Beyond 5/3/1: Simple Training for Extraordinary Results (12 page)

Bench Press – 5/3/1 sets and reps

Safety Squat Bar (or variation) - 5 sets Press (or variation) – 5 sets of 10

of

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ht Leg Deadlift/Good Morning (or

Lat Work – 5 sets of 10

variation) - 5 sets of 10

62

Week Two

Monday

Thursday

Deadlift – 5/3/1 sets and reps

Press – 5/3/1 sets and reps

Safety Squat Bar (or variation) – 5 sets of Bench Press (or variation) – 5 sets of 10

10

Str

aight Leg Deadlift/Good Morning (or

Lat Work – 5 sets of 10

variation) - 5 sets of 10

Notes for Hypertrophy Phase

Breaking this template down even further is this simple: On lower body day, follow up

your

main work with a big leg movement and a big “deadlift-like” movement. On upper

body day, follow up the main pressing movement, (whether it be the press or the

bench press) with the OPPOSITE movement. For example, after you bench press,

you will use the press for the volume work.

After the main work is done, you are free to do anything you desire. This can

include any additional work for injury prevention or any work that is simply

cosmetic. This could include curls, neck work, rotator cuff, upper back, abdominal,

etc. This is up to you and is not programmed as it is simply GPP work for the

competitive lifter.

Push the final sets of your 5/3/1 work hard. The main purpose of this phase is

to train using semi-heavy weights and up the volume of your assistance work. I

work with many older lifters and I let them dictate how hard they want to push

their final sets. In place of the final sets, I have many of the lifters do a heavy

single after their final sets, even during this phase. Personally, I almost always

hit a heavy set after each and every workout. You can use the Joker sets for this

part of the training.

Hypertrophy Phase Changes – Bad Knees

If you find that the volume of the lower body work is too much for your knees,

back or your overall body, LOWER IT! This can be as simple as choosing fewer

reps (5 sets of 5 reps) or using fewer sets (3 sets of 10 reps). I wouldn’t change

the weight on the barbell.

If your body is beat to hell and you have bad knees, here are some changes that can and

should be made to this part of training.

All squats should be done to a box. This is essential to keep the knees from getting

too sore. I cut out all of the squat assistance and use Prowler Walks and Sled

Drags (forward and

backward) to increase the leg volume. Prowler Walks are done for 6-8 40-yard walks

with

increasing weight on the Prowler. This is not done with any conditioning emphasis

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(although you will be out of breath). You are doing this to strengthen the legs, so

push accordingly. This means walking with big steps, not sprinting. Sprinting will

only serve to put more stress on your knees. Each set of Prowler walks are

done with increased weight. This means you do 1-2 walks with 90 pounds and

increase the weight every 1-2 40-yard walks. How heavy you go is up to you, your

strength level and the surface on which you push. Remember that the point of using

the Prowler at this time is to strengthen your legs and hips without stressing your

knees or hips too much. So load it up and WALK! If you don’t know how much

weight to do or how many trips to do – follow this mantra: DO MORE.

The sled drags are done in a similar style – walk forward with the sled, and

walk backward dragging the sled. This can be done while wearing a belt (attach

the sled strap to the belt), using a sled harness (similar to what the Strongman

competitors use) or simply holding on to the sled strap with your hands and

walking forward and backward. Start with a light weight and keep adding

weight every 1-2 40-yard walks. I recommend doing 4-6 drags forward and 4-6 drags

backward. Load up the sled and move it – no one got weaker by moving heavy

weight.

I recommend doing both the sled and the Prowler in the same workout.

I highly recommend using knee sleeves when you squat. There are numerous styles

of knee sleeves – some are made loose and offer little support, but keep the knees

warm. Others do both and are like wearing a knee wrap but not as tight. I

like the latter – very tight knee sleeves that offer a ton of support and warmth. If you

do not have knee sleeves, knee wraps are a great alternative. For the lighter

sets and warm-up sets, don’t wrap as tight. The heavier you go, the tighter you

can wear them.

Hypertrophy Phase Changes – Bad Back

If your back does not agree with straight-leg deadlifts or good mornings, replace

these exercises with one of the following: back raises, glute ham raises, 45-degree

back raises or Reverse Hyperextensions. These all can be done for the 5 sets of 10 reps

or even higher reps (if you can handle it). Also, using the Prowler and the sled is

great for people with bad backs. In a perfect world, you would use the belt squat

machine, but realistically, few people have this machine at their disposal. If you do

have access to a belt squat machine and have a bad back, use it in place of the

SS Bar Squat.

