Wendler 5/3/1 Program

Training Powerlifting
361

[quote]JPuxHenri wrote:
crankMAN wrote:
JPuxHenri wrote:
Here’s what I do, and it seems to work really well for me. But I consider myself an intermediate lvl lifter, so it could be really bad for the others… Anyway, what I’ve been doing is this:

If I get something around 8/5/3 reps or less with the prescribed weights, I increase them as Wendler recommends for the next cycle.

But if I get something higher than that, like 10/7/5 reps for instance, I double the increase, so I use a 20lbs jump for the squat and the deadlift, and 10lbs for the bench and the military press.

your not doing the 5/3/1

my mistake, when read your post first i tought your doing 8/5/3 on the same workout …just realized this is your last set only…hope that what you means1!

Aww!! But it works for me. Whenever it stops working, I’ll become more conservative. Besides, I don’t think that the 10lbs and 5lbs weight jumps are the ones that define the 5/3/1 method. Why can’t you make bigger (not that big really) weight jumps if you feel that you’re progressing faster than expected? If I get 10 reps with the prescribed 95%, I guess it’s fair to double the weight jump for the next cycle. But again, that’s just me.[/quote]

362

[quote]crankMAN wrote:
JPuxHenri wrote:
crankMAN wrote:
JPuxHenri wrote:
Here’s what I do, and it seems to work really well for me. But I consider myself an intermediate lvl lifter, so it could be really bad for the others… Anyway, what I’ve been doing is this:

If I get something around 8/5/3 reps or less with the prescribed weights, I increase them as Wendler recommends for the next cycle.

But if I get something higher than that, like 10/7/5 reps for instance, I double the increase, so I use a 20lbs jump for the squat and the deadlift, and 10lbs for the bench and the military press.

your not doing the 5/3/1

my mistake, when read your post first i tought your doing 8/5/3 on the same workout …just realized this is your last set only…hope that what you means1!

Aww!! But it works for me. Whenever it stops working, I’ll become more conservative. Besides, I don’t think that the 10lbs and 5lbs weight jumps are the ones that define the 5/3/1 method. Why can’t you make bigger (not that big really) weight jumps if you feel that you’re progressing faster than expected? If I get 10 reps with the prescribed 95%, I guess it’s fair to double the weight jump for the next cycle. But again, that’s just me.

[/quote]

Yeah, that’s what I meant! Sorry if I didn’t explain myself properly. xD

363

Got the book - is it worth it? Yes indeed, a small price to pay for something that you are going to put many many hours into in the gym.

And by golly it clears things up.

OK here is my stupidest misinterpretation, that came from another site that summarised the system - I had the idea it was 3 days a week, so the 4 workouts were mon, wed, fri, and then the next monday - rolling on like that. That was confusing.

Adding 5 or 10lbs - the reasoning behind this is you do not NEED to work your one rep maximum or even 3 rep maximum, you don’t have to push these all the time to make progress. The fact you are doing progressive workload is what matters. Your ~actual~ 1RM will go up more than 5 or 10lbs but you won’t have to do it / test it to see. Over 4 cycles adding 5lbs per cycle you might have added 20 pounds but in fact your 1RM might be up by 50lbs if you have to actually test it.

Furthermore, Wendler believes in small progression over a long time. It is more important to have small progression over a long time than it is to try and race ahead and stall too soon. I agree with this, the human body simply can’t progress very fast as far as building muscle and strength are concerned. The key is to do enough work to make this happen as fast as nature allows, but not to do too much more than that, which is a waste of time and energy.

Going for as many reps as possible on the last set is a great way to make sure you are getting some real stimulation. think about it - if you only did 5 and could have done more, you prob. have not done enough. Who in this world can predict the exact reps and % you need to get a complete workout? Nobody. But by pushing yourself on that last set you make up the difference between theory and optimal workload for you on that day. This is a great thing to do. Also, pushing the muscles when they are already fatigued at such a high % weight is a great way to make sure the biggest fibers are really taxed.

