Four weeks in, Building the Monolith ain't too bad. I've had a couple set back--got a terrible head cold that lasted over a week, which led to my separating the assistance work from the first workout and then doing workout 1 and workout 2 two days in a row--but I'm powering through and I've gained about two pounds or so of muscle, which ain't bad considering I'm not following the recommended diet.
What I've learned
Keep to the suggested percentages excepting the deadlift. I thought I'd jack up my deadlift working max considerably on week 4, because the 360 lbs max I started with is lower than 85 percent. Well, I just bumped it up to 370 and went about my business, because doing five sets of five deadlifts after seven sets of five bench presses and 100 curls and rows sucks. I can pull 480 any day of the week, if not 500, and 85 percent of 480 is 408, not 370. However, the deadlift is a different beast from other lifts, and while I don't really believe that it affects the CNS in some magical way, it does drain your resolve to live if you beat yourself up with volume. Given the ridiculous back work in this program, I think it's fine to err on the side of caution and go a little lighter than 85 percent (370 is 77 percent of 480). This is a bodybuilding program, after all.
Separating the assistance work ain't a bad idea if you're low on energy or time. Due to one hell of a head cold, this last week as been a bitch to get through. I do the first workout on Thursday, but I had to watch my kids, and I just didn't have the energy to do seven sets of squats at 90 percent. So instead, while they were at the playground, I did 75 pullups (still working up to 100) and 140 pushups. That night I did the facepulls and added some curls. This made doing the first workout on Friday a lot more reasonable. I do the assistance work in between sets, so I'm often gasping for breath. While the cardiovascular benefits of that approach are great, working out while sick sucks. The first workout takes the longest for me, so I may start separating the assistance for the last three weeks.
Eat more but the diet is unrealistic for anybody not twenty years old. As a thirty-five year old man, I'm not going to be scarfing down double cheeseburgers and twelve eggs like I'm trying to become a lineman. I have eaten more, but I've taken a more sustainable approach to weight gaining rather than see food, eat food. Of course the people who actually do the diet are going to get more out of this program. If you want to gain twenty pounds of mostly muscle, then by all means, listen to Wendler, he knows best. I'm thinking about longevity and overall health at this point in my life. Your goals might be different.
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