@Kloi A while back you asked for people to post their routines so you could get some ideas. I'd just started one and wanted to give it a little more time before posting it. It's going well, so I'm going to lay it out.

This is designed solely to improve on the Big 3. I'm not trying to gain mass. Also, one should have some training experience under his belt before doing a routine like this. It isn't important how much you can lift as that you have the ability to recover from the workouts. Recovery is key on a routine like this. Lots of late nights out or heavy drinking will impede recovery and result in overtraining.

I start my training week on Saturday, and train Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. That's what works best for my schedule as I have time for longer workouts on the weekends. But there is nothing magical about the days of training. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, or some other combination would work fine.

Below is the exact workout I've done this past week:

Saturday Squat: work up to 7 sets of 2 (7x2) Bench press: work up to 7x2 Note: I usually do doubles or triples on my work sets on this day-this week I did doubles. I do not use the max weight I can do though for doubles or triples. I'd estimate that I'm around 80% of max. I work up to that weight then keep doing sets until the last rep gets noticeably slower, which for doubles usually takes 6-8 sets and usually 4-6 sets for triples. And this is true on all training days-I never go to the maximum weight I can do for the prescribed number of reps; I keep some in the tank. I pause all of my bench presses.

Sunday Close grip incline press: work up to 1x4 Front squat: work up to 1x4 Snatch grip deadlift: work up to 1x4 Overhead press: work up to 1x3 Bicep work (this week I did 6 sets of chin ups, 4 sets of dumbbell curls, and 3 sets of hammer curls). Bicep and ab work are optional-they aren't part of the routine. The other exercises are variations of the main lifts that don't require nearly as much weight as the main lifts, as fatigue is still present from the previous day. You can switch these up (e.g., safety bar squats instead of front squats), just don't choose something that requires as much or more weight than the Big 3 (like 3 board presses or rack pulls).

Tuesday Pause squat (I hold for a 3 count): work up to 1x2 Bench press with 3 second pause: work up to 1x5

As with Sunday's exercises, these exercises can also be substituted with some other variation of the lifts. E.g., safety bar squats, tempo squats, bench press for 1x6-8, bench press with 5-second pause, wide grip bench press.

Thursday Deadlift: work up to 4x2 (both reps on the fourth set went up as quickly as they did on the first, but I prefer a bit lower volume on deadlifts). Close grip bench press: work up to 1x6.

That's it. It's fairly straightforward. I'd say the two most important things are recovery and not using too much weight. You don't want to using a weight that takes you to failure or close-you want to have a couple reps to spare.

If you haven't trained in this manner before, you might want to make it a 3-day per week routine. To do so, drop the Sunday workout, move Tuesday's to Monday, and move Thursday's to Wednesday. That way you have at least 1 day off between all training sessions and 2 days off before the main squat/bench day.