Hi everyone,
First time poster here, but long time reader. I wanted to start by saying thanks for all the great threads and especially to Mr. Wendler for putting together 531. Long story which I’ll try to make short. I’m in my 40’s. I weigh 185ish. Bro lifted (chest/bis) with nearly zero leg work since I was 18 or so. Just goofing off mostly. Hurt my lower back doing endurance sports a few years ago. Was hard to walk, sleep, etc. Rehabbed that. Found Crossfit (yah, I know, but I enjoy the challenge). I made some strength gains there since I hadn’t really trained before. Stalled. I found 531 online. Studied it. Learned about strength training vs working out. Decided I should be able to squat/deadlift a lot more, but was scared of re-injuring my back. I went up a lot more then the usual on a few of the cycles. Keep in mind here I probably sandbagged my starting maxes because I didn’t know them and didn’t want to risk maxing out for fear. During the year I used 2 or so crossfit workouts /week to keep my engine going and that was fine as long as I stuck to my macros (caloric surplus)
12 months of 5 3 1 going very, very conservatively and following plan as laid out other than larger than normal jumps on a few cycles
Start:
Bench - 215
Squat - 95 (yah, I know)
deadlift - 135 it’s ok to laugh
End maxes are what I was basing my meso cycle 531 numbers on. Hit the last cycle.
End:
Bench - 235 I only did 17 weeks of this and ended up with surgery. Didn’t get hurt because of 531, but years of benching incorrectly gave me weightlifter shoulder which was an issue before 531.
squat - 295 on the cycle (maxed at 270, but didn’t push it)
deadlift - 385 (maxed at 335 for a triple)
Then I tried conjugate method for a bit because I wanted to train oly lifts as well and they don’t seem to fit into 531 very well. I’ve been hurt a lot since then and I’m going back to 531.
My question is, has anyone managed to train oly lifts while doing 531 and if so, how? I’m open to all suggestions even if the suggestion is “stupid idea”
Thanks in advance!