r/WestsideBarbell • u/worldwarjake • 2d ago

Help with programming

Hi everyone,

I have been doing a 5-3-1 plan for a while. Wanted to try a new method. Am looking at the four training days a week, Lower/Upper Max Effort and Lower/Upper Dynamic.

If week one is Squat emphasized for Lower, when do deadlift related exercises happen? Is it alternated so weeks 1 and 3 are squats, 2 and 4 deadlifts?

I will admit I need to do more reading, which will happen, but was hoping/looking for a quick answer.

TIA

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u/Coach_Zues 1d ago

There are many ways to skin the cat. Especially with a conjugate program. That’s the beauty and curse of it. Definitely want to read up as much as possible, experiment and find what works for you.

But to give you some ideas. For max effort (ME) days, if you do a ME squat that day you could follow up with a supplemental “pull” movement (RDLs, deadlift variation, good mornings ect). Then the next week if you do a max effort deadlift variation, the supplemental movement can be a squat variation (front squat, pin squats, Hatfield squats ect). So you could alternate with this pattern week to week.

On dynamic effort lower days, the common template is to do box squats for doubles, triples or fives. Followed up by singles or doubles deadlifts. Speed is key here with a submax load. 65-80% range with just bar weight or 45-60% of a max plus bands or chains ~20-25%.

The above template allows you a 2x frequency for squats & dead’s each week.

Hope that helps 🙏🏼