Notes for hypertrophy phase breaking this template

Notes for Hypertrophy Phase
Breaking this template down even further is this simple: On lower body day,
follow up your main work with a big leg movement and a big “deadlift-like”
movement. On upper body day, follow up the main pressing movement,
(whether it be the press or the bench press) with the OPPOSITE movement.
For example, after you bench press, you will use the press for the volume
work.
After the main work is done, you are free to do anything you desire. This can
include any additional work for injury prevention or any work that is simply
cosmetic. This could include curls, neck work, rotator cuff, upper back,
abdominal, etc. This is up to you and is not programmed as it is simply GPP
work for the competitive lifter.
Push the final sets of your 5/3/1 work hard. The main purpose of this phase is
to train using semi-heavy weights and up the volume of your assistance work. I
work with many older lifters and I let them dictate how hard they want to push
their final sets. In place of the final sets, I have many of the lifters do a heavy
single after their final sets, even during this phase. Personally, I almost always
hit a heavy set after each and every workout. You can use the Joker sets for this
part of the training.

Hypertrophy Phase Changes – Bad Knees
If you find that the volume of the lower body work is too much for your knees,
back or your overall body, LOWER IT! This can be as simple as choosing
fewer reps (5 sets of 5 reps) or using fewer sets (3 sets of 10 reps). I wouldn’t
change the weight on the barbell.
If your body is beat to hell and you have bad knees, here are some changes that
can and should be made to this part of training.
All squats should be done to a box. This is essential to keep the knees from
getting too sore.
I cut out all of the squat assistance and use Prowler Walks and Sled Drags
(forward and backward) to increase the leg volume. Prowler Walks are done
for 6-8 40-yard walks with increasing weight on the Prowler. This is not done
with any conditioning emphasis (although you will be out of breath). You are
doing this to strengthen the legs, so push accordingly. This means walking with
big steps, not sprinting. Sprinting will only serve to put more stress on your
knees. Each set of Prowler walks are done with increased weight. This means
you do 1-2 walks with 90 pounds and increase the weight every 1-2 40-yard
walks. How heavy you go is up to you, your strength level and the surface on
which you push. Remember that the point of using the Prowler at this time is to
strengthen your legs and hips without stressing your knees or hips too much. So
load it up and WALK! If you don’t know how much weight to do or how many
trips to do – follow this mantra: DO MORE.
The sled drags are done in a similar style – walk forward with the sled, and
walk backward dragging the sled. This can be done while wearing a belt
(attach the sled strap to the belt), using a sled harness (similar to what the
Strongman competitors use) or simply holding on to the sled strap with your
hands and walking forward and backward. Start with a light weight and keep