Results 5/3/1

Here's what you need to know...

1. All athletes need strong hips, legs, shoulders, arms, and midsections. Their weight training doesn't differ much from lifters who want to be big and strong.
2. Barbell training (squats, deadlifts, presses, bench presses, and power cleans) is the most efficient way for athletes to get stronger while spending the least amount of time in the weight room.
3. Do explosive work after the warm-up and before strength work. Conditioning should be saved for the end of the workout.
4. If you're a coach, develop a core philosophy that will make athletes strong, mobile, and fast.

The Truth About Sport Specific Training

Black Iron Beast – Online 5/3/1 calculator; If you haven’t read Wendler’s book(s), I highly recommend getting them. I go back to it from time to time and it has some great information. 5/3/1 for Powerlifting and/or Jim Wendler 5/3/1 Book (2nd Edition), you should at least read his write up at Men’s Health on the 5/3/1 Workout. Ddn’s note: Wendler’s 5/3/1 is a tried-and-true time-tested programming template for strength and muscular development. That said, I’ve known enough people who have been frustrated with their 5/3/1 results to know that it leaves something to be desired in terms of results for some people. 5/3/1 is an advanced program if you read the book. Wendler says you can add 60lbs to your squat in a year and 25 lbs to your bench. Thats 5lbs a month on the squat and 2lbs a month on the bench. Thats is advanced programming-monthly progress- by definition. I ran 5-3-1 for 6 months and got nothing out of it. I swapped to korte's 3x3 and got great results though after only 8 weeks. So I guess the lesson here is if you respond well to higher volume programs don't try 5-3-1, but if you respond well to higher intensity/lower volume programs then its perfect for you. Please note: These results are unofficial. Always check with the official source for lottery numbers in a particular state. Lottery USA is an independent lottery results service and is neither endorsed, affiliated nor approved by any state, multi-state lottery operator or organization whatsoever.

I get asked how 5/3/1 can be adapted for athletes. It's a legitimate question, right?

Surely the needs of the performance-driven athlete would be different from the guy who just wants to be bigger, stronger, and more awesome in general.

But regardless of the sport you're playing on the field, not much really changes.

This goes against 'sport specific training specialists' who are trying to convince you that each athlete and sport is a special snowflake. But let's examine the facts.

What All Athletes Need

All sports require an athlete to have strong hips, legs, shoulders, arms, and midsection. The best way to develop these areas is with a basic and effective barbell-training workout.

There are no 'sport specific' exercises as weight training for sports is nothing more than General Physical Preparedness (GPP).

So the goal is to use the most efficient exercises in the weight room to develop these parts of the body. Athletes must develop things other than strength, and thus don't have hours and hours to spend in the weight room. At least they shouldn't.

An athlete must train speed, strength, agility, conditioning, and most important, skill work. If one were to spend too much time on one thing, other areas would be compromised. In the United States, especially with football, the weight room seems to take up the majority of the time.

If you're an athlete, you should be mobile enough to achieve the proper positions in the sport, and strong and explosive enough to move from those positions.

With any sport, the basic barbell lifts are the best and most efficient ways to train the entire body. These include the squat, deadlift, press, bench press, and power clean. Perform them with a full range of motion and proper loading and the athlete will become stronger.

Pepper these exercises with assistance work and you'll have a complete strength-training program.

The Benefits of Assistance Work

The assistance work is where the strength coach and athlete can infuse a little creativity, but don't use this time as a free-for-all in terms of exercises. Assistance work for athletes should be used for the following:

1. Muscle mass.
2. Rehab.
3. Injury prevention – 'pre-hab' – refers to an area of an athlete or his/her position that's often injured and needs some preventive medicine.
4. Balance. Assistance exercises are chosen by their ability to balance the whole of the athlete. This would include upper back training, lat training, and abdominal/lower back, otherwise known as core training.

The right assistance work can fulfill these needs. This is training economy: getting the most out of the fewest exercises. And when training in the weight room, training economy is vital. If the exercise doesn't serve a function, leave it out.

The Right Assistance Work

Choosing the correct assistance work is easy.

For athletes I recommend doing hamstring, single-leg, lat/upper back, abdominal, lower back, and in some cases, neck work. The lifts you choose are going to be entirely based on what you have access to as an athlete.

Remember that athletes have become explosive and strong long before fancy machines and equipment came into vogue. You don't need much equipment, just the right coach and smart programming.

