Thoughts on 5/3/1 at the end of week one, and it's inventor, Jim Wendler

I'll dead lift in the morning, but that's by far my best lift of the 4, so I'm pretty comfortable giving my impressions.

Obviously, I can't talk about the effectiveness of the strength building aspects of it. What I can talk about is the mental effect.

The concept behind 5/3/1 is a progression of weight and reps to build strength. It's not a body building program, it's not designed to give you huge arms to land chicks, or anything like that.  The program has one goal in mind. To make you stronger. Simple enough.

Without going into too much detail, each week has a certain percentage of your maxes that you're supposed to lift, for a certain amount of reps, except the last set, you go balls out.

 On the military press, I hit the assigned 5 plus 7 more on the last set.(80)
On squats, I hit the assigned 5, plus 5 more on the last set.(245)
On bench, the same. But I screwed up on the bench. Basically, my brain totally malfunctioned, and instead of lifting 65x5, 75x5, and 85x5, I lifted 65x5, 95x5, and 115x10.

Now here's where I really enjoy the mental effect.  It's damned confidence inspiring to be able to exceed goals set by a guy that's squatted 1,000 lbs in competition.  Jim Wendler is a no BS kind of guy. If he wants to say something, he says it. His books reflect this. His specific method has been out for awhile and it's obvious that it works.  Call me a believer.  And with damned good reason.

I plan on sticking to his program pretty strictly, and that being my work outs. It's more than just the 4 lifts, he does suggest conditioning training as well as accessory lifts, and I'll be doing those as well.

I don't want to turn this into a place to pimp a plan, but there are a lot worse ways to spend ten bucks.

Now, why am I sticking to it? Simple.  Deciding to get in shape without a plan is called crossfit, and crossfit sucks. It's a damn good way to get hurt, and it has a lot of wasted effort that doesn't benefit you.  The reason crossfit doesn't have slow, deliberate (strict) movements is because they're harder (and safer).  It's an ego boost to claim you can do ten pull ups, but they're not pull ups, they're swinging like a damn monkey and I personally know people that claim that they can do 15+ pull ups that can't do a single deadhang pull up.  Is it better than nothing, probably. But so is a Jane Fonda vhs tape.

More numbers:
Any attempt to take meds when my sugar breaks 150 results in bad hypoglycemia. So I guess I'm no longer med free by choice. I'm med free because I have to be, the lowest dose is now dangerous.   This is between a combination of eating pretty clean, without too many carbs, most of those coming from lifting supplements. My numbers are still averaging in the low 100s, usually right around 110.  Morning sugars are a tad higher, and they stay up until I eat.

Weight loss is still halted, but no gains. I'm not staying in ketosis, pretty much due to coffee creamer and protein shakes. I've stopped with the protein shakes, and I'm about to work my way off the coffee. Mostly because black coffee is nasty.  And I need to dump the creamer and artificial sweeteners.

 I'm where I want to be numbers wise, except weight.  Part of my body's reluctance to drop fat is possibly the way I'm lifting. I still get comments from people talking about my weight loss, including my wife who sees me 4 to 5 days a week.  If I'm still visibly shrinking in her perspective, then maybe I am. She knows better than me for sure. I see me every day, her gaps in seeing me due to my work give her a stronger perspective.

So life is still good, I'm still apparently progressing.  That's the name of the game.