I need a new routine and am thinking about starting 531. Several posters down here seem to think favorably of it. It being low volume I like but it looks like painfully slow progression.

What's the straight story on it?

I'm also open to any other strength training routines that we want to discus.

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Every time I go into the gym I hit a PR, not one rep max, but multiple rep max. I can write down numbers and see that last week I did 335 squat for 8 reps and today I did 340 for 8 reps. I know I'm stronger even if I do nothing else in my workout for the day. It provides a very simple template to tell if you're making progress. I was just thinking about it in the gym today and I like the fact that it takes one piece of the programming away. I know if I miss a lift that it's not the programming, but perhaps I've missed sleep ( I have an 11 month old that just got sick last weekend and she was up most of two nights), I'm not eating enough, etc.

It's also not necessarily low volume. You have a key lift that you hit and it gives you a benchmark to see if you're getting stronger. After that do whatever. I've done everything from blasting out high reps to hitting the same weight for some heavy doubles. In his book he puts down a whole bunch of templates from "bodybuilding", "strength", "not doing jack shit today" and the best "moving north of vag".

It is and it isn't slow. It is something that your body can keep up with. If you do 2 lifts, 2/wk, then it doubles the speed of progression, but that isn't necessarily a good thing. The thing works great until it doesn't, then you have to reset. If you progress more slowly, it takes longer before you have to reset. Also, you can make better gains than the template, it isn't going to hold you back...

It is really an intermediate routine, so whether or not it is slow would depend on how much you had already gained. If you can make rep increases every week, there could be better routines out there. For guys who are starting to fight for their increases, it is an awesome routine. I did great on it for @ 6 mos. After that I had issues, but they were partly due to my own problems. I am planning on going back on it.

One thing Wendler stresses in interviews is long term focus. He cautions about getting caught up in the pursuit for large, short term gains at the expense of long term, continuous improvement. That very much resonates with me, as I am looking decades forward. I am not a competitive bodybuilder or powerlifter. If I can make continuous improvement, even if slow, until age finally starts pushing me backwards, I will be very happy. I will very likely be doing 5-6 consecutive cycles of 5-3-1 Big But Boring within the next 12 months.

Yea, definitely ready to switch if that has been your progression.

It's slow but consistent... You can gain 5-10 lbs per month to your 1 rep max. It might not sound like much but tell me that at the end of the year when you've added 60-100 lbs to your max

Awesome... Hope you made good gains in your strength... My friend is a competitive power lifter and turned me on to it. The only reason I stoppped is I ran out of weights and I have no spotter. I workout in my garage

That is ridiculously slow. Try adding 5-10lbs every 2 weeks.

If you get your un-loading weeks in, as suggested by Wendler (which I highly recommend as well), you shouldn't have burn out, especially without lifting to failure/fatigue. Essentially, the program the OP has done is just a dragged out version of the 5 3 1, spreading each week over the course of a few months. (Starting with 5x5 ––> 3x5 ––>now to this). This is pretty close to what I did during the course of my training and how I coach my power athletes, training 10-11 months straight. The only reason we take time of is just to be without question recovered and take a little drop in strength, coming back to blast through to new highs. Taking time off is hard to do because you're constantly feeling good.

This realization is important.

I did 5/3/1 for a few months, and liked it, but because I'm an idiot I wanted gains faster. Now I've got off most of that stuff and go to a CF gym that does strength workouts nearly every day.

In general terms it's not that different, I get that - hence "Essentially, the program the OP has done is just a dragged out version of the 5 3 1, spreading each week over the course of a few months. (Starting with 5x5 ––> 3x5 ––>now to this). This is pretty close to what I did during the course of my training and how I coach my power athletes, training 10-11 months straight." - There are similar principles in play.

If we are not talking about increasing 1RM then what are we talking about? Lifting heavier weight per set in subsequent weeks is increasing your 1RM is it not? It's painfully slow progression and if you're lifting to fatigue (even if Wendler says to) on the last set, that's going to slow down recovery because it breaks muscle and the CNS down much further than it needs to for gains, mass wise is a little different, you need the extra breakdown. Now wouldn't most agree, that as you age you need some extra time to recover?

What I am saying is that you can make faster gains, safely. I don't know a better testing ground than sprinters/jumpers for making safe strength and power gains. They are not only lifting for strength and power but now they actually use it, at much faster rate than your power lifter. If a sprinter can make big gains and stay injury free, training smart, is it not safe to say the gains are done safely?

The 5,3,1 is a pretty good program (heck I use it as part of my training cycles with the mods I've mentioned in previous posts), but I"ll go out on a limb and say it isn't the only safe way to make strong gains.

Buying the book is the best thing to do to get the full routine and all of the variations and the FAQ's that come with it. I have yet to see any article that lays out the program proper; there is always something slightly different than the book(not to mention you get help if you can only workout 1-4 days a week, etc).

Get stoked, bro- it's awesome.