I’ve been doing the 5/3/1 as described in 5/3/1 2nd edition. For assistance, I use the Triumvirate. I’m making excellent progress every month.
But every month I have the same question, and I re-read the relevant sections of the book and spend an hour or two looking through the forums for an answer; this month I thought I’d ask it in the forum.
Week 4 is the deload week, and the sets and reps are 40% x 5, 50% x 5, 60% x 5. But this feels silly since I just finished the warmup sets, which are 40% x 5, 50% x 5 and 60% x 3.
So, I end up doing different things every month. Tonight, I just did the work sets, then went to the assistance exercises.
Exactly right. That’s all you do. It’s a deload. So, you’re pretty much doing the warm up. I do a couple of sets of assistance on top, but nothing more.
In Beyond 5/3/1 there are several deload templates; some are high intensity deloads, some include a bit more volume. Check them out - the purpose of the deload is so you don’t need it, but only you know if you do or do not need it. Try the other variations and they might prove more satisfying.
High intensity = work up to your TM for 1 rep.
High volume = 40/50/60% each for 10 reps.
There’s more details in the book. Buy Beyond 5/3/1 if you don’t have it. Having both books are great resources.
You can run it anyway you want but just make sure you are resting and recovering. I like doing this 2 day deload personally because I train 6-7 days/week with the 6 week cycle and it’s a nice drop off and gives some time to do a little more cardio and things too.
The 6 week cycle as in the two 531 rounds back to back before deloading as outlined in the Beyond book. So the deload is the 7th week for me usually.
And as I have the time atm i’ve been running it as a 6 day week instead of 7 for example:
Monday: Bench
Tuesday: Skwat
Wednesday: Sprints/Farmers Carries
Thursday: Press
Friday: Deadlift
Saturday: Sprints/Farmers Carries
Repeat. No planned off day just take a day off as you need.