Yesterday I stumbled across the following question on reddit:
Do you train the Pendlay row as a “main lift” or accessory lift?
Commenter shlevon has a really good point about the attitude with which you should approach the exercises.
I honestly think the Wendler-esque logic of primary vs. assistance is kind of a silly dividing line for people not participating in strength sports with a predefined set of lifts.
If a movement is worth performing in your routine, it’s worth getting stronger at it, and you get stronger at stuff using the same fundamental principles regardless of the specific exercise in question.
Even if the context differs (e.g. sets of 10 vs. sets of 5), the amount of good an exercise will yield is fantastically limited unless you drive up the working weights over time, which is what actually elicits the overload for the involved motion/musculature.
Using your example of Pendlay rows: if you’re going to be doing rows, “just doing some rows after your ‘primary’ lifts” will do approximately jack and shit for your rowing strength and muscle mass (shoulder extensors, scapular retractors, elbow flexors, etc) unless you lift in a way that has you rowing incrementally heavier stuff over time. Whether that be heavier sets of 5, sets of 8-12, whatever, your working weights will need to go up over time if the movement is to actually have an impact on your overall strength and muscle mass.
I’ve always understood the reason for accessory lifts being that increasing strength in them or the hypertrophy gained from them will carry over to your main lifts. The opposite problem can arise if you are killing yourself to increase weight on the accessories which stalls your main lifts. On the other hand some times this is what is needed, say your weak mid back is holding back your clean then a couple weeks of hitting the hyper extensions, RDLs and rows can be the medicine.
It ultimately comes down to training maturity and being able to decide what is need for results. Donny Shankle’s chapter on accessories is a great source for understanding their place.
A) Serves you right for being on Reddit. B) Depends on the purpose of the selected Accessory lift. This discussion misses the point. A more accurate name would be Auxiliary Lift. It is not to be programmed in its own right but as as supplementary to the main. If you main lift is increasing, the auxiliary lift is helping. If not, get another one. Which one all depends on where your kinetic chain is weakest, lacks mobility or carries injury. So not accessory lifts should not be programmed in themselves, as theses lifts exist within 5-3-1.
Perhaps the best thing is to first ask yourself what you want to improve, then f*ucking improve it! That means going in some direction, usually better form with more weight. Silly assistance exercises with no direction are still a good thing, as a warm-up tool or maybe for some conditioning.
Also, it’s worth noting that your silly little assistance exercise could be my essential core movement.
I think there’s nothing wrong with actively progressing a lift like the Pendlay row in a 5/3/1 fashion. I think that you should, however, limit the number of lifts you are really trying to drive up in a given rep range. So if you are progressing press/bench/squat/clean/pendlay, for example, than it’s probably better to progress other lifts (like dumbbell incline, behind the neck press, bent laterals, etc) by increasing volume (increasing from 3 sets of 10 to 3 sets of 20 with weight constant), or increasing intensity (reducing rest periods between sets of bodyweight pullups), before increasing weight.
In other words, keep the focus on sarcoplasmic hypertrophy for most accessory lifts, which means increasing the number of reps you can do in a period of time. You could start with 3 sets of 10 on the BTN press, all done in about 10 minutes, and try to progress to 3 sets of 20-30, all done in 5 minutes. THEN you can increase the weight. I think this satisfies the mantra that you can only serve so many masters at once, and aggressively trying to increase your limit strength (1-3RM) in the bench, press, pendlay, clean, snatch, front squat, back squat, RDL, Deadlift, Push Press, Jerk, and Dumbbell Row all in one mesocycle is probably not going to be as fruitful.
I’m convinced. BRB linear progression on DB external rotation and side planks.