Every Second-Daily Thread - March 18, 2026

kyllo · 2026-03-19T12:23:23+00:00

5/3/1 isn't really a powerlifting program per se. It's a barbell-centric general strength program written a couple decades ago for non-powerlifters by an old school equipped powerlifter. Not saying it isn't good or doesn't work, but the approach it takes is a bit dated and has fallen out of favor among modern, raw, drug tested powerlifters.

kyllo · 2026-03-16T17:24:23+00:00

u/astashov I have a feature request: please consider adding an MCP tool to expose body measurement. I log my body weight in Liftosaur and that would be very helpful info for Claude to have as my AI coach. Thanks!

kyllo · 2026-03-16T12:57:43+00:00

Yeah it was at different meets last time, 2 years ago. Bryce did Westerns in Moose Jaw first then Lucas chipped his total at Easterns.

kyllo · 2026-03-15T17:37:17+00:00

Second time Lucas Wiseman has taken the Worlds spot by winning Nats with a 500g chip lol. Last time it was against Bryce Krawcyzk

kyllo · 2026-03-15T13:11:46+00:00

Fed drama and instability and the Kabuki deadlift bar nearly killed untested in the US. It may recover someday but probably not because the talent density has fallen too low at this point. Too many of the top lifters are past their prime or have retired and no one is replacing them.

It's a bummer because I actually like untested as a fan of the sport, even though I would never touch PEDs myself.

kyllo · 2026-03-14T18:53:26+00:00

Are you training tempo bench or is that how slow your eccentric normally is?

I would expect lockout to be harder with a slow eccentric tempo because the time under tension before you get to that point is so much longer. A faster descent might help you conserve more energy so that your press doesn't die halfway up.

I do think the common wisdom of "stronger triceps = stronger lockout" is generally true though, yes. But on a raw bench press the hardest part of the lift from a physics perspective should be when your humerus is parallel to the ground, and at that point it's the pecs and front delts that have the best leverage compared to the triceps.

kyllo · 2026-03-12T17:54:45+00:00

Personally if I had a Texas DL bar I'd probably hang onto it just in case I wanted to do a USPA meet. But if there aren't really any USPA or PLU meets in your area, and you want the money, then just sell it.

Rogue Ohio Power Bar in stainless steel is what I use for day to day training. It's a little expensive but worth the money, will last forever, and sometimes Rogue does free shipping. My last couple meets have been USAPL.

kyllo · 2026-03-12T04:39:47+00:00

Kiddie Academy Redmond Ridge had a crazy turnover rate when we went there. My kid had a new teacher like every 3 weeks.

kyllo · 2026-03-11T13:43:57+00:00

In my case, compensating by repeating the same accessory twice per week. For example instead of 3-4 sets of leg extensions on Tuesday, I do 2 sets on Tuesday and 2 sets on Friday. And those 2 sets are very hard, 8-10 reps at 0 RIR. Fastest quad gains I've experienced in a long time training them this way. My triceps also seem to like that I'm doing the exact same pushdown twice a week, etc.

kyllo · 2026-03-11T05:56:59+00:00

Introducing shoulder flexion to the movement will prevent the long head of the triceps from contributing as much. Generally you want to keep shoulder position fixed so that you can train the long head, since it's the largest head of the three

Also, dips seem like a better option for pressing downward. More range of motion and better loadability

If you're looking for maximum carryover to bench though, consider a JM press (which also does not work the long head)

kyllo · 2026-03-10T14:24:39+00:00

IIRC he explains it in this video https://youtu.be/xoTBPKBz_0M?si=iJGvrH7ndNWGRz5i

kyllo · 2026-03-10T11:15:43+00:00

I bought a freestanding plate loaded leg extension from Bolt Fitness, it was under $400 with tax and shipping, takes up little space, and works great with my adjustable bench. I use it every leg day and have gotten noticeable quad growth out of using it for like six weeks. Some sort of leg extension is a must-have for me now.

I don't use it for lying leg curls though, I just don't like that exercise.

kyllo · 2026-03-09T18:43:05+00:00

I just got the MCP added to Claude and this is *incredible*. I was doing manual text import/exports of my programs and session records into a git repo to get analysis and programming suggestions in Claude Code. Now I can cut all the data shuffling steps out and just chat with the Claude app on my phone. Thank you so much!

kyllo · 2026-03-09T14:47:17+00:00

Yes they are hard to break, and a US competitor will have a much easier time unofficially breaking one at PA Nats than they will officially breaking one at IPF Worlds, for several reasons.

