A Training Concept Inspired by 5/3/1

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

I liked doing 5/3/1, but I’m not a believer in doing fixed percentages. I greatly prefer going in and putting in maximum effort and focusing on the main lift more than the 531 program actually calls for.

Instead of doing fixed percentages, I would be working up to a 5 rep/3 rep/1 rep DAILY max depending on the week, dropping the weight down by 90-95% and doing a a second heavy set for at 5/3/1+ reps depending on the week.

For example what I did today for BP:

warmup
225x5
245x5
265x5
285x5 (may have been able to go up to 295x5 but decided to stop here)
255x11

And then do assistance.

My program would look like

Day 1/Day 5
Olympic Squat to max set, one back off set
Power Clean from Hang (predetermined weight) 5x3
Weighted Pullups 5x5

Day 2
Bench to max set, one back off set
Weighted Dips 5x5

Day 3
Front Squat to max set, one back off set
Power Clean from Hang 5x3
Weighted Pullups 5x5

Day 4
Military Press to max set, one back off set
Weighted Dips 5x5

Alternatively do everything in 3 workouts. The pressing workouts only take me about 40-45 minutes to complete, so an entire session would be around 1:45-2 hours.

Could I progress well doing this assuming adequate nutrition and sleep? Trying to keep things simple and heavy.

2

Have you read beyond 531? Wendlers new layout is very similar to a daily max type of set up. The main difference being that, like in 531, you have a training max for an entire cycle (versus daily). However, you still work up to that max and then depending on how you feel he suggests pushing the max and or doing back off sets. Check it out, and at the very least you can see another way to set up this kind of training.