5/3/1 on Tight Schedule, Combined w/Basketball

Bigger Stronger Leaner Jim Wendler 5/3/1 Coaching
1

Hello everyone and sorry if this, or something similar has been asked before. I am an 23-years old male playing low level competitive basketball in Europe and since we don’t have a proper S&C coach I have to setup my own in-season training program.

Basketball training is Monday through Thursday, games are on Fridays. I have access to the team’s gym on Mondays, Tuesdays and Saturdays. Based off Jim’s Forever book and some of his articles, I structured my in-season weight training plan as follows:

Day 1
Jumps
Squat 5’s PRO, 5x5 FSL
Bench 5’s PRO, 5x5 FSL
Assistance work (50 reps of pulls and 50 reps of abs/lower back work)

Day 2
Jumps
Trap Bar DL 5’s PRO, 5x5 FSL
Press 5’s PRO, 5x5 FSL
Assistance work (50-75 reps of pulls and 50-75 reps of abs/lower back work)

Day 3
Some more assistance work (push, pull, single leg, some hinge movement)

I don’t really know on what weekdays I should allocate each of these training days laid out above because of how certain muscle groups are going to be trained on consecutive days no matter what. Or should I ditch this plan and try something completely different?

2

I’d probably cut the lifting to 2 days a week and do Mon + Sat or Tue + Sat if it were me. I’d ditch the 3rd assistance day and focus simply on maintaining as much strength and size as possible during the season. Use the off season to grow.

3

If you haven’t already, I would recommend searching for articles about in-season training on Jim’s website. I think there is 2 or 3. The one about how he trained his students during the pandemic is probably what I would lean towards.

I think he developed it due to the fact that they had time restrictions on how long they were allowed to be in the weight room. This was in turn developed on an in season plan he wrote that essentially had them only doing the Bench Press and Trap Bar Deadlift during the season. These two lifts were the least likely to result in injury.

That was for football, but I imagine it would work well for basketball. I certainly think it would work well for an athlete on a tight schedule, and I highly doubt you would get weaker on it. Depending on your training history, you might even get stronger.

If you insist on programming 4 main lifts, I would say only do 1 per day, and stretch your week (microcycle) out over 14 days instead of 7. Leave Day 3 for recovery stuff like sled work, Airdyne, foam rolling etc.

If you still want to lift 3 days a week you could also still just do 1 main lift a day and your week (microcycle) would be 9 days long. This is particularly useful if you might miss a day, as you don’t have to worry about catching up, you just pick up where you left off.

I really don’t think its necessary or beneficial to cram all that work into 2 days. Remember start light, progress slowly. If your weeks are 9 or 14 days long, with one main lift a day, you could probably skip the deload as well.

If you are really adventurous you could try a Krypteia style program, those can be found in 5/3/1 Forever as well as a few articles on his website. This kind of training can be tricky to adjust to, especially if you are mid season, but if you can make it work I am sure it would be very beneficial to any athlete.

Also don’t remove your pushing assistance. I would keep it in regardless of what you do. Even if it is a smaller movement for your delts or tris. Could even be a set of pushups between your sets of lower body main work. Do not neglect your pressing.

As far as scheduling, I would put my lifting to allow for as much recovery before a game as possible. Your weight room schedule seems made for this. Day 1 Monday, Day 2 Tuesday, get into the gym for recovery work the Saturday after your game and have Sunday off.