What is your favorite 531 program?

Training
1

Also, which 531 program did you make the most progress on. I have only done BBB and FSL as leader/anchor and the progress has been good.

2

Favorite is hardgainers. Jim is a genius for making the prowler the lower body assistance work. I also like SVR II because of the variety.

Most progress is Building the Monolith and BBB Beefcake.

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3

I made my best upper body progress on BBS with notable progress also being made on Portals 5x5/3/1 on deadlift and 1000% full body for squat.

BBS was probably my favourite to run, BaBY was also pretty cool.

4

On the top of my head, those were my favorites during the years I did 531.

  • For strength - Morning Star & SST
  • For mass - Widowmaker & BBB 3 months challenge (One remark about BBB. Everytime I have done it, it seems I gain mass but very little or no strength, however, BBB makes the next template better. Everytime I do BBB, the program I do right after give me awesome results. So BBB is definitively one of my favorite because of that.)
  • For conditioning - NOV & Krypteia
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5

Best for strength and size for me was the 28 Week Plan from Beyond. This gave me my best results not just from 531 but lifting in general. Itā€™s hard as hell to stay locked in that long though, although there is some autoregulation built in.

8

I have wanted to try this one for so long but could not commit in advance to 6-7 months of training. Looks boring but awesome at the same time. Kudos to you for having completed that!

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9

Thanks man. I think ā€œboringā€ is relative. I find 5x5 style programs boring. When I have to hit 17 reps on my top set in order to PR and then chase it with 2 drop sets where Iā€™m trying to match those reps, I am anything but bored! But yeah itā€™s not an easy program to undertake or commit to. I am trying to do a watered down version right now where I make a gametime decision on the supplemental portion.

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10

I just went and took a look at Beyond. I was mistaken with the BBB variation where you do 5x10 weeks, 5x5 weeks, 5x3 weeks and then 5x1 weeks (following your main work). It is 27 weeksā€¦ And then I saw the 28 weeks plan. Look a lot less boring indeed!

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11

That is a good list. BtM and Hardgainers are ones I definitely want to do in the fututre.

12

I have heard from multiple people that BBS is good especially for the bench/press which is interesting.

13

Phases I and II only.