Did you follow the book when it came to increasing your maxes no more than 5 pounds per upper body, and 10 pounds for lower body? Yes. I started way lower then what my actual maxes could have been because I was out of weight lifting for a few years (spent a few years doing p90x...). I've been strictly following this protocol since April and I've been improving with minimal injury.Did you change your Assistance Work or keep the same?I stuck with the same assistant exercises for a few months, and then changed them up. I did this just cuz I liked the new ones I changed to, not necessarily cuz I was trying to switch it up for the sake of variety. I've stuck with the same ones for about 5 months now and do not feel any need to change those at the moment. As an additional bit of info, after about 6 months I decided to skip deloads unless I was completely fatigued and needed a recovery week. I do the 3 week cycle, and then go straight into the next 3 weeks. I'm not lifting hella heavy weight yet, so I can still get away with this.I very much enjoy this workout program. Hope you do too. Good luck!

I no longer follow 5/3/1, but I was on the program for 6 months or so.  Worked great for my squat and deadlift, not so much my bench or military press.I would follow the 5 lb upper body and 10 lb lower body progression.  I wouldn't change that.I would reduce the assistance exercise volume by 1 set per exercise on the deload week.  I would also change you assistance exercises for the new cycle.  You don't have to change it much.  Simply changing grips and different forms of resistance (DB to barbell or vice versa) is good enough.  You can then go back to what you did for the first cycle on the third cycle.  Also instead of deloading the squat and bench like how Wendler suggests, I would actually do Westside style speed work on the deload week.  That is 8 sets of 3 reps @ 60%.  This will allow your body to still recover because it isn't stressful and it will offer some explosive strength training.  I would just train the military press and the deadlift likw how Wendler suggests.  This is just a suggestion.

Just finished my first 4 weeks of 5/3/1. Not too sure about it. Maybe its just me being very impaitient lifting this light weight. I was thinking of starting AGVT today instead. What are your recommendations? Stick with 5/3/1 or go AGVT?

5/3/1 is supposed to start out light.  It will get heavier.  Also, you do not need to lift heavy to get stronger.  If the weight is light, focus on bar speed and make the lift as explosive as possible.AGVT is a hypertrophy program.  While you will get strength gains, if you want to be strong in the bench, squat, deadlift, and military press, I would recommend 5/3/1.

I started in April, and i started with basically bar weight, even though I knew I could lift more. I wanted to start from scratch and made sure I lifted correctly to avoid injury and gain slowly and steadily. There were definitely those first few months where I was feeling bored and stupid cuz I was lifting tiny weight. I'm still not lifting a ton, but now 7 months later I'm starting to lift some decent weight and I feel stronger now then I was way before even when I was lifting a little heavier. Everything about this is diet/workouts is about steady gains (or losses) and life time changes, not just quick fixes. Stick with it!

HUGE kudos on being able to do that. It's not easy, but it is definitely one of the smartest ways to approach training.

Thanks man. I just kept repeating what Wendler said about checking your ego at the door. And it's totally the best way to approach it.

You should be  CrossFit coach. They need more of that sensibility. 😉 [/crossfitbashing]