I have been following some version or another of a 5/3/1 program for nearly 10 years. I love the simplicity of having the 5/3/1 percentages for the squat, deadlift, and bench (I am no longer overhead pressing). What's nice is, other than the fixed percentages I have been able to play around with assistance work, reps, RPE, etc.

Wendler has it set up so you have a base to follow. He then gives you the latitude to personalize it as you need. He also has very specific programs that for the most part should not be deviated from. However, regardless of the program, a constant theme you will see with Jim is, more is not better.

Over the years I have had two common problems, injuries and bastardizing my program. I'm not sure which comes first. It's like the chicken and the egg argument. Sometimes I'll change my program due to an injury. Other times I change things in hopes that It will help get my body in better working order. The last reason and most stupid, I see or read something to make me think I can improve upon a program that is already working well enough.

NO MORE I SAY! Last fall I was really starting to dial in on feeling better and figuring out my programming. As luck would have it, I went out to see Rhodes and Wendler shortly thereafter. From them, I was able to pare down my training to exactly what "I" need.

My body is pretty screwed up from all the years of powerlifting. Too many injuries to list and a number of surgeries to boot. This causes me to have to limit my movements. The problem with that is getting enough stimulus to progress.

Jim has a great answer for this issue, just follow his Boring But Big template or the equally awesome but lesser-known Boring But Strong program. Now that I pretty much exclusively use the trap bar to deadlift, the belt squat to squat, and the football bar with the shoulder saver to bench, I can get just about all the volume I need using just those three main lifts.

With cutting ohp out, I needed another compound movement for my other upper body day. I went with dips. Fortunately, they give me no issues, unlike many others. They are a huge bang for your buck compound exercise in my opinion.

To round out my program I decided I would have one assistance movement per session. This caused me to think long and hard at what I am missing from my main movements and not the fluff I could just throw in. To hit the all important core, on my squat day I chose ab wheel rollouts and hanging leg raises to compliment my deadlifts. For the upper body days I went with pullups. It's crazy, they used to cause me such pain and now they are the only exercise that does not bother my upper back and shoulders. I went with a neutral wide grip for one day and an angled supinated grip for the other. I figured I'd get a little more bicep with that grip.

Now here comes the magic, I will basically have three training seasons. A hypertrophy, a conditioning, and a strength block each lasting around four months. The biggest reason I am doing this is that it's very difficult to make gains considering both my biological age and my training age. My body adapts quickly and there's only so much room for growth anyway.

With this programming, I plan on keeping all the same exercises. There will just be some tweaks to how I perform some of the movements, tempo, and rest intervals. The volume will remain the same, but I will play with the sets and reps in that some blocks might be 5x10 and others will be 10x5.

I have a plan for each block, but I'm just going to share the Hypertrophy for now. I have been using it for over three months with awesome success and have it completely fleshed out. Here it is:

WEEK 1

MONDAY DL:
-Trap Bar Dl 70/80/90% x5
-BBB Trap Bar RDL 40% 5x10 3:1 Tempo
-Hanging Leg Raises (weighted 10 lbs) 3x8 3:1 Tempo

WEDNESDAY BENCH:
-Shoulder Saver Football Bar Bench 70/80/90% x5
-BBB Close Grip Shoulder Saver Football Bar Bench 40% 5x10 3:1 Tempo
-Wide/Neutral Grip Pullups (weighted 12.5 lbs) 3x8 3:1 Tempo

FRIDAY SQ:
-Belt Squat 70/80/90% x5
-BBB Close Stance Belt Squat 40% 5x10 3:1 Tempo
-Ab Wheel Rollouts (against micro mini band) 3x8 3:1 Tempo

SATURDAY UPPER ASSISTANCE:
-Dips (25 lbs) 3x8 3:1 Tempo
-Angled Supinated Grip Pullups (12.5 lbs) 3x8 3:1 Tempo

WEEK 2

MONDAY DL:
-Trap Bar Dl 65/75/85% x5
-BBB Trap Bar RDL 40% 5x10 3:1 Tempo
-Hanging Leg Raises (bodyweight) 3x10 3:1 Tempo

