I’ve been following Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program for about 6 months now (with a little break over the holidays). So far, I love it!
I started following the program in August. I was a little hesitant at first. Although I’ve been working out for years, I haven’t always regularly followed a strength program. Much of what I read suggested that 5/3/1 was an intermediate program. When I started going to Crossfit about 2.5 years ago, I was able to follow a more consistent lifting schedule. But even then, there were periods where the classes focused more on gymnastics skills or longer endurance workouts. Having a consistent barbell schedule wasn’t always guaranteed.
Because of that, my lifts aren’t anything to write home about. However, when I researched different strength programs, I didn’t worry about whether one was labeled as a beginner or intermediate routine. I wanted to find a program that I would follow consistently and for a long enough time to see results.
The biggest thing that drew me to the 5/3/1 program was that it was simple, but also offered plenty of variety. The four big lifts – squat, deadlift, bench, and military press – stay the same each week, but the program offers plenty of room to add accessories and additional movements. If there are exercises you want to perform to help strengthen the main lifts, or just for aesthetic reasons, it’s easy to fit them in at the end of the main workout.
After some trial-and-error with the routines in Wendler’s Beyond 5/3/1 book, I eventually settled on the “First Set Last” option. How this program works, essentially, is after completing the main workout for the day, you decrease the weight back to your first set and perform some additional sets and reps. This can either be one AMRAP set (as many reps as possible) or 3-5 sets of 5-8 reps. You can also add some pause squats and pause bench presses.
I love my messy little garage gym!
An example of the routine I’ve been following is:
- Squat day – Squat 5/3/1; squat FSL (first set last) 3 x 8; Romanian deadlifts 3 x 8-12; Hip thrusts 3 x 8-12
- Bench day – Bench 5/3/1; Military press FSL, 3-5 sets of 5-8 reps; Dumbell or barbell rows, 3 x 8; Bicep curls supersetted with skull crushers, 3 x 8-12
- Deadlift day – Deadlift 5/3/1; Front squat, 3-5 sets of 5-8 reps; Lunges, 3 x 12; Step ups, 3 x 12
- Military press – Press 5/3/1; DB shoulder press, 3 x 8-12; Face pulls, 3 x 8-12; Inverted rows, AMRAP
A few notes on my routine:
- I only do FSL for squats and military presses because these are my weakest lifts.
- Since I don’t compete in powerlifting, I’m not too concerned with how much I can bench. Gasp! The horror! Cue the pitchforks and torches! But seriously, I’m not. Sure, I think it would be cool to be able to bench a lot as a female, but I’m much more concerned with my squats and overhead presses.
- I don’t find it necessary to add a true FSL deadlift to my squat day since I do Romanian deadlifts that day.
- I perform the FSL sets for the military press on my bench day because I believe I benefit from doing the movement twice a week.
- I added front squats on deadlift days because 1. Front squats carry over well into many Crossfit movements, and 2. Similar to the military press, I like performing some kind of squat movement twice per week.
I sometimes change the movements or sets and reps. It depends on how I feel, how much time I have, and whether or not I’ve attended any Crossfit classes that week. On some days I’ll add cardio at the end of my lifting sessions. On other days, I’ll lift in the morning and do cardio at night. I do core work at least once a week. When I remember to, I’ll add some calf raises onto my squat or deadlift days. I also try to remember to do banded pull-aparts in between my bench sets.
This routine probably isn’t perfect and I’m sure there are different exercises I could or should be doing. It’s working for me, though. After I took a couple months off from Crossfit to focus on this program, I felt a huge difference once I returned to the classes. When I performed this routine during my most recent RP cut, I was happy with the aesthetic changes I saw. (I remember reading somewhere that Wendler doesn’t recommend this routine on a cut, but I don’t believe it significantly hindered my progress.)
Last week was my first full week on the program after almost a month off of it over the holidays. I’m excited to see how I do this time! I’ll post an update on this training cycle in a few weeks to talk about my progress in more detail.
