Which 5/3/1 article? Also, some templates (most of the later ones) do 3/5/1 instead of 5/3/1. So meaning that you would do the 90% week first, then the 85% week, followed by the 95% week. This was intended to give you more rest between heavy weeks, not aid in confusion.
Ive read people in here say to just read the original article and that’s all you need. While this may work for some people, the beauty in 5/3/1 (at least to me) lies in the progression of Jim and his and ideologies regarding training, life, etc. The first book was written out of a necessity for Jim, Beyond was written as a necessity for readers who wanted more out of 5/3/1, and Forever was a culmination of all the time in between to show full growth and the full potential of what 5/3/1 had.
I truly think you will benefit from buying, at the every least, the first book. The basics of things are dearly needed in your case and many on this site as well. Don’t pirate it, download the pdf, BUY it. Support it. I promise it gets WAY simpler the more you read and attack it like you would studying for a math final.
If I were doing 531 for the first time with BBB, I would stick to the original %. I’m not sure why the %'s have changed (don’t have it in front of me to get context)
Jim played around with % for different programs and challenges but the original still stand the test of time and will work just fine. The % themselves aren’t the magic bullet with this program. The concept was to train with submaximal weight (hence the training max being 10-15% under max) and to out lots of effort into the amrap sets. The % week to week allowed for weight progression and also regulation.
I’m kinda liking both programs (BBB and Krypteia). I’m sure I’ll end up doing both but now I need to figure out which one first. BBB seems a little less complicated, and it doesn’t have work between sets which is nice , that almost sounds like cardio.
I’m trying but it’s hard. I don’t understand the swapping of the weeks. I did not see mention of that in the book. One sentence says run 5/3/1 for the first week then it says different unless I’m reading it wrong, as soon as I post this I’m going back to reading.
I’m sure this is shallow and dumb, but I wanna be big and strong. I don’t care about the rest. If I breathe heavy at the top of the stairs I’m ok with that . But yes, those are all reasons I’ve chosen it.
@T3hPwnisher I get it!!! The 5/3/1. Each number stands for a certain %. They are constant (I beleive) but he does move them around. Hence your mention of 3/5/1
But that is what I mean; if you follow it without understanding it, it will still work.
I am not sure why you picked a program with an emphasis on conditioning, jumps and throws in that regard. 5/3/1 will still reach those goals, but I would just train like a powerlifter in this situation.
Because when looking at them I’m looking st a couple different things. The biggest thing is the main lifts. If it doesn’t have the lifts I enjoy I’m not gonna run the program. The second is the results people get. I’ve seen you mention BBB was great for size and that you liked both Krypteia and BBB but would choose BBB if size was the ultimate goal.
I also enjoy spending a lot of time in the gym. It’s my hobby, I do it 6 days a week and hate taking that one rest day. I may not spend ALL of that time productively and I may not be making the most of my training by not taking more rest days, but half the battle for me is the enjoyment of lifting. I’m willing to sacrifice a little progress for the sake of enjoying the ride. I know as I progress as a lifted and start moving more respectable weight the sessions will get more taxing and demand the recovery I’m neglecting now. So I’m soaking up the benefits of small weight now while I can.
So if i were to run the BBB 4 days how does this look for accessories? He lists some rep recommendations to stay inside for the accessories, I’m assuming that’s the TOTAL reps even if more than one accessory is chosen?
Main lift - squat
I like the idea of having front squat but seems like an aweful lot of squatting… would leg extensions be acceptable?
Main lift - deadlift
Figured the lower back would already be worked pretty good so something more hamstring focused like leg curls?
Main lift - bench press
I honestly don’t know what to add here. I’d love to buy a cable cross over but I’m almost out of room now.
Main lift - press
I love incline bench but wonder if another big pressing movement would be bad? I also want to do laterals and rear delt work so… do those?
Would I be better off/should I have assistance work that does not assist the main lift on the same day? IE do press assistance on deadlift days, bench assistance on squat days? Stuff like that?
General recommendation for assistance was, 50-100 of the three categories - 1) push 2)pull 3)single leg/ core.
How you structure this is really up to you. The idea is to put max effort into the main movements and not worry too much about the assistance.
I super set the assistance work during the BBB sets. So for example when I was doing 5 x 10 bench, I superset in 5 sets of rows.
When I was doing 5 x 10 OH press, I superset in 5 sets of pull ups.
I superset ab work with the deadlifts and leg curls with the squats.
@simo74 simply beautiful! I love it. I think I will take this week to work on some up to date TM’s and try to get a spread sheet going for BBB and see what y’all think.
In case you were still confused on this, the 70/80/90%'s are for the BBB challenge (which I don’t even know if Jim wrote, since he didn’t write the original article on here)…if you are just running regular BBB you’d stick with the 40%-60%.
Ok, so I put together the first 3 weeks of the program on paper. I chose the accessory lifts simply because I like them. I tried to add them to days where they wouldn’t compete against the main lift but still aid in other lifts during the week.
QUESTION: do I simply do these 3 weeks then repeat? If so do I make any changes to the programmed percentages?
Without further ado, here is my very sloppy hand written woefully dreadful attempt at BBB.
, that almost sounds like cardio.
