Hi Guys
I just thought I would start a new topic discussing Jim Wendlers 531 program. My training goal this year to try and get my 5RM safety bar box squat up to 180kg while maintaining my bodyweight of about 77-78kg.
I am only using it for the squat purposes so I don't do the bench press, deadlift etc days, and as mentioned in my front squat harness thread, it isn't specifically for vertical jump - more on that shortly.
It is advertised as the simplest strength program ever or something like that and I tend to agree. The actual workouts themselves involve a simple setup to follow and for me once a week I follow the 531 workout using the safety bar box squat as my exercise of choice. Then I do some assistance exercises (usually GHR and split squats) and then i am done. If time is allows or is lacking I can add or reduce the assistance work as required because the overall 531 portion is pretty quick to perform.
There is also a simple progression built into the program where you start off the first cycle by taking 10% off your 1RM and then working from there and at the end of each 4 week cycle you add 10 or 5 pounds (I can't remember the specifics exactly, I think it as 10 pounds for lower body, and 5 pounds for upper body, I could be wrong).
Anyway I have been using the 531 model for about 20 weeks (5 cycles) and have improved my squat from 147.5kg for 1 rep up to 152.5kg for 10 reps last weekend. I am not sure what my current 1RM is because I haven't tested it since the beginning. You only re-test it when your gains stall out at which point you then go back to the start (i.e. removing 10% off the new 1Rm and working form that figure).
Anyway, I have attached a 6 cycle spreadsheet you can use for any 2 main exercises. In the spreadsheet I have used the TB deadlift off a box and the safety bar box squat. My estimated 1RM's at the beginning where 160 and 150 respectively (I rounded up on the squat).
If you want to use the spreadsheet you just change the name of the exercises (in the blue cells) to whatever exercise you want to do, and then enter your 1RM's in the yellow cells and it will populate the cycles with the loads to use for the 6 cycles. Weights are in kg.
As you can see from file I have also used split squat and GHR as my assistance exercises but feel free to use whatever you want.
Also earlier I stated that I wasn't using this for vertical jump reasons. You could however easily add some more of a vertical jump flavor by simply adding in a day or two of jumping drills, or as I often like to do, adding in some simple jumping drills as part of the assistance exercises. On a strength day I like to finish with a few sets of seated jumps or hurdle jumps.
Jack
