5/3/1 for beginners

[PapaBear59]

Has anyone tried Wendler’s 5/3/1 for beginners? While I know it says beginners it looks like something that may work for an “older” lifer without outing too much stress on the joints.


Monday
Squat – 5/3/1 sets/reps
Bench – 55%x5, 65×5%, 75%x5
Assistance work

Wednesday
Deadlift – 5/3/1 sets/reps
Press – 5/3/1 sets/reps
Assistance work

Friday
Bench – 5/3/1 sets/reps
Squat – 55%x5, 65%x5, 75%x5
Assistance work

[Mark E. Hurling]

I jumped straight into Wendler's routines without reference to being a beginner in them or not. They are indeed good for us older folks. Not too many sets or reps and the deload is a welcome respite. I bought his later book 5-3-1 for powerlifting when I decided to compete last year and that worked well too. I did cut back to twice a week instead of three times a week earlier this year after becoming convinced that it was good for older folks. In fact, Wendler himself said he made his best lifts and gains as a young guy on twice a week routines.

Now of I could just recover from being sick with the flu in February and diverticulitis in April, I'd be doing great.

[Arkansan]

Well this is crazy. I started on this just this week. I couldn't find anything from anybodyelse doing the program from searching the net. I just decided to start running a few cycles of it and see how it goes.

Check out blakironbeast.com for a 5/3/1 calculator.

[b17vic]

How can you work out percentage loads if there is no 1 rep max or a weekly increasing 1 rep max? This is a limitation of a percentage based routine. Also notice how the author of 5/3/1 was already strong and of athletic background BEFORE the birth of 5/3/1. Maybe a beginner would do well to run Starting Strength?

[Arkansan]

After each cycle you add 5 pounds to upper body and 10 for lower. You can use a rep caculator to find your 1 rep max. But Jim also says to start light. It's slower on adding weight which is a better option for some of us.

http://www.jimwendler.com/2011/09/531-for-a-beginner/

[Larry T]

I did 5/3/1 with mixed results. I'm 57 and have lost 90lbs with ~25 to go. Older and low-carb and ~1,000 daily calorie deficit is tough on any program, but when I ran several cycles of 5/3/1 a few months ago, my sense was that the only really challenging sets were the last sets of each lift. For me, the volume at higher intensity just wasn't there, and while I knew I couldn't cross the line into too much work, I felt I had crossed the line into not enough work.

The feedback I got from Jordan and Andy was to still do a sort of 5/3/1 if I wanted to, but do them sets across instead of ramping up to the final heaviest set.

[Greg Esres]

"Has anyone tried Wendler’s 5/3/1 for beginners? "

Seems like an unnecessary brand extension. SS will work fine for a while for a older beginner and you'll make faster progress. When you transition to 5-3-1, you'll probably have to tweak the program to get sufficient volume.

[Arkansan]

Speaking of volume. The work sets with the 5/3/1 do feel more like warm up sets then actual Work sets.
Probably going back to SS after this week is over. Unless someone can show me that it's a better program.

[Marlin]

Has anyone tried Wendler’s 5/3/1 for beginners? While I know it says beginners it looks like something that may work for an “older” lifer without outing too much stress on the joints.


Monday
Squat – 5/3/1 sets/reps
Bench – 55%x5, 65×5%, 75%x5
Assistance work

Wednesday
Deadlift – 5/3/1 sets/reps
Press – 5/3/1 sets/reps
Assistance work

Friday
Bench – 5/3/1 sets/reps
Squat – 55%x5, 65%x5, 75%x5
Assistance work

If you have exhausted linear progression 5/3/1 is a good program. It's not designed for big immediate gains. It's also a program which you should run for six months to a year. As you will probably be starting out somewhat light, running it for 60-90 days does not show you very much. I found it to be easy on me and give me plenty of recovery time. The blackironbeast calculator is very helpful. If you are doing the BBB, I would cut down the volume to maybe three sets of eight, rather than the sets of 10.

[Greg Esres]

Speaking of volume. The work sets with the 5/3/1 do feel more like warm up sets then actual Work sets.
Probably going back to SS after this week is over. Unless someone can show me that it's a better program.

If you can do SS, it's clearly the better program by far. But I ran into recovery issues after a couple of months and I got worse, much worse, rather than better. In retrospect, I probably could have tweaked SS to enhance recovery, rather than tweaking 5-3-1 to be more like SS.