Coming Back with Beyond 531 and Raquetball?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Jim Wendler 5/3/1 Coaching
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Jim - I had the best meet of my life last April at the USSF in Kansas City (I took third overall and hit a major DL PR), but I put on twenty pounds and generally beat the shit out of myself training up for it. I was proud, but felt like shit, and since I’m 39 and I’ve been at this since I was 14, I figured it might be time to get out of competing.

I’ve since lost 42 pounds (from 238 to 196) while completing some pretty major goals (e.g., I can hit 20 strict pull-ups, my time in a mile run is under six minutes). I’ve started to get the powerlifting bug back, and a couple weeks ago while just fuck’n around with one of my training partners in the garage, I pulled 500 for an easy triple (est. 1RM = 550) even though I haven’t touched a heavy barbell since the USSF back in April (where I hit 585).

The point is that I’ve barely lost anything in the DL despite the fact I’ve become something of a skinny bastard. I think I’m going to see what I can do competing at 198. So here are my questions:

(A) I think Beyond 531 is the way to go For me. My plan is to start easing back in with just two days/week, and slowly build up to however many days I can handle. On Friday I’ll BP using B531 and Sunday will be DL B531. After DLing (instead of down sets) I plan to add SQs progressing week by week from sets of ten, to eights, fives, and eventually singles. I’m a bit reluctant to jump into a higher intensity template for the SQ after losing so much weight. Once I’ve felt things out for several weeks, I’ll start adding B531 SQ sessions. Does this sound like a reasonable approach, or would something like the the 75-85% volume approach make more sense for an older guy who is only interested in strength gains (I’m not afraid of mass, but it’s not a priority)?

(B) Over the last few months I’ve run in with a group of buddies who pay racquetball. We play twice/week for about an hour and a half, and it’s some pretty intense conditioning. Whatever one might think of racquet sports, it’s fun as he’ll just getting after competition regularly. I realize that this will compromise strength gains to some degree, but do you think it’s something that will simply not mix with B531? My hunch is that I will be OK, since I kept about 95% of my DL over a period of several months during which I was running 5-10K three times/week. Of course, I’m going to taper my condittiong now overall. (Distance running and powerlifting don’t mix.)

Thanks for your time!

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[quote]jmadden wrote:
Jim - I had the best meet of my life last April at the USSF in Kansas City (I took third overall and hit a major DL PR), but I put on twenty pounds and generally beat the shit out of myself training up for it. I was proud, but felt like shit, and since I’m 39 and I’ve been at this since I was 14, I figured it might be time to get out of competing.

I’ve since lost 42 pounds (from 238 to 196) while completing some pretty major goals (e.g., I can hit 20 strict pull-ups, my time in a mile run is under six minutes). I’ve started to get the powerlifting bug back, and a couple weeks ago while just fuck’n around with one of my training partners in the garage, I pulled 500 for an easy triple (est. 1RM = 550) even though I haven’t touched a heavy barbell since the USSF back in April (where I hit 585).

The point is that I’ve barely lost anything in the DL despite the fact I’ve become something of a skinny bastard. I think I’m going to see what I can do competing at 198. So here are my questions:

(A) I think Beyond 531 is the way to go For me. My plan is to start easing back in with just two days/week, and slowly build up to however many days I can handle. On Friday I’ll BP using B531 and Sunday will be DL B531. After DLing (instead of down sets) I plan to add SQs progressing week by week from sets of ten, to eights, fives, and eventually singles. I’m a bit reluctant to jump into a higher intensity template for the SQ after losing so much weight. Once I’ve felt things out for several weeks, I’ll start adding B531 SQ sessions. Does this sound like a reasonable approach, or would something like the the 75-85% volume approach make more sense for an older guy who is only interested in strength gains (I’m not afraid of mass, but it’s not a priority)?

(B) Over the last few months I’ve run in with a group of buddies who pay racquetball. We play twice/week for about an hour and a half, and it’s some pretty intense conditioning. Whatever one might think of racquet sports, it’s fun as he’ll just getting after competition regularly. I realize that this will compromise strength gains to some degree, but do you think it’s something that will simply not mix with B531? My hunch is that I will be OK, since I kept about 95% of my DL over a period of several months during which I was running 5-10K three times/week. Of course, I’m going to taper my condittiong now overall. (Distance running and powerlifting don’t mix.)

Thanks for your time![/quote]

So let me get this right - you almost pull a PR, not doing anything. But your plan is to crazy with volume?

Do 1 6 week cycle of the standard 531 program but with the 5’s progresion - 85% TM, no PR’s.

After that see where you are at (not by testing but by feel). As for the racquetball, we would play everyday after football practice at USAFA. Nothing happened to me or my strength or playing football. If racquetball hurts your gains, I’d be surprised. Don’t worry about it and it won’t be an issue. If you believe it will be an issue, then it will.

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Thanks Jim! I appreciate the help.