What advice could anyone offer on working more single rep training in? I have found that my body really thrives off of heavy singles trained in a RPT ( rest pause training ) manner.
Currently, I am doing the Beyond 5-3-1 and love the Joker Sets. The thing is is that I’ve never felt the same benefits from the down sets that I do from Joker sets. Before 5-3-1 I was doing 6 days of squatting and dead lifting at 70% of my 1RM. Day 1 was 3 reps, day 2 was 5 up to day six of 13 reps. Each rep was done consecutively with 10 sec rest. After 6 weeks I had gotten my squat from 365 to 405… And deads up to 495… However, after 6 weeks I was pretty tired and is why I switched over to the slow and steady pace of 5-3-1.
So my question is are there any recommendations for doing more single rep training and how would that work in? I was considering using my middle week to run the week long squat / dead everyday at 70%. My concern is that I don’t want to bastardized the program as it is obviously proven.
Last question. Does anyone work negative squats into this or bench board pressing? Just curious on perceptions of that…
Joker sets are the way to go if you want to work some singles. You have to keep in mind that the tenets of this program are setting rep records and slow,p steady progress. I can tell you that since I made adjustments to my 5/3/1 program about a year ago to fics more on reps and building muscle, I’ve been stronger than ever. Negative squats and board presses seem like the wrong tools if you are a raw powerlifter. Now pause squats or pause bench would be a great idea
P 22 - Boring But Big 5x1
P 46 - Spinal Tap Training (with jokers)
P 53 - High Intensity Deload
P 55 - Advanced 5/3/1
P 71 - SSS., Singles, Speed, Size
Thanks for the help… I’ve been reading all the post on this forum and realize that I sounded like the morons wanting to do 5-3-1 by not doing 5-3-1… Lol… I’m just going to run it as written…
Thanks for including those page numbers for reference… Appreciate it
Just went back and read beyond 5-3-1 again. Picked up a lot more info than I did before. I’m going to do the spinal tap routine and it looks perfect for what I want.
Next question. How do you know when to do a different variation? Also, is it okay to mingle different variations together for different muscles? I ask this because I have noticed that my dead lifting makes huge gains from lower weights and higher reps trained once every 8-10 days. When I go to heavy weights and low reps I stop making gains and even loose a little; however, everything other muscle group - especially squats - thrive from low and heavy at twice a week.
Thanks again. I just competed in my first meet. I am deployed and the meet wasn’t anything professional at all. There were 200 competitors and I won the 220 and under class with a bench of 360. That placed 2nd overall and I was stoked; however, second isn’t enough and I want to get better.
i love singles… i do them for jokers and it keeps me happy and on the program… so, i do the usual 531 work, then jokers to a heavy single, then i back for for FSL 5x8. ive always done better on volume, so this fits my needs pretty well. for the record, not a newby, been lifting around 18 yrs.
Just lifted my first time with the spinal tap variation and loved it. Chose to do the second version that keeps every set to 3 reps. Worked in joker sets after my triple set at 95% followed by the last sets of triples. It was perfect. Thanks for all the recommendations and keeping my on the program strictly.
I don’t understand in the template were a joker would fit in. spinal tap is a big workout to begin with so I was wondering were?
at the 5/3/1 postion of spinal tap and then do the 5’s that is if it is possible to get a joker in while feeling good.
at the 3’s postion??[/quote]
There’s no need for Jokers, you don’t have to use them but they go after your 5/3/1 sets. The book explains it but you should limit them to once a cycle on specific cycles.
thankyou tsantos for the help that is all that I was looking to understand wanted to throw this in for 6 weeks and see what happens and then switch it up again.
very helpful!