BUILDING THE MONOLITH REVIEW
I’ve been wanting to run this program for a loooong time. But my ADD did not allow me to do this. But I finally decided to do this program. Especially after I saw @T3hPwnisher be able to finish it under an hour I knew I had to get after it. Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of the program, it is brutal in it’s own way. I got stronger on every lift and back, shoulders, arms, and quads blew up. Clothes fit all weird now.
THE CHANGES
Of course I’m going to change the program lol. But luckily I followed the program with few minor changes in my opinion. I did 5/3/1 without using percentages (gasp!). But fortunately I get what the 3/5/1 weeks look like and I understand how 5/3/1 works and why it’s designed the way it is, so I was able to do this seamlessly.
Monday
- Back Squat - 5x5 (ss: Band Pulls, Ab Wheel - 100)
- OH Press - 531, 1xAMRAP (ss: Pull-Ups 5x10)
- BB Row - 5x10 (Dips - 100+)
- Condition
- I didn’t want to do 100 chin-ups in a session and my body responds really well to rows, so decided to do 50 reps of BB rows and 50 reps of pull-ups. Elbows didn’t get angry so I’m glad I did this. For the OHP I knew I had to work up to a 5RM basically for that day and then hit the AMRAP after. I was always able to get to over 100 dips. I rest paused them because I was able to get through them within 5 sets. Condition today or the day after.
Wednesday
- Deadlift - 3x5 (ss: Curls, Hanging Leg Raises - 100)
- Bench Press - 5x5 (ss: DB Rows - 100)
- Condition
- Notes: This workout was my favorite because it was quicker to get through. Less is always more with me. Condition today or day after.
Friday
- Back Squat - 5RM, 1x20 (ss: Band Pull Aparts, Ab Wheel - 100)
- OH Press - 10-12x5 (ss: Weighted Chin-Ups 5-8x5)
- Trap Bar Shrugs - 100
- Condition
- I would work up to a 5RM and then do my 1x20 after. It would be a 5RM for the day. So if week one I worked up to 405 week 2 I would work up to 385 because I knew week 3 I would put back up to 405 or higher. 10x5 and 12x5 for pressing is brutal and fun at the same time. I’ve never done so many sets of pressing in one session. This lifting day you definitely need 2 days to recover from MINIMUM.
WORKOUT TIME
- Since I workout at a commercial gym and run a company I had to get creative in how to get the most work done in an hour. I give myself 1 hour everyday to do something physical. In order to stay at an hour or under I decided to push the pace on the lifting days. I kept my rest intervals between 30-60 seconds between all sets including work sets. This made the pace extremely fast but since it’s more sub-maximal training I felt like it would be a good challenge for me. As the weeks went on it got easier because my conditioning and work capacity shot through the roof.
- Supersets. I wasn’t able to superset everything but I SS’d what I could and it ended up on cutting the workout time while always keeping the training dynamic.
FOOD
I didn’t start REALLY eating the way I should have been until week 3. I don’t have a big appetite naturally but I can eat BIG in one sitting so I was doing that. But for the workload I was placing on my body I needed to eat more. So I ended up doing this:
Breakfast (eggs, oatmeal, fruit, veggies, fish)
Dinner (meat, potatoes, rice, lentils, veggies, yogurt, fruit)
During the day: steak burritos, happy hour food, seaweed, fruit, nuts, pb&J, etc
This worked well for my hectic lifestyle. I always eat breakfast before leaving the house and the wife and I always make it a point to have a good dinner. During the day I just continually ate food and snacked. I usually get about ~2500 calories in 2 meals so it’s easy to get the other 1000 cals from snacking through the day. Chipotle steak burritos with extra meat were basically always eaten on lifting days. So lifting days i didn’t have to snack as much.
RESULTS
Weight: 175 → 179
Workout Time: 60 min → sub 55 min
Back Squat (+20lb PR)
- Start: 405x5 / 245x20
- End: 425x3 / 275x15
Deadlift (+40lb PR)
- Start: 405@ 3x5 / 405 @ 10
- End: 445 @ 2x5 / 405 @ 12
OH Press (+10lb PR)
- Start: 165x5 / 135x14
- End: 175x5 / 155x10
Bench Press (+20lb PR)
- Start: 235 @ 5x5
- End: 255 @ 3x5
BB Row (+20lb PR)
- 225 @ 5x10
- 245 @ 5x10
LESSONS LEARNED
- Quality over quantity! Learning to do a few things really will be more meaningful than trying to be master of all.
- Eating to get big is a BIG commitment. I had no idea how hard eating actually is. Hitting the gym is easy. Working hard in the gym is easy. Getting up to hit the gym when you don’t want to is easy. But eating, damn that shit is so hard because you physically just feel so full.
- Full body work outs are the best. I think FBT forces you to take out the bullshit cause you can’t do a million things in a workout. I think everyone should have a go to FB routine that they can do. Squat, push, pull, core baby!
- 3 days of lifting and 3 days of conditioning seem to be the perfect match! This allows you to stay athletic, lean, but also get strong and big. I think I know why a lot of the old timers preferred this method.
- Stick to a workout plan when you pick one. The first 4 weeks you might feel like shit. But after 4 weeks of your body adjusting you just start to feel strong as shit. Weeks 5 and 6 I felt like a completely different animal in the weight-room. I was in charge and control of the program vs the program being in control of me.
- Jim Wendler knows what he is doing. His programs WILL work if you follow them the way he says you should (sorry for swapping the BB rows man!).
- One of the most fun 5/3/1 programs out there. For anyone really looking to challenge themselves, this program is the one!
ADVICE TO THOSE WHO WANT TO DO BTM
- Make minor changes if any to the program.
- Don’t add other exercises. If you really want to you can do bodyweight circuits on your off days for conditioning to do lunges and all sorts of other stuff.
- Do your damn conditioning!
- Eat…and then eat some more.
- The most important piece of advice. Don’t buy new clothes when doing this program because they won’t fit you after 6 weeks!
- Don’t be scared to push the pace. You will not get weaker with less rest intervals. I repeat YOU WILL NOT GET WEAKER!!!