Advice with Military/Overhead Press within 5/3/1

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

Hi,

I have been using the 5-3-1 Program for Hard Gainers and it has been going really good. I am on week 6 now and I am loving the program, however, I seem to have come up to a small issue that I am not sure how to proceed with. It is, as the title says, with the Military/Overhead Press, I have tried to complete the session today as described in the program, but I was unable to complete all the lifts at the weights according to my numbers.

So, my question is, if I was unable to complete the program for this lift and this is the last week of this series (I would be restarting at 65/75/85% next week), should I not add the additional 5 lbs to my 90% of 1 rep max and repeat this last series of weights until I can complete it or should I continue on with the plan as described and add the additional weight as it instructs?

I would appreciate any advice on this so I can begin setting up my plans for next week. Thank you in advance.

2

How far off were you? Repeating a cycle with the same TM is fine too, sometimes it’s totally necessary.

3

I was able to get 3 out of 5 reps at 95% and only completed 4 sets out of the 10 sets of 5 reps.

I am thinking that repeating the last 3 weeks for the Military/Overhead press only might be my best option since I didn’t complete a majority of the lifts.

4

I’d lower the Press TM more than that next cycle, and maybe consider lowering other TM’s if it seems like the program is running you into the ground. Maybe take whatever max the 3 reps would correspond to and take 85% of that. Make whatever adjustments you have to so that you’re completing the program with quality/fast/strong reps rather than grinding and missing reps and even sets.

5

The hardgainer program specifically says to use an 85% training max. You should be able to get at least 5 strong, fast reps with your training max.