So I have basically ran two programs for the past seven years: 5/3/1 and Cube. I first ran 5/3/1 back when it was an option in Wendler's "Train 3 Days a Week" book and blew up from there. I didn't follow very closely on the original Cube, but ran Cube Kingpin to the letter initially. Along with this I have been coached by Brandon in the past online. I ran the 6 weeks of the predator bench program and felt beat to hell at the end. After sitting back and finding out what I liked, what has worked in the past, and what banged me up I have come up with a few points that worked for me:

- Instead of doing two close variations on the deadlift, I do one deadlift variation (snatch grip rack pulls) followed by speed squats for 5x2 reps. The rest of the deadlift day is dedicated to back work. BB rows, seated DB shrugs and Lat pulldowns.
- The same idea is used for bench. Three bench variations beat me up. I follow bench with floor press, then weighted dips.
- I do use three squat variations. However all three are low volume (aside from speed day). 2 sets of comp, high bar and pause seem to be the sweet spot for me.
- The "all in one" BB'ing day never did much for me. My 4th day is used for close grip bench, OHP, delts & arms. Close grips work wonders for my bench, more so than just more comp benching. I use this day to have fun, go crazy a bit and play around with sets/reps. Last week I did 2x20reps, 2x15, 2x10 for close grip. Things like that keep things interesting and fun.
- "Lats Everyday" Direct lat work is done on comp bench day and deadlift day. I try to get 50 pull ups on bench day and all out back day done after pulls. Good mornings are done for sets of 10 on squat day and high volume face pulls on close grip day.

I think it's important to run a program to the letter a few times before making adjustments to fit your needs. Along with that, a beginner has no idea what their needs are so a couple years of hard training will do until then. I have taken the core concept of the cube (rotation of days) and molded the rest to fit what I need.

How does everyone else tailor their training programs?