you won't put any disagreements in a public forum, he's a monster.

Formatted Spreadsheet for Wendler 5/3/1

           This is only part of the spreadsheet that I put together, there are formatted days (1, 2, 3 & 4) for the other core lifts for the week. Jim bases all his percentages on 90% of the 1RM, and that's why it's highlighted seperately. The only confusion I had was whether or not the 95% on the last sets in week 3 is meant to be 95 of the actual 1RM or based on the 90 used for all the other percentages. The boxes labeled "Assistance Exercise" are two extra movements of your choice to supplement the core lift for the day. I haven't ever maxed out on a shoulder press so I threw the 185 in for visual appeal, and so you can see how the formatting works. Leave a comment and your email address if you want me to forward you either of these formatted sheets so you can customize them for yourself, save time, and actually train with a purpose instead of using the squat rack for barbell curls.

-Alex