So I can switch to 5’s PRO right now, and go with SSL instead of FSL to bump up the volume/intensity?
Also, my last week 1+, I got 8-10 reps depending on the lift.
Ideally, finish the cycles you’re doing, take the deload/TM test week and start with 5’s Pro, SSL. It’s straightforward and same as before:
3 weeks SSL
increase TM
3 weeks SSL
deload week, increase TM
3 weeks anchor (PR sets + FSL, PR sets + jokers + FSL, Beyond, etc.)
deload/TM test week, increase/tweak TM as necessary
start back
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Will finish this cycle and start with 5’s PRO as leaders and PR sets as anchors. Is it a smart thing to do to have different assistance lifts during the leaders and anchors?
I don’t have enough experience to give you a sure reply.
If by “assistance” you mean the supplemental lifts (the work you do with FSL, SSL, BBB etc), then I guess no, it’s not a good idea switching them so often. If you’re doing a variation on your supplemental (i.e. back squat main work, front squat 5x5SSL) you want to give it time to see if and how the variation works, stick to it for months, one year.
If you front squat for 6 weeks (leader) then switch back to back squats for 3 weeks (anchor), then again back to front squats for 6 weeks and so on, it gets inconsistent.
There are instances when I think it makes sense - i.e., I personally front squat as my main squat, so I usually front squat both in the main and supplemental work.
If a program calls for 5x10 or 1x20 supplemental, tho, I’ll do it with back squats, because they’re more suited to those rep schemes.
But this is not the case for 5’s Pro SSL or PR sets + 5x5FSL.
If by assistance you mean the actual assistance stuff, the smaller exercises you do after main and supplemental, like dips, chins, leg raises, rows and so on, then I think the general consensus and going by Forever, you can change it as much as you want even each week, as long as you use common sense.
A lot of people don’t program it strictly or just write down some guidelines, then autoregulate the workout day.
I.e. you might start with the idea of doing 50 dips on Monday for your 50 reps of pushing assistance, but after the main and supplemental work you decide you prefer to scale it back to pushups or triceps pushdowns - that’s fine. Or maybe do 25 dips, then 25 pushdowns, that’s fine.
The general notion of assistance work is that what counts is you’re putting the work in, use good bang for buck exercises and don’t go overboard with weight/reps to the point it kills you.
I was talking assistance indeed as the assistance stuff. Right now I’m going with 3 sets of X reps for each category, that works fine for me and is easy to keep track off. If you’d like to see my routine that I just made and want to criticize it, I can’t write it down in this thread.
I’m not remotely knowledgeable enough to criticize a whole routine, other guys who posted here are much more reliable.
But SSL is very straightfoward (and efficient, I’ve read, not sure if in Forever, Beyond or a post here, that Jim uses it for people who stall on a lift, seems you can’t go wrong with it): do 5’s Pro for main work, do 5x5 SSL for supplemental (either same lift or variation), do 25-50 reps of assistance work in each category.
Unless you really really screw things up with assistance stuff (can’t even think how), it’s pretty much impossible to go wrong
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What about assistance volume during leaders and anchors? More volume on the leaders (5’s PRO) and less on the anchor (PR Sets)? Or doesn’t it change?
For assistance volume, you have to look at the whole thing - main work + supplemental work.
As a generic rule, for assistance, you have LESS volume in the Leaders and MORE volume in the Anchors.
This is because the Leaders have more/more intense supplemental work, while the Anchors have a more intense main work (in terms of %s and AMRAP sets) but the volume and intensity in supplemental work is reduced - this allows to have more assistance work and/or more cardio being done.
(It’s not always like these, some programs have the same number of reps in both Leader and Anchor, but this is the generic rule)
If you’re doing SSL, which is a Leader, you have 5’s Pro followed by 5x5SSL, and it calls for 25-50 reps of each assistance category.
If you do PR Sets for Anchor, it has the original 5/3/1 %s for main work, followed by 5x5FSL for supplemental, and the recommendation is 50-100 reps of each assistance category.
This is how they’re listed in Forever - there are two good recommended tweaks for the PR Set: one is to make it a 3/5/1 setup (so first week is the “medium” week of sets of 3 leading to AMRAP, second is the “light” week of sets of 5 and third one is the heavy week of sets of 5/3/1+) and second is to make the light week, the “5” one, without AMRAP set at the end.
So you’d do: (first week) 70%x3, 80%x3, 90%x3+; (second week) 65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5; (third week) 75%x5, 85%x3, 95%x1+.
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