I’m getting ready to start 531 for the first time, using a 4 day week.
I’m going to use the strength template for assistance work as well.
My only concern is that the 531 program starts with upper body work. I would normally do my lower body work first in the cycle, so I’m not feeling fatigued in my upper body trying to do back squats or DL’s.
Also so I can try and recover and do some conditioning work on wed and sat.
But, my bench and military press are my weakest areas.
Do I flip the days?, or follow the program!
Do whatever you need to do to get the work done. Good luck.
This ‘fatigue’ hasn’t ever affected my lower body work.
But I suppose you could switch it around so long as you keep DL day away from Squat day.
For a lot of people, doing upper-body lifts the day after lower body (i.e., doing the reverse of Jim’s template) leads to excessive fatigue interfering with the upper body lifts. And they end up preferring lower body first (i.e., the same way Jim laid it out).
Unless you have encountered some severe issues in the past with doing squats and deadlifts the day after bench and overhead, I think you should try at least one cycle doing it the way Jim wrote it.
You mentioned your bench and overhead press are your weakest areas. They will probably improve if you’re doing them after a day or rest rather than after a day of heavy squats and deadlifts.
Troll / 10
thanksfor the advice, going to follow as written.
[quote]Seansc3 wrote:
thanksfor the advice, going to follow as written. [/quote]
Gee what a novel concept!
Best of luck in it. Don’t get caught up in the assistance work. Do the main lifts and go for the PR’s.
I once had to do an upper body movement first up in the cycle because I was at a shitty gym (for one day) with nothing to squat in.
My right testicle blew up, I recommend you don’t do this and suffer my plight.