The Student Room Group

JT becomes bearmode

Stats (1/1/2013):
Age: 20
Height: 6ft
Weight: ~98kg

Starting PRs:
Press: 68.5*5
Bench Press: 112.5*5
Oly Squat: 132.5*5
Deadlift: 180*6
Pendlay row: 107.5*8

Goal: First and foremost strength, secondly muscle mass; being awesome in general.

Routine: Tweaked madcow with 5/3/1 for the press and deadlift.

The fact that I'm making this on the 1st of jan is purely coincidental :tongue:

Update (1/04/2013):

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Update (02/07/2013):

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Update (01/10/2013):

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Update: 10/01/2014

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Update: 26/05/2014

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Update: 09/09/2014

Squat: 180*3 ---> 192.5*3 (@8.5) with belt

Best e1rm currently 222

Deadlift: 240*2 ----> 260 with belt

Best e1rm currently 268

Bench 120*3 ---> 122.5*3 (@8)

Best e1rm = 143

N.B Normal bench press discontinued due to injury. Focusing on CG variations.
(edited 9 years ago)

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Seen you before on the muscle building society, nice to see you've finally got a blog :wink:

Awesome lifts btw, just wondering as you've been focussing on strength how much muscle mass have you actually gained?
Reply 2
Original post by areebmazhar
Seen you before on the muscle building society, nice to see you've finally got a blog :wink:

Awesome lifts btw, just wondering as you've been focussing on strength how much muscle mass have you actually gained?


Hard to tell since I don't have any body fat caliper thingies. I've gained around 6kg in 7 months since I started weight training properly and as far as I can tell my bf% hasn't changed too much from looking in the mirror, or by measuring my waist (which has actually decrease a bit lol).
Original post by Jtking3000
Hard to tell since I don't have any body fat caliper thingies. I've gained around 6kg in 7 months since I started weight training properly and as far as I can tell my bf% hasn't changed too much from looking in the mirror, or by measuring my waist (which has actually decrease a bit lol).


Making ALLL KINDZZZ OF GAINNZZZ :biggrin:
Reply 4
Wednesday:

Squat:

62.5*8
92.5*5
110*1
130*1
122.5*8 (Minor PB)
92.5*8

Bench:
52.5*8
77.5*5
92.5*1
110*1
102.5*6
77.5*8

Row:
55*8
80*5
97.5*1
112.5*1
107.5*8
80*8

Squats felt fine although I did lean forward a bit too much on a few reps. Bench didn't feel too good as the 6th rep felt a bit of a grind, probably would've gotten the 7th but probably fail the 8th so I just left it at 6 to try again next week. If I get it next week I'm probably going to microload to milk the cycle for all it's worth then move onto something different, possibly TM as I'm dubious about how much more I can get out of tweaking madcow.
Completely irrelevant, but I thought this had something to do with justin timberlake :frown:
Reply 6
Friday:

Press:

47.5*5
55*5
62.5*7+f

Deadlift:

125*5
145*5
165*8

Pause squat:
65*5
82.5*3*5

A bit disappointed with failing the 8th rep of OHP as the sets preceding felt rather good and how I only narrowly missed it. Hopefully '3' week will be better.

Also for some reason Wednesday's workout gave me forearm and trap DOMS :lolwut:
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 7
Sunday:

Squat:

62.5*8
95*5
112.5*1
127.5*6
Cardio: 95*12 :tongue:

Bench:
52.5*8
77.5*5
92.5*1
107.5*5
77.5*12

Row:
55*8
82.5*5
100*1
112.5*6
82.5*12

Monday:

Paused OHP: 45*8*3

Squat felt explosive when doing the first three sets, form felt pretty good throughout too. Decided to do a set of five instead of six for bench as I remember that before deloading Wednesday's bench was suddenly easy despite being beat-up when I did a heavier top set, will see if that was a fluke. Barely made the full five reps today though so I think I've buggered this cycle up but I'll plow on and see.

