I want to give 5/3/1 for Hardgainers a go and started it
today and I am not sure if I am doing it correctly.
I do my warm-up (Agile 8 and Box Jumps) then I do my warm-up
lifts and build up to my main lift set (let’s say Squats) and I finish that off.
I then start my assistance work (will go with bench press) So do I have to pick
a low enough weight to make it to 50-100? Because currently I am failing at 20
reps and don’t want to go to light where I don’t feel nothing at all. So I am
failing at 20 then taking a break for 30-60 seconds and going again, is that
correct? Or should I do it between main lifts sets. Like, 20 reps bench press
then Squat then another 20 reps then Squat and so on.
It’s 50-100 reps total you can break it up how you see fit such as 5x10 or 5x20 4x25 etc you aren’t training to failure per se as your focus is the main lifts here you are just getting some good work in, you pick your assistance from the ones given in the template and do it as is w/o adding anything not already spelled out
For this template I would start out doing your assistance after the main work as this is more of a challenge program and you need to prioritize the main lifts even more, can assistance be supersetted? Sure, but when the focus is strength I want to solely have that be my focus versus turning my session into how fast I can get the work done, now after my main lifts I may do my assistance in circuit fashion at that point
My workout today was 5/3/1 Hardgainer Week 3 scheme for benching (i.e. last lift was at 95% TM for 5x5). After that, I did 2x30 + 15 pushups and 5x12 Inverted Rows. Both assistance lifts were between 50-100 reps.
BTW this program is awesome. I’ve been able to break plateaus I couldn’t on other programs, so I highly recommend it.