Is 6-4-2 Adequate for 5-3-1 Substitute?

Hi Andy,

When I gathered all my weights and equipment for my garage gym a while back, I never really considered that I might actually get strong enough that I could run out of room on the bar (good problem I guess). I've never been this strong before and it honestly never crossed my mind. I have a lot of bumpers (instead of iron plates) and am literally about to run out of room on the bar. I LP'd about this time last year, ran it for about four months (I'm 41 yo) and then transitioned to Int training. I did a 4-day split for a little while before COVID, then HLM through quarantine while I was stuck at home, only eating and sleeping and training; then started back to work in late July, so I started your 4-day, Heavy/Light Split, rotating 5's, 3's and 1's each week like is described in BBRx, but started to run out of room when I get to the singles on DL. I thought 6-4-2 would allow me some more "space on the bar" until there are some iron plates available that don't require a mortgage payment. (Btw, my goals are to get to the 200-300-400-500 marks by Christmas, and I'm not too far off - somewhere around 20 lbs away on the BP, Sqt and DL - already over 200# Press) Thoughts???

If you are limited by equipment, then do what you have to do. It would still be good to get some heavy singles in the rotation, especially if this could last for a while. So, you could potentially make for a heavier single at a lighter weight by changing the variant of the lifts (DL form a deficit, SQ with a slow descent or pause, etc.).

Another question about this program...how much does it matter if the 5’s, 3’s, and 1’s are cycled weekly? Is it better (or worse) to simply run each rep range as long as possible? Would it provide better/more accurate data to run ea rep range as long as possible bf moving on to the next one?

You can run each rep range out, yes. Sully has a version of that in the Barbell Prescription.

You don't 'need' heavy singles to build strength. Also, I doubt switching to 6, 4, 2 is enough difference to produce enough stress.