Not sure who or what nsuns is, so I have no opinion on it. You’d be better of doing one of Jim’s templates for a while to get a feel for it.
I don’t think you understand what I mean by first set last. A minute ago you wanted to cut out all OHP, now you want to do it twice a week.
I have presented several options, choose one and do it or do something else. As far as assistance work, you won’t need a whole lot with this template. It’s going to be main lift - opposite lift 5x5 - chins or rows on upper body days, abs on lower body days. If I was you I would do ab wheel rollouts and maybe hanging leg raises, crunches and situps are not good for your back and you obviously have a problem there. Dead bugs are another option and will help you learn to brace properly.
If you get through 6 weeks like that and it feels easy then consider adding more exercises, keep it basic for now.
If you’re still considering yourself a novice I would suggest your first progression to be a program written by or followed by a successful Powerlifter within the main community. You’re going to see progress regardless especially if it’s your first time following a program and they all generally follow the same rules with linear progression, percentages and accessory work based on number of reps for the week leading up to your peak and retest, as well as focus on your sticking points and weaknesses. I’ve been following CT Whitney’s program and I’m almost done with it. Pick one you know you’ll be able to follow. This accomplishes multiple things:
- It challenges you to stick to a program so you aren’t encouraged to max out when it isn’t productive for you.
- It helps you identify weak areas and work on them within a rep/weight scheme that is beneficial to reduce injury and create better muscle balance
- It affords you the recovery time you need, since growth happens during your recovery days and not when you’re constantly hitting it hard.
If you’re feeling really froggy, pay for a membership where you’ll get one on one coaching like from JTS or Hybrid Performance or something similar. A lot of Powerlifter and coaches offer free ones too and while they won’t be specifically tailored to your needs they’re flexible for you to be intuitive to yourself still.
Doing this, while continuing to learn and do research into how and why linear progression works, Will eventually give you the experience and knowledge to write your own programming. I’m not confident that squatting 4 days a week is going to help you improve your squat, nor will benching 3 days improve your bench.
Right now I’m completing my personal trainer cert from ISSA while finishing CT Whitney’s program. I spent a whole year trying to “program myself” and the last 7 weeks have been by far the most productive training time I’ve had and I’m so excited to retest next week. I’m also finally writing my own program based off of the knowledge and research and education I’m receiving from a multitude of sources to include my own experience but it’s still very much in line with what I’ve learned from his program, just with more thought into accessories and a lot more overload and power/speed work. It will probably be more humbling than strength building but I feel like learning how to coach myself will help me when I qualify to coach others.
Squatting more won’t exactly make your squat better. Finding accessories that help fix any weaknesses and breaking down the particulars of your lift will help make your squat better. Ie: bottom holds, good mornings, mobility work for your achilles/groin, glute/adductor strength. All of this can be done squatting twice a week. This same rule can go to the rest of your lifts. Practice makes permanent, and adding more and more volume to something you’re bad at won’t fix it unless you take a specific, thoughtful, comprehensive approach to identify WHY you suck at it in the first place.
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Thank you! Im going to run the nSuns 531 squat program, its a LP with high volume that has been proven to work.
yes, you will get better results, proven here on these forums many times over. Texas method is still pretty basic.
Forget nsun -seems to be some unknown kid trying to flog an app and rip off the 531 brand.
Jim Wendler has squatted 455kg in full competition and helped literally thousands of guys here on this site many at your level.
If want higher frequency squatting this would be far superior…
If work your way up to 1.4 there is very aggressive ‘LP’ like progression
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