Hey guys. I did 5/3/1 for several cycles, and enjoyed it immensely. However, for the past 4 weeks, squats and deadlifts have stalled, and my low back has been shown to be the limiting factor, along with ab strength. Due to tight hip flexors, I keep rounding in the bottom, so I’ll be stretching heavily for the month of May, trying to get some deep tissue massage done, and working on form.
Any tips on how to structure a low-back specialization program?
I was thinking keeping upper body the same for 5/3/1, but:
Squats
–>5x5 at 80% of my max
5x12-20 Good mornings
3x12-15 Lunges/Bulgarian Split squats
4x8-15 Gravity boot Crunches with X-vest
Deadlifts
–>5x5 at 80% of max
3x10-15 RDL’s
3x10-15 unilateral DB swings
Then some BB roll-outs, rotary ab work, the works
If you have tight hip flexors, your glutes and hammies probably aren’t firing very well either. Your ab work looks good, but I would probably add in some sort of activation for the glutes/hammies too. Side clams, butt kicks, reverse lunges w/upper body twist, and single leg glute bridges have worked well for me doing these before each of my lower body days.
I’m also starting to hammer the GHR machine. If your gym has one, it might not be a bad idea to incorporate that if you can. RDL’s are good, but I found them to be too taxing so I didn’t keep them long. Reverse hypers would be great, but doubtful your gym has one. Pull throughs are pretty good as well.
For loosening up your hip flexor, I’ve found the best method is ART massage, and I’d recommend this over deep tissue. Mine loosened up considerably in just 6 sessions (2 weeks). He also taught me a good psoas stretch to do after I workout and a couple other times throughout the week.
[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
If you have tight hip flexors, your glutes and hammies probably aren’t firing very well either. Your ab work looks good, but I would probably add in some sort of activation for the glutes/hammies too. Side clams, butt kicks, reverse lunges w/upper body twist, and single leg glute bridges have worked well for me doing these before each of my lower body days.
I’m also starting to hammer the GHR machine. If your gym has one, it might not be a bad idea to incorporate that if you can. RDL’s are good, but I found them to be too taxing so I didn’t keep them long. Reverse hypers would be great, but doubtful your gym has one. Pull throughs are pretty good as well.
For loosening up your hip flexor, I’ve found the best method is ART massage, and I’d recommend this over deep tissue. Mine loosened up considerably in just 6 sessions (2 weeks). He also taught me a good psoas stretch to do after I workout and a couple other times throughout the week.
Good luck man![/quote]
This.
I have found my lower back could not handle that kind of workload. But my glutes are chronically not engaging properly. I can move pretty decent weights but I found I can hardly do 1 (ONE) single leg glute bridge. That’s how dead my glutes are. Strengthening my “core” has helped my lower back significantly. Still a work in progress…
[quote]elih8er wrote:
Why not do what is outlined in the book when your lifts stall?..[/quote]
This is the second time these lifts have stalled, and I have re-adjusted twice before. My lower back just isn’t getting enough work. I appreciate the suggestion though.
Natedawg and VTBalla, thanks! I’ll be utilizing those suggestions immediately.
uofh, I can do those without the pushup, like to parallel to the ground and back up, but can only get a max rep of 6. If I do successive sets, the reps drop significantly (i.e. 6…to 4…to 2…to 2…to 2…etc.). Think I’m better off doing 10x3 for those? Or just aim for a rep goal in the least amount of sets.
[quote]dreads989 wrote:
Natedawg and VTBalla, thanks! I’ll be utilizing those suggestions immediately.
uofh, I can do those without the pushup, like to parallel to the ground and back up, but can only get a max rep of 6. If I do successive sets, the reps drop significantly (i.e. 6…to 4…to 2…to 2…to 2…etc.). Think I’m better off doing 10x3 for those? Or just aim for a rep goal in the least amount of sets.[/quote]
Do you do them on the lat pulldown like in the video? Or somewhere else in your gym?
Either way, attach a band to whatever stationary object is behind you, and use that. This way, you can get the volume in, and keep your form on point (these get ugly quick when fatigue sets in). Use lighter bands as as you get stronger, then either drop the band or add weight (I found that adding weight to the band assisted version helped bridge the gap between band and no band).
What have you been using as your assistance work after squatting and deadlifting? I don’t think you have to scrap the program due to the issues you are describing. I would keep the 5/3/1 format for the main lifts but only hit the prescibed reps.
Structure your assistance work to hit the low back and abs. If you feel you need more low back work, add an extra set or two as part of your assistance work. I’ve found weighted 45 degree back raises as the best way to build the low back and it also hits the glutes and hamstrings as a bonus.
Whether you hold the weight, use a band, or put a bar on your back, keep trying to increase the resistance while hitting your target reps (sets of 10 have worked for me). If you do 5 sets of 10 with a difficult weight, it will be all the lower back work you could want. Do this twice a week and then hit some heavy ab work.
I had problems with low back strength as well and it seemed to be the limiting factor in developing my squat and deadlift. I started doing good mornings on squat days maintaining a good arch and using higher reps.
On deadlift days I replaced my bbb deadlifts with RDLs from on top of a 45 lb plate, again, maintaining a good arch and focusing on pulling with my ass. Hypers are great before moving up to GHRs.
You shouldn’t have to switch from 531 to develop your back strength.
Hey guys, sorry for the hiatus, it’s finals week and my Musculoskeletal Conditions class is a bitch to study for.
I typically do them on the lat pulldown machine, as shown in the video.
The reason why I feel like switching from 5/3/1 is b/c I feel like I need a break from such low rep ranges. When I only hit above 6 reps or so on the first week, than do ~6 for week 2, ~3-5 for week 3. I’ll stick with it for another round.
For those that asked what my assistance was, I was originally doing what elih8er just posted, starting at 5x10 for both RDL and GM on deadllift and squat day respectively, only bumping up weight when I can do 5x15. I used to do them in a 6-10 rep range but my back did not respond well to that at all. I’ll try out some GHR’s on a swiss ball and see what’s up.
I realized it was a huge issue when I decided to squat sans belt for a workout, and realized I was off by 100 pounds or so when it was off. Maybe I should try a few cycles of 5/3/1 sans belt for the summer?
Pretty sure you should be hitting more than 6 reps on your first cycle in 5/3/1. More like crushing 10 reps w/ ease. Otherwise you started too heavy…
That said you shouldn’t have to change 5/3/1 to address this issue. Lower back work is accessory work. Just utilize some of the lifts mentioned in here and stick with it. Also practice making sure your glutes are firing correctly. Believe me, that will catch up to you!
