What's the current concensus on 5/3/1 for general strength/hypertrophy? Yay or nay? Anything I should know/do that isn't in the original book ie. what's the best way to do it? 5/3/1 or 3/5/1? First set last? Joker sets? Assistance after that?
Edit:
Read the seemingly relevant parts of Beyond but would still like some pointers.
Jokers and FSL or just FSL?
How much assistance would you do afterwards?
When I "bulk" (read: eat lots of cookies and brownies in the winter time and tell myself its all muscle, bro), I default to 5/3/1 because it fits what I like to do: max effort on smaller rep ranges. I'm more a fan of the Dorian Yates Blood & Guts program than I am the standard 4x8-12, for example.
For the latest installment of 5/3/1, I'm finishing up a December-March run in a couple weeks. This time, my wife joined, so I've had to adjust even more than usual on how to approach the program.
For strength and hypertrophy alike,
you'll need more legitimate working set volume than it calls for. Run your three working sets for the day and then jump into joker sets. Keep going until you know you'll fail the next set: at that point, the next and final set should be the first working set you did (the first-last thing he talks about). You'll likely be able to push out more than 5 reps on all non-deadlift exercises, so just go for as many as you can on that, with 10 being a logical stopping point (with deads, just stop at 5 or 3). If you're still feeling good, do that one more time. If you feel more exhausted than a typical workout, then don't. Listen to your body.
Early on you can skip the deload week, as well. Of course, if your body is screaming,
listen. But you'll most likely not feel any different on this routine than others save for inevitable mild joint soreness until you're way advanced. For me, when that happens, that's the note to take a week and chill. I would say that happens after every ~4 cycles to me: finish up the 1+ week, shoulders and elbows and wrists are more sore than on a standard bodybuilding routine, so I do a legitimate deload week to give the joints some rest from the stress.
If concerned about
time in the gym, two tips:
First, especially since you'll need to do more real working sets, don't do Boring But Big. Don't be the asshole who is in one of the gym's two squat racks for 45 minutes because you need to do 5 sets of 10 squats for baby weight. Instead, utilize the companion assistance lifts he mentions: follow up squats with stiff-legged deads; follow up overhead press with close-grip bench; etc. You're moving onto new equipment, you'll keep the workout a bit more varied to stay interested, you'll address other muscles not primarily hit by the main lift, but you'll still be working to improve your big lifts.
Second, do your warmups relatively quickly: 30-40 seconds rest. You don't need 2 minutes rest in between three separate sets when you're pushing half of what a normal working set (let alone a max set) would be.
For hypertrophy... after the above, you can toss in a few related accessory lifts that serve the dual purposes of pretty muscle-building but also big lift assistance. So on bench day, for example, it could look like this: bench, incline bench, close-grip lat pulldown (strong upper back as base for bench), reverse flyes (same).
As long as what you're doing is not interfering with you crushing the big lift every day and progressing, "tinker" away to achieve your personal goals.
