Your 5/3/1 questions (and many others) answered

[ahox]

I don't know how you expect to bring up your legs when you are curling more you are squating?????

Wut? Legs are being hit with 15 total sets a week whereas bi's are getting hit with 6...

[Filmbuff81]

with the deload week, should I try to make progress on my accessory lifts, or go relatively easy on them?

You want to take it easy on everything.

Don't go too crazy. It's a time to focus on form and get some recovery work in and get ready to kill the next cycle.

[Bumpus]

Why isn't this a sticky any more?

inb4itwasnteverstickied

[jgreystoke]

^^^^^^
This.

[kostasosfp]

i would like to help me about assistance work.

i have been doing 5/3/1 like this:
day1 : military press 5/3/1
flat bb press 5X10
chin ups
dips

day2: squat 5/3/1
floor deads 5x10
abs
aerobic

day3: flat bb press 5/3/1
military press 5x10
pull ups
dips

day4: floor deads 5/3/1
front squat 5x10
abs
aerobic


1)i can't do many chin ups and pull ups. i try to do at least 100 per week like jim says. BUT I CAN DO ONLY ONE SET OF 10, 2 SETS OF 8 AND ALL THE OTHER SETS OF 5 UNWEIGHTED.and one set of 9, one set of 7 and all the other sets of 5 with weight.

for this when i try to do 50 per session for a total 100 per week, i should do about 10 sets of chins or pull ups per session.
AND WHEN I DO THAT MY WORKOUT LASTS BETWEEN 90 AND 120 MINUTES. IS IT TOO MUCH? WHAT COULD I DO?
is it better to do something like only 5sets of 5 weighted reps?

2)i read jim's 3 month challenge article on t-nation.com and he says that we can add some triceps and biceps work
on our upper body day.DO YOU THINK THAT IT WOULD BE GOOD TO ADD 1 TRX EXERCISE FOR BICEPS AND 1 FOR TRICEPS?
i am thinking to try TRX exercises for my arms, because they are my weakest body parts but i don't want to do too much
work for them.

i wait for your opinions.
sorry for my bad english but i am greek.

[SimonThePieman]

i would like to help me about assistance work.

i have been doing 5/3/1 like this:
day1 : military press 5/3/1
flat bb press 5X10
chin ups
dips

day2: squat 5/3/1
floor deads 5x10
abs
aerobic

day3: flat bb press 5/3/1
military press 5x10
pull ups
dips

day4: floor deads 5/3/1
front squat 5x10
abs
aerobic


1)i can't do many chin ups and pull ups. i try to do at least 100 per week like jim says. BUT I CAN DO ONLY ONE SET OF 10, 2 SETS OF 8 AND ALL THE OTHER SETS OF 5 UNWEIGHTED.and one set of 9, one set of 7 and all the other sets of 5 with weight.

for this when i try to do 50 per session for a total 100 per week, i should do about 10 sets of chins or pull ups per session.
AND WHEN I DO THAT MY WORKOUT LASTS BETWEEN 90 AND 120 MINUTES. IS IT TOO MUCH? WHAT COULD I DO?
is it better to do something like only 5sets of 5 weighted reps?

2)i read jim's 3 month challenge article on t-nation.com and he says that we can add some triceps and biceps work
on our upper body day.DO YOU THINK THAT IT WOULD BE GOOD TO ADD 1 TRX EXERCISE FOR BICEPS AND 1 FOR TRICEPS?
i am thinking to try TRX exercises for my arms, because they are my weakest body parts but i don't want to do too much
work for them.

i wait for your opinions.
sorry for my bad english but i am greek.

1) try doing your chins in sets of 5. The more you stay away from failure the easier it is. Don't include them in your assistance work and just superset them in with other exercise (ie deads, squats, presses etc). after every 1-2 sets do 5 pull ups. that will make it easy to 25 each session. gradually build this up and you will be up to 200 a week in not too long

2) I personally would stick to Barbell or dumbbell movements. But Jims recommendation is 3 sets of 1 exercise for each of bis, tris and delts and that sounds good to me

[Filmbuff81]

You should add another pulling movement to your upper body days such as DB or BB rows.

Only doing pullups is not enough accessory work to keep things balanced.

[kostasosfp]

You should add another pulling movement to your upper body days such as DB or BB rows.

Only doing pullups is not enough accessory work to keep things balanced.

sorry i forgot to write that on my upper body days i do kroc rows too.

[decklan]

I'm about done with my 4th month of 531 and have two questions.

1. whether to progress or reset my upper body lifts for next month

On military press my sets this month were
555+ day: was supposed to lift 110# but some weights were missing
so I used 115#, only got 3 reps not 5
333+ day: 115#, got 4 reps
531+ day: 120#, got 2 reps
So I'm not quite into failure territory yet, but getting close. Will I make better progress pushing the heavier weights that are nearing my breaking point or the higher rep stuff from the earlier months of 531? I am resetting my diet too, making sure I get higher calories since I think my gains correlate about 99% with food and 1% with lifting.

2. math question about BBB percentages

Is the following right? My initial squat measurement was 185x5, so
- feeding 185x5 into Wendler's formula = 1RM of 216
- for my 4th month adding 10, 10, 10 my "max" now is 246
- training max = 90% of that = 221.5
- so BBB in the 50-60% range would be 111 - 133

But squatting 135# for 5x10 doesn't seem hard enough. It's great cardio, but not particularly hard for my leg and back muscles. It's possible I'm resting too long between sets, maybe I wouldn't be blabbing about how easy 5x10 is if I packed them closer together. But I wanted to double check that I'm doing the math right and am indeed lifting my BBB squats in the right weight range. Did I mess anything up in the above?

