JIm, when you say to have an A and B training day and to alternate them throughout the week (ABA BAB), how do you work the percentages? Do you just finish a cycle in two weeks, or are there days you repeat?
If we are using ABA, it is usually the Beginner Prep program or something similar. In that case, we do it as written and we use a very low TM. It’s all about picking the right TM, bar speed: if you don’t know that stuff, stick to the basic program with 5/3 resets or doing the 7th Week protocol.
Thank you for the reply!
I feel really stupid. I’ve reread this post several times and I’ve also read the Beginner Prep Program in Forever 5/3/1. I am too dense to figure it out. Does this mean every 2 weeks we are increasing the TM? Or does it mean that in an ABA week, you do A twice, each with the same percentages and for BAB week, B is completed twice and both of them will have the same percentages?
Alright, I reread this 1000 more times more and I think this is what the beginner prep is supposed to be if you follow EXACTLY how it is written in terms of main lifts and percentages (assistance and supplemental FSL is implied).
Week 1: each lift with same (5/3/1 or 3/5/1) percentages
-Day 1: Squat/Bench (A)
-Day 2: Deadlift/Press (B)
-Day 3: Squat/Bench (A)
Week 2: each lift with same (5/3/1 or 3/5/1) percentages
-Day 1: Deadlift/Press (B)
-Day 2: Squat/Bench (A)
-Day 3: Deadlift/Press (B)
Week 3: each lift with same (5/3/1 or 3/5/1) percentages
-Day 1: Squat/Bench (A)
-Day 2: Deadlift/Press (B)
-Day 3: Squat/Bench (A)
Week 4: each lift with same (5/3/1 or 3/5/1) percentages
-Day 1: Deadlift/Press (B)
-Day 2: Squat/Bench (A)
-Day 3: Deadlift/Press (B)
Week 5: each lift with same (5/3/1 or 3/5/1) percentages
-Day 1: Squat/Bench (A)
-Day 2: Deadlift/Press (B)
-Day 3: Squat/Bench (A)
Week 6: each lift with same (5/3/1 or 3/5/1) percentages
-Day 1: Deadlift/Press (B)
-Day 2: Squat/Bench (A)
-Day 3: Deadlift/Press (B)
It makes the most sense because you always alternate between A and B (as the book says), you work out 3 times a week (as the book says), and you also follow what Wendler meant when he said "Week 1/2/3” in Beginner Prep (it’s decoupled from Workout A and Workout B).
What got lost on me was how on Week 4, you’re starting with deadlift and press first (the B workout), which means you do B twice instead of A, and I’m so used to the first week of a template being exactly the same. However, in terms of a template always starting exactly the same on Week 1, you would just have to run the Beginner Prep Program for 6 weeks in order to have a template repeat itself in terms of what main lifts are done with their respective 5/3/1 percentages.
I personally do:
Week 1: ABA
Week 2: BAB
Week 3: ABA
That’s one cycle, so it stands to reason you’d go back to ABA in week 1 of your next cycle. Also, it makes sense to me that Jim switched it to 351 so your lightest week as always the one where you deadlift twice. That’s just my interpretation…