[quote]luigisacs wrote:
dankid wrote:
Ya, I think 12 weeks is too long as well. Im doing westside, and basically every ME day im testing my strength in some sort of indicator lift. And then i retest my bench, squat, deadlift every 4-6 weeks.
OP, there are a ton of different indicators of progress. Sticking with the powerlifts seems logical, since they are what you are mainly training. Maybe just add some RE pr’s for upper body. Something like max set os pullups in 3 sets, and max set of DB bench press with a given weight (80’s, 100’s or 125’s) depending on strength
I’d recommend you do it the above way, or how most people train, with indicators being an indication on progress for the big lifts. It allows a lot more flexibility and almost guarantees progress.
For ex:
Every time you train ME, you are trying to set a PR. These can be 1-5rm’s on any lift that resembles the main ones, but isn’t one of the main ones. (zercher, squats, low box squats, front squats, floor press, board press, incline bench, etc. etc.) Rotate the lifts every 1-3 weeks, and push these up. Then after 4-6 weeks, check your main lifts, and re-evaluate what youve been doing.
This works. If you are benching 300 and can floor press 250 and raise your floor press to 275, you can count on your bench being 315-335. The best part of this type of thing is that you are testing yourself EVERY week, without overtraining. You’ll know on week 2 if you are making progress, or if you need to make a change. There is no need to go 12 weeks before you realize you didn’t get any stronger.
Im not too familiar with 5/3/1, but I believe you are going to do 1,3,and 5rm’s on different weeks, and keep the exercise the same. Also, im not sure if he uses many supplemental lifts (like board press and floor press) or if he just has you do the main lifts. So what I said above might be a littl confusing. Mayb someone more familiar with 5/3/1 can give a better recommendation.
Thanks for your post. I am familiar with the westside methods and have trained that way in the past. I do understand the idea of utilizing other, similar lifts, in lieu of the squat, bench and deadlift. I think I can utilize something similar in my approach. Since I utilize secondary movements, I think I may use those as indicators.
Although the westside protocol you use utilizes movements similar to the big three, you eventually will do the big three(ie, at a meet). Since I do not do meets, I wanted to use those quarterly tests to determine and test my 1RM maximums. I also, wanted to find other movements that I can test every 12 weeks.
I guess what I am trying to do is find other movements to test. I would gear my training to get my totals in those movements up every test day. Similar to how westside works for meet prep.[/quote]
I dont think you need worry about any other lifts. If you are training hard and hittig Pr’s during your cycles on stuff like bench, good morning, squat, deadlift, floor press, etc. You know you are getting stronger, and if you test your main lifts every twelve weeks and all your training lifts are up, you’ll know that the main lifts should be up.
You could always test more, but its probably not necessary. For example, if you hit a PR in squat, bench, and deadlift, sure you can do front squat as well, but it would make sense that if you were going to test your front squat, that you would have been training it during the cycle. And doesn’t 5/3/1 have you doing 5rm, 3rm, and 1rms during the cycle. I could be wrong, and maybe they aren’t ture RM’s but you’ll still know. I just dont see any need to test it if you know what it is already.
I hope you see the direction im heading with this. Like I said this may not make sense if im wrong about 5/3/1, but in the program do you just use bench, squat, deadlift, and standing press, or do you use variations of these, like floor press and board press?
And dont you basically build up to a 5rm in week 1, a 3rm in week 2, and a 1rm in week 3? (These may not be true maxes as he says to avoid failure, but they are pretty close)
And if you do use variations of the main lifts, are you using them for all 3 weeks, or changing it each week? (Ex, incline press x 5rm, floor press x 3rm and board press x 1rm)
If those above questions are all true, you got a ton of indicators going on during each cycle, and even if those aren’t true, you have a ton of options. IMO if you are going to add an additional indicator of strength, it should be something likethe RE Pr’s i mentioned above, since bench, squat and deadlift pretty much covers full body max strength.
Hope this helps, let us know what you decide
***IMO vertical jump is pretty pointless for someone that doesn’t need to jump.