If you've been injured, it's smart to do a couple sets of a proper exercise to help strengthen the area. If your sport or position is predisposed to a certain area of injury, adjust the assistance work to avoid an injury.

For many athletes, shoulder, back, hamstring, and knee injuries are part of the culture. So hit these areas with glute ham raises, external rotation (internal rotator stretches), extra ab work, reverse hyperextensions, and back raises.

Properly performed squats and single-leg work will help strengthen the areas around the knee to help prevent knee injuries.

The In-Season Workout

Not in the off-season? Do two workouts per week. The set up should look like this:

• Day One
• Squat 5/3/1
• Bench Press 5/3/1
• Assistance Work


• Day Two
• Deadlift 5/3/1
• Press 5/3/1
• Assistance Work

In-season assistance work can be 3-4 exercises of 8-12 reps per workout. If you choose to keep power cleans in your training, you can do them on either day.

Sport Strength

There's no greater feeling than going into the final games of the season and feeling strong. This will give you a physical edge over your opponent. More importantly, this will give you a mental edge, which is invaluable.

As an athlete time in the weight room can and should be used to develop other physical areas. This includes flexibility, mobility, jumping, and medicine ball throws, amongst other things.

Look into the Parisi warm-up. An abbreviated version of it should start each workout. Have 3 or 4 variations handy and start each workout with one of them. Not only does this prepare the body for the upcoming workout, it can also address mobility problems. That's training economy at it's most basic.

Additional mobility and flexibility work can be done in between the sets of the main exercises. Try hip and piriformis stretches between sets of squats to help address depth issues and hip mobility problems.

Between sets of upper body pressing, don't be afraid to stretch the internal rotators or do some kind of upper back or lat work. This will allow you to get more work done in a minimum amount of time.

Explosive Work

Jumping and other explosive work should be done after the warm-up and before the strength work. When designing your program, look beyond just the sets and reps and exercises. Use this simple training template when preparing athletes:

1. Speed This includes sprints, jumps, throws – anything explosive
2. Strength This is any barbell work.
3. Conditioning Any kind of finisher.

Done in this order, you prioritize the most important areas of athletics when you're fresh. Don't turn the speed/explosive work into conditioning, or you'll sabotage your strength work.

Be sure you get sufficient rest between maximum efforts. It's always better to do things better, not do things more. Save conditioning work for after the speed and strength work.

Information Overload

There's a never-ending urine stream of coaches and experts who lay claim to the 'latest and greatest' and there's constant pressure to always use the newest ideas.

I know this because I've experienced this pressure – you feel like you're in a turbulent Sea of Genius getting tossed around on your Idiot Raft, but before you abandon ship, let me give you a few pieces of advice.

Don't coach (yourself or others) what you don't know or don't feel comfortable with. You may read something that sounds great, but if you aren't sure of the information or application let it go.

There's nothing more dangerous than applying a concept haphazardly and without knowledge.

Drop your Philosophical Anchor! If you don't have a core philosophy when training yourself, athletes, anyone, you'd better develop one. I don't care what it is, but you need to take a stand on the things you believe in.

This doesn't happen overnight. I had to sift through years of training and reading to get to my own philosophy. There's big pressure for people to always be open to new ideas and that's fine – but you can't fall for everything.

If you have a solid, well thought-out philosophy, you'll be able to learn new things and apply them to your current training without selling your soul.

Advice For Coaches

Learn to coach. Coaching is more than teaching – coaching is about getting your athletes to do the things you want them to do, in a language they understand.

I've seen countless smart coaches fail miserably because they can't get their point across. Just because you know your stuff doesn't mean you know how to coach your athletes. There's no book or course to learn how to coach – you gotta' get your hands dirty.

5/3/1 Results Forum

No matter what sport you play or coach: boxing, MMA, basketball, lacrosse, football, baseball, whatever it is, the same principles of training apply.

With the 5/3/1 program, this means the main lifts are done as the program is laid out and the assistance work is done with the athlete and sport in mind. For almost all sports, this entails work for the hamstrings, upper back, lats, and core.

The only change made per sport/athlete is the exercises chosen for rehab and prehab. This is up to you, the athlete or coach, to determine. And that's pretty easy – just look at the training room and the injury roster. Now train in such a way to prevent those issues.

In the off-season, you can train 2, 3, or 4 days a week. The days don't matter as much as the principles that are applied. Once you've embraced the principles, you'll realize that everything falls into place. The minutia is no longer important.

