Wondering If This Is a Decent 5/3/1 Routine

So to preface this post:
I’m a person with beginner lifts. Have spent a lot of time learning how to do the major lifts properly (My motor skills are fairly poor so they come slow) and spent a bunch of time in a deficit. This caused not many strength gains. I’m finally ready to eat atleast through this fall/winter and see where I can get. Really liked the idea of 5/3/1 so I’m going to try it!

It’s BBB ‘variation II’ (from Beyond 5/3/1) and template 2. It seems like it’s doable on every day except the deadlift day, I have a hard time squatting decently after deadlifting. That’s a challenge to overcome I suppose, so I’m not backing away from that.

One thing to add is that I might do some light face pulls at the end of both upper body workouts, just because they’re always good for you? I went by SuperTraining a couple months ago while on holiday. Their tip was basically to do loads of facepulls to increase the bench.

Imgur: The magic of the Internet (Squat & Bench days)
Imgur: The magic of the Internet (Deadlift/OHP days)
A quick note: I’m going to gradually build up the chin-ups over the weeks to come. Being in a reasonable calorie surplus should allow me to gain strength quicker than weight so that I can hopefully burn out 8-12 chins/pullups soon enough. Right now I can do about 5-8.

Two things I’m worried about: Not enough pressing assistance? I press a lot with bench and OHP but do no dumbbell pressing in any way. Should I substitute the tricep and or bicep exercise for a pressing movement?
I obviously want to gain size and strength symmetrically, and I see some 5/3/1 scheme’s incorporate more pressing movements than others. I absolutely hate doing dips because they hurt my shoulders/collarbone pretty badly, though.

And the second thing is that I really want to bring my shoulders up, especially the side delts. Should I just trust that this program does that for me, or maybe add 3-5 sets of light side raises somewhere?

Thanks in advance for anyone willing to help this noob out :slight_smile:

Too much volume on deadlift and squat day. you’re not supposed to hit another supplemental/big assistance lift after BBB, at the most some leg curls or ab work (which is explained thouroughly in the books, on this website’s articles by Wendler, on Jim Wendler’s blog, in this very forum).

But at your strength level i would rather recommend you a 531 beginner routine anyways.

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That all seems exactly right to me. There are plenty of beginner versions, and BBB is not really for beginners.

No, you should do the program as Wendler wrote it with as much pressing as he suggests.

You should just trust the program.

Thanks, I’m keeping that in mind.

Are there any beginner 5/3/1 routines that are more than 3 days and not ‘‘full body’’? I like splitting my workouts into a certain group of muscles, e.g. back/bicep, or upper/lower like 5/3/1 generally does it.

I recall Wendler writing that it is suitable for all levels of experience/strength? He might’ve been referring to a beginner version of 5/3/1 however.

To answe all you questions…

Follow the basic 531 principles.
Start TM at 85-90%
Choose a assistance template, like Triumvirate
Smash PR´s and get the assistance volume in, don’t major the minor.
Do this for at least 3 cycles and evaluate.

How hard can this be? Why worrying before you´ve even started?

Can I choose BBB as my assistance template then, or is there any reason it’s not advised? I like lots of volume and practicing a certain lift.

Because I like to overanalyze everything. ^_-

No, this is not even close to a decent 5/3/1 routine.

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Any changes that would make it better, like is it simply too much volume? Aside from the accessory lifts it’s pretty much the template from beyond 5/3/1 in terms of main lift volume and percentages.

I’m used to doing things like PPL that have lots of different movements after the main lift, that’s why I’m afraid I’m missing out on things if I don’t include them.

‘‘If you try to re invent the toilet paper,you’ll might eventually make it,but is it worth all the time that you’ll be in st*t?’’ - Stronkfak

There are so many 531 templetes,if you gonna run 531 pick one of them

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I picked BBB variation 2 with template 2, with some accessory work after it (like it is written in the book.)
So the only thing that could be the problem with my program is the accessory work - for which I’m asking advice, right? I might be missing something here.

If I understood right,you wanna add pressing and laterals.Also after squats you’re supposed to do just deadlifts 5x10.but you putted 2 deadlift variations in

So,at the end of the day,you don’t really do boring but big

If I were you I’d do 531 bbb as written,and after deadlifts I’d just do lighter high bar squats for 5x10

Yeah, but the print screens of the spreadsheets I linked don’t include that. I was only wondering if adding another pressing movement wasn’t needed. The spreadsheet would be what I’m working with. This’d be my adjusted 5/3/1 program:

OHP 5/3/1
Bench Press 5x10
Chin Ups
Cable Curls 5x10 (thinking about leaving this out)

I’ve adjusted DL/Squat day to what you and others have said:

DL 5/3/1
Squat 5x10
Weighted Sit-ups 5x10

Bench day:
BP 5/3/1
OHP 5x10
DB row 5x10
Rope Extension 5x10 (thinking about leaving this out)

and Squat day:

Squat 5/3/1
DL 5x10
Leg raises 5x10

With all the commentary so far in this thread, that would be my new schedule. I might still be erring on the ‘high, unnecessary volume’ side, but idk how much a couple of tricep isolation sets can harm my progress. If people say it’s too much though, I’ll leave it out.

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