I’m currently de-loading after two cycles of sheiko (29, 30) and while I have seen great results with it and would love to continue with it, I have football camp starting in 3 weeks and won’t be able to keep up that volume after 4 hours of football including a 45 minute lift. Last summer I did a simple push/pull/legs routine which worked ok where I would work up to a 5x3 and bench, squat, DL, and OHP.
Any thoughts on what I can run for the next 3 months? Current thoughts are west side or cube method although I’m not sure about the volume with the cube method. To my understanding you can pretty much program the volume with west side to whatever you want?
Not 5/3/1 I’ve run that before and only saw gains in the OHP after 4 months. I’d appreciate any advice.
I would say you arent running 531 correctly. You could try a split routine which you might be able to recover from looks like this…
monday
bench intentsity3-5rm
press volume 5x5
tuesday
squat volume 5x5
power cleans
thursday
press intensity 3-5rm
bench volume 5x5
friday
squat intensity3-5rm
deadlift 3-5rm
add some chins in and you have a decent program
I’ve just never had success with low volume really. However, if I’m doing that wouldn’t it make more sense to do a conjugate template with deads first on Thursday?
Cube would definitely be worth a try. I’m not a huge conjugate method fan though, which is ironic because the Cube is basically just simplified Westside with a few key modifications lol.
I kinda get what you’re saying about 5/3/1; I often felt like I never had enough volume on the main lift. The BBB template helped with that. The key to 5/3/1 imo is in the accessory work and also either REALLY going all out on your top set of the main lift or doing some heavy singles with it. Also, I never took the programed deloads unless I really felt like I needed one. For young guys like us it is a bit conservative on some of the principles, but trust me you can get a lot out of it if you attack the program with intensity and believe in it.
Thanks for the input. I’ll probably start running 5/3/1 again during football/wrestling season. Are you running cube right now?
Just thought I’d share my new max’s after the two sheiko cycles. These were done throughout the week.
Age: 17
Weight: 209 lb
Squat: 395 - 40 lb pr
Bench: 335 - 40 lb pr
Deadlift: 455 - 20 lb pr (after 100 up-downs and a half mile run)
Total: 1185 lb
My legs are weak.