Hi. Just wondering whether ye think this is a programme in keeping with 5/3/1. I have put this together based on Jim’s books and on articles I have read from Jim.
I have taken a 2 day a week template that I found from Jim elsewhere that goes like this -
week 1 - Day one Squat 531 + assistance.
Day two Bench 531 + assistance
week 2 - Day one Deadlift 531 + assistance
Day two Press 531 + assistance.
I like to do endurance events from time to time. Nothing major, just relatively short distance runs (5 - 10k), duathlons, triathlons, stuff like that. On weeks where I have done one of these and could benefit from the recovery, I will just do two days of lifting. However, on weeks where I have nothing on, I add a third lifting day, based on an article I found from Jim about training around a busy lifestyle. Here he advised a sort of optional extra day. I add this in. For me it is a sort of full body dynamic effort/ repetition hybrid type day.
I like the way that this works for me. I get my heavy lower body stuff done early in the week, which means that any endurance work I do won’t affect a second lower body day. I like the third optional day. The assistance work I do for the two 531 days is targeted against specific upper and lower body weaknesses I have, the posterior chain and the back and shoulders.
I had thought of doing a defranco type template where I would alternate the main lifts a bit, as in this cycle I would do bench and squat, and then after one cycle or a few cycles, I would switch these to deadlift and press. But then I saw Jim advising on the above template with the lifts alternating each week in a longer training cycle. This seems better?
What do you guys think? Obviously this is not a standard 531 approach, but is it something that could work? My main goals are modest strength gains and a good general level of conditioning. A major priority for me would be to get any heavy lower body stuff out of the way early in the training week as I have club feet and endurance work can often leave my ankles tight and unable to really do any more heavy stuff later in the week. I can manage dynamic lower body on day 3. I have done more conventional 531 templates, but my performance on the second lower body day was always compromised, and squatting form was often difficult.
Thanks for your help!