I’m currently on cycle #35 of 5/3/1. Been happily plugging along for almost 3 years. Up till now I’ve used several templates including 3/5/1 for PL, BBB challenge, and straight 5/3/1 with a variety of accessory work. Recently got and read ‘beyond 5/3/1’ and next cycle I plan on incorporating Joker and First Set Last AMRAP into my training.
My question is what constitutes a PR sufficient to do Joker sets. I get it, if I do more reps with more weight, or the same reps with more weight, that’s an obvious PR. But say you reset a lift, you hit 5 reps on week 3 AMRAP, great, but a few cycles later you’ll only be able to hit 4. That’s not a PR. But a month or two later you are still hitting 4 and your training max is 20lbs higher, is that a PR?
Do you quantify the PR by tonnage (weightreps)?
Or by projected 1RM (weightreps*0.0333+weight)?
Or some other metric?
[quote]philski wrote:
My question is what constitutes a PR sufficient to do Joker sets.
[/quote]
I don’t think there is such a thing. Go by feel, if you don’t feel it don’t do jokers. Jim has suggested capping PR sets if you plan on jokers (I think this is in the Beyond Book? I cannot remember exactly where I read this). So, you do not need to necessarily hit a PR to do jokers.
[quote]philski wrote:
Do you quantify the PR by tonnage (weightreps)?
Or by projected 1RM (weightreps*0.0333+weight)?
Or some other metric?
[/quote]
I usually compare to another set at the same weight. That is for a given lift I have a 275 PR, 285 PR, 295 PR, etc. So, as the training max goes up these PR sets for a given weight will happen on different weeks. You do a PR set at 250 on the 3+ week, then I few cycles later you do a PR set at 250 on the 5+ week. You except to hit more reps and set a PR.
[quote]JMac31 wrote:
I don’t think there is such a thing. Go by feel, if you don’t feel it don’t do jokers.[/quote]
JMac31, many thanks. I had taken notes reading the book and my notes said that you had to get a PR to do the Joker sets. Going back to the book I see I’m wrong, Jim says “always push that last set for a PR, no matter what” (ie: don’t do “just the required reps”). So “push for a PR, then do Joker sets”, as opposed to “set a PR, and then do Joker sets”
[quote]Jim has suggested capping PR sets if you plan on jokers (I think this is in the Beyond Book? I cannot remember exactly where I read this). So, you do not need to necessarily hit a PR to do jokers.
[/quote]
Yes, in Beyond 5/3/1 (page 33) “I usually cap the PR set at 10, 8 or 5 reps.”
[quote]philski wrote:
Jim says “always push that last set for a PR, no matter what” (ie: don’t do “just the required reps”). So “push for a PR, then do Joker sets”, as opposed to “set a PR, and then do Joker sets”[/quote]
Jim only meant to stop people from doing only the required reps, just in case someone wanted to spare their energies for Joker sets.
Go for a rep PR, but obviously you’re not going to get it every time. After you tried hard to get that PR, if you feel like, do some Joker sets.
