[quote]ultralars wrote:
[quote]brickonwheels wrote:
If you are only getting 5 reps on the last set of your first week, then you are only hitting 90% of your projected max, meaning you probably over estimated your max in the first place. Is this a problem for weeks two and three?[/quote]
ok, so how much should i reduce the weight by? instead of 90 to 80 maybe?[/quote]
looks like T-Nation just deleted my reply. Weird.
Anyways, what I said is that it would seem that your est. max is too high. You are working up to only one tough set in week one, and with that, you are only reaching 90% of your estimated max. Maybe you used a really light weight for your testing giving you a falsly high max. It could also be that you are just getting used to the lift.
You have two options.
- Drop the est. max down to what you were able to hit on max reps on your finals set and go from there
- Finish up this cycle and see if you really are overshooting your max or instead you just had a rough day.
Just wanted to say that this week was week 3 of my third cycle. I tested all my lifts (except for the squat). On military press and bench press there was no increase in weight (1RM remained the same).
But I was really surprised with the deadlift. Today I lifted 212.5 kg (467.5 lbs). Couple of months ago (when i last tested it my 1RM was 202.5 kg (445.5 lbs), so that’s an increase of 10kg (22 lbs) in about three months. My BW hasn’t changed that much in these months, perhaps i gained 2 kg (my BW today was 102 kg or 225 lbs).
If anyone is interested, i think that this is due to the fact that i didn’t train with a belt on squats and deadlifts, and i used a belt on max attempts (like today), which upped my 1RM.
Now I just have to come up with something useful to up my upper body lifts.
[quote]brickonwheels wrote:
[quote]ultralars wrote:
[quote]brickonwheels wrote:
If you are only getting 5 reps on the last set of your first week, then you are only hitting 90% of your projected max, meaning you probably over estimated your max in the first place. Is this a problem for weeks two and three?[/quote]
ok, so how much should i reduce the weight by? instead of 90 to 80 maybe?[/quote]
looks like T-Nation just deleted my reply. Weird.
Anyways, what I said is that it would seem that your est. max is too high. You are working up to only one tough set in week one, and with that, you are only reaching 90% of your estimated max. Maybe you used a really light weight for your testing giving you a falsly high max. It could also be that you are just getting used to the lift.
You have two options.
- Drop the est. max down to what you were able to hit on max reps on your finals set and go from there
- Finish up this cycle and see if you really are overshooting your max or instead you just had a rough day.
[/quote]
Yeah, i think my shoulders just a different Slow to fast fiber ration than normal. As i did lift the max i put in, and i did subtract 90% from it. but when i lifted it, the pressing took like 5-7 seconds, and i am not joking it moved really slow. so i dunno.
i think i’ll just lower the percentage of the max on this particular lift, it might halt results this cycle, but i am in it for the long run.
Again thanks to Jim…20 bucks is a couple of beers !
Can’t believe peoples complaining nothing new in the book on another forum…
Some peoples are selling 12 weeks program for 97$ dollars all the times.
20 bucks for methodology, assistance, peeking, box squat or free squat, pause or no pause bench…100 q/a
And the usual good and funny quotes from Jim…A great read !
So hope Jim getting a few beers with my 20$ !
Hey so, would the smartest thing to do be to load up some weights, and do some reps and use Wendlers formula to determine training max? or should i just do those which i have lifted?
i am wondering because apparently most people can do about 9-10 reps on the last set in the first week, while i only manage around 5 reps on the overhead press and 6 reps on the bench press. so what would you recommend i’d do?
[quote]ultralars wrote:
Hey so, would the smartest thing to do be to load up some weights, and do some reps and use Wendlers formula to determine training max? or should i just do those which i have lifted?
i am wondering because apparently most people can do about 9-10 reps on the last set in the first week, while i only manage around 5 reps on the overhead press and 6 reps on the bench press. so what would you recommend i’d do? [/quote]
Simple, lower your training max. I’m running 5/3/1 military press with a training max 85% of my real max and it’s working pretty good so far.
[quote]ultralars wrote:
Hey so, would the smartest thing to do be to load up some weights, and do some reps and use Wendlers formula to determine training max? or should i just do those which i have lifted?
i am wondering because apparently most people can do about 9-10 reps on the last set in the first week, while i only manage around 5 reps on the overhead press and 6 reps on the bench press. so what would you recommend i’d do? [/quote]
For determining a training max the formula is just as good, if not better than a real max for the purposes of 5/3/1. If you load up some weight and lift it for 5 reps, then use the formula to get 1RM, take 90% and start your 5/3/1, on Week 3 you’ll be doing about that exact same weight and 5 reps is about what you want for the 3rd week in the beginning of the program. First week should then be about 9-10 reps, 2nd is 7-8.
