The Story So Far.............

About 7 months ago I was at strongest I have ever been: 190kg x5 squat, 152.kg bench (touch and go) and my dead was around 265kg. Then I became very ill for a month, lost over 10kg in a week and was coughing up blood for months after I got better.

Due to this I lost a tremendous amount of strength, and thus tried many ways to try to regain it, in hindsight I think I tried to recover too fast, but I tried to use WSB, Chaos and pains methodology, and old school type training such as that of Ted Arcidi, which would entail:
Week 1-3; 4x6
Week 4-6: 5x5
Week etc; 3x3 and so on

I found that benching more than once a week and my pecs (minor and major) would get very sore, very tight around the shoulder.

And throughout this, my lifts (aside from dead) kept falling.  Although I did notice a direct correlation between JM press strength and all other pressing movements, my elbows couldn't take the stress of the movement.


So.................

For the last month or two I have been using the 531 program as written by Jim Wendler.
And I know this is trite, but I have experienced PRs every week on every lift aside from squat (although that has recently taken off again).

Some Improvements:
Bench press : 13/02/12 = 115kg x5 @10                est. 1 rep max = 134kg
                     12/03/12 = 125kg x5 @10 //one month later ~10kg increase
                     19/03/12 = 130kg x4 @9.5               est. 1 rep max = 147kg
                 followed by = 117.5kg x8 @10             est. 1 rep max = 148kg

Squat:            21/02/12 = 170kg x5 @10               est. 1 rep max = 200kg   
                     20/03/12 = 180kg x6 @9-9.5           est. 1 rep max = 215kg
missed the first week of the cycle
but one month later = 15kg increase

Deadlift:
Before starting 531, I pulled 265kg a few weeks before, with a few kilos left to spare.

                     17/02/12 = 205kg x8 @10           est. 1 rep max = 260kg
                     20/03/12 = 222.5kg x8 @10        est. 1 rep max = 280kg    (this was followed by 240kg 3x1)
so thats 20kg in a month of training

Press:

                     16/02/12 = 70kg x9 @10             est. 1 rep max = 91kg
                     22/03/12 = 80kg x5 @10             est. 1 rep max = 93kg
                  followed by    72.kg x10 @10         est. 1 rep max = 97kg
so not an amazing increase but its around 6-7kg increase.

So my total in over a month has improved by 45kg (not including press), which is very good in my opinion.

In the next post I will outline how I have melded 531 and Ed Coan's methodology, to create a periodised peaking program leading up to a meet on 28th April.