Lower body 5 3 1...

[Edward Fraser]

I'm thinking of in addition to gymnastic workouts on a Killroy style template 4 times a week of adding 2 days a week of Wendlers 5 3 1 program but only the squat and deadlift.

here's a link to the program:

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_art ... e_strength

I know there's a big thing about following Wendler's program to the letter but frankly I don't want to use BP and MP for upper body work. I'm interested in using these lifts to improve lower body strength while continuing to progress with the gymnastic stuff for upper body.

So I think I'm going to experiment with this anyway but I just wanted some opinions,I know Blairbob at least has played around with this program and I'm sure others have too, so any and all advice welcome.

Thanks

[Blairbob]

thats why i kept it simple with BP and OHP since they were merely to be used as assistance exercises to BW FBE.

For now, I'm using DB BP with the DB turned out and my body in a hollow body on the bench. I may use either a bar for OHP or DB. Not sure.

Looking back on this year, I wish I would have used more lower body assistance exercises, possibly even DE squats on DL days and DE DL on squat days and front squats as just assistance work instead of a seperate day. Then again, I enjoyed going to the gym a 3rd day of the week on saturdays to just much around.

[acegerter]

I did his program for 2 months this summer and loved it :-)... i omitted the overhead press day because i did hand balancing for 1-3 hours everyday, 2 days of ring strength as well as other basic gymnastics strength everyday.

I had never really squatted or deadlifted until this summer and loved the program. When I started it I literally had never done a barbell DL and 2 months later I was able to pull ~245! Best part about it is that it doesn't get boring at all

definitely recommend it!

[Blairbob]

To note, DB BP seems very easy to recover from. Might only be useful as an assistance exercise unfortunately.

[Edward Fraser]

Thanks for the replies, hmm maybe I will include some BP or OHP with dumbells to assist the bodyweight stuff in that case.

That's pretty cool acegerter seems like most who follow the program find it enjoyable as well as effective.

Didthe strength increase improve your gymnastics skills(tumbling maybe)?

thanks again

ed

[Blairbob]

I noticed slowly because I wasn't tumbling or vaulting much till about summer. Maybe 1-2x/week if that. On days that I was tired at the gym, I'd do event work but skip tumbling and vault. This happened a lot since workouts were at 830-1130 or so. End of the day.

[acegerter]

I gave up tumbling a long time ago, my back just can't handle it anymore. The lifts would definitely help with landings and protecting lower extremities.

interesting note: my back problems seemed to fade away after the cycles! thats probably one of the reasons I'm going to jump back into it

[Blairbob]

Weak posterior chain, not good. Strengthen posterior chain, good.

[Edward Fraser]

I gave up tumbling a long time ago, my back just can't handle it anymore. The lifts would definitely help with landings and protecting lower extremities.

interesting note: my back problems seemed to fade away after the cycles! thats probably one of the reasons I'm going to jump back into it

That's cool about the back. I don't tumble either I was just curious really. Well I'm definitely gonna give it a go probably in the new year, should be fun.

Weak posterior chain, not good. Strong posterior chain, good.

One other question, how do you see the upper body stuff fitting alongside the gymnastics? Is there an argument(apart from enjoyment) to include it?

[Blairbob]

Ehh, it's probably not that necessary. I was originally considering doing just a lower body 531 but I like overhead pressing. I somewhat like bench but I'm a bit wary of it because a few years my shoulder mobility just didn't like it then (it's fine now) and I don't have a spotter ( I used a smith machine BP for one cycle ) and benched inside a power rack the rest of the cycles.

Recently, I played around with DB BP but turning out my hands as if RTO or undergripping the bar. However, I noticed that what was my max worksets wasn't really taxing based on what I felt like the next day and the difference in load compared to my barbell bench. 65x2 compared to my BP which is 190-200 (tested a month ago and roughly 10% down from this summer after a training lull of 6 weeks to 15). So I may try benching in undergrip and may use the smith machine.

I think that OHP and BP could be useful as assistance work towards Upper body Gymnastics development. In my case, I probably wasn't recovering optimally when I used it but was doing the best I could.

What I do think is that the barbell accessory work might be a stop gap solution until I can perform full ROM HSPU on parallettes again. I could probably do 1 as a max or 3 graduated HSPU on parallettes to my ear but either solution was taxing to the point that I couldn't do that with a lot of volume but dipping wasn't all that tasking. I started doing PB weighted dips but couldn't find the reps and sets formula because even when breaking down the %'s, I could not complete the assigned reps by sets (calculated from an 80lb weighted dip@170).

[Quick Start Test Smith]

Does anyone have the web link to the automatic 5/3/1 program calculator?

[Quick Start Test Smith]

Never mind, I found it. It can be reached here: http://www.blackironbeast.com/5/3/1/calculator