5/3/1 Questions

[Long Dark Blues]

First, a little background: I've been doing Starting Strength for almost 2 years now. I went from not squatting at all, to 400 lbs. x 3 in that time. Deadlift is at 455 lbs. x 5. I went from weighing 225 lbs. to 270 lbs. I was practicing Japanese Jujutsu/Judo for the last 5 years as well. 8 months ago I made the switch to BJJ, training 3 times per week.

Since having switched to BJJ all of my lifts have stalled, or worse, went down in weight ~10%. I've also lost some weight, I'm currently fluctuating between 235 and 240 lbs. It takes extreme concentration and beastological willpower to even squeak out the smallest gain in my lifts. I could no longer add 5 lbs. workout-to-workout, and can't even add any more weight week-to-week now.

So, Iv'e been searching around here and looking at the training logs and have come to the conclusion that Wendler's 5/3/1 might be good for me.

Now for my questions. First, is the following good in regards to assistance work? Second, can anyone suggest a good assistance addition to the Workout 1 below?

Workout 1

SOHP
Pull-ups
[need another assistance exercise]

Workout 2

Deadlift
Good mornings
Hanging leg raises

Workout 3

Bench
Row
Chin-ups

Workout 4

Squat
Power cleans
Step ups

Also, BJJ is my cardio.

So yeah, any suggestions for that missing assistance, comments, rearrangements to the assistance work, "fuck you's", etc. is much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Standard]

Assistance work should be added because you have a reason for it. If your bench is sticking at the top, hit up some close grip, JM presses, dips or whatever you feel works for you. If you don't have a specific need then you can always do more sets of your main lift like BBB suggests.

Without knowing what you need to fix then hard to say what you need to add, but rows and chins are always good things to have

 

[southpawdude]

I just finished reading the artile on T-NATION.COM about the 5/3/1 program (there is a link on another thread around here) and it put dips as the assistance on SOHP day. Just a thought. But as xtrainer said there should be a reason for assistance exercises.

Concerning your stalling in your lifts it seems to me that you might be doing too much. Why exactly are you lifting? Is it to be better/stronger for BJJ or is lifting your main focus and just doing BJJ for fun/cardio? Just figure out which or more important to you and maybe drop one day from the other. In other words, take an honest look at your goals and adjust your training to meet your goals. Whatever they are.

 

[Long Dark Blues]

My primary focus is on increasing (or at least maintaining) strength, secondary focus is on increasing work capacity. So, my reasoning for adding assistance is for it to help to increase work capacity.

I don't really feel that I have anything to fix or any really pertinent weak points to address, but I could be wrong. I just can't increase my lifts any more and feel absolutely destroyed and unable to recover properly if I try to while doing the Starting Strength routine. And I'm starting to get nagging little injuries that might lead to worse injuries if I keep training the way I do while doing BJJ.

Right now I'm eating between 3200 and 3500 calories. I have a 10-month-old, so my sleep isn't always optimal.

 

[Long Dark Blues]

Lifting is my main focus, BJJ is fun/cardio. I only do BJJ around 4 hours per week.