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Countdown to Strength Challenge Week 5 Live Tutorial Transcript

A quick rundown on the final week of the Countdown to Strength program and re-testing your 1-rep max.

Countdown to Strength Challenge Week 5 Live Tutorial Transcript
Written By Jim Stoppani, PhD
Updated September 28, 2023

Note: This tutorial video was recorded as a live Facebook event. The text below is an edited transcript of the tutorial intended to provide members with a convenient means of referring to and further researching the topics and content detailed in the video.

Transcript

Hey, JYM Army, Happy Monday. I'm going to do my Countdown to Strength Week 5 tutorial for you today. I promised I would do my live tutorial for Week 5 as we get into the Countdown to Strength Challenge. This is the big week, guys. This is it. Week number 5—the final week where you're going to be re-testing your 1-rep max strength. 

Dropping to Three Workouts in Week 5

Now, we only have three workouts this week. You can see I'm holding up Workout 1—and I apologize for the lack of technology here, but I'm in my hotel room with limited internet and limited capabilities, but not limited to teaching you guys. I'll teach you the best I can in what little time I have; I've got to run to the airport as well, heading back to L.A. 

One of the things I want to mention about Week 5 is the fact that, like I said, we're only doing three workouts. So, Workout 1 is your squat-focused, where we're testing the squat for our 1-rep max, and then we're doing our other assistance moves but the other assistance moves only total 10 reps to complete for the workout. 

Rest up for the Re-Test

This is sort of your deloading phase. You'll be doing far less volume this week because we want to test strength, and to truly test your max strength you need to be fully rested. I would consider giving myself a few days of rest. I'm not going to train today. I'm not going to do Workout 1 on Monday, I'm actually going to do it tomorrow on Tuesday. 

Remember, we squatted heavy on Friday, so—if you're following along with the program the way it's designed, we squatted heavy on Friday. Today's Monday. That gives me Saturday, Sunday, Monday—three days' full rest before I re-test my squat. You may even want to rest tomorrow and only train Wednesday, Thursday, Friday—like I said, there are three workouts—or even extend it further. The more rest you give yourself before your re-test, the likelier the greater your strength is going to be. 

I would suggest not training today; it's perfectly fine if that's what you want to do, you want to go at it today and get the squat. However, if you give yourself another day or two of rest, you'll probably find that you'll be a bit heavier on the 1-rep max.

Spacing out Your Workouts

First workout, it's the squat; then, following the squat, Workout 2 is the bench press. So, on Workout 2 you'll test your bench press 1-rep max strength first. Watch my video on testing your 1-rep max strength and read the article—although, you already should know how to test since we tested originally. We're just going to go through the same process to test your bench press, and then you're going to finish up all the assistance exercises in Workout 2. 

Now, with the bench press, we went heavy last on the bench press on Workout 1 [of Week 4]. So, bench press—ample rest time. You can do Workout 2 right after Workout 1 if you prefer, or you can even split these up and get a day of rest between these workouts as well. It's up to you. 

Workout 3, we get into testing our 1-rep max on the deadlift first, and then we do the rest of our assistance exercises. Deadlift—same as bench press. By this time of the week—you last went heavy on deads on Tuesday, right? Workout 2. So, ample rest time. The only question on testing your dead is with Workout 1 where you're testing your squat. How many days do you want between testing your squat and your deadlift?

Remember, the deadlift—a lot of people think of as a back exercise, but the deadlift is really a leg move. It's a full-body move if you will; legs are driving into the ground as the upper body is pulling on the bar, but it's mainly a prime—the legs are the prime mover. We just tested our squat. If you find your legs are still a bit fatigued from the squat testing, then give yourself some rest before you go into the deadlift for Workout 3.

Again, you could do this Friday. You could do this workout on Saturday. You could do this workout even on Sunday, extending all the way out as far as you can in the week to give yourself more rest so that your max numbers are all the more impressive.

Reaping the Benefits of Countdown to Strength

Now, people are already reporting that their max weight that they tested on, by the time they got to the 3x3s, that's the weight they were using on their 3x3s. Imagine how much stronger you're going to be when you actually test your true 1-rep max strength if you're doing 3 sets of 3 with the old 1-rep max.

Definitely, you'll see incredible strength gains, but the nice thing is despite the name—despite all the strength gains you're getting—one of the biggest benefits of this program is the fat loss. That full-body training literally helps melt the fat off, as long as your diet is in order. And you can do this with very little cardio. 

The One Time I Suggest True Rest Days

This week, although I'm a big proponent of staying active—I pretty much workout seven days a week—this week, we're going to take it easy. This is the week where you've got a true excuse to skip workouts, to take it easy. Take a rest. 

I've got to go, I've got to head to the airport—my checkout time is up—so I'll be back in L.A. I will post this on Facebook. Ask your questions on the video I put up on Facebook, and I'll get you an answer. As always guys, stay JYM Army Strong. See you guys. 


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