Oh and third question I guess -- why in the world isn't this thread still a sticky? Okay, not really a question, just whining.

[Jasonk282]

I'm about done with my 4th month of 531 and have two questions.

1. whether to progress or reset my upper body lifts for next month

On military press my sets this month were
555+ day: was supposed to lift 110# but some weights were missing
so I used 115#, only got 3 reps not 5
333+ day: 115#, got 4 reps
531+ day: 120#, got 2 reps
So I'm not quite into failure territory yet, but getting close. Will I make better progress pushing the heavier weights that are nearing my breaking point or the higher rep stuff from the earlier months of 531? I am resetting my diet too, making sure I get higher calories since I think my gains correlate about 99% with food and 1% with lifting.

2. math question about BBB percentages

Is the following right? My initial squat measurement was 185x5, so
- feeding 185x5 into Wendler's formula = 1RM of 216
- for my 4th month adding 10, 10, 10 my "max" now is 246
- training max = 90% of that = 221.5
- so BBB in the 50-60% range would be 111 - 133

But squatting 135# for 5x10 doesn't seem hard enough. It's great cardio, but not particularly hard for my leg and back muscles. It's possible I'm resting too long between sets, maybe I wouldn't be blabbing about how easy 5x10 is if I packed them closer together. But I wanted to double check that I'm doing the math right and am indeed lifting my BBB squats in the right weight range. Did I mess anything up in the above?

Oh and third question I guess -- why in the world isn't this thread still a sticky? Okay, not really a question, just whining.

You probably are resting to long. I did 135lbs 5x10 and was gassed by the 3rd set and pushed through will all my might for the last two sets. rested probably 1-1.5 minutes between 5x10 sets.

then again my training max is 275lbs for squats...starting my 2nd week tomorrow.

[Filmbuff81]

I'm about done with my 4th month of 531 and have two questions.

1. whether to progress or reset my upper body lifts for next month

On military press my sets this month were
555+ day: was supposed to lift 110# but some weights were missing
so I used 115#, only got 3 reps not 5
333+ day: 115#, got 4 reps
531+ day: 120#, got 2 reps
So I'm not quite into failure territory yet, but getting close. Will I make better progress pushing the heavier weights that are nearing my breaking point or the higher rep stuff from the earlier months of 531? I am resetting my diet too, making sure I get higher calories since I think my gains correlate about 99% with food and 1% with lifting.

2. math question about BBB percentages

Is the following right? My initial squat measurement was 185x5, so
- feeding 185x5 into Wendler's formula = 1RM of 216
- for my 4th month adding 10, 10, 10 my "max" now is 246
- training max = 90% of that = 221.5
- so BBB in the 50-60% range would be 111 - 133

But squatting 135# for 5x10 doesn't seem hard enough. It's great cardio, but not particularly hard for my leg and back muscles. It's possible I'm resting too long between sets, maybe I wouldn't be blabbing about how easy 5x10 is if I packed them closer together. But I wanted to double check that I'm doing the math right and am indeed lifting my BBB squats in the right weight range. Did I mess anything up in the above?

Oh and third question I guess -- why in the world isn't this thread still a sticky? Okay, not really a question, just whining.

I would considering leaving your max the same for your next cycle and see if you hit the prescribed reps.

If you miss and reps, then reset. If you hit the required reps, just keep progressing.

For BBB rest no more than 90 seconds and it'll be tougher.

You can also do 60% instead of 50%. I run my BBB usually at 65% and is pretty damn tough.

[Jasonk282]

I would considering leaving your max the same for your next cycle and see if you hit the prescribed reps.

If you miss and reps, then reset. If you hit the required reps, just keep progressing.

For BBB rest no more than 90 seconds and it'll be tougher.

You can also do 60% instead of 50%. I run my BBB usually at 65% and is pretty damn tough.

I'm doing mine like the three month challenge...so it's light this month, but still brutal especially with the short rest between sets.

[decklan]

Well, sounds like that's the consensus: I'm probably resting too long. I haven't been timing it, I just sit till I don't feel tired anymore from the previous set. I'll start being more careful about that and see how it goes. Thanks.

[Jasonk282]

Well, sounds like that's the consensus: I'm probably resting too long. I haven't been timing it, I just sit till I don't feel tired anymore from the previous set. I'll start being more careful about that and see how it goes. Thanks.

That's what I do going into the 5/3/1+ sets. but for the 5x10 50% sets I keep the rest very very low and just thrash the muscle. It's amazing how heavy 135lbs can get with short rest.

[decklan]

Just confirming what everybody already knows here, but eating more just made a huge difference in the past month of my lifts. Also more specifically counting calories has been the new key for me.

My story: my first two months of 5/3/1 I ate big (but didn't count calories) and made good gains, but also started growing too much of a belly. In month 3 and especially 4 I started cutting back on the calories and got the belly down to a tolerable level, but the lifts started getting crazy-hard. In month 4 I missed one of my lifts and just barely squeeked by on several others.

So finally on month 5 I've started writing down all of my daily calories and macros. I gradually bumped up the calories until I achieved a very slow weight gain, and the results are in tonight: I just breezed through month 5 making all my lifts easy-peasy.

The lifts felt solid and just based on how much "room" I felt like I had I'm expecting month 6 to go smoothly too. I'm about 2 pounds heavier than I was at the start of the month and my belly is not at all out of control. I'm pretty happy.