Advice for future mesocycles

[mcc23]

Hey guys, I wanted to see if I can get some good feedback regarding the direction my lifting regimen should take..First things first, I've been running 5/3/1 for 16 weeks. I just finished up my 4th cycle..I figured it would be best to incorporate periodization techniques as opposed to sticking w/ the same program till I stall.. My assistance exercises have all been in the 6-8 rep range for the prescribed 5 sets. So the majority of my training as of late has been Strength focused and assistance being geared towards myofibrillar hypertrophy. I've been considering doing 2 weeks of sarcoplasmic/pump type training in between either my 5/3/1 split or my own custom designed strength/hypertrophy regimen..
From what I understand, the lighter weight/higher repetition "pump" work has its own benefits..It isn't as taxing on the CNS (which is good for me b/c I've had some CNS fatigue b/c of low cals), promotes increased capillary density, stretches muscle fascia, allows for extra "aesthetic" exercises to be performed, etc..I think something along the lines of either 2 5/3/1 cycles, or 6-8 weeks of strength work (custom routine ~10 sets/week per large muscle group e.g. Chest, back, legs, shoulders) staying within 1-5 reps, and 6-8 sets/week for secondary movers (biceps, triceps, calf work) for 6-12 reps..Follow this with either a deload week, or jump straight into my 2 weeks of all higher repetition higher volume lifting.This is a rough outline for what I plan on doing.. Advice, additions, opinions are welcome..

 

[Torobestia]

Sorry, it was a little hard to follow you for a bit. Looks like your primary concern is to cycle onto a meso dedicated to hypertrophy since you've been doing a strength meso for a while now. A secondary concern is that you were following a static routine with no periodization and feared plateauing soon.

Your secondary concern first: there are a number of ways to train this to avoid plateauing in 5/3/1. Of course deloading your main lifts is one way. But say you're advancing your main lifts and start stalling on the accessory work. One solution is to simply swap what you're doing for accessory work. Instead of RDLs, start doing good mornings, or straight leg deadlifts. Instead of glose grip benching, do JM presses, or tate presses, or rolling extensions, etc. Periodization bible is one of my favorite templates that will help you continually make progress for longer periods of time, and it's just about filling in the skeleton. Another thing you can do is just switch up accessory templates for a little while.

I might be repeating stuff you know, but it seemed like you had an issue here so just throwing my 2c.

Now to your other issue. Instead of going balls-out on your core lifts (5/3/1 work) you would go balls-out and push the accessory work. This is the hypertrophy method. You can play around with rep scheme and see which works best for you, but I would start out 8-15 reps. When you approach your core lifts, hit them and hit them hard, but you don't need to hit PRs. Eat accordingly, and this should lead to growth. When you finish your hypertrophy meso, then you can switch back to your strength meso where your focus is on pushing 5/3/1 lifts.

 

[mcc23]

I figured you're supposed to match/surpass each weeks reps for both main lift as well as supplementary ones that follow.. Ex cycle 1 week 1 (5 reps) you hit 200 on bench..Cycle 2, after you've upped the max 5 lbs, you go to hit that 5th or 6th rep @ 205 lbs. That would be the goal, or else you didn't get any stronger throughout the course of the previous cycle..And when the assistance work comes around, you should still be striving to match/surpass the amount of reps you did in your previous workout..Yes? According to the response above, you pick one or the other to focus on.. I was under the impression that you're supposed to improve on both the main compound lift as well as increase the reps/weight for accessory work..I didn't read anywhere in Wendler's book that you're supposed to focus on one or the other..I feel by running through 2 cycles of 5/3/1, followed by a deload, then 1-2 weeks of higher repetition work would be enough stimulus for growth, but not too much to drain the CNS..

 

[mcc23]

Sorry, it was a little hard to follow you for a bit. Looks like your primary concern is to cycle onto a meso dedicated to hypertrophy since you've been doing a strength meso for a while now. A secondary concern is that you were following a static routine with no periodization and feared plateauing soon.

