What I’m saying is that I wouldn’t go with BBB percentages and find it questionable why anyone would.
I think the best answer to this question is what @T3hPwnisher wrote earlier in this thread.
There is absolutely a time and a place to just do whatever you can do with an exercise. I tend to do that when I don’t care as much about the exercise, when the equipment I actually wanted is already taken, when I’m a bit burnt out, etc.
At other times, it is more fruitful (for me) to be more conscientious with the exercise I’ve chosen, the number of sets and reps I do and how those reps and sets are done.
Having run 5/3/1 for the past year, I also wish I had started this much earlier! You really do need to follow the principles highlighted in the books, and trust in the program. It just works. Don’t get in your own way, follow the principles and get your head down, look up in a years time and i am sure you will be happy with how far you have come, I certainly am
Ok cheers guys. I think i’ve decided i’m actually going to try to lose a bit of body fat the beginning of this year and then start a long slow bulk with 5/3/1. Is it still a good idea to start 5/3/1 now or are there better things i should aim to be doing?
I’m actually thinking that cutting whilst I start it will get me over my pathetic feelings of the volume being too low in the heavy sets etc.
There is no such thing as a bad time to start 531, IMO, but having a bit of body fat may actually be more helpful than you think. I say this having no idea what your strength/size ratio is.
This is very much a program where you have to eat. Someone mentioned earlier that Jim recommends eating for performance. If you are overly worried about fat percentages, you might want to re-consider some things. Jim Wendler is not exactly an underwear model.
Anyway, 531 is by definition a long game. I wouldn’t worry about losing fat first, even if you have tons of it.
Edit: regarding your feelings for volume on the heavy sets…I mean, AMRAP is a thing. Jim’s original versions had you doing AMRAP on the heavy set, every single freaking time. As someone who has run it that way many, many times, I can assure you it is both effective and miserably brutal. You will not feel guilty about volume ever again.
Just when I convince myself to cut another spanner is thrown in the works lol. I haven’t measured but I’m somewhere between 20-25% I think. I’m not interested in being an underwear model, i want to be big and muscular but with some decent strength. This is why i know 5/3/1 may be perfect for me but I’m not sure if I’ve already ballooned enough.
Well, two people can look completely different at 20-25%. One guy looks weak and overweight. The other looks like he can break all the shit. Be the other guy.
But I can’t just be that guy without cutting and getting there again, can I? If I have to keep eating to gain muscle I inevitably will continue to raise my bf% despite how slowly I aim to achieve that. If my bodyfat could stay where it is now and I could continue to look more muscular then that would be ideal. I fear that i’m close to crossing the threshold of that though. 5ft 10, just over 200lbs, and only a couple years of training.
You can train to get stronger and eat a little less. I don’t start seeing calorie-related problems until my calories get low, and I’m relatively lean by then so it’s just for a couple weeks.
If i jump on a 5/3/1 program in the next couple of weeks, reduce my calories from around 3200 to about 2700, try to walk more (thinking of getting a weighted vest), and trying to see how fast I can run a mile/maybe at slight elevation a couple times a week at the gym… I may be able to keep getting stronger? Even whilst losing weight?
I am not the 5/3/1 person, but a little cardio and a little diet go a long way.
I’ve written out long posts about how I’d manage it before, and @jskrabac takes a similar but better-planned/ better-explained approach than I do, so I don’t want to type it all out again. I’m sure it’s easy to find on these forums if you’re interest though.
The gist is, in my opinion, start with the least:
If you haven’t been tracking OR eating the same thing every day, start there (at your presumed maintenance).
As you stall, do 10% more, either in adding cardio, removing calories, or a combination. I wouldn’t make much smaller adjustments than 10% or your risk whittling away calories without ever giving your body enough impetus to change.
Repeat.
Don’t do it all in a day, or you will lose strength and your stall will be much harder to break.
Thank you. I’ve been tracking calories for a long time now and feel that I have gotten pretty good at it. Sure I have the odd takeaway once every fortnight or a girlfriend will cook a meal where i can’t be fully accurate but for the most part i’m pretty much weighing everything. I’m fairly meticulous, sometimes I have a lift to the gym and add 100-200 calories to my required total for bulking because of the mile or so walking I need to do to get there (and another mile back). Maybe a little too observant of it but i think i have the right habits when it comes to that to help me with a cut. My main issue wil be making sure i get enough protein with lower calories and I see a lot of different people saying different things when it comes to that. I actually found my digestion suffered when bulking if i took my protein above 150g but never felt that it hindered me in any way by not getting 1g per lb.
Just don’t overvalue the “plan” “approach” “routine” or other external thing and undervalue the YOU. In other words, if you just roll the dice and pick one approach/plan at random, and just stick to it with consistency and discipline, then you’ll find a way and you’ll get to where you want to go.
I honestly have no experience with weight loss so I have no specific advice for that. But in general, what I do know is that habits beat motivation.
Find a way of training that you can do for many years and really understand the ins and out of it and how to adapt it to your goals and needs (this comes from experiencing it, not from reading about it), and find a way of eating that is sustainable for the rest of your life, that will become the new normal for you, and can be adjusted based on your needs/goals, and not a “cut” or other short-term dietary solution, and not a “program” or other short-term training solution.
It’s January now. Plenty of New Year’s resolution types will come and go in the next 28 days and in the next 90 days, most of which are following the latest and greatest program or diet. Meanwhile, the regular gym goers with bad form and stupid outdated, unoptimal plans will continue to progress for yet another year.
My only $0.02 is I wouldn’t do this. We start getting neurotic and think we can eliminate variables we can’t. Like will we start adding 3 calories if we get up to pee at night? Know what I mean? Or subtract if I have a longer than normal conference call?
Heh, I wouldn’t get that deep into it. with the amount i pee when trying to up by water intake it’d become very tedious! I just found in the weeks I had to walk to the gym, progress would stall or the scale wouldn’t react how I wanted it to whereas when I didn’t walk to the gym the scale was moving up very slowly and the weights would go up every week. I remedied that by just adding a couple 100 calories on the days where I’d walk. I’ve done the same when the dog walk ended up longer than usual.
I genuinely don’t understand how you are simultaneously worried about losing progress while, at the same time, upset with the results of your training up until this point.
I’m not upset with my training as such, just at a bit of a crossroads. I did all I possibly could to stop being the skinny guy - insecure and weak. Even though I’m miles away from the majority of you guys I’m still super chuffed with how far I’ve come. I’m just trying to further my learning and make the right decisions from here on out.
I apologise if I ask too many questions or am a bit disorderly - it’s just where my heads at with it all.
with the amount i pee when trying to up by water intake it’d become very tedious! I just found in the weeks I had to walk to the gym, progress would stall or the scale wouldn’t react how I wanted it to whereas when I didn’t walk to the gym the scale was moving up very slowly and the weights would go up every week. I remedied that by just adding a couple 100 calories on the days where I’d walk. I’ve done the same when the dog walk ended up longer than usual.