Hello! Fellow out-of-shape surfer that wants to get in shape in the water but of course abide by Wendler’s programs as listed in Forever 5/3/1.
I have read Forever 5/3/1 and have a general understand the concept of not overloading the body and try to do everything. I understand how everything works for lower body, and wanted to hear about the upper body equivalent. For instance, you generally want to do prowler, hill sprints, sled, or run on the same day you do squats or deadlift. Of course this means you do not do any single leg assistance work. If you choose to do this kind of conditioning on a press day, it is advised you have a day of rest for the next day. Otherwise it will impact your squat/deadlift.
I assume the same applies for hard swimming sprints? That is to say, do the hard swimming on press day and skip the push and pull assistance? Or is swimming sprints not seen as taxing like prowlers and hill sprints, so you would still do the push and pull assistance work? I didn’t know if they were equivalent and you could apply the same logic.
I’m going to do a program with 5s PRO, 5x5 FSL and I want to do 2 days of hard swimming conditioning. I don’t know whether this is seen as truly taxing on the body or not; thought you guys could give immediate input. I searched the forum but couldn’t find anything. Thanks and I hope I don’t sound like a complete idiot!
Have you considered 2x/week lifting?
In 5/3/1 Forever Jim describes the 2x2x2 concept (2x lift/ 2x condition/ 2x mobility) as one approach.
Another I’m fond of is the one on Busy Taxpayers. Basically in the article the author (A medical student) lifted 2x/week, 2x lifts per session, minimal assistance work (chins and rows if he was feeling good). Being active duty military this was quite meaningful to me.
Hmm that is true, a good option. I could do that too, but I see myself more as a weightlifter than surfer and I have fun doing the former.
To add, I realized Jim’s recommendations about conditioning that I mentioned was ONLY for BBB. I assume he would agree that for what I want to do, I can get away with doing 5’s PRO, 5x5 FSL leader templates and do 2 hard days of swimming and on those days I do what he recommended (which he was VERY specific about).
What I could do is try to do that and if my bar speed ends up slowing down because I am overtraining, I could then do 2x2x2.
I have no experience with swimming, surfing, etc. More over, when one is “out of shape”, it becomes an even bigger deal. It would be irresponsible of me to even venture a guess.
As always, use your head, use your experience and follow the basic principles.
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Thanks Jim for responding and taking the time to really write out EVERYTHING in your new book too. Solid purchase! I really feel like I have you for a personal coach with everything that you lay out.