When to start wendler 531
Review - Does 5/3/1 Work? Jim Wendler's Linear Progression Program for Strength Athletes Explained
what's going on guys it's Bromley at
Empire barbell and today we're gonna do
some programming evaluation I've had
some requests to pick apart
5:31 along with some other ones I'm
gonna get to you down the road but this
is the one that's probably been around
the longest its freshest in most
people's minds because you see it
everywhere so Jim Wendler came up with
531 it was one of the first really
successful ebooks that tried to simplify
strength training for the masses and
it's had a ton of success but at the
same time it also comes under a little
bit of scrutiny because when you're
trying to cast a wide net over all the
potential lifters that might buy your
product you're also going to do some of
them a disservice by not providing
specific enough or maybe advancing the
progression at an appropriate rate now
that's something you can't really hope
to do when you're trying to cast a wide
net like that which is why the
importance of individual learning and
individual programming maybe from a
coach or a professional is so high so
down the road you're eventually gonna
have to dig a little deeper and find how
you can program for yourself a little
bit more specifically taking into
account your own special circumstances
now this is now this is basically 531 in
a nutshell I cut off all the fluff I got
rid of all the things you don't really
need to calculate one of my frustration
is when I first ran this was over ten
years ago was I took the time to
calculate all the percentages down a
full 12-week training block only to
realize that the introductory
percentages were just for warm-up sets
it doesn't really matter they don't
contribute to the overall volume that
much if you do an appropriate warmup all
the way up to your you're working
percentage is how you run the warm-up
doesn't really matter I mean he he'll
have going into day one it'll be you
know 65 75 then eighty-five percent each
one for five reps finishing with five or
more and that that approach really isn't
that important so I opted not to put it
here so really the whole program really
hinges on one working set to failure
followed by whatever accessory gets
prescribed for that day so for the main
set these are your progressions week one
85% week to 90 we 395 that addi load I
also didn't put the specific D load down
because
doesn't really matter so this operates
off of what we call plus set sum plus
sets are pretty popular there in a lot
of different programs juggernaut
features plus sets Grayskull LP swede
burns v set basically it's saying the
last set you do for this one it's the
only set you do is done for as many reps
as possible so you want to hit at least
five on week one but ideally you hit
more now this does a couple things one
it provides intensity critique let's say
starting strength is that when you start
light with the linear progression giving
yourself a room to increase each week
there isn't really enough of a stress to
cause a temptation at that phase it
almost feels like busywork you're
setting a baseline of work and it's not
until you've been at it for a couple
weeks you start to encounter poundage
--iz and amounts of volume that actually
cause you to grow so it almost feels
like okay we can do a little bit better
even if we're not pushing it at higher
percentages we can still push it with
some rep work we can still add some
effort to the working set that's gonna
help you increase your performance down
the road it's also a good method of
autoregulation because they can tell you
about what your strength is doing
without really having a max or handle
heavy heavy poundage 'iz so as you run
through this wave when you repeat the
next cycle five pounds heavier five to
ten pounds heavier you have a good
barometer for what you did on week one
for week five so let's say you beat
those reps at heavier weight that's a
really good sign that you're improving
the way you should be improving so I
really like plus sets I've actually
included them a lot in my own
programming during different phases and
also five-three-one strongly recommends
and this is one of the things that gets
right taking 90 percent of your training
max so that actually backs you off a
little bit so it prevents people from
over representing their strengths which
everybody does and when you run a
program like this and I've had problems
with it with my own clients where when
you run a program and you start too
heavy you go off your last let's say
meet PR which was maybe eight months ago
instead of what you can actually do now
you hit that brick wall a little too
quick so with all progressions it's
really vital you back off far enough
remember give yourself that runway give
yourself that runway to pick up momentum
so by the time you get into the weeds
you can
push it a little bit farther if you're
hitting a brick wall week one we -
you're really not getting it anywhere so
you start back off so 85% really like
75% which is a 10 rep max or so for most
people so that plus set you might get 10
11 12 reps
90% that's 80% starting out you might
get 6 or 8 reps 85% you might get you
know 3 4 or 5 reps so you're getting
more reps this is much more rep based in
the beginning and then the rate of
increase is so small because you run
through 85 90 95 or 90% of that when
you're starting out and each week you
only add 5 to 10 pounds so you're just
bumping a little bit of weight and then
the next cycle a little bit of weight so
this represents six weeks of cycling and
you can see it's only this little bit of
margin that you increase your
performance at each rep range or at each
percentage threshold so one of the
critiques of 5:31 is that it's very slow
and it is slow but it's it's slow by
design 1 as a training principle of not
trying to jump weight too quickly you
want to hang out at a certain threshold
in order to adapt to that for a certain
period of time instead of just trying to