Mysterious soreness again in the triceps after squatting then sore as **** after bench. I have no idea why.
Original post by Jtking3000
Sunday:

Squat:

62.5*8
95*5
112.5*1
127.5*6
Cardio: 95*12 :tongue:

Bench:
52.5*8
77.5*5
92.5*1
107.5*5
77.5*12

Row:
55*8
82.5*5
100*1
112.5*6
82.5*12

Monday:

Paused OHP: 45*8*3

Squat felt explosive when doing the first three sets, form felt pretty good too. Decided to do a set of five instead of six for bench as I remember that before deloading Wednesday's bench was suddenly easy despite being beat-up when I did a heavier top set, will see if that was a fluke. Barely made the full five reps today though so I think I've buggered this cycle up but I'll plow on and see.

Mysterious soreness again in the triceps after squatting then sore as **** after bench. I have no idea why.


Lol what cardio do you do?
I lift weights...faster..
Reply 9
Original post by areebmazhar
Lol what cardio do you do?
I lift weights...faster..


I don't really do any cardio, the 12 rep back off sets pretty much serve as HIIT though!

Most I do is walk down and up bathwick hill which takes about an hour every now and then.
Original post by Jtking3000
I don't really do any cardio, the 12 rep back off sets pretty much serve as HIIT though!

Most I do is walk down and up bathwick hill which takes about an hour every now and then.


Lol I'm too lazy as well, the walk to and back from they gym is enough for me. I really should do some more though..
Reply 11
Wednesday:

Squat:

62.5*8
95*5
112.5*1
132.5*1
125*8 (PB)
95*8

Bench:

52.5*8
77.5*5
92.5*1
110*1
102.5*5

Row:
55*8
82.5*5
100*1
115*1
110*8 (PB)
82.5*8

Squat: For the sets preceding the top set were some of the most explosive sets I've had in ages, pretty chuffed, although as usual 8RMs are a ball busting grind.

Bench...left pec felt funny when I did 110kg, decided to plow on. During the top set it felt worse and worse and basically started to bench asymmetrically so I decided to terminate at the 5th rep. Didn't fancy having my pec reattached today.

Barely got all 8 reps for the Pendlay rows so might start micro loading them.

As I mentioned previously I was thinking of using TM for bench. However it seems like it requires that the intermediate day between volume and intensity requires you to only do medium OHPing, although it alternates between bench twice a week and OHP twice a week, every week. I'm coming into my 6th week of 5/3/1 for OHP so I'm hesitant to change again, or to ignore the guidelines. With this in mind I think I'm going to transition into doing 5/3/1 for the bench as well, with some paused benching as assistance. Assistance being on sunday and the money sets on Wednesday. If the opportunity arises somehow I might see if I can make some quick gains on TM, however it's unlikely.

5/3/1 deload week for the OHP and deadlift is in a couple weeks time so for congruence I'll just do some medium benching next week then deload with everything else after.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 12
Friday:

Press:

50*3
60*3
67.5*4

Deadlift:

135*3
155*3
175*7

Pause squat:

67.5*5
85*3*5

Although I didn't push myself on OHP today it's rather disconcerting that I don't really feel much stronger on it after 6 weeks of 5/3/1 :/.
Reply 13
O **** son you done got a blog?
Lurkin!
Reply 14
lol :P
Reply 15
Sunday:

Squat:

65*8
95*5
115*1
130*6
95*12

Pause Bench:
65*8*3

Rows:
55*8
82.5*5
100*1
113.5*6
82.5*12

Barbell Curls:
45*3*6

2.jpg

Monday:

Pause OHP:

47.5*8*3

Everything felt great today...apart from rows as my innovative microplate string broke so I had to retie it to the end meaning I basically did 113.5*1, 45s rest, 113.5*5 which really put me off.

Pause OHP and bench I do with less than a minutes rest between each set btw.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 16
Wednesday:

Squat:

65*8
95*5
115*1
135*1
127.5*5
95*8

Bench:

87.5*5
100*3
107.5*3

Row:

55*8
82.5*5
100*1
117.5*1
111*8 (PB)
82.5*8

ugh, was not feeling it today. Everything was a grind.
Reply 17
Friday:

Press:

55*5
62.5*3
70*4

Deadlift:

145*5
165*3
185*4

Pause squat:

67.5*5
85*3*5

Form was pretty **** on press and deadlift today.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 18
Do you live in Bath?
I've only been there once but it's laaaaavely!
Reply 19
Original post by danadd9
Do you live in Bath?
I've only been there once but it's laaaaavely!


Yup, I'm at Bath uni. The scenery is great! although generally not enough time to enjoy it.

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