How were your strength gains in all the lifts? I’m going to start it next week and want some opinions and motivation.
Over what time period? to do 5/3/1 correctly you start light and progress slowly. Any notable gains will probably take a while.
Me: MP cycle 1; 40kg x10, 42.5kg x13, 45kg x10, Cycle 11; 53.75kg x7 ,56.25kg x7, 60kg x 5. so that took 11 months. I hadn’t done MP seriously before I’m pleased with result.
DL cycle 1: 122.5kg x13, 130kg x13, 137.5kg x11 . Cycle 10: 162.5kg x7, 170kg x6, 180kgx1 (not pleased with 180x1, more psychological: fear of re-injury). All in all its a great system
I have done 12 cycles but they were not all focused on increasing strength. I had 6 weeks when I was leaning out, dropped like 15 lbs and my lifts went down some. Also, a few cycles ago I started adding sprints after every lifting session, which as Jim has indicated tends to make your lower body lifts slow or even regress for a while as the body adapts to it. I do not compete or anything, so I have been sacrificing a lot of possible strength gains to remain relatively lean and to build up conditioning. Last qualification, I have also had a lot of technique work as I am still a relative beginner. Dealing with mobility, injury and form issues has, I think, held my squat back from where I think it could be. In fact, my starting squats might not have broken parallel because my mobility was really bad back then. All that said, here are some samples:
Military 1rm estimate 130 to 145 (though my shoulders have developed well from the higher rep work)
Bench 5x175 to 9x185 and 6x200
Squat 5x160 to 5x230
Deadlift 1x310 (tested 1rm) to a very easy 341 (wasn’t pushing the reps that day), 5x316 and 3x331 (both giving estimated 1rm about 365).
12 cycles
Press - up to 20lbs depending how the 1RM is calculated, this one is very slow progress but just keep at it. May take a few months to get 1 extra rep on any given weight but that’s OK.
Bench - Crap progress overall, doing something different for it now, maybe 20lbs the first 6 cycles but then it went down for some reason
Squat - Maybe 50lbs I suck at squats
DL - About 100lbs
I ran 6 cycles before I switched it up. I gained over 100 pounds on my deadlift in less than 6 months. Other lifts went up too – hard to say how much because I don’t usually max on them.
I should also say I switched it up for 4 weeks to concentrate on my squat – I am now back on a 5/3/1 routine.
5/3/1 for third week right now and all lifts up. +5 on squat +15 on bench and +10-15 on deadlift, hoping this lasts.
4th cycle, 40lbs on back squat, 30lbs on deadlift, 20 lbs on OHP, and 20 lbs on bench. It’s one of the best programs i’ve used for strength gains, even put on a little size. You do have to keep your ego in check at the beginning though, otherwise you start hitting weights that you can’t handle pretty fast.
I think I did 3 cycles… 1RM for squat and deadlift went up I think like 40 lb, est for bench went up 10 lb and est. for military went up 5 lb I think? I suck at pressing so yeah.
I’ve done 6 cycles
- Bench up 20lbs, overhead up 15lbs, squat up 55lbs, deadlift up about 40lbs… Not too shabby
[quote]IronManMMA wrote:
How were your strength gains in all the lifts? I’m going to start it next week and want some opinions and motivation.[/quote]
OHP = up 35 lbs
DL = up 70 lbs
BP = up 35 lbs
SQ = up 55 lbs
Mon - OHP + Pullup using 5/3/1
Wed - DL
Fri - BP + DB Row using 5/3/1
Mon - SQ
Those gains since are since Christmas 2009. I started with 20% below my 1RM, which was probably too low. Keep it at 10% below your 1RM.
Do it exactly as it is written for the first cycle. I would even suggest only doing the primary lift and nothing else for that first cycle. Your total training time would end up being 30 mins or less.
Fight the urge to do more.
I plan to eliminate all accessory work for a cycle just to remind myself how effective the basics really are… and to take a break from constantly wondering if I’m doing the “right” accessory work.
After 2 cycles my deadlift went up 20kg.
After 13 cycles, training maxes are:
SQUAT: 440 from 400
BENCH: 310 from 260
DEADLIFT: 505 from 440
PRESS: 200 from 170
Using the calculation, my estimated 1RM is much higher, but since I am progressing, no reason to mess with it.
Praise be to Wendler.
How many of these are tested maxes as opposed to formula maxes?
[quote]burt128 wrote:
How many of these are tested maxes as opposed to formula maxes?[/quote]
All the numbers in that last post are just training maxes. That is, whatever my new training max is after several cycles of 5 and 10 lb increases, followed by a drop back every 5 cycles or so. I have only tested my conventional deadlift. I used to compete sumo (PR=565), but decided that was lame, so I switched to conventional. Former PR of 515, and back in July I pulled 551.
My son turns 16 next week. He has done it since April and he has gained 60 on his squat, app 40 on his bench and a little over a hundred on his deadlift.
[quote]tom63 wrote:
My son turns 16 next week. He has done it since April and he has gained 60 on his squat, app 40 on his bench and a little over a hundred on his deadlift. [/quote]
That’s what I like to hear.
Great gains, but stick with it. IMO its not the greatest program if your only going to do 2-3 cycles.
[quote]bABoon wrote:
[quote]tom63 wrote:
My son turns 16 next week. He has done it since April and he has gained 60 on his squat, app 40 on his bench and a little over a hundred on his deadlift. [/quote]
That’s what I like to hear.[/quote]
Hes also alergic to kryptonite…
About to finish up my 4th cycle.
Military: 115 to 125 (using the formula)
Deadlift: 225 to 270 (using the formula), 170x10 to 200x10 (actual training)
Bench: 170 to 180 (using formula), 145x5 to 155x5 (actual training)
Squat: 205 to 220 (using formula), 175x5 to 185x5 (actual training)
If you use the formula, then your estimated max will go up and down a lot. Just remember to start light and stay motivated. If you get just 1 more rep or add just 5 more pounds then you’re getting stronger.
How’s your progress going?
It’s been 18 weeks since i made this thread, and i made decent progress on this program.
Bench- 170x11 to 200x8
Squat- 225x12 to 280x10
Deadlift- 315x10 to 350x15
Military press- 105x12 to 125x10
It seems that my bench and military have stalled though, any tips on how to fix this?