There seems to be a lot of Internet talk about the use of belts – just wear

one if you want. You aren’t proving anything to anyone by not wearing one.

Some people love them and others think they are the work of Satan. As always,

the answer lies somewhere in the

middle. If you wear a belt because you don’t want to train your lower back and

abs, you are

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wearing it for the wrong reason. If you do train your midsection and are using a belt as

a

safety precaution, by all means do it.

Hypertrophy Phase Changes – Bad Shoulders

If your shoulders cannot handle the upper body volume, there are a couple things

you can try. First, try using the Football Bar (Swiss bar) for all of your

pressing movements. This includes the main sets and the accessory work. If your

shoulders cannot handle the additional pressing volume for the assistance work,

swap it out for one of the following:

Shoulder raises (front, rear and side).

Light presses giant setted with raises – a favorite of mine. It allows you to still use

the press as an assistance movement but limit the weight you can use because of the

exhaustion of the giant sets of raises. Here is how it is done: perform a set of 10-15

reps of the press, then do a set of front or side raises for 10-15 reps, then finish

with a set of 10-15

reps of rear raises. This is ONE set, with minimal rest between the press and the

raises. Do

this 3-4 times through, with 1-2 minutes rest between each set.

The other option is to use the Buffalo Bar for your squat sets. This bar is a lifesaver

for people with bad shoulders and is only sold through Iron Mind. The Buffalo

Bar has a slight camber to it that allows you to squat with little stress on your

shoulders. This is the only squat specialty bar that allows you to squat with the same

form as a regular squat while relieving shoulder stress. The SS Bar Squat Bar and

the Cambered Squat Bar do take stress off of your shoulders, but squat form is

drastically different than a normal squat done with a straight bar.

Strength Phase

Week One

Monday

Thursday

Squat – 5/3/1 sets and reps

Bench Press – 5/3/1 sets and reps

Safety Squat Bar (or variation) - SST

Bench Press (or variation) – SST or

or 5’s Progression

5’s Progression

Straight Leg Deadlift/Good Morning (or

Lat Work – 5 sets of 10

variation) - 5 sets of 10

65

Week Two

Monday

Thursday

Deadlift – 5/3/1 sets and reps

Press – 5/3/1 sets and reps

Safety Squat Bar (or variation) – SST

Bench Press (or variation) – SST or

or 5’s Progression (use same exercise

5’s Progression (use same exercise

as week one)

as week one)

Straight Leg Deadlift/Good Morning (or

Lat Work – 5 sets of 10

variation) - 5 sets of 10

Notes for Strength Phase

The assistance work is lower in volume but higher in intensity, which will help

prepare

your body for heavier weights.

After the main work is done, you are free to do anything you desire, such as

cosmetic or injury-prevention work, including curls, neck work, rotator cuff, upper

back, abdominal, etc. This is up to you and is not programmed as it is simply GPP

work for the competitive lifter.

Strength Phase – Changes

Like the Hypertrophy Phase, you may have to make changes based on your body being

beat to hell. The same changes are applicable to this phase as well – use the sled and

Prowler for lower-body volume work (don’t have to change anything) if your knees

and/or back can’t handle it. Also, the shoulders and low back changes are as

applicable as well. This means that you can’t do the assistance work as prescribed,

which is fine and you can definitely work around it.

Assistance Work – Strength Phase

5’s Progression

This is very easy to do and to program. Simply use the normal 5/3/1 percentages

and do 3

sets of 5 reps for ALL the weeks. To avoid any confusion, let me write it out:

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

5 reps at 65%

5 reps @ 70%

5 reps @ 75%

5 reps @ 75%

5 reps @ 80%

5 reps @ 85%

5 reps @ 85%

5 reps @ 90%

5 reps @ 95%

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Use the same exercise for the squat and the pressing variation – allowing you to do

6 total workouts for each lift, which means that you will go through two 5/3/1

set/rep cycles. Use a training max for each of these lifts – I recommend using 85-90%

of your actual max (or predicted max) for you training max.

Simplest Strength Template (SST)

This is all explained, in great detail, in the 5/3/1 2nd Edition.

Assistance Work

Each day, I answer about 50 question, and 49 of them are about assistance work.