Madcow5x5 to Wendler's 5/3/1

27 Mar 2012

So after some thinking, I decided to cut my Madcow routine short. The reason being that I feel like I've hit a plateau on weight progression on my lifts. The final stats I've achieved from this Madcow cycle is pretty close to what I finished with on my 6 month SL5x5 cycle.

Squat: 275 -> 275 Bench: 165 -> 155 Press: 90 -> 95 Deadlift: 290 -> 285

As far as gains of raw poundage, well...it looks as if I didn't improve much at all. But, on the flipside, Madcow is also considerably more volume compared to when I was doing SL1x5 near the end of my SL cycle. I definitely think diet also played a significant part in me getting stuck at these poundages for a long time. My body weight has been steady at 180 lbs for the last 3 months. I would also say my body fat has been at roughly around the same 11-13%- maybe a bit higher. I may start incorporating more milk into my diet again to get my caloric intake up to par with training intensity.

So after some deliberation with myself, I decided that the best course of action to get me the biggest gains possible is to hop on Wendler's 5/3/1 periodized strength routine. This program is designed to be executed in "cycles". Each cycle is comprised of 4 weeks. The set/rep scheme for each week is as follows

Week 1: 5 x 65%, 5 x 75%, 5 x 85% Week 2: 3 x 70%, 3 x 80%, 3 x 90% Week 3: 5 x 75%, 3 x 85%, 1 x 95% Week 4: Deload - 5 x 40%, 5 x 50%, 5 x 60%

Each week is broken down into 4 days of work outs.

Monday: Press Tuesday: Squat Thursday: Bench Press Friday: Deadlift

After the 5/3/1 core lifts are performed, a variety of light assistance exercises can then be performed to supplement. I made a mistake today of going a bit too overkill on the assistance. This week will be my time to familiarize myself with assistance exercise intensity and to make sure I record poundages on these exercises to ensure that I don't go overboard for the following weeks. What I like about this program is in my ability to change these assistance exercises to allow me to accommodate weak points in my core lifts.

Assistance exercises:

Monday: Superset (5x10 Bench @ 50% TM + 5x10 Chin-ups/Lat Pulldowns), 3x10 Curls, 3x10 Tricep Pulldowns Tuesday: 5x10 Squat @ 50% TM, Ab Wheel 5x10-20 Thursday: Superset (5x10 Press @ 50% TM + 5x10 DB Rows), 3x10 Curls, 3x10 Tricep Pulldowns Friday: 5x10 Deadlift @ 50% TM, 5x10 Hanging Leg Raise