Fine Tuning my Squat Programming

[crookedfinger]

Andy,
Welcome back! Thank you for what you do here and on your blog. I keep learning and am looking forward to the book. Male, 5’11” 235 41 and a half

Running 531 (31st Cycle) with sets across on squats no deload week. Squat twice a week (medium day and 531) A little over a year ago, per your advice, I moved my 5’s to back off sets. This worked well and is still going strong. However, my triples and singles have been getting tough. This week was the first time I missed sets across on triples.

So:
345x3, 395x3, 445x3 (grind), 445x2 (didn’t have another one in me), 445x1 (yeah that was it) Form got off and I tweaked my back on 395 so its possible this may have contributed (4th day after squatting and my back is still sore, but improving).

Sleep has been good. Diet is good. Stress is normal. Weight is steady.

Pulls on my heavy week are slowing down as well. Still hitting the weight, but reps are dropping a bit. But I am not worried about this and expected it to happen at some point (580 is heavy shit). Only other variable, added in a day of conditioning two weeks ago (Heavyish Prowler or running hils)

I plan on taking a deload week when I finish this cycle. Do I do what I did with 5’s and introduce back off sets for triples as well? Or should I look to do something different? I don’t compete just trying to get strong.
Thanks again. Sincerely.
Mark

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Yeah, try that first. One solid triple then 2x3 at slight decrease. Very heavy triples are generally upwards of 90% of 1rm and its very hard to work volume at that %. 3x3 is kinda medium volume so you are probably pushing your limits. Prowler and especially hills sprints could easily affect squat programming, but probably a good idea to keep them in anyways and just let your body adapt to it. Prowler 1x/week is a very reasonable conditioning protocol. No need to drop it.

[crookedfinger]

Good stuff man. Seriously appreciate it. Clarifying question: how do you define slight decrease? 5% 10%?

Thanks again Andy

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

The stronger you are the bigger the offset will be. As I recall you are a fairly stout fellow, so you'll probably closer to that 10% marker. If you try it and it's not challenging then reduce the % offset a bit. Also, you don't always have to go by %.....sometimes I'll just say - "take 30 lbs off" etc. You are experienced enough to fine tune this within a session or two