But… will my guns still be awesome??
Flap’s will. I’m not sure how the rest of us would respond.
On the topic of 5/3/1 and pushing too hard, this is where I bring in CT’s psychology stuff. I hated PR sets.
“I need to get 13 reps to beat my last e1RM.”
Well, I dislike high rep sets and I started failing pretty quickly. The program isn’t enjoyable for me. It’s not for me.
5 Likes
Perfect! You can just do 5’s PRO then. My program right now has no PR sets, just a once-a-week 20 repper that so far has been at like 55% of my TM right now, and there are plenty of templates that have no widowmakers or anything but 5’s in the main lifts.
Shit, between 100 pullups, 100 dips, 100 rows each arm (5x20 db rows), 100 curls, and then the pressing and benching, combined with the fact that you can add in arm stuff on conditioning days in circuits, my arms have gotten PLENTY of work on this program.
And let’s be honest - I’m not doing 100 slow, strict pullups, or 100 slow, strict dips. I definitely have controlled reps, but if I wanted to really work my arms, I could MURDER them with those base numbers, without even adding anything else.
1 Like
Valid points on the volume.
We’ll see where I land. My norm is to try everything under the sun for a few weeks, then do a full Meadows program, be smoked and grumpy and weak, and then repeat the cycle.
2 Likes
There are so many ways to add an arm focus to 5/3/1. 50-100 reps of pull assistance per workout (depending on the template, sometimes 25-50 is recommended) can be split up in an infinite amount of ways. You could do 100 reps split between chins and biceps one day, 100 reps split between different curls another, 100 reps of drop set curls, rows supersetted with curls, etc etc. Same for triceps. There’s nothing that says your 25-50 or 50-100 reps has to come from only one exercise.
D’you have Forever? I’m tempted to choose an arm-heavy template for my next program and have you run it with me, haha.
1 Like
This doesn’t sound like Jim, haha.
That being said, I think the BBS Challenge, Pervertor, OG 5/3/1, Limited Time, and the Walrus challenges have higher rep assistance, i.e. more curlz
Ya know, until right now, I haven’t thought of push or pull assistance as anything other than dips, pull ups, or rows.
I suppose one could do fly’s, reverse fly’s, lateral raises, etc. That actually makes Athlete the Lower/Bodybuild the Upper more appealing.
2 Likes
The 5/3/1 Beach body challenge, and Krypteia are both pretty heavy on arms, but it’s mostly about how much assistance he allows for and what the parameters are for that. But you’re correct, Jim wouldn’t use any of his templates to prioritize arms, I just meant - one that could be worked over within Jim’s parameters to focus on arms.
1 Like
I forgot about the Beach Body Challenge. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you log cleans…excuse me if I’m wrong. Have you much experience with any Oly lifts?
(Not log-cleans, but logging cleans in your log…lol)
I honestly don’t know at this point, there’s been so much stuff, I just know that I’ve done cleans as part of complexes and at other random points of my lifting career. And I’ve done snatches before. I have some experience with Oly lifts, but I can guarantee my form is just god awful. Few things have given me trap soreness like lots of cleans, though.
1 Like
I understand the appeal of cleans, but I don’t understand why more people don’t do pulls. The catch phase of a clean or snatch is not the important part if you’re working on being explosive and powerful. The pull is where the magic happens and one could do clean pulls and snatch grip high pulls and receive the benefits without worrying about the skill.
4 Likes
True - the catch phase is also where you could fuck yourself up the easiest.
1 Like
I’ve never really thought about it this way…that’s a good thing to keep in mind. I suppose any trap growth pretty much only comes from the pull as well.
1 Like
I don’t have forever. I have all his other ones. I’m too stubborn to buy something in hard copy!
When are you picking your next program? I’m easily swayed
Two weeks. Today was day 3 of week 4, which I’m about to log, then I just have weeks 5 and 6 before I’m done with BTM (and ground beef and eggs for at least a little bit).
2 Likes
This is my exact attitude. I don’t read hard copies of anything.
1 Like
Jim would hate the discussion of this tread. Do the damn main lift put all you got into those three sets.
Focus on technique, speed, power.
Then put most of what’s left in the supplemental
The rest is just assistance, don’t make that the program.
And to sum it all up, I’m all for the assistance. I have to change my mind. Maybe when I’m older.
3 Likes
To be fair, I get the feeling Jim doesn’t really enjoy talking about training at all.
1 Like