Wendler accessories

Llamapants86

Ok so not stronglifts related (oh the horror) but I am having trouble deciding what to do for accessories. I think I want to add rows to the upper body lifts (OHP and Bench) but I am kind of at a loss for this. Any one have any recommendations, ideas or the like?

PS. I would love to buy the book, but amazon.ca just has the kindle version and I want a physical book and amazon.com is going to charge a ridiculous amount for shipping. I am currently on the hunt for a paper copy from a store but so far no luck and I am impatient.

krokador

I have a (crappy, downloaded from somewhere) pdf version of the book (and the beyond 5/3/1 too) and if you tell me what your goals are i can pull out whatever template would go along with it.

There is also this calculator that has a bunch of variations pre-coded in where you can probably fiddle and sub a few exercises as well:
http://blackironbeast.com/5/3/1/calculator

I can share what kinda template I'll be running once I get home and find my notebook, too.

Truth be told it really depends on your goals. Hard to give many suggestions without that kind of information! There are way too many exercises out there! lol

katro111

I've been adding in Pendlay and bent-over rows as accessories, but I'm not focusing on progressing with either of them so I don't go super heavy nor do I do them each week. I think the last time I did rows I added them as part of a barbell complex.

This website has a good calculator and has 4 different variations of Wendler's in there:
http://www.strstd.com/

Fittreelol

What are your goals?

Llamapants86

Yeah I guess I should get my goals figured out lol. I just want to improve general strength, and do a pull up. Eventually I want to break 100lbs on ohp and improve the rest of my major lifts as well. I'm going to take a look at those links when the power comes back and I can get on a computer.

Fittreelol

I'm sorry I can't remember :embarassed: do you do any cardio or other physical hobbies? And are you currently on a deficit?

Llamapants86

I run a couple of times a week. And I'm just transitioning to maintenance now. I have a fair bit of body fat to lose still but I'm tired of being on a deficit.

SezxyStef

http://www.strstd.com/ here is a link to building a wendler program

You input your stats and current RM and click the 2nd tab and it builds your program for the 4 weeks and it lets you choose accessory stuff as well.

Me personally will be doing mostly the following:

Chin ups (variations)
Pull ups (variantions)
leg raises
Lat pull downs
curls
kickbacks
pistol squat
I might even try glute bridges/hip thrusts

and of course ab work

but with this site they give you a couple options and you can print of your 4 week workout.

Fittreelol

Novel Inc:

The books are great. (531, 531 for powerlifting, beyond 531). He's kind of a jerk, but there's some good information in there.

One thing to consider is what your weak points are. If you have some very obvious weak points then you may want to work on those. Then again they will get stronger as you get stronger anyway. Some examples of this would be folding over on squat=ab work. Unable to lock out deadlift= hip thrusts. Severe squat knee cave=Good girl/bad girl machine

Another thing to consider is what exercises you like or which ones you'd like to try, or if you have any specific physique goals. If you want killer guns add some curls. If you want a poppin booty add hip thrusts.

Strstd has the most popular templates, but those aren't set in stone. Wendler recommends sticking with the assistance work for a few cycles before you change, but if you find something just isn't working for you it's fine to adjust while you're getting used to the program.

BBB probably the most popular template. It just involves doing 5x10 of whatever exercise you did at 50%+ of your training max. You can swap lower body and upper body days if you'd like variety. (eg. 531 deadlift then 5x10 squats) This may leave you super sore constantly, and would probably interfere with running (or running would interfere with this)

Bodyweight is also a really good template as it's easier on your joints. Again I'm not sure how into running you are, but heavy training with weights and running might wear on you after a while- a bodyweight template might go easier on your body and allow you to get the most out of your main lifts.

