Lessons Learned

A good training belt is a great asset, as is proper form. When I first started the routine, my concerns about squat depth had me setting the pins in the power rack at my parallel height as a measurment. This lead to poor form, as the weight would be temporarily relieved on the pins, the immediately reloaded onto my spine, which caused my initial back injury in the early stages of the routine. This eventually led to my purchase of a training belt, which in turn helped me rediscover proper form, as it forced me to maintain my arch rather than good morning the weight up.

Training the deadlift and the squat every other workout is too stressful on my CNS and lower back, and requires such frequent deloading that it defeats any potential progress in my training. On the other hand, training the squat every workout provided me with enough resistance to steadily make increases on every workout without having to intentionally deload.

If I perform 4 sets of heavily triples with a new weight, it will prepare me for 3x5 of said weight on my next training session, if I missed my previous training weight by 1 rep.

I am easily able to make gains off of 3x5. 5x5 would be excessive with the weights I am currently training with.

Bent over rowing and lower back work in the 5 rep range can severly injure my back. Either the weights I’m handling are too heavy to safely use in that rep range, or (more likely) my lower back is weak and needs to be brought up with more hypertrophy and strength work.

The bench press requires more accessory work than can be provided through consistent benching if I am to make gains.

Chains are an oustanding training tool.

I was wrong about my initial impression with chin-ups. The less I focus on lat activation, the more lat activation I achieve.

TORSO STRENGTH IS CRITICAL TOWARDS INJURY PREVENTION. Once I included standing ab work back into my program, my injury rate during squats was significantly reduced.

Small weight changes maintain lifting momentum, but in terms of time spent training, it equals out in the end.

My bench grip has been too narrow due to cheap barbell construction, explaining my propensity towards strong triceps. I can scoot my grip 1-2 finger lengths out to really get some strength.

My hamstrings are inflexible. Without regular low box squatting, my ROM naturally decreases.

Rigidty of a schedule does not ensure gains. I was training maybe 2 times in a 7 day period on this routine, and still made fantastic gains.

I can still make gains on squats while running intensly twice a week.

I originally followed the program with this set-up

Day A:
Squats
Bench press
Pull-ups

Day B:
Deadlifts
Overhead press
Bent over rows


Early in the program, I sustained a back injury previously noted, and had to begin drastically altering the program. I toyed around with front squats and RDLs in the position of deadlifts, and ultimately settled on increased frequency of squatting. I added chains to aleviated pressure on my back at the bottom of the squat, and began utilizing them in other aspects of training. I had to remove bent over work to save my lower back, increasing my vertical pulling.

I included supplemental work consisting of these exercises

Hise Shrugs
Band ab pulldowns
Neck harness work
Band pull aparts
Face pulls
Triceps extenions

and trained my grip with the CoC grippers.


I went from a 4x5 squat w/315lbs to a 3x5 squat with 405+chains in the 6 month period.


I utilized principles of Stuart McRobert's "Lifting Momentum" by starting all weights off at a relatively easy level and continuining gradually upward until it got challenging.