Most of the people I know whom don’t train at Jackals’ (obviously with some exception) don’t utilize the 5x5 year round (read as a foundational training approach) because they can be hard on your body. It is part of a broader training plan. I think it lays an excellent foundation but from my own perspective, (not having much experience using it leading into a meet) it is hard to guage geared performance against it and there is very little time spent in gear (don’t know if you are a RAW lifter or not).
Having said that, my experience has been that the Jackal’s boys are not gear intensive at all, most of their stuff is worn pretty loose (by my standards, anyway) and they are just a bunch of ridiculously strong raw squatters. Krogman recently told me he hit like a 705 high bar double with sleeves only and I am pretty sure Tylutki is around 565-585 for his last 5x5 (heaviest set) without a belt so these guys are freaks.
The point I am getting at is I think over the long term it obviously works very well but I think there is an adaptation process that occurs in the first cycle which makes it very useful for building foundational strength leading you into a peaking cycle.
If I were to run a cycle, I would underestimate my max for the first one and aim to kill it. Weeks 4 and 9, in the squatting program, are the heaviest. If you kill yourself in week 4, it will flatten you out and if you kill yourself in week 9, you are risking overtraining and hitting a contest flat.
I view the rack pulls as a solid contributor to mass and a mental training tool, you should make remarkable progress at the various pin heights (you need a rack that will allow you to set the pins at 5 inches below the knee to do the cycle right). On the other hand, your DL form better be pretty solid because you are only pulling 6x1 from the floor every other week.
You warm up on the pull days by working up to a high bar double, which you increase 5-10#'s every week so squatting frequency is 2X per week and I would recommend using sumos with moderate weight as an accesory (3x6) movement on the squat day.
If you PM me an email (I can’t send pm’s on this site anymore…technical glitch I guess), I can send you an excel spreadsheet that is plug and play. I also have the bench routine and a DL program Nick gave me that can be run with the 5x5’s but it is a significant volume of pulling from the floor.
Lastly, you need to eat like it is your job on this program to optimize it. Carb intake the night before a training session is very important, IMO. Some of these guys will eat like 3-4 baked potatoes before they go to bed.