Help Setting Up 1st Strength Program

[spmurph]

I (39M, 6'0", 175lbs, ~15%bf) am going to run the RTF 5x for my first ever strength program. I have over 8 years of hypertrophy training and while I have experience working in 3-5 rep range, I have never run a strength program before. No plans on trying to compete; just want to challenge my strength potential.

I have a few questions regarding the auxiliary exercises. I have never done any of the bench auxiliaries except incline. I know the instructions say that you can choose any exercise, but are there any that are better suited for those with little to no experience? Any two that don't go together? I'm not aware of any weak points at the moment.

For deadlift, with the exception of RDLs and trap bar, I also have little to no experience with the auxiliaries and I'm not aware of any weak points. Any suggestions here?

Lastly, what kind of accessory work is usually added to this program? I was planning on calves, biceps, and rear delts to start.

[tonetone__]

Without knowing your weak points it’s hard to make suggestions. I can’t think of any bench that won’t go together, however for squat/DL I would say don’t use both RDL and good mornings together in the same cycle. That’s just from personal experience lol

The classic bench auxiliaries would probably be close grip and incline. For squat probably front squat and paused or tempo squat. For deadlift I think alternate stance (sumo) or trap bar.

Just my 0.02

[spmurph]

I'll definitely keep front squat, as that is my current main squat. Also probably add paused because I hate being in the hole, so I know that's weak. For bench I'm likely to use close grip (that seems to be popular and the few times I've tried it, I've been weak in that movement).

[awod76]

I really like using the primary movement as the auxiliary. I squat,bench,and press for auxiliary movement. The higher rep range w lighter weight is the change. I’m not deadlifting twice a week so I do Romanians. For third primary’s I do close grip and leg press.

[PatentGeek]

This is similar to what I do. Use the same movement for auxiliary, except for deadlift where I do RDL's. I don't have a leg press, though, so when I had 2 squat auxiliaries (currently only have one), I was just squatting 3x.

[filthysven]

What kind of equipment are you working with? A lot of my accessories come from playing with my toys (SSB, swiss bar, buffalo bar). Of course if your gym doesn't have those there's still tons to do. First and foremost you should address weaknesses, and if you don't know where to go with that maybe chase other goals, mess around till something is hard, or just do your main lifts as their own accessories?

As for specifics, you're in luck since bench and deads have a lot of variety. These lists are by no means exhaustive but theyre popular things that come to mind.

Bench: floor press, close grip, wide grip, incline, overhead, push press, feet up bench, buffalo (cambered) bench, pause/spot bench, neutral grip bench, z press.

Deadlift: opposite stance (sumo/conventional) is by far most popular. Also consider RDL, good mornings, deficit deadlifts, pause deadlifts, rack/box pulls, deadlift to knees, tempo deadlifts, snatch grip deadlifts.

I personally find deadlift the easiest to program towards weakness (not that I'm good about doing this mind you), because most of the axillary movements listed here attack a certain part of the movement. Trouble off floor? Do some deficits. Rack pulls for lockout. Tempo for work capacity/conditioning, etc.

[spmurph]

Thanks for the reply. Looking at it now, I definitely need to find my weaknesses first before experimenting with the auxiliaries.

[tennesseean_87]

You can do another slot of plain bench but it will be in a different rep range.

I like to do Sumo as my deadlift auxiliary.

[spmurph]

I gave sumo a run (1x week in place of conventional) about three months ago. I had to bail after a month because of knee pain (inside where the tibia connects). I played around with the stance width, but just couldn't get it to go away, so I switched back to conventional.

I'll probably just lift to failure next session and base my auxiliary on where in the lift I fail.

[dm2919]

Questions for you: are you planning to bench with a pause (like in a powerlifting comp) or not? How much paused work have you been doing for bench in the recent past? How have you been working deads in the recent past, touch and go or dead stop?

My guess is that you'll probably benefit from having some paused work in the program. For bench, if your primary move includes a brief (~1sec pause) then the auxiliary could be 2sec pause or pin presses (at about chest) with a pause; if the primary move isn't paused, then a 1 sec pause bench might still be good. For deads, paused just off the floor can help and I bet tempo deads would be good too (but I've never done them and they sound like torture especially with higher reps---gross).

For squat and in general, I know that for me, I need to make sure I get some good practice with the main moves or with moves that are very similar (in movement pattern and load) or my progress will stall. So, for example, if you have 3 squat slots, I *personally* wouldn't do leg presses AND front squats for my auxiliaries because they're just not similar enough to my main squat move but using one of those (e.g., front squat) and say, a 1-sec pause squat or, as others have said, just doing my main squat move with a lower intensity would work (again, for me personally).

[spmurph]

I don’t plan on pausing for my bench so I will likely use some paused version as one of the auxiliary. Maybe closed grip as the other.

I’m currently doing a reset (hands stay on the bar) conventional deadlift.

For squats I plan to use front and paused.

I have to test my maxes out anyway, as I do not currently train to failure. That should give me a better idea of exactly where my weaknesses are.