3/6/2018 531-beginners - Fitness

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5/3/1 for 5/3/1 for Beginners

Setting Your Training Max
Beginners Sets and Reps
5/3/1
FSL
Original article by
Jim Wendler here. Warm Up
This page is intended to The Program
serve as a companion Day 1 (Monday)
to this article, not a Day 2 (Wednesday)
complete replacement Day 3 (Friday)
for it, and we Daily Assistance Work
recommend that you Rest Between Sets
read through the article
SUBMIT
Off Days
as well. Progression
Use subreddit style
Stalling / Missing Reps
A spreadsheet for this
Reducing Workout Time
program can be found Subscribe 6,308,871 members
here.
+shortcut +dashboard
If you are not used to a program that is based on
percentages or that is not relatively static, it's normal to feel ()
Edit your flair No flair selected
a little overwhelmed at first. But once you familiarize
yourself with it and make use of the spreadsheet, you will Welcome to r/Fitness! Click Here
find that it is not as complicated as it appears at first blush.
You can also look at this extensive discussion thread about for an introduction.
the program to help you understand it better.
The Wiki:
Setting Your Training Max - Getting Started (Read First)
1. For each of the main lifts, work up to a weight that
you are only able to complete 3-5 reps of with good - Frequently Asked Questions:
bar speed. Index
2. Plug the weight and reps into this One Rep Max General Q&A
calculator . Diet
3. Take 90% of the estimated One Rep Max and use this Exercise
as your Training Max (TM). Pain, Injury, and Recovery
Other Q&A
Important Note: A core philosophy of 5/3/1 is to train sub- Community Megathreads
maximally and drive steady progress over the long term so
you don't run yourself into the ground, so keep proper - Recommended Routines
perspective when setting your Training Max. Don't fall into
the newbie trap of letting your Training Max or training - General Advice

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3/6/2018 531-beginners - Fitness

weights be the be all end all of how you gauge strength or - Additional Resources
progress. Remember this always: Your Training Max is
not a measure of your progress or your strength - Its
only purpose is to inform the weights you use in training. The Rules:
RULE SUMMARY (CLICK FOR MORE INFO):
Sets and Reps
This section outlines the sets and reps used for the main lifts
in the program. Sets, reps, and percentages in this program 0. No threads that are answered by the Wiki,
change each week on a repeating three week cycle. searching, or Google
All notation listed is Sets x Reps. All percentages listed are a
1. Be respectful and civil
percentage of your Training Max.

A "+" denotes that the set is AMRAP - As Many Reps As 2. All posts must promote useful discussion
and be specific to fitness
Possible. Note that this is should not be to true muscular
failure, and you should leave 1-2 reps "in the tank" on these
3. Minimum Posting Requirements
sets. A good way to gauge this is that when the bar speed
slows significantly compared to your previous reps, that 4. Progress Post Requirements
should be your last rep.
5. No medical, injury, or pain related posts
5/3/1
Week 1: 6. Moderators have the final word
1x5 @ 65%
7. No bots or novelty accounts
1x5 @ 75%
1x5+ @ 85% 8. No advertising, surveys, or market research
Week 2:
9. Routine Critiques
1x3 @ 70%
1x3 @ 80% 10. No Thread Derailing
1x3+ @ 90%

Week 3: Recurring Threads

1x5 @ 75%
1x3 @ 85% Daily Simple Questions
1x1+ @ 95% Mon Moronic Mondays
FSL Tue Training Tuesdays
FSL stands for "First Set Last". This is used as short-hand to
Wed Rant Wednesdays
indicate that you use the same percentage as you used in
your first set for that day. Fri Physique Phridays

For example, on Week 1, your FSL weight will be at 65%. Sat Self-Promotion Saturdays

Sat Gym Story Saturdays

Warm Up Sun Victory Sundays

Before any lifting, choose one of the following and do 10-15 Meg Megathreads
total reps over 2-3 sets:

Box Jumps
Broad Jumps General Posting Guidelines (click for more info):
Medicine Ball Throws 1. How to ask for help
2. How to post a form check
For your main lifts, you can warm up with the following
3. How to tell someone to read the wiki
protocol: 4. How to help make Fittit a better place
1x5 @ 40%
1x5 @ 50%
Tips
1x3 @ 60%

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3/6/2018 531-beginners - Fitness

No warmup is required for the assistance work.

Don't know what something means? Look it up in
our Glossary.
The Program See the Related Subreddits section for other
popular fitness-related subreddits.
Day 1 (Monday)
Squats: 5/3/1 sets/reps, then 5x5 FSL a community for 9 years
Bench Press: 5/3/1 sets/reps, then 5x5 FSL
Wiki Tools -
Assistance Work

Day 2 (Wednesday) recent wiki revisions

Deadlift: 5/3/1 sets/reps, then 5x5 FSL wiki page list
Overhead Press: 5/3/1 sets/reps, then 5x5 FSL
Assistance Work advertisement

Day 3 (Friday)
Bench Press: 5/3/1 sets/reps, then 5x5 FSL
Squats: 5/3/1 sets/reps, then 5x5 FSL
Assistance Work

Daily Assistance Work

Each day, choose one exercise from each of the three
categories below, and do 50 - 100 reps of it. The number of
sets you use to accomplish this is not important. You can do
all of your reps for each category one at a time, or to finish
your workout faster, you can cycle through a set from each
category in a circuit.