jump very aggressively but to to take
into account the wide net it is trying
to cast it's trying to cater to the
lowest common denominator which is going
to be people that are overeager people
that start with their max is too high
people that try to push too aggressively
to far or people that are too eager to
see strength gains and will ditch the
program because of this so because of
the slow patient methodical approach a
lot of people have had success with it
because it's pushed them to follow these
principles they might not otherwise a
followed however a big contingency of
people that are following 5 3 1 or newer
lifters or novice lifters and because of
that they leave a lot on the table with
this low volume approach also with the
mandatory D load every four weeks again
casting a wide net it's better to err on
the side of less work rather than more
because more is not always better but
with a big pool of novice athletes
following your program they have a lot
more potential to get work in you know
novice lifters don't need to deal owed
they didn't work hard enough to marry
daddy load also a 95 percent yeah that
might merit a deal
but with 90% of that when you're hitting
a 5 or 6 rep max on week 3 sets of 5 or
6 don't marry daddy load either D loads
are pretty much reserved for when you've
been running with so much volume for so
long that you need a break to clear out
or when the percentages have gotten too
high for too long where again if you
keep pushing you're just gonna regress
and take steps backwards the idea is
you've built up so much fatigue that you
need a week to let your body catch up
before you can really express those
strength gains so I have a little bit of
problem with that I'm not gonna tell
anybody to modify this because as soon
as we start modifying it it's not
five-three-one so just take this
information with a grain of salt and you
know try to try to think critically as
you look at other programs down the road
so that you can apply this to see what
the best possible course may be now when
you get down here and you're actually
firing closer to that 95 percent range
because remember you started back 10
percent when you actually get close to
working 85 90 95 for those three weeks
and yeah D load is is gonna become more
important because each week is gonna be
that much more taxing you're gonna be
much closer to your ceiling which means
you know recovery is gonna be a lot
harder so down the road I definitely
think that's advised but early on it
seems a bit unnecessary now I can't be
too hard on this program because it does
exactly what it's supposed to do again
cast a wide net taking into account most
of the people that are going to read it
or as popular as this program is it
probably did itself in it the people who
followed it a very good service by
taking that very conservative approach
because if it took a more aggressive
approach I promise there be a lot more
people left behind by this program but
this should also be a jumping block
advanced lifters or I think people
who've been competing for a longer
period of time people who have a better
handle on how they recover and what they
can get away with in their training
eventually will need to advance past
something like this this is not going to
take somebody to very elite numbers but
that's important to know that we segment
training off based on how developed you
are what you do in the first year you're
starting off it's not going to be what
you do in the year that you're trying to
get an 800 pound deadlift those are two
different phases of training so this is
more appropriate it's kind of an a
foundational introduction to how these
progressions work and how you should
expect to increase at what rate you
should expect to
prease so I think there's a lot of good
discovery to be had in this for people
that are newer and are getting into it
so 531 works off the principle of a
simple linear progression it just has an
extra added element of complexity in the
way that it waves so this is a normal LP
once or twice a week depending on which
one you follow you're going to add a set
amount of weight so if you start it I
don't know 70% for your sets of five
you're not even adding percentages it's
just a set amount five to ten pounds and
there's some that have you do that on
both days now novices can get away with
that they can progress linearly every
few days on the same the same
progression something like starting
strength eventually progresses at the
Texas method where you're only
progressing one day a week and then you
have other days that are either lighter
days or intensity days and the added
complexity actually allows more recovery
which is again the difference between
more novice and more advanced lifters
but starting out simple lp's it's just
five to ten pounds each time so over a
great many weeks you see this net
increase in weight at the same set and
rep threshold so very slowly volume has
grown very slowly intensity has grown
and in that time your body should have
adapted in a pretty substantial manner
it's very dry it's very boring but it
works very well so when you're starting
out I frequently recommend that
beginners start out with a very simple
progression so they can feel how it's
the progression from week to week that
drives progress not necessarily this
monumental effort that you do and any
one given workout five-three-one
is still a linear progression but these
linear cut the linearity is split up
into these four week intervals so you're
still only adding five to ten pounds at
each threshold but it's every four weeks
so this wave goes up 85 90 95 D load and
then plus five pounds plus five pounds
plus five pounds back down to a D load
so it zigzags back and forth that added
element of complexity draws out the
progression much longer and it gives you
more time at a specific threshold so
this threshold of eighty-five to
ninety-five percent
notice how much of that band that you're
going to be staying in over that
six-week period right so it's only these
