Beefcake with 5s Pro or 5/3/1+?

I’ve bought beyond 531 as I was looking to change my training and have read good things about it on the forum. I wanted to run BBB Beefcake with the 5/3/1+ as my set up for the core lifts however tonight I’ve read some posts that say I should be using 5’s pro with this particular template. I’m also aware to learn about 5’s pro I’ll need 531 forever. Is running beefcake with 531+ still an acceptable set up.

That is untrue. It is in Beyond 5/3/1, and all over Jim’s website.

Do sets of 5 for all the main work, no matter what.

You just learned 5s pro.

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I’ve read a lot of your posts and you’re one of the reasons I want to give 531 a go as you’re physique is very impressive. Can beefcake be run with the 531+ setup?

I appreciate the kind words. However, I have never run Beefcake: can’t personally speak to it.

Maybe I’m just overthinking it and I’ll just run it for the set amount of weeks and see how I progress and just get the work done. From what I can see it’s not too dissimilar to other BBB except the dips and chins on squat days and rows when pressing.

At the very least I’ll be in the routine of running 531 percentages and if I’m not progressing I can try one of the other templates/variations.

If I were you, I’d give it a try with 5’s PRO first. I ran BBB for some time, and I can tell you the supplemental work is very tiring even when not done with all the added challenges of beefcake. If you do a pr set before you begin your 5x10, you might burn out by set 3-4 of supplemental work.

That’s not what you want. You want to keep main work to a minimum to allow yourself to have enough energy so you can push the 5x10 enough to make it the driver for progress.

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The best set up would be:

5’s PRO + BBB for two cycles (6 weeks) + assistance. The leaders.
531 + 5x5 FSL for one cycle (3 weeks) + assistance. The anchor.

Thanks for the replies guys. What would happen in the week 3 if you didn’t hit the 5 reps would you just do it as a cluster set?

Thanks I’ll do 6 weeks of 5’s pro BBB Beefcake deload and then 3 weeks of 531 FSL 5x5.

No. If you can’t hit 5 reps then your TM is too high and it needs to be lowered.

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JT is right. With 531 BBB the idea is to get volume in. The newer versions normally use something around your 5 rep max as your TM. Too low is better than too high.

I made this mistake when I first started 531 as I was chasing a number, which is like chasing a bad bet. You just go deeper into the hole.

Keep TM low, get volume, build, deload, change programme to lower volume and go for PRs.

If you’re using 5’s pro do you base your calculations on 85% of your 1rm as opposed to 90%?

Either, but if you’re doing 5 pros it normally means you’re doing a lot of supplemental volume. So I’d go with 85%

Edit: I’d just go with 85 anyway. Some of his programmes recommend 80

Great thanks for the reply. Got my percentages good to go. Have gone cautious with my 1 rep max numbers and used 85%, will run 6 weeks of this as suggested, deload and then hit 3 weeks of 5/3/1 FSL 5x5, before going for pros 5 BBB but with a different variation as opposed to beefcake.
I think That’s correct from the suggestions made. Thanks for all your replies guys much appreciated

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