[quote]sufiandy wrote:
[quote]ultralars wrote:
Hey so, would the smartest thing to do be to load up some weights, and do some reps and use Wendlers formula to determine training max? or should i just do those which i have lifted?
i am wondering because apparently most people can do about 9-10 reps on the last set in the first week, while i only manage around 5 reps on the overhead press and 6 reps on the bench press. so what would you recommend i’d do? [/quote]
For determining a training max the formula is just as good, if not better than a real max for the purposes of 5/3/1. If you load up some weight and lift it for 5 reps, then use the formula to get 1RM, take 90% and start your 5/3/1, on Week 3 you’ll be doing about that exact same weight and 5 reps is about what you want for the 3rd week in the beginning of the program. First week should then be about 9-10 reps, 2nd is 7-8.[/quote]
i think i’ll do that, i’ll go trough the program for one week, testing myself in all of the four exercises, seeing how many reps i can do at some weight and using the calculator to find the right weight for 5/3/1, and then starting on week one. I can’t freaking wait!
so someone told me that 5/3/1 is for advanced lifters, and that i as an intermediate( 1,5 years experience) should do something else for optimal gains, is this true?
What are people’s thoughts on running this on a 6 day cycle instead of a seven day cycle? So instead of two on, one off, two on, two off, I would only have rest periods of one day.
[quote]ultralars wrote:
so someone told me that 5/3/1 is for advanced lifters, and that i as an intermediate( 1,5 years experience) should do something else for optimal gains, is this true?[/quote]
No.
[quote]brickonwheels wrote:
What are people’s thoughts on running this on a 6 day cycle instead of a seven day cycle? So instead of two on, one off, two on, two off, I would only have rest periods of one day.[/quote]
As long as you can recover, and you keep hitting your reps, its fine.
I might give it a try after my next meet.
[quote]sufiandy wrote:
[quote]ultralars wrote:
Hey so, would the smartest thing to do be to load up some weights, and do some reps and use Wendlers formula to determine training max? or should i just do those which i have lifted?
i am wondering because apparently most people can do about 9-10 reps on the last set in the first week, while i only manage around 5 reps on the overhead press and 6 reps on the bench press. so what would you recommend i’d do? [/quote]
For determining a training max the formula is just as good, if not better than a real max for the purposes of 5/3/1. If you load up some weight and lift it for 5 reps, then use the formula to get 1RM, take 90% and start your 5/3/1, on Week 3 you’ll be doing about that exact same weight and 5 reps is about what you want for the 3rd week in the beginning of the program. First week should then be about 9-10 reps, 2nd is 7-8.[/quote]
I remember Wendler saying somewhere that in first time around most people get around 10 reps on the 3’s week.
Does it matter if i lift the exact weight or can i change it a little? like if it says i should life 41 kg or 59 kg, and my gym doesn’t have the plates available, can i round the number to the weight to say 40 and 60 without it making a difference to my gains?
[quote]ultralars wrote:
Does it matter if i lift the exact weight or can i change it a little? like if it says i should life 41 kg or 59 kg, and my gym doesn’t have the plates available, can i round the number to the weight to say 40 and 60 without it making a difference to my gains?[/quote]
Well, you don’t have a choice, so yes.
I’ve been in a few gyms, most of em don’t have smaller plates than 2.5 pounds. Not to mention most gyms weights aren’t spot on accurate anyways, so a little variance from the numbers you want isn’t avoidable. Just get close as you can.
So the book sets the asistance work at either 10x5 or 15x5 for the program i choose. Can i Wiggle this number around a little bit deppendig on what i feel like without it damagin ny gains? Like if i wanted to do 5x5 or 15-12-9-6-5.
Jim, 5/3/1 is f’n great… Just wanted to know your opinion on Mark Bell’s Slingshot… is it something you would use or not ?
Or anyone else’s thoughts as well… Sorry if this topic has already been discussed in another thread.
[quote]ultralars wrote:
So the book sets the asistance work at either 10x5 or 15x5 for the program i choose. Can i Wiggle this number around a little bit deppendig on what i feel like without it damagin ny gains? Like if i wanted to do 5x5 or 15-12-9-6-5. [/quote]
Thats just a general guideline, you can do whatever assistance you want.
[quote]Chris87 wrote:
[quote]ultralars wrote:
So the book sets the asistance work at either 10x5 or 15x5 for the program i choose. Can i Wiggle this number around a little bit deppendig on what i feel like without it damagin ny gains? Like if i wanted to do 5x5 or 15-12-9-6-5. [/quote]
Thats just a general guideline, you can do whatever assistance you want.[/quote]
I’m pretty sure Jim states this in both of the 5/3/1 books. There are extensive Q&A sections at the end of both that covers this kind of stuff. Also, there have been 10 Blood & Chalk articles here on this site that you can search for which also cover a multitude of similar questions/concerns. If in doubt, squat and drink milk!