If you chose a bodyweight exercise and cannot complete at

least 50 reps, you can choose a second exercise to finish the Moderators message the moderators
total out. If you chose a weighted exercise and cannot
complete at least 50 reps, you chose a weight that was too eric_twinge  Extreme Croquet
high. MetaBoob 
ggitaliano  Calcio
Push purplespengler  paid shill for Big Effort
AutoModerator 
Dips
vikingmechanic  Modeling
Pushups
MCHammerCurls  Hobbyist
Flat or incline dumbbell bench press
FittitBot  Rowbutt
Dumbbell overhead press
kyrpa  Paddling - not the water kind
Triceps extensions / pushdowns
Galivis  Weaker than Twinge
Pull ...and 4 more »
Chinups / Pullups
Inverted Rows Recently Viewed Links
Any form of dumbbell, cable, or machine row
Face pulls After a master's degree, is settling for an
internship reasonable?
Band pull-aparts
6 points | 11 comments
Lat pulldowns
Curls I am so lost with my life right now
1 point | 5 comments
Single Leg / Core

Any ab / core exercise [M] Over Forty but still hitting the gym
NSFW 17 points | 2 comments
Back Raises
Reverse Hyperextensions At the crossroads of English teaching
Lunges 27 points | 141 comments
Step Ups
Bulgarian One-Leg Squats D.C. wins Gold in bike friendliness
Kettlebell Snatches 151 points | 34 comments

Kettlebell Swings clear

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3/6/2018 531-beginners - Fitness
account activity
Rest Between Sets
Jim Wendler does not provide any guidelines for rest
between sets, so you can tailor this to your recovery and
scheduling needs. Most commonly, rest times are kept
between 1.5-2 minutes between sets. Some additional
considerations:

You can generally use shorter rest times between

your FSL sets, as well as your accessory work.
Longer rest times will generally allow for greater
performance in future sets.
Shorter rest times will help build work capacity .

Off Days
You should get in some form of light cardio or conditioning
on at least one of the days you are not lifting. As Jim
Wendler says in the article, though, don't run yourself into
the ground. If you find yourself struggling with energy,
recovery, or your lifting, dial down the intensity of the work
you're doing on your off days. It is also fine to spend a few
weeks ramping up and add days over time.

Progression
At the end of each three week cycle, add weight to the
Training Max of your lifts:

Add 5lbs to Bench Press and Overhead Press.

Add 10lbs to Squat and Deadlift.

You add the same amount of weight to your Training Max no

matter how many reps you hit on your AMRAP sets. Never
more.

It is also recommended that you follow a "five forward, three

back" scheme for your TM - After you have added weight
five times, reduce your TMs by three times their
progression amount (15lbs / 30lbs) and then continue
adding as normal. The principle behind this is "Deload before
you have to deload" - Periodically deload a little bit on
purpose, so that you are not forced to deload a lot (or take a
break from your training) by hitting a point of overreaching
or injury. Remember - Your Training Max is not a
measure of your progress or your strength.

Stalling / Missing Reps

At some point as you're running this program, you may
reach a point where you are unable to complete the sets and
reps for your main lifts, either at all or with clean, fast reps.
When this happens, it is important to remember:

You may have just had a bad day, so don't worry if it

happens once or twice.
It is an expected event in the process of training and
getting stronger.

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It is not necessarily a reason to question, re-evaluate,

or significantly change your training.

If you find that you are consistently not hitting the sets and
reps for a lift over a period of at least one full three week
cycle, it is time to lower your Training Max for that lift. The
general guideline for this is to reduce it by three cycle
increments (15lbs / 30lbs). If you find yourself feeling
discouraged by this, again, remember - Your Training Max
is not a measure of your progress or your strength.
You will continue to make progress and set rep PRs on the
AMRAP sets after you deload.

Reducing Workout Time

If you find your workouts running longer than you'd like,
besides manipulating rest times, here are some other
strategies you can use to complete the workout faster:

Use the rest periods between sets of your main lifts to

complete accessory work. This has the added benefit
of helping to build your work capacity by increasing
training density . If you do, you should choose an
accessory that will not interfere with the main lift you
are currently performing. (Ex: Squats + Face Pulls,
Bench + Ab Wheels, Deadlifts + Curls, etc)
Do a single set your Push, Pull, and Single Leg / Core
exercises back-to-back. Rest anywhere from 1 to 3
minutes, and then repeat until you've hit your goal
reps. (Ex: Push -> Pull -> SL/Core -> Rest ->
Repeat)
Do the same as above, except instead of back to
back, rest from 30 seconds to 1 minute between each
set. (Ex: Push -> Rest -> Pull -> Rest -> SL/Core ->
Rest -> Repeat)

revision by purplespengler  paid shill for Big Effort

— 2 months ago view source

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