Your secondary concern first: there are a number of ways to train this to avoid plateauing in 5/3/1. Of course deloading your main lifts is one way. But say you're advancing your main lifts and start stalling on the accessory work. One solution is to simply swap what you're doing for accessory work. Instead of RDLs, start doing good mornings, or straight leg deadlifts. Instead of glose grip benching, do JM presses, or tate presses, or rolling extensions, etc. Periodization bible is one of my favorite templates that will help you continually make progress for longer periods of time, and it's just about filling in the skeleton. Another thing you can do is just switch up accessory templates for a little while.

I might be repeating stuff you know, but it seemed like you had an issue here so just throwing my 2c.

Now to your other issue. Instead of going balls-out on your core lifts (5/3/1 work) you would go balls-out and push the accessory work. This is the hypertrophy method. You can play around with rep scheme and see which works best for you, but I would start out 8-15 reps. When you approach your core lifts, hit them and hit them hard, but you don't need to hit PRs. Eat accordingly, and this should lead to growth. When you finish your hypertrophy meso, then you can switch back to your strength meso where your focus is on pushing 5/3/1 lifts.

I figured you're supposed to match/surpass each weeks reps for both main lift as well as supplementary ones that follow.. Ex cycle 1 week 1 (5 reps) you hit 200 on bench..Cycle 2, after you've upped the max 5 lbs, you go to hit that 5th or 6th rep @ 205 lbs. That would be the goal, or else you didn't get any stronger throughout the course of the previous cycle..And when the assistance work comes around, you should still be striving to match/surpass the amount of reps you did in your previous workout..Yes? According to the response above, you pick one or the other to focus on.. I was under the impression that you're supposed to improve on both the main compound lift as well as increase the reps/weight for accessory work..I didn't read anywhere in Wendler's book that you're supposed to focus on one or the other..I feel by running through 2 cycles of 5/3/1, followed by a deload, then 1-2 weeks of higher repetition work, then back to 5/3/1 would be enough stimulus for growth, but not too much to drain the CNS..

 

[Torobestia]

I don't know why you're not understanding what I'm saying. You do increase core lifts, but you're not doing your ball-buster sets at the end. You're hitting the prescribed reps. Why? You're saving some juice for the assistance work. When in a strength meso, you're going balls to the wall on the last 5/3/1 core lift, which leaves less in the tank for your accessory work. In such a phase, you have less juice to push the assistance with, and you do less volume in order to recover faster in order to hit the 5/3/1 stuff harder over the accessory work.

Read pg. 22 of 5/3/1 powerlifting for more info.

 

[mcc23]

I don't know why you're not understanding what I'm saying. You do increase core lifts, but you're not doing your ball-buster sets at the end. You're hitting the prescribed reps. Why? You're saving some juice for the assistance work. When in a strength meso, you're going balls to the wall on the last 5/3/1 core lift, which leaves less in the tank for your accessory work. In such a phase, you have less juice to push the assistance with, and you do less volume in order to recover faster in order to hit the 5/3/1 stuff harder over the accessory work.



Read pg. 22 of 5/3/1 powerlifting for more info.

So it's essentially combining strength/hypertrophy in the same program. Just depends on which portion you put the most emphasis?

 

[Torobestia]

So it's essentially combining strength/hypertrophy in the same program. Just depends on which portion you put the most emphasis?

Bingo. Each does feed into the other somewhat, so you want to be working both at the same time, especially since your end goal appears to be strength related anyways. Hypothetically, if you were to drop your strength work altogether for 6-8 weeks, when you got done with your hypertrophy work and came back to the strength work you may be bigger but may have lost some strength because you weren't doing any strength work. So you would have been simply spinning your wheels that whole time and going backwards in a sense. Fix one parameter, push the other, and alternate as desired depending on what you need to do at that time.