Strength / Weight Training

If maintenance and working out is your goal , why a program like 5/3/1 which is specifically designed for progression?

I'm more in it for the "do X & Y on day 1, do Z & A on day 3" rather that the progression aspect of it.

To which end, I guess I'm making my own program that has similar lift.

Consistency will always be a problem - while I would love to commit more, I have higher priorities.

My priorities are to be fit & healthy. Diet & weight is being dealt with, as is cardio. Which means strength an mobility, I suppose.

Yeah , consistency can be hard with a normal life outside the gym . I do think something like 5/3/1 will be a challenge of you can't be consistent though .

Have you looked at the Mike Matthews bigger leaner stronger programs? They have 3 day splits . I really enjoyed doing those workouts, and saw good progress. He has some good advice on balancing diet and strength gains too. All common sense stuff really, but well articulated.

There are a ton of conditioning based programs too which I think fits the brief of fit and healthy

Jim Wendler also has some good articles on mobility drills and conditioning drills too. Some of it is in 5he 5/3/1 books I think, plus some articles online

Edit: it's the DeFranco Agile 8 he recommends for strength based mobility

My elbows hate me, even after a fairly long period of rest over the Christmas/NY period.

How do I make them happy again?

Get a new set engineered? 😁😁😁

Power lifting: bench press, squats and dead lifts. That will hit a lot of muscle groups and won’t take a long time.

That’s effectively Strong Lifts!

Vitamin S

I’ve heard of stronglifts on here but not sure how it works.

Those 3 lifts seems to make the most of time to lifting ratio. Sort of what I’m doing currently but with a few more editions

Strong Lifts is an app. Works for everyone. It’s relatively easy to follow. It IS NOT relatively to do once the weight goes up!😁
A lot of programs seem connected with SL or are very similar in nature - where SL copied them or give versa is something to research.

5/3/1 seems similar to stronglifts, just with accessory lifts (and different progression etc.)

But yeah - at a bare minimum, I'm trying to do squats, deadlifts, bench press. Then overhead press, rows, pullups, and single straight leg squat / single leg split squat.

You know that is SL! 😁😁😁

I'm thinking SL 5x5, it would seem.

Sausages?

Similar in that it uses the ‘power lifts’ as a base but otherwise very different.

For your goals, I think a classic 5/3/1 template would be an excellent choice. It’s more fun, can get in higher per-session volume (especially for time invested) and it won’t interfere as much with cardio as squatting three times a week. The slower progression also plays to your goals here.

I like standard/military press instead of bench press and then throw in press-up, pull-ups and rows as time and feel allows.

I support this

Swapping chest for shoulders?

As long as you hit the different chest zones you’re fine.

I do 5x5
Incline: standard press, narrow press and fly
Decline: as above
Flat bench: as above

Then some other stuff I don’t know the names of

Yeah but for no other reasons than I like to do stuff on my feet and one of my shoulders is a bit dodgy.

Whom I to point it out.

I normally swap out legs/ shoulders/ back/ stomach for chest using the old training technique *everyday is international chest day*

I guess I'm more shocked that you'd do it in reverse...

Anyone care to educate me on drop sets?

Been alternating heavy 5x5 / light 3x10 sets as i'm time limited but also trying to work out 4 days in a row, 2/3 exercises per day repeating on alternate days. Still adding weight so now both sets of exercises are at the stage i'm pretty burst afterwards, the extra reps on the 3x10 sets are taking the place of the extra load on the 5x5 so it's not really like a "light" set anymore.

I still want to add weight onto the exercises, so am I better knocking the 3x10 "light" sets back slightly to allow better recovery in between the heavy 5x5 sets, or should I consider drop sets?

If drop sets are the answer, how to structure these? 5x 94, 8x88, 10x82, 12x76 ?

Does anyone know of any (Android) tracker apps that you can just upload a csv file of lifts?

I have a spreadsheet that does all of the working out of what I need to lift and when, and I would like to upload the weights, sets, reps, days etc... to an app that I can use to tick them off in the gym & do rest timers etc.