Results 5/3/1 Game

When in doubt, remember this: get them mobile, get them strong, and get them fast. There are no hidden exercises. The secret lies in smart and simple programming.

Related: How to Build Pure Strength

Related: Strong, Fast, and Brutal

The following tutorial is a an explanation by Tucson fitness trainer Eric Frey. Eric owns and operates Quality Strength in Tucson. This post was originally shared as a reply to a question in my public Biofeedback Training group about how to use biofeedback with 5/3/1. The answer was so good that I wanted to archive it here for people who are curious about how to use a program like 5/3/1 but integrate biofeedback. I’ve edited it for clarity and legibility as an article, but all the ideas are his.

5 3 1 Program Pdf

5/3/1 is often the foundation of my program. I love it and have found it to be very flexible, more so once I started adding in the biofeedback. I can’t speak to other programs, but here’s how I do 5/3/1. Your mileage may vary.
Wendler says that the goal should be to set rep records on the main lift every workout. This is in line with the goal of setting a PR every day, but it may be too specific for what your body wants to do on a given day. So first off, I throw that imperative out the window.
Let’s assume your main lift tested well. Even on the third wave your first two sets, which should be submaximal are only 75% for 5 and 85% for 3. Keep in mind that these are percentages of a training max, and not a true 1 rep max. Training max should always be 90% (sometimes it will be less than) of your 1RM. So, these sets, on most days, are still not going to be very hard. I find they serve very well as work up sets. Again, all of this is assuming your main lift tested well, which I test while warming up. I do test after each warm up set and those first two sets to see if there’s a reason to stop. For me, if the lift tests well, the weight usually isn’t the deal-breaker. If for some reason, I have to stop increasing the load, then I do and just work with what tested well for the main lift. (ddn note: this is a key point – you may not be able to hit your “target” weight, but you can often get more volume in at a lower intensity – and still set a volume PR for that weight.)
The max set of main lifts in waves 1-3 are all just that, undefined “max” sets. Here is where I focus on the elements of effort and use those to tell me when to stop. I find that works exceedingly well.
If the main lift doesn’t test well, I test variations or if no macro variations work well then I might try to break it up into smaller pieces or components of the lifts. I’ll work up to a good set of five, or a triple and move on. Close enough is good enough.
When planning my next cycle, if I find I’ve done well then I’ll increase the training maxes by small increments, as Wendler recommends, and keep pushing. If I find that I’ve had to make a lot of substitutions, then I will plan my next cycle to accommodate that. Usually, however, I try to make the changes in the assistance work, since I’m often using 5/3/1 to prep for a meet, and so I don’t want to deviate too far from the basic 4 lifts.
The assistance work is where you can be really flexible and rock the heck out of the biofeedback. I figure as long as I’m getting about 50-100 reps total of assistance work choosing exercises and loads by testing, then I’m ok. I try not to overthink it too much. I do less volume the closer I get to a meet. Wendler 5/3/1’s is fairly saggital plane dominant, so the assistance work is where I really try to squeeze in things that I know are lacking in my daily activities and transverse plane stuff.
There are days when the main lift and a few variations don’t test well. Let’s say this lands on squat day, I’ll take it to mean I ought not do squats today, and I’ll bail on that workout. If I think I can re-arrange the week, say flip squat and bench day, then I’ll see if that tests well. If I don’t think I can do that, I’ll do some stretching, rolling, mobility, tai chi, or what not, and try again tomorrow.
Early on in my playing around with biofeedback I had this one workout. Main lift didn’t test well. Variations didn’t test well. It was a squat day. Tried deadlifts, didn’t test well. Bench and push-up variations, didn’t test well. Rows and chin ups? Nope. I spent a half hour testing things to see what I could do. Nothing tested well and I felt like crap the next day. Since learning that lesson, if things don’t test well I don’t push it. I just do some active rest and pick up the next day.
Again, this is what works for me. Keeping the training max low is important in the main lifts. Hope that helps.

Results 5/3/1 Vs

ddn’s note: Wendler’s 5/3/1 is a tried-and-true time-tested programming template for strength and muscular development. That said, I’ve known enough people who have been frustrated with their 5/3/1 results to know that it leaves something to be desired in terms of results for some people. It’s my experience that these folks are following the program too rigidly and not taking advantage of times when they could do more than what is called for while simultaneously forcing it when they should be doing a little less than what is programmed. Using biofeedback to bespoke this template gives you the best of both worlds – a proven paradigm for progressive strength training, and a way to customize it to make it work even better for you.