I am preparing to start 5/3/1 one week from tomorrow. I just finished a sixteen week program on Friday, and I am going to take a week off this coming week to focus on conditioning, recovery, body weighted exercises and manipulating where my 1 RM/90% 1 RM stands to find appropriate percentages for the induction of my 5/3/1 regiment next Monday.
Question - on a few of the assistance exercises, I am not yet at the ability to complete 5 sets of 10-15 reps per my charted progress with them on the previous program. Particularly, this refers to chin-ups and hanging leg raises. Though I have pushed myself and can do more sets/reps than I could do four months ago, without taking a break, I’m not at the point prescribed in the program. Hence, is it a) best to pick a different assistance exercise that can be done for the prescribed sets/reps (i.e. no less than the 10-15 total per set as stated in the program) or b) keep hitting them hard and aim to see increased progress till I can get to within the prescribed set/rep ranges?
I think both are weaknesses that are worthwhile to improve upon, as I am not satisfied with not being able to consecutively do more chin-ups and hanging leg raises, but if it’s more important to find assistance exercises that you can already do for 10-15 reps, I am fine with that too.