More thoughts later …

364

Good post, Magarhe!

365

[quote]Magarhe wrote:
OK here is my stupidest misinterpretation, that came from another site that summarised the system - I had the idea it was 3 days a week, so the 4 workouts were mon, wed, fri, and then the next monday - rolling on like that. That was confusing.
…[/quote]

mon (A) military
wed (B) deads
fri (C) bench
mon (D) squat
wed (A)
fri (B)
mon (C)…etc.

thats how i understood if from the 3 days/week book, and the 5/3/1 book didnt seem to change my understand of that…

so, what you wrote above, is that how you understand it now, or is that how you understood it when you were confused? im confused. i just do it the way i just mapped it out, and i love it. and something that i find really great is that if for some reason something came up on a day you were supposed to be in the gym, and you just could not make it, the program wouldnt really be hurt if you had to push a workout a day forward or back. i have one workout left in my first deload, and so far i think ill be sticking with this for quite some time.

side note- the other day on my deadlift deload day, the weights actually felt kind of heavy to me. i used 60,65,70% as was originally put in the 3 days book, and it actually had me a little nervous that the next cycle might not go as well as the first. then again, ive never really done a deload, so maybe its just that by that time my body really needed some recovery from the first 3 waves? this was after doing the 5/3/1 day of deadlifts hitting 6 on my 95%, so i was surprised that the 60,65,70%'s felt so heavy. in fact, its my grip that gave out on the 95% set, i probably had at least 2 more in me if i had straps on.

if any of you guys understand what im rambling about, feel free to comment.

and, lastly…i read some of this thread before my bench deload day today, and i decided to do 5x10 @ 50% after my 3x5, felt pretty good. i think ill give the boring but big for this next cycle and see if i cant get a little bigger!

…love this program x 193473957

366

[quote]JPuxHenri wrote:
Here’s what I do, and it seems to work really well for me. But I consider myself an intermediate lvl lifter, so it could be really bad for the others… Anyway, what I’ve been doing is this:

If I get something around 8/5/3 reps or less with the prescribed weights, I increase them as Wendler recommends for the next cycle.

But if I get something higher than that, like 10/7/5 reps for instance, I double the increase, so I use a 20lbs jump for the squat and the deadlift, and 10lbs for the bench and the military press.[/quote]

Its a interesting variation, regulating how much you increase based on your performance in the last wave. Good idea.

367

[quote]Phillip Wylie wrote:

You can do 10lbs increases, but once you start to only hit the prescribed reps you need to back your percentages down.

The scenario that has worked best for my bench was to have the percentages light enough that I could really hammer my close grip bench presses, which I do after my 5/3/1 bench.

I will be lowering my percentages after my meet next weekend.
[/quote]

Thanks for the answer. Yes that was the idea, only using 10lb increases while i can do fast progress(regaining strength).

368

dez6485, no that was the way I thought it was.

In the book it is

Mon: Military
Tue: Deadlift
Wed: off
Thu: Bench
Fri: Squat

Which is a good plan. Gives me 2 days to recover from squat, and one full day recover from deadlift.

I have been doing 5x5 for awhile, getting damned sick of squatting 3x a week. It hasn’t been too bad but I’d like to do some sprints and bike riding during the week and it has not been easy to do when recovering/about to squat. I look forward to having 6 days to recover from squats and the flexibility it gives. Also, to do more leg work on Friday without having to bench as well on the same day.

369

gotcha. i think your confusion then probably came from the fact that in Wendler’s 3days/week book, the schedule is set up how i wrote it out ABC, DAB, CDA, etc. in the 5/3/1 book, he mapped it out as 4 days a week- just as you wrote. in fact, i do remember when i first read the 5/3/1 manual i was thinking “damn, maybe he has found that 4 days/week works better” and considered switching to it. in the end, the fact that im not lifting consecutive days i think is part of why i love this program so much.

dont get me wrong, i love lifting weights and such, but by the end of a hard session, i want to get the fuck out of there, and it definitely helps me to have that mental break to know that “ok, one/two more sets and im done til ----day” or whatever.

