I persoanally love Wendler's 5/3/1, but it really fits my goals. My goals are to keep working out for years to come, without injuring myself, and make slow but steady progress. Plus, I really like to keep things simple.
Now if I was younger and feeling a bit more rushed to make progress, or had a little more room to make some quick progress, I would probably use a basic routine structure but I would use quick linear cycles. I would keep the cycles short, like 4 to 6 weeks, culminating in PRs at the end of each cycle.
The quick cycles gives your body enough time to super-compensate and not reach overtraining. But they are short enough to really keep progress chugging along while you still have it in you to do so. It was such a great way to train.
An example:
Say you squat 245 x 5 right now. You'd take 3 to 4 weeks to work back up to 245 x 5 and a 3 or 4 weeks to surpass it. Then you'd drop the weight and work back up again...
Cycle 1
Week 1 215 x 5
Week 2 225 x 5
Week 3 235 x 5 (start eating!)
Week 4 245 x 5 (old PR)
Week 5 255 x 5
Week 6 265 x 5
Week 7 275 x 4 (fail, start over)
Cycle 2
Week 1 225 x 5
Week 2 235 x 5
Week 3 245 x 5
Week 4 255 x 5
Week 5 265 x 5
Week 6 275 x 5
Week 7 285 x 4 (fail, start over)
You get the idea...
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