531 Assistance Work for Explosive Strength?

I know the main lifts I have to stick to, but are the assistance lifts subjective to the goals you want? Or should I just do what the ebook says?

Assistance work is up tp you. Wendler provides several templates that are good to follow, but you can absolutely make your own, provided that you know what you’re doing.

To tweak it for explosiveness, add in some jumps and medicine ball throws, and incorporate sprints into your conditioning.

For example:

Jumps 3x5
Squat 5/3/1
Assistance work

Med ball throws 3x5
Bench 5/3/1
Assistance work

Do you already know what you’re doing with assistance work? If not, and you would like some suggestions I’d be happy to help

[quote]Chris87 wrote:
Assistance work is up tp you. Wendler provides several templates that are good to follow, but you can absolutely make your own, provided that you know what you’re doing.

To tweak it for explosiveness, add in some jumps and medicine ball throws, and incorporate sprints into your conditioning.

For example:

Jumps 3x5
Squat 5/3/1
Assistance work

Med ball throws 3x5
Bench 5/3/1
Assistance work

Do you already know what you’re doing with assistance work? If not, and you would like some suggestions I’d be happy to help[/quote]

No idea what Im doing for assistance work but I’ve decided to just do the damn program and stop jumping around so ill be on a mon/tues thurs/Friday regimen. I’d be really grateful for some help.

Do the BBB template

I’d run a standard template like BBB or Periodization bible for a couple of months then adjust. North of the Vag incorporates a lot of sprints IIRC

[quote]hurrdurrgomad wrote:
I know the main lifts I have to stick to, but are the assistance lifts subjective to the goals you want?[/quote]
You’re 6’2, a “pretty chunky” 220 (your words), and “bench 135 for 6 reps max, 155 is my 2 rep max but for some reason I can’t do 160 once. I squat 135 for 8 reps max, my max is around 170. Deadlift max is 250, I rep 5 with 235. OHP max is 95 for one, I rep 80 five times.”

You don’t need to be concerned with “explosive strength”. You’ve still got a long way to go in building just strength, and you’ll see good overall progress sticking to the fundamentals.

99.2% of the time, this is the best idea, yes. Wendler explains some of the most basic assistance lifts, as well as breaking down the “best” for each big lift in the Q+A section.

[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:

[quote]hurrdurrgomad wrote:
I know the main lifts I have to stick to, but are the assistance lifts subjective to the goals you want?[/quote]
You’re 6’2, a “pretty chunky” 220 (your words), and “bench 135 for 6 reps max, 155 is my 2 rep max but for some reason I can’t do 160 once. I squat 135 for 8 reps max, my max is around 170. Deadlift max is 250, I rep 5 with 235. OHP max is 95 for one, I rep 80 five times.”

You don’t need to be concerned with “explosive strength”. You’ve still got a long way to go in building just strength, and you’ll see good overall progress sticking to the fundamentals.

99.2% of the time, this is the best idea, yes. Wendler explains some of the most basic assistance lifts, as well as breaking down the “best” for each big lift in the Q+A section.[/quote]
Would it be OK to lower the rep ranges in the assistance lifts? 3x10 seems like to much sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Could I lower it to 4x8?

I agree with advice to increase maximal strength first. My explosive strength has gone up a ton as a byproduct of just increasing my maximal strength. Just lift the bar as fast as you can on all your warmup sets and once you run 1 or 2 cycles of 5/3/1 then consider adding specific explosive work such as jumps, power cleans, etc.

Good luck!

[quote]hurrdurrgomad wrote:

Would it be OK to lower the rep ranges in the assistance lifts? 3x10 seems like to much sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Could I lower it to 4x8?[/quote]

LOL. You’re over-complicating this and also reading a little too much without analyzing. The hypertrophic range is wide, but going to one end versus another doesn’t mean “more hypertrophy” or “less strength” when it comes to adaptations.

Think of it this way: the assistance lifts are there to help build the main lift. The main lift itself is more like skill training. You build through volume and intensity on a continuum, but volume is very helpful in this instance. Either way, doing x10 or x8 isn’t going to net you a whole lot of difference in hypertrophy adaptations, especially at this level.

Do it as-written for now. You can alter as you feel necessary in a couple of years and a better understanding of your own body. Altering programs at this stage means you don’t actually learn anything in practice. Textbook knowledge can get people only so far, so taking the time to do a written program is arguably more valuable.

You learn why it’s designed the way it is. You understand what works for you and what doesn’t. If you always change things based on your studies, you’ll never learn to change things based on practice and real, intelligent time spent under the bar.

endrant

[quote]animus wrote:

[quote]hurrdurrgomad wrote:

Would it be OK to lower the rep ranges in the assistance lifts? 3x10 seems like to much sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Could I lower it to 4x8?[/quote]

LOL. You’re over-complicating this and also reading a little too much without analyzing. The hypertrophic range is wide, but going to one end versus another doesn’t mean “more hypertrophy” or “less strength” when it comes to adaptations.

Think of it this way: the assistance lifts are there to help build the main lift. The main lift itself is more like skill training. You build through volume and intensity on a continuum, but volume is very helpful in this instance. Either way, doing x10 or x8 isn’t going to net you a whole lot of difference in hypertrophy adaptations, especially at this level.

Do it as-written for now. You can alter as you feel necessary in a couple of years and a better understanding of your own body. Altering programs at this stage means you don’t actually learn anything in practice. Textbook knowledge can get people only so far, so taking the time to do a written program is arguably more valuable.

You learn why it’s designed the way it is. You understand what works for you and what doesn’t. If you always change things based on your studies, you’ll never learn to change things based on practice and real, intelligent time spent under the bar.

endrant[/quote]

Yeah it’s time I just shut up and do the damn program.