5/3/1 Older Lifter

[PapaBear59]

Good evening,

I am approaching my mid-fifties, I did SS followed by TM and happy with the results. As I have gotten older I have found Wendler's 5/3/1 works best for me. I am not an athlete nor compete. I just like to lift. I have set up the following based on what I have read of Jim's program and taking my age into consideration. What are your thoughts.

Thanks

Monday
Cleans 3/2/1
Squat 5/3/1
SLDL STT*
Leg Raise 3x10

Tuesday 5/3/1
Bench press
Press STT*
Chins 3x10
Dips 3x5

Thursday
Deadlift 5/3/1
Squat SST*
Back Extensions 3x5
Leg Raise 3x10

Friday
Military press 5/3/1
Bench press SST*
Rows 3x10
Curls 3x10

SST Progression

Week 1 50%x10, 60%x10, 70%x10
Week 2 60%x8, 70%x8, 80%x6
Week 3 65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5
Week 4 40%x5, 50%x5, 60%x5

[Tom Campitelli]

Baker or some of the other cats here may have some input, but here are a few thoughts.

If you want to do power cleans, and in your mid-fifties you may not want to do them, you probably will not apply a 3/2/1 rep scheme. I would start with 5 triples and work that as long as I could adding one or two pounds at a time, eventually going to six doubles when it gets heavy enough and then eight or ten singles. By the time you are down to singles, you could go off of a clock, every 60 or 90 seconds. All this for sets across.

I am not much of a fan of stiff legged deadlifts, especially not for sets of 10. I'd consider dropping them, or doing something else. Baker does more DL assistance stuff and may not agree. Also, what is the difference between SST and STT? There seems to be a lot of complexity here and I just did some deadlifts this evening myself, so I am not up to the task of looking more closely at this. I am going to punt on this and wait for the others to chime in.

[PapaBear59]

Thanks for your response. It is suppose to be SST for everything. It comes from Jims Simplest Strength Template. Thanks for the advice on the cleans. I quit doing them awhile back but have been wrestling with adding them in again but cutting back on the weight and volume. As I am getting older I keep looking for ways to keep getting stronger without tearing myself up.

[Bryan Dobson]

I like it and use have used sst for a few cycles. If long term progress and sustained recovery sound attractive do the same thing and do a 3 day a week program that takes 5+ weeks per cycle. There really is no reason to rush things unless you have a pending competitive agenda which you say you don't .

[Tom Campitelli]

Thanks for your response. It is suppose to be SST for everything. It comes from Jims Simplest Strength Template. Thanks for the advice on the cleans. I quit doing them awhile back but have been wrestling with adding them in again but cutting back on the weight and volume. As I am getting older I keep looking for ways to keep getting stronger without tearing myself up.

Is his SST variant in the 2nd edition of 5/3/1? I only have the first. Although on further Googling, it looks like he might have written something on T-Nation about it, too. Whatever the case, I will let someone else chime in here.

[PapaBear59]

Is his SST variant in the 2nd edition of 5/3/1?

It is in his second edition.