Been training with 5/3/1 for a year and a half already and wanted to try the hardgainer variation… the question is do i have to train the lifts in order (squat/bench/deads/military) or can i train them with the order of the book (military/deads/bench/squat)? Will it make any difference?
Also, would it be better this variation or fsl 5x5 with jokers? My goal is strenght and size, i kinda gain slowly so the hardgainer sounds ideal
The order of the workouts shouldn’t particularly matter as long as you don’t do two lower or upper body focussed ones in a row.
do the program as written. Order of the workouts does not matter. Don’t worry about jokers and 5x5 FSL. Just pick a program and run with it for a while.
Have been on the hardgainers for a bit now (into my 3rd cycle in a compressed time frame) and the way I understand it is what caesium said, don’t back to back lower or upper and you should be fine, basically its a high impact day (deads, squats) “paired” with a low impact (OHP, Bench) careful though…the squats are a soul sucker when you get a few cycles in haha and i’ve gained a couple pounds and definitely some strength (haven’t been afriad of food) but have gotten some comments from folks, so there’s that.
I’m actually on my third cycle of the hard gainer (Only 4 weeks long a piece) and I’m liking it a lot more than the standard 5/3/1. I just feel like I have gotten stronger faster on this style versus the standard.
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Actually the one question I did have though was regarding the deload week… you guys suggest keeping calories roughly constant that week as compared to previous weeks or drop slightly due to decreased work load?
Personally I keep em roughly the same, you’re still working out, still trying to grow, only change I make is that instead of clumping my carbs/biggest meals around my workout, I try and spread them out a little more because I notice during the deload weeks I got very hungry, body went into overdrive for me.
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