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Understand that your situation is not unique and neither is the answer.  We all must adapt to keep moving forward.  The alternative is denial and failure.

The most important thing to understand when training athletes is the difference between G.P.P and S.P.P. Also, it's important to understand that mastery in a specific discipline does not mean mastery in weight training. In fact, it is usually the opposite; master of one thing, beginner of another.  This is very lucky for you, whether you are a coach or an athlete.  What this means is that you don't need advanced or fancy training methods to achieve results.  Besides the huge pile of dung that is "sport specific training", the misunderstanding of training mastery by elite athletes is ruining training.

This story was told to me by my good friend and former training partner, Kevin Deweese.  A young man told Kevin that he'd like to train, look and be strong like Bill Kazmaier (Kaz). 

I just completed the Prowler Challenge from 5/3/1 Forever.  It was grueling but incredibly rewarding...This is the best conditioning program that I've ever used.

Some of these standards may be easy; others may be hard. Don't be upset with the standards if you fail to make the grade. Standards should exist regardless of the social consequences. They don't exist to make you sad, unhappy, or a victim.

The following three Prowler workouts can be done during the same training week. All sets are done on the vertical posts. The easy and medium workouts can be done between training days and after bench press or press workouts. The hard Prowler workout can be done after you squat and deadlift.

On the flipside of conditioning, you have “easy” or the standard conditioning. What this offers is a way to zone out and relax. A way to discipline yourself to adhere to a schedule. To escape the constant mind-hustle and the mental gymnastics that goes on all day and night.

It's easy to say “I don’t need to condition now” because many people technically don’t. But I guarantee you will.

The difference in Jim's new book is the inclusion of the wavy Leader and Anchor cycles, and the black-and-white concepts of how to move from template to template intelligently with the 7th Week protocols; add in to that fully programmed and integrated supplemental, assistance, and conditioning suggestions for each template, and you're all of the sudden provided with one-on-one coaching levels of programming...

Using a different supplemental exercise has it’s place but if you are weak as piss and can’t do basic stuff like 10 chin-ups, 20 perfect hanging leg raises, actually perform some kind of mile run without choking on your tongue or clipping your own feet, let’s save the bullshit for later.

The following is a portion of the new book, 5/3/1 Forever.  The book is extensive and covers how to PROGRAM your training for long term results.  Besides the actual weight training, conditioning, jumps/throws, mobility, conditioning and recovery are discussed.  This has been years in the making with a lot of successes and a lot of failures.  The goal of the book is to give you the tools to help plan and periodize your training, whatever your goals may be.

After many years of running myself into the ground in high school, it wasn't until college that I realized how to properly condition. There is a trend amongst the natives that when you do conditioning, whether it be running, Prowler sprints/pushes, hill sprints, weight training circuits or whatever your poison YOU MUST STOP JUST SHY OF DEATH. This is the manly thing to do, right? No pain, no gain! No brain, all pain! (And subpar results!) You don't have to go all out - you don't have to fall to the ground, gasping for breath. It makes a good picture or YouTube video but what type of person trains for the camera?

I have become better at reaching goals and goal setting. We all like to think we have goals and have good intentions to reach them but the reality is that many of us get side tracked on the way. Very few times is one's reach too far. I think most of us are pretty honest with ourselves. There are not a lot of 40 year old men who REALLY think they are going to make the Olympic finals in the 100m dash. The problem in reaching them is that the ACTIONS are more about the end goal than about the process to achieve them.

I've been on a mission the last few years to get people back to the roots of training; to get back to when training was fun, simple, and most importantly, free of the fluff and crap that has polluted MY WORLD.  When training was about strength, about moving weight, and moving bodies. About being proud of an added rep or 5 more pounds. Where performance and kicking ass are more important than how you look. Where people eat to live, not live to eat. Where trucks are pushed and sleds are pulled. Where reps and weight are counted, calories are not. Where running isn't considered the Devil and you don't measure your workout by how much you threw up.

With that in mind, here's a list of some simple rules that we follow:

Although I love weightlifting, and it is a very important part of my life, I am also a busy person with many other interests outside the gym. 5/3/1 allows me to get in, get the work done and get out in a reasonable time, while still making excellent progress over the span of the year.

However you choose to bench press, make sure every single rep, regardless of weight is done with perfection. This goes for the squat, deadlift, press and any other big barbell lift. I've never seen any strong, experienced lifter take any set lightly - they demand perfection from the bar to their max. Think back to the last time you bench pressed - did you have a perfect set-up on the very first rep with the empty bar? Did you treat it with the same importance as your last max attempt? The beginner still thinks there must be some kind of special secret or trick. A veteran lifter always makes sure the simple things are taken care of; they aren't ever sexy but they always work.