What was it for you?
“Cube Method for Strongman”. I’m so UNexplosive that trying to have a dynamic effort day with push pressing just meant having a lackluster RE day.
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It was a John Meadows program he used to sell. Me and my training partner at the time really tried, but realized we were just getting beaten up. It may have been our steroid deficiencies.
On the last day, my partner – after two+ hours of training – thought we were finished. I grabbed the printed-out program and said, “We have two pages left.” He walked out of the gym.
Meadows had a lot of effective ideas and cool exercises to share, but that particular program was just ridiculous if you weren’t a heavily enhanced pro.
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Going hard and heavy and overeating.
It obviously works for lots of people but I think I’m past it.
I have strengths, but 1rms on powerlifts are not my strengths.
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Most of the things that didn’t work was because of me being impatient and wanting fast results without understanding the process. So jumping into doing things like these,
- GVT
- Bands. Chains are great though.
- ABCDE Diet, 5/2 is better
- Neural Activation stuff
- Poliquin. Please don’t kill me Canada.
- Crossfit
- Eating every few hours
The worst was trying to make franken-programs as a beginner. I look back on that period and thank whatever deity was watching that I stuck with it and kept learning. It would have been nice to have a mentor, but I was young and dumb and would have rejected it. For example, I posted this diet 18 years ago and thought it looked pretty good at the time.
But consistency and learning more always worked, so I’m happy to have done all those things.
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Gonna hurt some feelings here.
531 didn’t work worth a damn for me.
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RIR training.
Easy Strength - though I blame the player, not the game.
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I got nothing against 5/3/1, but I am seriously anti percentage based training nowadays.
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German Volume Training made my kees and elbows hurt. At the other extreme, Mentzer’s consolidated routine didn’t do much for me–though I did see dramatic strength increases when, and only when, using machines.
This may be for another thread: As you’ve worked with some elite coaches, I’m curious to know what programs you best responded to.
What an interesting thread!
On the other end, I’m a relatively explosive lifter anyway; I can turn DE work into just lighter lifting. Or maybe my heavy work is just slightly heavier DE work. Either way.
This is kind of cool, because nothing has clicked for me so well as Meadows’ programs. As you note, some take more than others, but they’re generally my favorite.
This was going to be my vote, too. I think it is more a personality thing. I didn’t like it, so I’d get irritated/ bored, and not put in what I needed to.
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Body part split training. Just having a day where you batter a body part and then leave it alone for a week just didn’t work for me past newbie gains.
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5/3/1-- I was only 2 years into lifting when I ran it. The only thing that “improved” was my RMs, but pretty much in every other dimension of fitness I regressed. I learned early in my lifting career that AMRAP training does not suit me.
Mountaindog – I did not grow on this as I’d hoped, and even lost some size in my legs with such an emphasis on ultra high reps, machines, and intensifiers like drop sets, rest/pause, or partials.
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Same. I found I don’t like focusing on muscles, but movements.
This was and is my favorite strength training method. It was really the first one that got me to seriously track strength gains, and is still my go-to for strength training. That said, I get that different approaches just don’t resonate with everyone.
For me, I’d say intensification methods. Like Ellington’s 30-10-30. I can’t mentally get behind this style of training.
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That’s interesting. It’s like you tried both extremes and found you did better in the middle.
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RIR, RPE based training. I like them in the mix but prefer a concrete goal to work towards and track.
Old school drop sets for extra reps if I do miss a lift fill the void all the same imo, but the attempt to go heavy was made and felt by the CNS.
I’m on the fence with 5/3/1. It’s not a legit power program, and won’t get you to a competition state of readiness like other plans out there.
It’s also not going to have a hypertrophy focus as intense as other hypertrophy routines.
But Jim literally says he wrote an easy, no BS plan after he was done powerlifting.
His initial primary audience was also children. First time lifters.
I think if people keep this in mind, they won’t be disappointed. It gets you in the gym, and if you follow it as written you’ll be neighborhood commercial gym decent over time, and in the top quarter at block party bbq’s.
That said, a few cycles off BBB and NOT reducing or trashing accessory work will kick your ass. It just won’t leave you peaked.
I’m also in my 40’s, currently casually competing in powerlifting and have a surgically replaced elbow. It’s a pain but doesn’t stop me yet. I can unfortunately see the day coming when it does, and believe with the right accessory programming 5/3/1 will allow me to at least maintain the majority of what I have through my 50’s without killing me.
Exactly me. Ran a dedicated 5/3/1 protocol for 6 months as directed when I transitioned from competing in Olympic lifting full time to powerlifting.
The problem (for me. This is all about me):
- Too little volume. I need to “grease the groove” to optimize strength gains within a session.
- Infrequency of training the specific lifts. I cleaned, snatched, and squatted daily. Powerlifting, i benched 2-4x/week, same with squatting and pulled 2x/week.
Its what it is and that’s the beauty of learning what works for YOU, not the interwebs.
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Clearly not saying you should run a program that didn’t fit with you, but the OLY lifts are trained daily because they are technique-heavy. Powerlifting movements are not and they are hit only as often as you can physically recover from the last session.
Not to be too much of a 531 defender, but I think this is the original 531. Running Boring But Big or Krypteia is a crazy amount of volume. The 531 Forever book, to me, is the most ultimate strength training manual you can have.
That said, I came late to the game and didn’t run the 531 original versions which do look to be low volume and relied on pushing a single PR set.
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Doing rep maxes in squat and deadlift didn’t translate very well to 1rms for me.
I also don’t understand the people who can take time off of the main lifts and come back stronger. If I take a week or more away from squats and deadlifts, it takes me at least the same amount of time, if not more, to bounce back.
I still am not as strong as I was May last year. I took 2 months off of squatting and deadlifting over the summer. Still trained hard with front squats, good mornings and lunges
5/3/1. I think maxing out on both upper/lower 2x per week just burned me out. Since switching to conjugate after building more strength/muscle mass I have made steady progress.