More aggressive programming after 5/3/1

[VNV]

Coach Mac Ward said recently, elsewhere on this board:

I am also left to wonder why you running TM at your age...TM is tough, and VD is typically not run at 225.

Peanut gallery wants to understand this and hopefully get some guidance on current self-styled programming.

I'm 46 yrs, 5' 7", currently ~ 188 lbs, and exhausted LP about a year ago (maybe longer). At that time (about a year ago) I switched to 5/3/1 until a few weeks ago. 5/3/1 provided an obvious way to space-out my sessions for recovery from self-inflicted groin and shoulder injuries. At that time I was too ignorant to recover using SS techniques; maybe I still am.

After about a year of 5/3/1, I became impatient. My goal is to squat 315 lbs on volume day, pull 405 lbs 5-across, and press 185 (close to bodyweight). It didn't look like I was going to get there. Maybe I was misusing 5/3/1, but I thought I needed to train with more predictable volume and intensity.

So I switched myself to a TM 4-day split (bastardized?); please see below. Intensity day press not shown. Today's ID press target is 147.5x5x1 (1 set of 5). I am alternating intensity bench and intensity press between weeks.

MONDAY

ID Chins + 22.5 lbs to failure (11,11,10)
VD Press 127.5x5x5
Light Bench 185x5x3

TUESDAY

VD Squat 255x5x5
Clean 135x3x5

Rest time between VD squat sets is 6 minutes.

THURSDAY (last)

ID Bench 200x5x1
Light Press 125x5x3

FRIDAY (last)

VD Chins 20x6 (20 sets of 6)
ID Squat 280x3x2
Dead 360x3x2

I've kept up with this for a few weeks. Maybe it will turn and devour me. But for now I'm enjoying the chase. It seems to be chipping away at plateaus on my squat and deadlift. Ruminations and advice would be very welcome.

Thank you,

Vince

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Not a bad set up. My general recommendation for those who stall on 531 but like the set up is to keep the basic template, but change everything to sets across instead of just a single top set to failure

[VNV]

Not a bad set up. ...

Gold! I'm keeping it. Now I have to reread parts of PPST3 for what to do after ID days reach 5 sets of 1.

Thank you Andy,

Vince

[JimtheConquerer]

I admittedly don't own and haven't read PPST3 yet, but I'm just curious, shouldn't there be a Light Squat Day in there somewhere? Or at some point does the lifter remove LD to get to a 4 day split?

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

You can squat light on DL day. Some need a light squat day, some dont

[lifter285]

Do you recommend doing the light squat before deadlift as a warm-up or is that just pretty much a personal preference thing?

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Personal preference