Quote (Excusemem8 @ Jul 18 2017 06:39am)
Just to note im strictly talking for strength training
Squats can benefit from work @ less than 80%, as low as 70% can still be beneficial if you adjust the reps up. Stopping all sets at 5 (or 3) regardless of whether you find it easy or not is hardly optimal. 531 gives you trackable and consistently overloading programming which is good, but extremely slow, it verges on under training imo. The most optimal session will be working at your maximal recoverable rate. By doing 'easy' sets of 5, then having enough energy to do an AMRAP of 5+ on your final set - say you get 8 solid reps in to almost failure. That means all the previous sets you stopped 3 - 3.5 reps short of failure. Thats almost like a warm up.
You could auto regulate 531 so that you didnt stop at the prescribed reps ever, but kept going till you have 1 rep left in you and repeat till you reach failure (same as an amrap essentially) but even then i dont like the 1 x week frequency of 531. The boring but big template of 531 changes this to 1 x per week + another day of supplemental movement so its like 1.5 x frequency, and its something dumb IIRC like 5 x 10 squats lol g times
Every one is different but bench should be trained in 80%+
Although the movements are the most important part, the 531 I'm doing "North of vag" emphasizes on accessory work and conditioning as well.
And there really is only ONE easy set, and that's week one set one.. 65.. Week two set one starts you off at 70%, and week 3 is 75% for 5 reps.
I feel like the 531 is a great starting block with literally THOUSANDS of variants in the program. Mine, I pull heavy singles every other week, throw in a few sets of accessory movements and a bunch of static core work, and a lot of conditioning.
Getting strong isn't all about lifting heavy mang, you have to train speed into your lifts.. That's why 60-75% is beneficial.
Slow progress is still progress 👍
This post was edited by ozzyarmy3 on Jul 18 2017 07:15am