Proper Programming Question

Training 5/3/1
1

Jim, first of all I want to thank you for the amazing program. I have made tremendous progress over these past 5 cycles, and have learned alot from your knowledge training, life, and hell, music too.

I’ve got a quick question on what I should do for my upcoming cycle.

First i’ll give some basic background info that could maybe could possibly help to answer this:
17 y/o, played high school footbal n trained serious fresh & soph year now im junior dont play fb anymore but still love to train and have done 5 cycles of 531. Great majority, like almost all, of my workouts i have gone in and hit PRs on last sets and been making progress. did BBB for first couple/few cycles then kinda changed to doing variations of the lifts supplemental 5x10 so not BBB but yeah did that for a cycle
-LAST CYCLE did FSL 3x5 for DL, FSL paused 3-4 x 3-5 on Bench and Squat and Triumvirate for Press (Press main, dips 5x10,chins5x10, have very limited time on press day) all while still hitting PRs on last set basically every session.
current estimated 1RMs, piss poor numbers but here they are, better than they used to be (had a bench plateau for a while but cause i was being dumbass,finaly realized after too fucking long)
Press 137 lb
Deadlift 374 lbs
Bench 186 lbs
Squat 291 lbs

Wondering for next cycle if should i use which structure?
This-
(btw i lift 4x/wk mon tues thurs fri; run 10 hill sprints 2x/week: wed & sat)

Warmup/Mobility
Jumps/Throws 10
5’s PRO + FSL 5x5
50-100 push, 50-100 pull, +/-50 single leg/core
(Farmers walks @ end of Squat workout(?) (could i put FW’s in w/ this? if i put them in itd be the first time to implement them at all)

OR should i keep doing what im doing with the main work making progress like i am
and do FSL 5x5 and do new method of assistance?-

(same schedule & conditioning)

Warmup/mobility
Jumps/Throws 10
Main 5/3/1 + FSL 5x5 (maybe do 3/5/1 and hit reps PRs on w1&3?)
50-100(?) push 50-100(?) pull +/-50 single leg/core
(same ? w/ farmers walks)

Thanks in advance. If both of these have somethin fucky goin on could you lead me to know what needs to change if need be, im somewhat new to this forum so i have just now recently discovered stuff like Leader/Anchor and the total reps assistance method and things like that & im trying to learn as much as i can w out overcomplicating shit. Thanks.

Luke

2

Cycles 1-2:

Warmup/Mobility
Jumps/Throws 10
5’s PRO + FSL 5x10
50 push, 50 pull, 25 single leg/core

Cycle 3:

Warmup/Mobility
Jumps/Throws 20
Pr sets + FSL 5x5
50-100 push, 50-100 pull, +/-50 single leg/core (if you do FW on a training day, do NO single leg/core training. The FW takes care of that.)

Keep the assistance simple: dips, chins/pull-ups, DB squat, DB SLDL, ab wheel.

I work only with teens now and the strength gains/size gains we get are, even to me, absolutely unbelievable. We keep it simple, we NEVER kill the kids and their work capacity is pretty crazy. So be patient!

2 Likes
3

Jim, 2 questions from this post,
1: Do you have your teens workout 3 days or 4 days a week?
2: Have you seen the same strength/size gains from older lifters that you have doing similar programs?
As always thanks.

5
  1. 3 days/week
  2. I don’t really know; common sense tells you “no” due to training history and I don’t work with any “older” people anymore. An older (let us say middle age) has different training needs and often limitations. The same basic principle apply; you just have to smart enough to realize certain things and adjust.
6

I know assistance pales in importance compared to the main lifts, but I do want to ask about Kroc Rows real quick, because I think they’re bad ass. If i wanted to do DB rows on bench day for 5x10 (so obv not kroc rows) and do Kroc Rows on DL day, would you recommend it and if so maybe like do amrap, and get say 22 reps for example and then would you recommend doing another all out set to get to 50 or just sprinkle in some chins throughout the workout to total 50 pull reps?

Using Kettlebells, Sledgehammer, Farmer's Walk in 5/3/1?
7

Luke,

If you do Kroc Rows, finish out the remaining “pull” work with something VERY easy such as face pulls, band pullaparts or curls. Think stressors and big picture.

Using Kettlebells, Sledgehammer, Farmer's Walk in 5/3/1?
8

Got it, makes sense now that I think about it, as I’ve heard properly done Kroc rows should pretty much result in not being able to do another rep