Squat programming Post LP (critiques welcome)

[eavdr10]

Finished up NLP and was considering continuing it at a 3x3 clip for squat. I am not eating in a surplus, and I don’t compete, but I am looking to continue getting strong. I am 6 feet, 39 yo male, I weigh 220 pounds and my last best 3x5 was for 365 pounds. I decided to run something like this instead of the 3’s, so I can stick with 5’s, please chime in.

Monday
5x5 at 80 percent of previous Friday’s weight

Wednesday
2x5 at 90 percent of previous Friday’s weight

Friday
1x5 New PR for set of Five ( add 5 pounds following Friday if completed )

My body weight has been pretty much staying around 220, and I plan to keep it around there. Is this programming sustainable? I go for 380 lbs 1x5 this Friday, but 375 for 5 was pretty grindy.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Looks familiar.

[eavdr10]

Haha. Yes. I know there’s many different tweeks running around out there, but my main concern, which I forgot to mention in OP, was regarding percentages. It seems 5x5 at 90 percent has been the more frequently used percentage for volume day, i’m At 80 percent. Still feels like a pretty rigorous workout, but was wondering if you guys feel more beneficial to go with 90 percent for 5x5, and then back it off to 80 percent on Wednesday?

[Satch12879]

Have you looked at these articles?

Minimum Effective Dose for Maximum Strength | Matt Reynolds

Minimum Effective Dose for Maximum Strength, Part 2 | Matt Reynolds

To summarize, it's probably better to not go whole hog on swapping out your programming. Also, your modifications will be informed by your training history. Small moves.

[Michael Wolf]

A slight wrinkle I've found to be quite useful, and very much in line with the MED idea, is to increase the stress by making what was previously the mid-week light day a little harder. By the end of LP, most people's light day is basically just a warm-up, since they're still so beat from the heavy squats a few days prior.

So for your MED change, you bring Monday's weight/% down because you have to in order to do any volume, but bring Wednesday's volume and weight up a bit, so your overall combo of work between Mon and Wed is greater than it was during the LP. Then Friday is your intensity day.

In this case it might be something like:

Monday: 3x5 @345
Weds: 3x5 @315
Fri: 1x5 @380

[eavdr10]

Have you looked at these articles?



Minimum Effective Dose for Maximum Strength | Matt Reynolds

Minimum Effective Dose for Maximum Strength, Part 2 | Matt Reynolds

To summarize, it's probably better to not go whole hog on swapping out your programming. Also, your modifications will be informed by your training history. Small moves.

Awesome. Thanks!

[eavdr10]

A slight wrinkle I've found to be quite useful, and very much in line with the MED idea, is to increase the stress by making what was previously the mid-week light day a little harder. By the end of LP, most people's light day is basically just a warm-up, since they're still so beat from the heavy squats a few days prior.

So for your MED change, you bring Monday's weight/% down because you have to in order to do any volume, but bring Wednesday's volume and weight up a bit, so your overall combo of work between Mon and Wed is greater than it was during the LP. Then Friday is your intensity day.

In this case it might be something like:

Monday: 3x5 @345
Weds: 3x5 @315
Fri: 1x5 @380

Sounds good. Good stuff, appreciate your input guys. Thanks!