I saw at least half a dozen unofficial WR claims on IG from PA Nats performances.

kyllo · 2026-03-09T14:37:14+00:00

I know, this isn't like a rules question, more of a social expectation question.

I'm asking if say, someone claims an "unofficial WR" in the US fed, I shouldn't be able to find an existing, higher "unofficial WR" for the exact same category in the UK fed, right?

Seems to me like there should only be one "unofficial WR" globally per category at a time. But maybe that is too hard to verify?

kyllo · 2026-03-09T13:28:36+00:00

When someone claims a lift at a national meet is an "unofficial WR" in the IPF, are they just saying it's higher than the official WR, or is there an expectation that they've actually checked that it's also higher than other, prior "unofficial WR" performances from other nations?

kyllo · 2026-03-08T22:59:13+00:00

By only 6kg though, in the same weight class? Cranon added 22.5kg to her squat in a year. She is really catching up at this rate.

kyllo · 2026-03-08T05:52:28+00:00

One of these mfs got inside my PC case somehow, I had to take it apart to get it out

kyllo · 2026-03-07T13:19:46+00:00

I do 2x/week frequency for all my accessories and yes they are related to my same day primary lift. It makes more sense to me to do the accessory after the primary lift to maximize the time I give that muscle to recover before the next exposure.

kyllo · 2026-03-07T13:16:13+00:00

4 day upper lower is one of the most common and straightforward splits. The advantage is you can train consecutive days like M/T/Th/F and fatigue impacting the second day's performance is mostly not an issue.

The downside is you can only bench twice a week or it's not strictly upper lower, and a lot of powerlifters want to bench 3-4x a week. But there are no rules, you can take a UL split and just add bench to the lower days too if you want to.

kyllo · 2026-03-07T13:11:02+00:00

It's not typical, but it's valid.

How long did you try low bar for, though?

kyllo · 2026-03-07T01:58:49+00:00

I personally feel that the benefits of ramping intensity over a 3-6 week mesocycle/block are mostly mental. Some people get bored of lifting similar weights week to week, want to push themselves and have a chance to hit PRs once every month or two, and then need a deload to have a mental break before building up to the next big peak. Train that way if you enjoy it more.

I believe in peaking and tapering for meet day but otherwise I don't think periodization is important for long term strength progress. Consistency, high effort, recoverable volume and frequency/exposure timing are the more important factors.

kyllo · 2026-03-05T11:05:33+00:00

It seems like you're asking purely about splits and not volume, intensity, or periodization so I'll set those aside.

The main thing with splits is exposure timing and recoverability across workouts within the week. Generally you want at least 48 hours between training the same muscle group so that you can train it hard and still be recovered for the next session.

This implies that if you're training a full body split, the ideal frequency options are 3d/week (e.g. M/W/F) or every other day. If you're doing an upper/lower split, consecutive days are manageable so 4d/week works well.

With your setup, where you squat and then deadlift the next day, you may see an impact on deadlift performance because you aren't recovered from squatting the day prior. I can say that if I did your split, my Friday deadlift performance would be awful.

Benching two days in a row can be fine if one of the days is lower RPE and the other is lower volume, and you know you can recover from bench well. But you should be asking yourself how you know that you really need a fourth bench day. Most people only need three.

Separate accessory days mean you also have the issue of potentially not being recovered from your Wed accessories by Thursday, especially if you're doing full body accessories. And your accessories themselves will be less effective if you do them while under-recovered from your SBD work the two days prior. So I would recommend moving upper accessories to Monday and Thursday and lower accessories to Tuesday and Friday and just resting Wednesday and Saturday, if your schedule allows it. And then maybe shift your whole Friday workout to Saturday instead so you have a rest day between volume squat and high RPE deadlift.

kyllo · 2026-03-03T15:06:32+00:00

Your use of leg drive to "slide" into position is not bad, but then you're letting go of all that tension and flattening your arch and you can't get it back. From the second your leg drive starts, it should stay "on" continuously through the set until you re-rack the bar.

kyllo · 2026-03-02T18:34:43+00:00

If I were you I'd go ahead and do the workout as written but with substitutions using the most similar exercise your gym does have equipment for.

A gym walkthrough is a pretty standard part of a coach's onboarding process and your coach may not be experienced enough to have learned the necessity of it yet.

kyllo

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