Strength Training Over the Month of May

I keep thinking I’ll be able to write more often and then I look up and two weeks have gone by (or almost a month in this case), but oh well. It’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to……or something like that. May has been a pretty solid month of training and I’m really loving this 5-3-1 program with Boring But Big as my main assistance work. I’m feeling stronger than ever and even my gimpy shoulder is finally feeling strong and stable again. I’ve also removed the regularly scheduled deload weeks and instead will just listen to my body and take the easy week when I feel wrecked.

Some notable PR’s over the month of May:

Cinco de Mayo = Deadlift Day

Whew, today was a Monday and what better way to start off the week than with a heavy leg day. It started with my 3X3 sets on deadlift (285, 325 and 360), but for some reason on the first set I did five reps and decided to just keep pushing through with five reps on all three sets. What can I say? I’m not terribly an intelligent programmer. I felt strong today after two days off and just decided to push through. The final set at 360 was pretty brutal but luckily I was in my garage instead of the gym so I was able to let out some blood curdling screams with the last couple reps. The deadlifts, although certainly heavy, felt strong and 360 for five is certainly a PR. I was tempted to try and bang out a couple more sets of doubles at a heavier weight just because it felt like a good day, but I was up against it time wise. I felt like getting in the accessory work was probably more important that t couple more sets at heavier weights. Who knows though, I left the weight on the bar so I might knock out a couple more sets after work. I also want to try some deficit DL’s or maybe some block pulls, but we’ll see....

After deadlift, I jumped straight into my second week of the Boring but Big routine with 5X10 back squats at 195. I could already tell this was a bit easier than last week. It had been a long time since I remember doing any back squats for 10 reps so it felt much more difficult last Monday, which is even more encouraging because last Monday the squats were done well after I finished my deadlifts. This week I jumped right into the squats though with minimal rest. Again, I might throw in some front squats when I get home. I wanted to do more during lunch but time wasn’t on my side.