ME Lower - Monday

ME Lower - Monday

Warmups
Deadlift-conventional: worked up to 290x5, 340x5, 385x8 (5)
Reverse BB lunges: 2x15 ea. leg/ 35, 45
Glute ham raises: 2x12-15 (2d pin)
45* reverse hyper w/ foot bar: 270x20, 360x20
Standing V-bar pulldowns: 4x15/ 80, 100, 120, 130 (in between reverse hypers)
Straight leg situps: 1x15 then 3x8 w/ 100 pounds

I don't even know if I can call this ME day anymore. You are witnessing the debut of the 5-3-1 Program here. Of course, I can't do much without tweaking things so we will retain DE upper and lower days. I like the speed work and believe in it. There will be some days when RE (repeated effort or repetition work) will take the place of DE upper work. Basically we will be working off percentages of a 1RM with submaximal weights. The supplemental and accessory work will change a little in regards to volume. If three months from now, the crash test dummy (me) isn't making any progress, I will have to rethink this. Especially in regards to the addition of speed work. It should be noted that this is a significant departure from the original 5-3-1 and may not be for everyone. Joe Defranco has used something extremely similiar to what I am doing here (actually credit Joe with the idea of this concept. He uses more RE work with the upper body than DE work however. He says it works well providing one can handle the volume. I don't think that will be an issue.)

Why am I doing this? To see if it works (for me). I know Big Auto uses it to an extent and he says he likes it. I have used a Westside template for some time now and am very happy with my results with it. I simply want to try this. I do not have a doubt that I will return to that kind of template in the future. I guess to take that even further, this is still a Westside-style template with altered loading perameters on the "ME days" (and not switching main exercises each week). Anyway, it is what it is.

And away we go,
Ed T.