small deviations on the outside but the
average weight is not going to change
that much and that gives you more time
to adapt more time to progress more time
to perfect your technique and see all of
the foundational development you want to
see so that ceiling of yours pops up
more over time this also does a good job
of illustrating the psychological
benefit of the plus sets because you're
only getting back to the same percentage
range every four weeks it can be that
much more frustrating to try to chart
progress when you're moving at a snail's
pace is adding five to ten pounds each
time so the plus sets like let's say at
the highest percentage range four weeks
down the road you get the opportunity to
see how many more reps you got at a
little bit more weight than you started
with so it kind of reinforces the good
work that is being done in the process
so again it's another reason I like plus
sets ultimately I don't really have a
bone to pick with five-three-one I think
it's a really solid foundational program
if for no other reason than to get your
feet wet with how these progressions
work down the road with other programs
the idea of progression doesn't really
change there's different types of
progressions you can load linearly you
can wave load you can step load you can
apply that with varying percentages you
can kind of tweak how aggressively you
change percentage week to week and how
often you cycle back there's all these
added elements of complexity but this
type of pattern is still the
foundational driving force between how
you grow and that's ultimately more
important when it comes to handling your
main list I also like the options they
give you for accessory a good example
like they have the boring but big
protocol just five set to ten do your
top set same exercise drop a certain
percentage knock off five set to ten I
mean that's one of the most proven
methods of getting big and strong is it
take a compound barbell movement and do
it for a lot of sets and a lot of reps
it works very well
it also helps improve your technique
downside of something like this as if
you are newer there aren't really enough
touches for you to really get good you
want repeating sets ideally to be able
to reinforce technique can get more
comfortable under the bar one all-out
set with very new
lifters not really ideal in my opinion
it doesn't mean you're not going to grow
from it just means you could potentially
do more work so I do recommend the
protocols that when the recommends to
have you doing more sets of more reps
with the same movement I think for you
newer guys that'll go a long way this
also keeps in line with one of my
biggest tips for novice and even
intermediate lifters it's keep it simple
stupid this progression is very simple
it's very easy to follow and it's worked
with enough people you just have to have
the presence of mind to know after so
many weeks am i doing too much work too
little work or just the right amount of
work just a ride about a work never
feels like the right amount of work okay
it for that you have to look at your
numbers am i progressing if you're
progressing it's the right amount of
work an igloo point out that this block
is applied to four days each day is
dedicated to one lift so you have to
lower body to upper body squat bench
press deadlift overhead press I like
that it encompasses all of those
exercises it's like four of the you know
big vital exercises that are related to
general strength development and
competing overhead press is a big one
that gets overlooked by a lot of people
but if you're not if you feel like
you're not doing enough you leave it
something on the table it may be
appropriate for some of you to switch to
something where say you squat twice a
week or overhead press twice a week
something like the Grayskull LP is a
good example of prioritizing frequency
when the volume is low if you're not
doing a lot of volume on one lift that
means you can get away doing it more
often and for a lot of people that are
trying to refine technique and get past
that novice age that might actually be
the way to go everybody's a little bit
different a lot of people I train squat
twice a week without any problem and
some of them it's been a game changer
that extra frequency has really helped
them develop pass a point that they
otherwise would have some people really
really struggle especially if there's
any amount of volume in the leg workout
after the squat so you have to be really
diligent in pinpointing what your
maximum recoverable capabilities are
because it is different for everybody
that being said if you are new to linear
progressions if you have not followed
simple set progression structures like
this I highly recommend you give this
one a try if I was to tweak it for
anybody I might add in more sets at the
beginning so something like week one my
be five sets of five with a plus set at
the end week to three sets a three week
one you put all out on that one big set
and repeat that's another very
productive structure it's not that
different than the main progression it
just includes a little bit more of that
percentage specific work to help dial
that in overtime there's a lot of ways
to structure it like I said these are a
dime a dozen if there's anything you
were looking for me to cover that I did
it go ahead and leave it in the comment
box or better yet go ahead and join our
forum empire barbell forum all right I'm
gonna leave the link in the description
we got over 500 members I'd like to get
that to a thousand I took the pay all
down guys it's free go ahead and start a
training log post a video of your lifts
get some feedback we got a good
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start a thread related to this video I
try to answer questions and comments on
the forum as often as possible so that's
it for today guys thanks for watching
until next time this is Bromley at
Empire barbell I'll see you
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