Shanker 5/3/1 Cycle *** Postmortem/Next Steps Plan

I'm back to write a postmortem of the last few cycles of 5/3/1 for, to use my new favorite phrase, a confluence of factors. First, I haven't done this in about 3 months because I've been running 5/3/1 non stop/non deload for basically that same length of time. Second, I'm at a crossroads in my lifting. Third, I wanted to throw something like this together so that some of the newbies understand what we mean when we say they should write up a "postmortem" of a particular cycle.

First the set up of this series of cycles has been based on a few fundamental practices that I wanted to implement.
1) Pause presses as the main press.
2) Replacement of overhead pressing as bench assistance with dips, specifically weighted dips in the range of BW + 50-70 for volume sets of 8.
3) Mid-shin/Low-shin pulls as primary deadlift assistance.
4) Pause-sqaut as primary squat assistance.
5) All assistance work done for volume (5 sets) at roughly 70-85%, depending on the lift.

Second, the environment.
At this point, I am very close to stalling out on 5/3/1. This isn't anything to be upset about as its something like my 8th or 9th cycle and to be expected, in fact given that I'm taking 93-95% of a consistently increasing training max I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. Anyway, as I recently watched Chris pop out 7 reps in his "3" week, I figured I'd throw in that caveat to make myself look slightly more respectable.
Bodyweight has gone from 184 in January, down to 178 in February back up to 180 in March. Shit happens, and when I get stressed my appetite goes out the window. Body fat percentage is still 10ish, maybe a little more as I've added cheese puffs to my post prowler snacking.

Third, the highlights.
Squat: 340x4 in 3 week.
Deadlift: 505x3 in 3 week, nearly had a solid 535 double in the 1 week, but alas.
Pause Press: 240x2 with a full 2 second pause in the 1 week. Attempted a third.

Fourth: Did any of this shit do any good?
My squat form is back on track (thank god) at this point I need more volume to get it to the second nature status of my deadlift and bench form.
Deadlift has stagnated, in my mind, primarily due to weightloss.
Bench keeps moving up little by little.

 Answering the question of why I'm stalling at this point is pretty much impossible. There are too many moving parts, not the least of which is the fact that I haven't done a true deload since December. Why didn't I do this earlier? Just never felt it was necessary, the important thing is recognizing that it's necessary now, maybe a cycle too late, but whatever. Eliminating this factor as a potential reason for stalling is the primary motivation behind my decision in my next steps.

Fifth: What's Next?
So, here's where it gets interesting. First things first, I need to get bigger. Yea, don't we all? But dicking around in 181 is a complete and total waste of my time if I ever hope to approach any level of competitiveness. I thought I was well into leaving that god forsaken weight class behind back in January, but such is life, and I'm right back here. So what to do, what to do, what to do?

I contemplated implementing Paul Carter's 5/4/3/2/1 Backoff program for mass building (its new and sexy, plus I really do buy into the vast majority of the man's philosophies) but decided against it because I don't think I've exhausted progress on 5/3/1 completely and, if I do want to do the May 7th meet, the intensity will be far too low for proper meet "prep."

Then, I contemplated Paul Carter's strength program, but that is a 9 week buildup to a meet and I don't have 9 weeks. When I do try it (and I will at some point) I want to make sure I give it a fair shake.

Soooo back to 5/3/1 we go, but with the following tweaks.
1) We'll turn this into 3/5/1 for powerlifting. For those who don't know, the only major difference here is obviously the 3 week comes first, and the 5 week is just a "hit the reps and get out" week.
2) For my deadlift assistance, I'm gonna take a break from mid-shin pulls and implement more squatting. This is less about problems with my deadlift and more about adding a second squatting day, albeit at a lower intensity, again for volume (5 sets) at something lighter, 70%ish.
3) Bench pressing is back.
4) I'm doing exactly what Wendler prescribed when you start stalling. Take 90% of your training max. So this cycle will actually be slightly less intense than the previous one. 2 steps forward, 1 step back. Depending on how this cycle feels I may take it back up to 93-95%.

And that's how you write up a postmortem. Enjoy.