I am so grateful to have relationships with both Dave Tate and Jim Wendler. Both are on top of the food chain as far as training is concerned. Yet both prefer different styles of training. I have been fortunate that each of them has helped me program in their preferred method.
During the majority of my high-level days of competing, I followed conjugate/Westside style training. By the time my competition days were over, my body was ravaged. So when I was done competing on that level I figured it would be best to leave that training behind.
Enter 5/3/1. It had been decades since I worked with a sub-max-based program. As it was out of my wheelhouse, it was so nice to have such a simple plug-and-play system. Having easy access to the program creator was also hugely helpful.
The great thing about 5/3/1 is even though the percentages around the main lift are relatively constant, there are dozens of variations to the program. While I was rehabbing from some serious back, shoulder, and hip issues I was very limited in my movement patterns. I had to get the majority of my work from the main lifts as they were the only ones that were not causing me pain.
Over the past 16 months, I have worked extensively on rehabbing my body. During that time I was on what you could call an exercise elimination diet. I was only doing my modified versions of the squat, bench, and deadlift. The volume was high because those were the only exercises I was doing.
Here and there I would try and add an exercise, some took, and some did not. It had to fit two criteria. First, if it hurt anything on my body during the movement, it was out. The other, it could not leave any part of my body aggravated the next day and I’m not talking about the usual muscle soreness.
So I was able to add assistance exercises here and there. Eventually, I reached the point that my body could not recover from the amount of assistance I was doing along with the volume I was getting from the 5/3/1 program I was running.
I could have easily switched to doing the basic 5/3/1 without supplemental volume sets and continue with the assistance I was doing, but I felt it was time for a change. I heard a call to the wild, the call of singles. With an arsenal of assistance exercises, I figured I could take another run at some conjugate training.
Damn, that first session back hitting a single felt awesome! It was just fun. Without realizing it, I think I was tired of the grind of volume. Will my body hold up, only time will tell. Stay tuned.