I don’t think I’m the person to back test what that means on. Wendler used to lift with him and coined the phrase, so I’d go with what those two (Wendler, Kroc) say.
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Thank you for this! 
I’ve been “correcting” people a lot lately about that.
I disagree with this one. I have an Exercise Science degree. I’m a CSCS through the NSCA as well as a TSAC-F through the NSCA. I’ve been training consistently for about 17 years.
I’ve learned a lot from the books and even more from time in the gym including running 5/3/1. I think it’s a simple and good program to follow for progressing intelligently on the big four, but outside of that it’s lacking. I don’t think a new person is going to learn much about correcting imbalances or training for symmetry from 5/3/1. Jim assistance programs are an afterthought to him. “Do 50-100 pulls” isn’t assistance work in terms of programming. It’s vague advice from someone who got big and strong doing other things (possibly in spite of those things).
But I do agree with following programs written by others for the experience.
Don’t do this. Don’t put anyone through a program that you haven’t used on yourself first. It’s reckless. And if you were designing this for someone else then it’s probably garbage. You have to identify your potential client first. And your client isn’t going to be on gear and looking for a bro split. The people who actually seek out help are weak and usually fat and out of shape.
To design effective programs for others you have to identify their goals first. Next you identify a path for them to reach their goals. After that you have to assess them to figure out their starting point. Now you can start to build a program. Did I mention it has to fall within the demands of their schedule? Nancy only has 45 minutes to train three days a week and she is 50 pounds overweight. How can you help her?
You’re not going to be training cool people with lots of gym experience who can move heavy weights or tolerate high volume. If you’re serious about training people then go to Lee Boyce’s personal website and look at his most recent article on the blog. He just wrote about the reality of the training world and who the real clients are. It might change your perspective on how to program for others. (I swear the Lee Boyce reference is merely a coincidence and not a result of the recent discussion here LOL)
Oh, and I forgot to mention that I don’t train or coach people anymore. I’ve found that it’s tough to help people AND make money. I can either help them which means teaching them to be self-reliant, or I can make money by making them feel like they need me. The latter folks tend to fail because they can’t afford to pay for every single workout. So for now I just write stuff for co-workers for free as a hobby… and it’s not fancy stuff. I have to include videos of basic stuff because the average person is not on the level of the average T-Nation forum member.
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On Kroc Rows, you do a warm up set or two of 6-10 reps and then one absolutely all out set. It’s usually classified as 20-50 reps with a weight you think you can’t get for one. That’s obviously an exaggeration, but the point is to push the one set as hard as possible. Kroc was doing a lower rep set because he was using a 300 pound DB or something like that, and he was constantly trying to break his rep record with it. A true set of Kroc Rows will have you gassed like you just did a high rep set of squats. If you feel like you could do anywhere near the same set again, they weren’t Kroc Rows.
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well no shit. The point is you would do a number of written programs, and learn something from each of them.
I’ll use myself as an example:
-5/3/1 taught me the importance of progression on core lifts
-Cressey’s programs taught me the importance of structural balance.
-GVT taught me that high reps squats with low rest are best at making my legs grow.
-DC taught me the importance of really busting ass on your last set.
-Waterbury taught me the importance of frequency in bringing up lagging areas.
And so on. You obviously wouldn’t run 5/3/1 forever and expect to learn everything from that.
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Well why didn’t you say so!? Lol