5/3/1 alterations.

[bowlie]

I have two days to lift weights, for now. Once I have settled into my routine I will try and add in another, but for now it is two. I like the look of 5/3/1, however, due to having two lots of surgery this year / last year I have some strange muscular imbalances. I did a purely unilateral program, as advised by a sports therapist, and they are going. But im bored of not squatting and deadlifting, and my bench / military press are very very weak so I want to move to program with major compound lifts followed by unilateral versions to stop the imbalances re-appearing.

This means using the two days a week 5/3/1 for MMA program, my 2 of my 3 exercises for the day are taken up by unilateral versions of either bench, deadlift, squat or military, leaving only one for an upper body pulling motion, and seeing as my back is underdeveloped compared to my chest, that is a bad idea.

My other option is to have days where bent over rows and chinnups are my main upper lifts. Wendler says the program works with exercises like Bent over Rows, and he saw good gains with it, the only problem is doing it that way is that I only get one upper push day a week, either bench or military. I guess they are both similar movements, so at least I get an upper body workout each week, but It seems like too little for the bench press.

Idealy I would increase it to 3 or 4 days a week, but for now thats simply not viable without sacrificing my other training time.

 

[N3ver3nder]

Why not do your two main lifts and do the unilateral as assistance? You don't have to keep it down to just 3 exercises, you can do as many as your time allowance and recovery rate (which initially should be quite high as you'll be relatively new to the big 3).

 

[SteveX]

You have two options:

1.) You have an upper and lower day and you alternate the main lift each week. So week 1 would be press and squat, week 2 would be bench and deadlift. Each cycle lasts 6 weeks and you don't deload between cycles.

Pros: You can put more into your assistance work since you only doing 1 big lift per body part each week. I'd stick to 2-3 assistance movements per day.
Cons: You are only doing 1 big lift for each body part per week

2.) You do two main lifts per day. Say day 1 would be Press and Squat and day 2 would be Bench and Deadlift. Each cycle would last the regular 4 weeks and I would probably still deload with this template.

Pros: You're hitting all 4 of the big lifts per week.
Cons: You have to take it a bit lighter on the assistance work since you're doing two big lifts per sessions. I would keep it to 1 upper assistance, 1 lower assistance and possibly an upper back movement depending on how you feel.


With either template I would suggest doing pull-ups in between pressing sets (as Wendler advocates). As for the assistance work it's up to you. There is nothing wrong with doing unilateral movements and it's actually a very good idea (especially if you have a history of muscle imbalance). Just pick things that you feel are going to help you reach your goals.


This isn't actually an alteration. This is pretty much all straight out of the 5/3/1 Manual. Wendler outlines 2x/week training pretty clearly. I would suggest giving it a read through

 

[bowlie]

Why not do your two main lifts and do the unilateral as assistance? You don't have to keep it down to just 3 exercises, you can do as many as your time allowance and recovery rate (which initially should be quite high as you'll be relatively new to the big 3).

that was the plan.

You have two options:

1.) You have an upper and lower day and you alternate the main lift each week. So week 1 would be press and squat, week 2 would be bench and deadlift. Each cycle lasts 6 weeks and you don't deload between cycles.

Pros: You can put more into your assistance work since you only doing 1 big lift per body part each week. I'd stick to 2-3 assistance movements per day.
Cons: You are only doing 1 big lift for each body part per week

2.) You do two main lifts per day. Say day 1 would be Press and Squat and day 2 would be Bench and Deadlift. Each cycle would last the regular 4 weeks and I would probably still deload with this template.

Pros: You're hitting all 4 of the big lifts per week.
Cons: You have to take it a bit lighter on the assistance work since you're doing two big lifts per sessions. I would keep it to 1 upper assistance, 1 lower assistance and possibly an upper back movement depending on how you feel.


With either template I would suggest doing pull-ups in between pressing sets (as Wendler advocates). As for the assistance work it's up to you. There is nothing wrong with doing unilateral movements and it's actually a very good idea (especially if you have a history of muscle imbalance). Just pick things that you feel are going to help you reach your goals.


This isn't actually an alteration. This is pretty much all straight out of the 5/3/1 Manual. Wendler outlines 2x/week training pretty clearly. I would suggest giving it a read through

I guess the second option might work. Do Bench / SquatPress on day one and DB rows between each set, Deadlift and Military on day two with pullups in between each set. That way im getting all the main lifts like you said, and getting enough pulling in. The only problem with that is the vollume would be huge.

Squats, plus unilateral assistance, bench plus unilateral assistance and as many reps again of DB rows.

 

[Tosa]

I guess the second option might work. Do Bench / SquatPress on day one and DB rows between each set, Deadlift and Military on day two with pullups in between each set. That way im getting all the main lifts like you said, and getting enough pulling in. The only problem with that is the vollume would be huge.

Squats, plus unilateral assistance, bench plus unilateral assistance and as many reps again of DB rows.

I don't think the volume sounds that large. Especially since most of it's not that heavy.

 

[bowlie]

I don't think the volume sounds that large. Especially since most of it's not that heavy.

Cant hurt to try I guess