Always one for frequency, my 17 year old brain decided 531 wasn’t high frequency enough, and while maybe there are “official Wendler variants” now that would fullfil my frequency habit, at the time (early 2012) there wasn’t so I did my own thing taking the training percentages but turning the frequency way up.
Firstly I didn’t use training maxes, I used my actual maxes.
I went A/B M-F (Sat too when incline was up) on incline bench and military press.
I squatted M/W/F at percentage. Front squats for warm up sets. On Tue/Thur I did front squats BBB 5×10 at 95-115 usually, and probably some moderate deadlifting.
No “4th week” (more like 4th session the way I ran it) deload. Fuck deloads! I was hitting a three week cycle weekly or every other week depending on the lift. Months of as written packed into each month.
I don’t remember deadlifting at percentage, just going “boring but big” 5-10×10 at 225lbs. I had a workout where the finisher was 10×10 @ 225 with maybe 15 second rest periods.
Most of the school year Friday had been drop the squat and deadlift instead day, so Friday was where I did the challenge deadlifting reps.
Monday through Friday assistance would’ve been dips “boring but big” lightly weighted 5×8-12 or 15, superset with dumbbell rows, self supported, hand on knee, usually the 75lber,
matching reps each hand with the dips. I did leg curls too. Sometimes other stuff too.
Warmup was 500 revolutions on the jump rope, and shoulder dislocates.
Cooldown could be the warmup again but was usually stairs or bleachers, sometimes both, jump rope then bleachers. I got a lot in during those last 20 minutes. “Distance” days on the bleachers would equate to a 5k at 235lbs in 20 minutes. “Sprint” days happened too.
Weekends I’d often hit high rep light squats (sets of 30 via Dan John’s bulking made simple ie 2-4×30 with 95-155lbs, as break in for…)
My next period was a run towards squatting bodyweight x 50. At 225lbs I got bored of it at 50 x 195lb just before graduation.
(At 20 I hit 37×225 at 225.)
Nothing as written (by someone other than me that is), and I was strongly inspired by reading
“5/3/1 for the injured weightlifter”.
https://www.elitefts.com/education/rehab-recovery/a-twist-on-531-for-a-recovering-weightlifter/
This was basically the fastest weight room numbers progress of my life, particularly on incline bench where what was my 1rm became something like failing rep 14 with an extra 10 lbs. I repped out every top set. 5/3/1 was more like 12/8/5. Barely shy of 18. Annoyed by the lacrosse teams presence in what was practically my weight room.
Until the hockey coach/gym teacher started locking it to lift by himself, I had a barebones barbell gym mostly to myself with brief bench n curler and/or lacrosse team forays.
The only other regular being “weight room guy”, a very fit 50yo, who seemed like prior military or a cop. He’d be on his way in as I left. No student knew his name, letting himself in, he had a key to all sports facilities from being a basketball coach around 20 years prior.
I controlled the boom box playing burnt CDs, mixtapes of stuff only I knew.
It was an interesting time.
That year was where I truly began to love the weights, doing my own programs.