When I first started 531 I made a list of the main lifts, a list of the assistance targets (abs, hamstrings, quads, lats or upper back, low back, triceps) and a list of all the exercises I liked/wanted to try/thought would help. I then assigned all the exercises on my list to an assistance target. I looked for any holes, and anywhere I had too many exercises I cut some out. Then I assigned the targets or exercises to the days based on book recommendations. It looked something like this:

Squat 531
Front squat 3x10- I found these are awesome for me to work core strength while training myself with the squat movement pattern. They help keep me from "good morninging" up the weight.
Reverse lunge 2x10 (each leg) I wanted to work on unilateral movements
Hip thrusts- 3x? Dat *kitten*
Ab wheel 3xN (as many as possible) it hurts so good
Back extension 3x10 they are awesome!

Bench 531
DB bench 5x10 wanted to try that whole unilateral thing again
Db Row 5x10 same as above
Curls 3x10 elbow tendonitus
Tri pushdowns 3x10 whatever it's tris

Dead 531
Sumo Dead 3x10 Always wanted to try sumo and the few times i had it felt weird
Paused Dead 3x5 These are awesome for lats
Hanging Leg raises 3x5 I dunno it was recommended

OHP 531
Assisted pullups 3xN I want to do a pullup someday too!

Over the next few months I tweaked quite a few things in the plan that weren't working for me. I pulled a quad while reverse lunging so I dropped those out. It's a huge pita to do hip thrusts at both gyms I train at so I dropped them. I already have a pretty nice booty, and I'm training 95% for function anyway. I added in paused squats. I found I could actually superset db bench and rows thus saving time. I added paused bench. I trained OHP and DL the same day so initially I was pretty conservative with the accessories. I ended up switching speed deads for sumo (sumo never felt right), and switched more ab roll outs for hanging leg raises (Hanging Leg raises were working my arms more than my abs since I'm a fattie) I also added in DB ohp.

If I were training for pure strength right now I would be doing something similar to

Squat
Paused squat
Front squat
Ab wheel
Back extension

Bench
Paused Bench
DB or close grip bench
Some kind of row
Curls
Tris

Dead
Paused Deads
Volume or Speed deads
Good Mornings
Ab Wheel

OHP
DB OHP
Chins
Dips

Currently I'm focusing on conditioning. Thus I'm doing a body weight template with heavy conditioning:

Squats
Paused squats
Walking lunges
Ab wheel

Heavy prowler sprints

Bench
Paused bench
Chins
Pushups

Swing/Burpee hiit

Dead
Paused Dead
Fake reverse hyper (no reverse hyper machine, but there are stackable plyo boxes at one gym that I can kind of replicate it)
Ab wheel

Heavy prowler sprints

OHP (short day)
Assisted Chins
Assisted dips

I help my novel has assisted you (ha!) in choosing what kind of added exercises will help your main lifts as well as your goals.

One thing to remember- all the big weight gurus make a distinction between movements and exercises for a reason. An exercise's purpose is to work a body part. A movement is something you're doing for the most weight. I view the squat as a movement, but a body builder might think of the squat as a quad exercise. They are done different ways for different purposes. I squat a little wide, low bar, and with toes pointed slightly out because that is what works best for me to move the most weight. The body builder will probably squat high bar with a narrow stance and feet pointed straight forward as that's usually best for activating the quads.

Llamapants86

When I first started 531 I made a list of the main lifts, a list of the assistance targets (abs, hamstrings, quads, lats or upper back, low back, triceps) and a list of all the exercises I liked/wanted to try/thought would help. I then assigned all the exercises on my list to an assistance target. I looked for any holes, and anywhere I had too many exercises I cut some out. Then I assigned the targets or exercises to the days based on book recommendations.

