Questions After 2 Full Cycles of 5/3/1

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

Hi all,

I’ve been doing 5/3/1 with 2 leaders of BBB followed by an anchor of FSL based on the programming in Forever. I’ve made it through the cycle twice now and I like the structure and how simple it is. I’ve been using this spreadsheet to track my progress, feel free to borrow it if it’s helpful: 5/3/1.xlsx - Google Sheets

It’s taken me longer than I would have liked to finish the first couple of cycles as I’ve had some trips and injuries that have come up and kept me away. One of the things I learned was that it’s really helpful to be eating enough while doing this (sounds obvious in hindsight).

I have a few questions:

  1. Is 50% too low of a BBB percentage given that the weights I’m lifting aren’t all that heavy?
  2. I do the program 3 days a week and climb the other 2 week days. I’m wondering if I should be doing some different assistant exercises to account for that. I do bicep curls and kettle bell presses every session and alternate between sets of rows/chin-ups/pull-ups/dips/push-ups depending on the day but not sure if I should change things up or if I’m maybe doing too much?
  3. I’ve been doing my 5x10 and FSL lifts with the same exercises as my main lifts because it’s convenient to not have to warm up twice but with me doing the program 3 days a week instead of 4 should I be worried about frequency at all? Would it be better to do the opposite lift so I’m doing each lift more than once every 9ish days?

Thanks!

2

  1. Go by feel. If you think 50 was too light, try 60. If that gives you crippling DOMS, try somewhere in between and get better. Simply use good judgement (not your ego.)

  2. If you add something in, you need to take something out (to paraphrase Jim) Climbing sounds like a good bit of work.

  3. I’ve seen Jim encourage enough people to use a 9-day “week” to believe that is adequate work to get stronger.

3

  1. Start too light and progress slowly. 5x10@50% is nothing when your TM is 200. When your TM is 300 it might still be nothing, but lifting heavier weight is not important in the BBB - it’s the work that you’re doing that matters. When you’re TM is 400 pounds and 200 5x10 is too light, then maybe worry about increasing the percentage. If you’re an experienced lifter, you can do the BBB sets @FSL which translates to 60, 65 and 70% respectively each week.

  2. Your body will tell you if you’re doing too much. When you add something in (climbing), take something out. If you feel the curls are hurting your climbing, stop doing them.

  3. No. There is nothing wrong with a 9 day ‘week’ as apposed to a 7 day ‘week’. Your body doesn’t know the difference. If you want to do all the lifts 3 days a week, do the Press on Deadlift day - that’s the original program anyway. Squat, Bench, Dead/Press.

4

I guess my thinking was that if 5x10@50% is nothing when my TM is 200 it wouldn’t be contributing to my progress.

I don’t feel like I’m doing too much. Just was wondering if some exercises might be redundant/missing.

I wasn’t as concerned with the 9 day week vs 7 day week. I was more wondering about if it’s better to move the supplemental work (5x10 BBB part) to the day when you do the opposite lift to increase frequency.

5

just do the same lift on the same day - Jim has mentioned on here and on his private forum that it’s better do do the supplemental after the main work for that lift to improve focus. If anything, do a full body routine if you want to combine supplemental. I did something like this recently with good results

Day 1
Squat 5’s pro
Bench 5x5@FSL
assistance

Day 2
Deadlift 5x5@FSL
Press 5’s Pro
assistance

Day 3
Squat 5x5@FSL
Bench 5’s Pro
assistance

Day 4
Deadlift 5’s Pro
Press 5x5@FSL
assistance

You can do 5x10 instead of 5x5 or even 10x5 if those volume schemes work better for you.

6

Thanks for the response! I think I’ll stick with what I’m doing for now.