370

Lifting 3 days a week alternating, or 4 days, all these different protocols have a huge difference for me.

I usually find I am not sore the day after. But TWO days after, then I am sore. Until I lift again that day. Then I stop being sore. that is on 3 days a week.

But 2 days on, 1 off, 2 days on, 2 off works differently. Starting Monday, I won’t be sore until Thurs. And again on Sunday.

The body sure is weird.

Also I pretty much need to balance rows with bench without fail, or I will get a bad neckache. All these things to consider when putting together a good working solution.

Tonight I decide whether to immediately switch to 531 or continue with 5x5 for a bit longer. …

371


Anyone want an excel spreadsheet for this?

I made one a few months back and it’s working well.

Here’s a screenshot of it.

Just plug in your numbers and it figures the weights to the nearest 2.5lb. The rep max box will always display the last set of the day’s weight until you put a number in the reps box. It will then give you the rep max to the nearest .5lb.

Deload week percents are 40/50/60 but I can make them any percent.

If anyone wants one, just message me. If you have any tweaks you’d like (such as rounding to the nearest 5 lb, 1 lb, etc…) let me know and I’ll try to do it. I learned excel by creating this.

Also, all you have to do for each subsequent cycle is copy and paste the entire section of blocks to a spot lower on the spreadsheet. It automatically adjusts the formulas.

372


Here’s a shot of my actual spreadsheet.

Someone will ask and I did not like the 3/5/1 so I switched back after those 4 cycles.

I just started the rep max column 3/2/09.

I tried to make the pictures bigger but couldn’t figure it out (but I can do excel… lol)

Let me know if you want one and what you think.

If you PM me, leave an address. I actually prefer PMs that way no requests get lost in the thread.

373

I read that you should not got for max reps during the deload but what about week three during the first cycle?

374

I read that you should not got for max reps during the deload but what about week three during the first cycle?

375

I read that you should not got for max reps during the deload but what about week three during the first cycle?

376

Go for max reps on the last (heaviest) set of every lift but NOT during the deload week.

Week 1 Go for rep max on last set
Week 2 Go for rep max on last set
Week 3 Go for rep max on last set
Week 4 deload. Do only the sets of 5

377

You go for max reps on every last set of the main exercises, every week except for the 4th week, the deload week.

378

I really dont feel like finding my real maxes for exercies. I have a good idea of where they are at though. Do you guys think it would be okay to estimate my maxes then knock off 10% even if it is a little on the lighter side?

379

[quote]Lowery38595 wrote:
I really dont feel like finding my real maxes for exercies. I have a good idea of where they are at though. Do you guys think it would be okay to estimate my maxes then knock off 10% even if it is a little on the lighter side?
[/quote]

i think it would be fine. like Wendler says, err on the lighter side. if you get through your first workout of a certain exercise and you blow the last set out of the water, perhaps consider making a slight adjustment.

for example, if on your first Military Press workout, with the 3 sets of 5, if you get much more than 10 on the last set, i would up the training max 5-10%, because i would think youd gone too light in your estimations.

you could also just leave it, progress slowly but surely.

380

[quote]Lowery38595 wrote:
I really dont feel like finding my real maxes for exercies. I have a good idea of where they are at though. Do you guys think it would be okay to estimate my maxes then knock off 10% even if it is a little on the lighter side?
[/quote]

i think it would be fine. like Wendler says, err on the lighter side. if you get through your first workout of a certain exercise and you blow the last set out of the water, perhaps consider making a slight adjustment.

for example, if on your first Military Press workout, with the 3 sets of 5, if you get much more than 10 on the last set, i would up the training max 5-10%, because i would think youd gone too light in your estimations.

you could also just leave it, progress slowly but surely.