WEDNESDAY BENCH:
-Shoulder Saver Football Bar Bench 65/75/85% x5
-BBB Close Grip Shoulder Saver Football Bar Bench 40% 5x10 3:1 Tempo
-Wide/Neutral Grip Pullups (bodyweight) 3x10 3:1 Tempo

FRIDAY SQ:
-Belt Squat 65/75/85% x5
-BBB Close Stance Belt Squat 40% 5x10 3:1 Temp
-Ab Wheel Rollouts (bodyweight) 3x10 3:1 Tempo

SATURDAY UPPER ASSISTANCE:
-Dips (bodyweight) 3x10 3:1 Tempo
-Angled Supinated Grip Pullups (bodyweight) 3x10 3:1 Tempo

WEEK 3

MONDAY DL:
-Trap Bar Dl 75/85/95% x5
-BBB Trap Bar RDL 40% 5x10 3:1 Tempo
-Hanging Leg Raises (weighted 15 lbs) 3x6 3:1 Tempo

WEDNESDAY BENCH:
-Shoulder Saver Football Bar Bench 75/85/95% x5
-BBB Close Grip Shoulder Saver Football Bar Bench 40% 5x10 3:1 Tempo
-Wide/Neutral Grip Pullups (weighted 25 lbs) 3x6 3:1 Tempo

FRIDAY SQ:
-Belt Squat 75/85/95% x5
-BBB Close Stance Belt Squat 40% 5x10 3:1 Tempo
-Ab Wheel Rollouts (against mini band) 3x6 3:1 Tempo

SATURDAY UPPER ASSISTANCE:
-Dips (45 lbs) 3x6 3:1 Tempo
-Angled Supinated Grip Pullups (25 lbs) 3x6 3:1 Tempo

WEEK 4 DELOAD

MONDAY DL:
-BBB Trap Bar RDL 40% 5x10 3:1 Tempo
-Hanging Leg Raises (bodyweight) 3x10 3:1 Tempo

WEDNESDAY BENCH:
-BBB Close Grip Shoulder Saver Football Bar Bench 40% 5x10 3:1 Tempo
-Wide/Neutral Grip Pullups (bodyweight) 3x10 3:1 Tempo

FRIDAY SQ:
-BBB Close Stance Belt Squat 40% 5x10 3:1 Temp
-Ab Wheel Rollouts (bodyweight) 3x10 3:1 Tempo

SATURDAY UPPER ASSISTANCE:
-Dips (bodyweight) 3x10 3:1 Tempo
-Angled Supinated Grip Pullups (bodyweight) 3x10 3:1 Tempo

NOTES:

-I am running 5 Pro. In other words, I am not hitting my last set for AMRAP. Each set is performed for 5 "PERFECT" reps. I am doing this because I find at my level of lifting and age, I don't recover from pushing myself as hard as I have. Plus, with AMRAP it's not uncommon to push so hard that form starts to fail. I make better progress just moving along incrementally. There are fewer setbacks that way and with training, consistency trumps all.

-At the end of each cycle, I will be adding 10 lbs to my squat and deadlift numbers and 5 lbs to my bench. I will also be adding 5 lbs to my dips and pullups.

-I am running the percentages as 3/5/1. After my deload, I feel better recovered to hit the higher percentage week 1 numbers. Then I take a step back to the week 1 numbers before heading into heavy week 3.

-For the Hypertrophy Block I have chosen to go with Trap Bar RDL's,  Close Stance Belt Squats, and Close Grip Shoulder Saver Football Bench to change the stimulus up without completely changing what is already a safe exercise for me.

-For the Hypertrophy Block I have also been using a 3:1 tempo on all assistance work. Those are my BBB sets and my second assistance movements. I have definitely noticed a huge difference with that change in training stimulus.

-I am not implementing a 5/3/1 progression with my main movement of dips on my second upper body day. It's a risk v reward thing for me as well as for recovery purposes.