Thanks for all the input! This is what I pretty much did to come up with a trial run. I think I've got a starting point (a bit of all the templates mooshed into some strange concoction). I figure I might move things around a bit, depending on how my body feels, how my running is going (not a priority but I still enjoy it), and just generally how things flow. I also am trying some new versions of exercises (EI front squats) so I am going to have to play around to find out the weight I need and to get form down.

krokador

I did say I'd let you in on my tentative template here (and thanks fittree for sharing yours, I might get ideas from that )

My goals are to
1) lean down but at a slow-ish rate. I'm more about performance than weight loss even if I still have a good bit to lose
2) Get that bodyweight pull-up, and get more than 1 bw dip. There's a BW program I'm following which is meant to help progress on pull-ups, toes to bar, HSPU, pistol squats and muscle-ups. I'll be focusing on that as accessory.
3) While I don't really plan on getting *that* much stronger on the oly lifts, I don't wanna lose what I have, so I'll have some skill work in there
4) I loved the way my previous programs had short-ish (10-20 mins) WODs at the end after the main strength work, so I'll be adding those in at the end of my sessions. I'm just going to run back through the ones from phase 1 & 2 for the first 6 week cycle (I don't like deloads? lol).
5) I'm still working on that "6 min mile" running program, but since it's somewhat taxing, I'll only be doing it 1-2 times a week so it'll drag on for a bit longer than the 3 weeks I have left. I'll probably add in some longer duration cardio outside while I can, once it gets cold we'll see how I deal xD

So here's the rundown. I'll see how long this all takes me to get through a few times before I consider adding in more stuff

Day 1:
Bench 531
Back work (pendlay rows or lat pulldowns or T-Bar rows or DB Rows... You get the idea)
BW Handstand push-up work (Pike push-ups, wall kick-ups, some rowing, some core work)
Metcon WOD

Day 2:
Squat 531
Snatch work (probably will focus more on power snatches so I don't kill my legs too much, esp. on 1+ days)
BW pistol work (narrow stance squats with pauses, step downs, band-assisted pistols, more core work)
Interval/AMRAP WOD

Day 3:
REST

Day 4:
OHP 531
Clean work
BW pull-up work (band assisted pull-ups, recline rows, planks, core work! Notice a pattern? lol)
Endurance-based WOD

Day 5:
REST

Day 6:
Deadlift 531
Front Squats (I find they're a really great core + leg workout)
BW muscle-up work (False grip hang work, hip thrusts, dips, *GASP* core work! rofl)
Grinder-type WOD

Day 7:
REST

And if it can help you find out your front squats weight, I know my personal ratio is about 75%. What you could do is start around 50% of what you would do with your normal squats and work up from there until it becomes challenging enough. Always better to start off a bit too light and work up

Hope that helps/gives you idea/doesn't confuse you further haha. If I wasn't doing oly lifts in there I'd probably replace the clean with a deadlift or rowing variation, and the snatches with a push press and KB swings or something... It's really hard to replace the snatch! I need to stop saying snatch... >_>

Llamapants86

Thanks Krok, I am thinking of finding an actual running program but for now I'm just out there to get away from the office for 25 minutes at lunch (and to eat more food).

I'm starting light on anything that I haven't tried before, form and all that need to be figured out and that's easier to do at light weights. It's so weird not just having an app tell me what to do... freedom, terrible terrible freedom!

And this is what I have come up with, if any one wants to critic it.
Monday
DL 5/3/1
front squat
Calf raises
Side bends
Russian twists

Tuesday
OHP 5/3/1
Barbell rows
Dips
Push ups

Wed
Running club

Thursday
Squat 5/3/1
SLDL
Glute bridges
Burpees

Friday
Bench 5/3/1
Assisted Pull up
Tricep kickbacks
Upright row

I run at lunch most days, nothing strenuous though. Wednesday work has a running club and that's the only time I really push myself.

krokador

It's so weird not just having an app tell me what to do... freedom, terrible terrible freedom!

If I'm not mistaken, there ARE wendler apps out there. Some that even have a rep goal to "beat" your previous PR and possibly even preloaded templates to follow. I haven't looked in a while, though.

Llamapants86

Oh I found a couple but they are all build your own accessories.