I’m on the tail end of my first year with 5/3/1 and I made a lot of progress (see log). At the beginning of the year, I set some 1RM goals for all my major lifts (deadlift, bench, squat, military). I want to time my testing of these 1RMs in a way that ensures I’ll do it as safely, quickly as I can, and perform to my full potential.
So, how do I schedule testing my 1RMs? Should I go:
deload, ME week, new cycle
deload, ME week, deload, new cycle
deload, ME over weekend, new cycle
or any other of the seemingly endless possibilities?
And on an ME week should I do assistance work as I normally would? Cut it down? How much?
option 1 is fine, actually if you want instead of the first week of a new cycle just do what I wrote below then continue onto week 2 of the cycle the week after. For your first lift (like squat/bench/dead/OP) just work up to a 1RM however you want, doing as many sets with however many reps you want/need to feel warmed up and ready. Then test your 1RM, then do the rest of your workout as normal. It will have very little effect on your maxes for the rest of the week.
For your last question: Test your 1 RM if you want. It has ZERO effect on anyone who answers you, so it’s entirely up to you if you want to know what your current 1 RM is.