Okay I had posted this in my log, but nobody answered so I will make a thread.
Okay thoughts on 5/3/1 been doing it for a year now and I love it, however going to change it up a bit. I read a lot of Elite site also and love the power lifting mentality. What I feel works for me and will increase my lifts is changing the 1+ week. Instead of the final 1+ doing as many reps as possible I am going to do just 1 rep and then max out.
Did that on dead this week and did it on squat last week on 3+ week. So what this will do is a max load effort once every 4 weeks. Anybody who reads this have any thoughts. I am driving to hit that 500 dead & squat, and I think doing this will get my CNS better prepared for heavier weights.
Sounds like a good plan to me. I mentioned in some other thread that when I did 5/3/1 (granted I only followed it for a 6 weeks or so) I found that I started to lose the ability to move the heavy weights that I had built up doing triples/doubles and singles 3x a week. I feel it’s important to feel max weights regularly, that’s how we adapt to them. I’m also chasing the 500 dead and squat. I’m currently on 5x5, and when thats run it’s course I’ll switch to 3x3 and then triples, doubles and singles and then a 1 rm test.
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
Sounds like a good plan to me. I mentioned in some other thread that when I did 5/3/1 (granted I only followed it for a 6 weeks or so) I found that I started to lose the ability to move the heavy weights that I had built up doing triples/doubles and singles 3x a week. I feel it’s important to feel max weights regularly, that’s how we adapt to them. I’m also chasing the 500 dead and squat. I’m currently on 5x5, and when thats run it’s course I’ll switch to 3x3 and then triples, doubles and singles and then a 1 rm test.[/quote]
Wendler is coming out with a modified 5/3/1 for competing powerlifters, will be interested to see what he changes up a bit.
[quote]DJHT wrote:
I think doing this will get my CNS better prepared for heavier weights.
[/quote]
I’ve never done 5/3/1 but ^^^^ this is the reason why not. I can do reps till the cows come home but that doesn’t seem to prepare me for the heavy singles. I’ll be curious to hear how modifying the program works for you.
[quote]DJHT wrote:
I think doing this will get my CNS better prepared for heavier weights.
[/quote]
I’ve never done 5/3/1 but ^^^^ this is the reason why not. I can do reps till the cows come home but that doesn’t seem to prepare me for the heavy singles. I’ll be curious to hear how modifying the program works for you. [/quote]
I think the program is great for intermediate lifters or old guys who want to get back into heavy weights. However after doing it for a year, I am ready to push it to the next step. 5/3/1 can be a good base program in my opinion to work off of, my log is Strongest Guy On My Block in case you want to see how it is going.
[quote]DJHT wrote:
I think doing this will get my CNS better prepared for heavier weights.
[/quote]
I’ve never done 5/3/1 but ^^^^ this is the reason why not. I can do reps till the cows come home but that doesn’t seem to prepare me for the heavy singles. I’ll be curious to hear how modifying the program works for you. [/quote]
I think the program is great for intermediate lifters or old guys who want to get back into heavy weights. However after doing it for a year, I am ready to push it to the next step. 5/3/1 can be a good base program in my opinion to work off of, my log is Strongest Guy On My Block in case you want to see how it is going.[/quote]
I agree with every thing you have said.I would also add it seems to be a good program for geared lifters who want to jump into raw lifting.
[quote]WWCD-LINY wrote:
OK - not to be thick in the skull - where is a down and dirty breakdown on 5/3/1?[/quote]
There is a specific 5-3-1 thread in the powerlifting forum and a few Wendler articles in the archives on this cite outlining 5-3-1. The e-book is $20 and well worth it even if you don’t run the program if you are relatively new to PL training.
DJHT, I am coming to the conclusion that there is no holy grail 5-3-1 formula and that sometimes just change for changes sake is needed to get through a slump. Right now I am liking Fischer’s Finisher’s after the money set: 5x3 at 80% TM or 3x3 at 85% TM, rather than BBB 5x10 at 55 or 60%. If I blow out the money set, this rep scheme seems just right as a finisher. I have started seeing good gains on this after a slump.
I like to test 1rm as much as the next guy, but I don’t feel like I need to do it every cycle to make progress. Maybe every other cycle or when I am feeling frisky.
Also, if you really want to jack your max on deads or squats, you could always run a speciality peaking program like Smolov or the Coan-Phillipe deadlift cycle. No max efforts at all, but a shit-ton of high-intensity, high volume work. I think 5-3-1 will get you where you want to go, but it may take a little longer than a speciality peaking program.
JJack not in a hurry really, I did set goals for the end of the year to be at 500 on dead and squat. Right now I could get 450 on Squat and 435 on Dead. Still trying to reach those goals, but again if I dont no worries. I am going to stick with this plan because I am not in a hurry, just thought if would be interesting to get some feedback.