Hey all. I’ve got a question for Jim specifically and want to get some input.
A little background:
I’ve been doing a 531 full body 3 days a week since Oct. I did a mud run in Oct and REALLY destroyed my knee that i’ve had 2 ACL repairs on. After my injury I was only able to dl 265…my knee had some serious pain and instability at 205 but was able to grind it out @ 265. I’ve since pulled 385 and am on my way back to 500 by the end of the year so 531 has been great!
I’m finishing my 6th cycle at the end of the month and will be doing a BBB template that was in (I think) Beyond 531 where a progression is laid out to go from 5x10-5x1 over the course of 28 weeks. I’ll be doing as follows:
MON:
Squat(531)
DL(bbb)
front squat
seated good mornings
Tues:
Push Press(531)
rows
touch n go bench(BBB)
pull ups
Thurs:
DL(531)
Front Squat(BBB)
DL assistance
Fri:
Pause Press(531)
rows
Undecided pressing movement(BBB)
pull ups
Sat:
Strongman training
I know the volume seems a bit much. I love 531 because it has allowed me to push hard on days when I was feeling good and call it a day after the main lift on days that I wasn’t up for it. Namely, when recovering from my most recent knee injury, I was able to call it if I have knee pains after my main lift and still progress…However I want to have something laid out for me to do on days that I feel awesome and days that I’m not feeling good I have no qualms with calling it a day after my BBB sets knowing that this will help my overall recovery and the overall results.
My question is 3 fold:
1: regarding deadlifts…the weakest point for me is off the floor…this is due I think in large portion to my weak hamstrings and ACL injuries…I think I might do sumo for bbb and conventional for 531 and then either snatch grip or deficit deads and stiff leg deads for dl assistance but am definately open to your recommendations with what I should do for BBB or what I should do to help with this. Also keep in mind I’ll (probably) be doing the same assistance work for the duration of this…I love the fact that I can just key in the max and I have 6 months of great workouts ahead of me…it really is motivating for me to stick with it if I can see planned gains on paper on my lifts rather than switching back between assistance lifts…If you think this is a problem, do you think I should just go 2 cycles at a time w/ the same assistance?
2: Not sure what to do for my friday BBB pressing. I’ll be doing strongman on saturdays, mostly for the conditioning aspect of it and of course to get bigger and stronger as well. No doubt I’ll be doing overhead pressing then. Right now I’ve got a 225 PR and expect to hit 245-250 at the end of my current cycle. I’ll probably be doing log/axle on saturdays. Should I do strict press, incline bench, or dips on Fridays? I was planning on Friday doing incline instead of overhead but then was thinking if I do dips that’ll be less carryover than bench/overhead…I don’t know what to do for this but am excited to start strongman so any input would be welcome!
3: I know you traditionally recommend sticking w/ the same max and not moving up to your new max if you have a test day. I’ve not plateaued yet. I think I read somewhere that you’ve used your true max one time instead of an estimated max and you got a full 7-8 cycles without having to reset. I’ve reset once on the 4th cycle, basically using the max from the 3rd cycle again just to prevent having to reset and haven’t plateaued. When I finish this cycle I’ll be testing all my lifts. I think I’ll be pretty far off w/ my lifts and want to milk this BBB for all I can…should I use the max that I get when I test, or just plug in where I’m at now? Right now, for example, my DL est max is about 125 lbs less than what I was able to get a moth or 2 ago, and basing my TM on that will be really low. Squat is about 50 lbs lower, and military will be around 35 lbs lower.
Thanks for the help! I love 531 and recommend it to alot of my friends who have started to feel the same way about training to failure and recovery since we have all reached the ripe old age of cough coughlate 20s. I like how “easy” this training is on the body though and always feel great after a workout. I forsee a long training career with it in spite of my knee issues.