My 5/3/1 Variation (Karl's Method)

[PaulBeech]

I keep it to an hour! I say lots, i mean three or four.

[Meshuggah]

******

[Adam Skillin]

None of my lifts are particularly impressive, but they've all gone up over 8 weeks of the 5/1. You should have written that e-book. There's still time.

[WeightsAreHeavy]

Another guy here giving 5/1 a shot with 5x5 assistance. After breaking down the number of prescribed working reps (amrap not included) for each of the main programs over a 4 week period, I noticed the jump from madcow (my last program) to 5/3/1 was huge - 96 for madcow, only 33 for 5/3/1. 5/1 is a better compromise at 48. This number also suggests there is wiggle room for amrap sets.

[WeightsAreHeavy]

Hmm interesting. Even with 2 workouts per week vs one for squats/bench? 5/1 definitely has more deadlifting though.

Well, I guess I'll post results. I'm not using 70% yet for assistance, closer to 60. Maybe I'll stick with that for now.
The longer gap between each exercise (7 days vs 3/4) may offset the tonnage increase, we'll see.

[aucran]

Posting in a 5/1 thread to bump the program.

I'm only on my 4th week of it (end of 2nd cycle) so its hard to judge gains/progress yet. But I do enjoy my gym sessions much more than I had been with the Texas Method.

Karl isn't doing the extra assistance exercises as hsilman and I are, but hes putting up more weight. I'm of the opinion that assistance exercises are optional...if I skip/forget them, I doubt I'll see any difference in progress. Assistance exercises are for fun. I would recommend doing Chins/Pull-ups at least though, because the 4 Main lifts do not put much emphasis on Lats and biceps. Also Wendler recommends Pulling movements to equal Pushing movements, which makes sense if for no other reason than a healthy muscle balance.

As for running it 3 days a week, another option would be to do something like

Monday: OHP
Wednesday: Deadlift
Friday: Bench

Monday: Squat
Wednesday: OHP
Friday: Deadlift

Monday: Bench
Wednesday: Squat
Friday: OHP

etc.


Edit: I did not like the lack of Squatting, compared to having been doing it 3 times a week before, so I made a lighter set as my assistance work for Deadlifts day, so now I squat twice a week and am happy with that set-up

[Mike C]

Yeah I see combining 2 lifts into one day an absolute must.

I combine deadlift and bench (today's workout) since bench is by far the easiest lift.

Pressing overhead was an issue for me when I did it with deadlift and that has been solved by giving it its own day.

Sat: squat
Monday: press/rows
Wed: deadlift/ bench

[Karl Schudt]

Pressing overhead was an issue for me when I did it with deadlift and that has been solved by giving it its own day.

I solved this by pressing before deadlifting. Press version 2.0 requires a lot of abdominal (I almost said "core) strength, and those muscles can be quite tired after deadlifts. So, I flipped the order.

[Meshuggah]

I solved this by pressing before deadlifting. Press version 2.0 requires a lot of abdominal (I almost said "core) strength, and those muscles can be quite tired after deadlifts. So, I flipped the order.

Pressing before DeadLifting is just common sense.

[Karl Schudt]

Pressing before DeadLifting is just common sense.

Well, I'm a little slow sometimes.