Pulling 240kg in April
In my experience the vast majority of athletes are always on the look out for the magic program that is going to boost their performance into the stratosphere while making them 10X sexier to the opposite sex.
They are normally impatient for the performance and sexiness to arrive and try 4, 6, 8 or 12 week super cycles that promise the world but often deliver overtraining, frustration and injury instead of results.
While it may not provide instant results or sexiness (your mileage may vary) Jim Wendlers 5-3-1 system is a definite antidote to the endless skipping through radical plans.
It’s more of the slow cooker approach to strength development and if you’ve got a tiny bit of patience for the first few weeks then you’ll reap some big rewards.
I’ve been using 5-3-1 now for a few months, testing out variations of the program in my own training and want to share some observations so that you can decide if it’s a good option for your training.
Background
I first heard of 5-3-1 months ago but was already heavily into a serious strongman training program training 6 times a week for up to 2 hours at a time plus a 3 hour event training session. On the plus side I was getting stronger at a rapid rate but on the downside my food bill was killing me, I was constantly sore from training and I was spending lots of money and time on recovery methods each week.
Overall at the time it was worth it but after two strongman competitions I decided that I needed a more sustainable plan both for the sake of my body and also because I had a lot of work coming up running a big weightlifting competition and training time was going to be cut back to 3 x 1 hour sessions a week.
Even on such a time limited program I wanted to try and make progress that would serve as a base for future strongman competitions.
After tossing up a few ideas I bought a copy of 5-3-1 from Elite FTS and got stuck into it.
The first thing that struck me about 5-3-1 was the simplicity of the program and also a degree of hesitation. Coming from an Olympic weightlifting coaching background I’m used to programs where you squat 9 times a week, pull 9 times a week and put stuff overhead 9 times a week. Where training is ruled by strict percentage charts and where you stop at the specified number of reps even if you feel like you could do more.
To go from this to doing each basic lift (squat, bench, deadlift and military press) once a week and only hitting one truly maximal set in each session was a massive shock at first but after a couple of cycles I discovered that there are definite positives that can be taken from such a program.
1. If you really put your heart and soul into that one crucial set then you don’t need to do 5 sub max sets. This is very time efficient
2. When you are time poor and under a lot of job pressure it’s far easier to psych yourself up for one death set and get it over with than it is to sustain the intensity across multiple sets and exercises.
3. Therefore even if you are having a rotten day and are tired you can normally squeeze out that one good set and even if that’s the only thing you do in the gym that day you can walk out knowing that you’ve done the important stuff.
4. By starting well away from your current comp 1RM and working on rep PRs you build a habit of success and getting a flying start on the more difficult work closer to your 1 Rep max.
5. Even though I was sore after some sessions overall I was much fresher and more enthusiastic about training. I looked forward to each session and looked forward to breaking rep PRs.
On top of the basic program Jim has many recommendations for assistance work to fill in the gaps. Overall I ended up using a few variations of the assistance work including not doing any at all! What I found was that you can either use the assistance work to add some volume if your recovery is in order or you can use the assistance work to correct deficiencies and advance your main lifts by doing complementary work.
One word of caution. Initially it looks like a 5-3-1 program is too easy and you may be tempted to add extra workouts, tons of extra exercises etc etc.
DON’T
As prescribed 5-3-1 ain’t the fastest way to gain strength in the short term but over a period of months and even years it’s going to build a massive, solid foundation and result in steady progress toward your goals.
The beauty of the system is that you are always striving for rep PRs which give you a sense of achievement without wearing you out and then on the occasions when you do test your max you are bound to be surprised by your results and chances are over the course of a year you’ll make better progress than some streak of lightning who comes into the gym, pounds out a 4 week mega everything cycle and then gets burnt out or hurt and has to take months off! I’m not saying that there isn’t room for the occasional focus program but unless you’ve got experience in planning training or a good coach 5-3-1 is going to be a more reliable and safe way to build long term strength for powerlifting or strongman.
Some figures from my program
Rep PRs
Bench press 95kg x 8 increased to 100 x 13, 110 x 8 and 115 x 5
Squat 155kg x 3 increased to 155 x 8 and 170kg x 5
Deadlift 195×3 to 200×7 and 215×3
These results were from the 8th of July to the 1st of October or just under three months.
1RM
Bench press from 120 to 130
Deadlift 240 to 245
Squat 200 no change but the day I tested it I felt off
So in summary
I found 5-3-1 to be well written, easy to understand, easy to implement and a very effective program that deserves a look by anyone serious about building a base of raw strength that can be applied to any strength and power sport.
Note – I have no financial arrangement or affiliate deal with Jim Wendler, I just think it’s a great product and people should know about it