The Official 5/3/1 Thread

[jarude]

sorry mang. i think what i was trying to say was since you're doing 5/3/1 it would be of great benefit to actually read the 5/3/1 book. especially if youve been lifting for a couple months theres a lot of good stuff in there.

 

[Radagast]

..

 

[randomax]

So I moved from doing starting strength for around 6 months to doing 5/3/1 over the last two months. I am not as tired as I used to when I was doing starting strength and its too early to see significant gains on my lifts. My lifts when I transitioned were around 200lbs for squats (3*5), 190lbs for deadlifts (1*5), 110lbs for bench press (3*5) and 85lbs for overhead press (3*5). As my lifts progressed, so did my weight. I still have a long way to go with a current weight of around 140lbs but since I've moved to 5/3/1 I feel that my body fat has started to rise but my weight has stagnated. I have love handles and most of the fat seems to have accumulate (not surprisingly) around the abs. So my question is: did I switch over from starting strength to 5/3/1 too quickly?

I was starting to stall on my lifts on starting strength and the weight progression was not really happening and this was the reason I switched. The diet has not changed significantly - if anything it has gone down as I moved from two scoops of whey/day to one but I parallely added more whole foods. If my weight was increasing I wouldn't have been concerned but the weight gain has stalled. Any advice on this issue? Thanks as always.

 

[bbaquiran]



So I moved from doing starting strength for around 6 months to doing 5/3/1 over the last two months. I am not as tired as I used to when I was doing starting strength and its too early to see significant gains on my lifts. My lifts when I transitioned were around 200lbs for squats (3*5), 190lbs for deadlifts (1*5), 110lbs for bench press (3*5) and 85lbs for overhead press (3*5). As my lifts progressed, so did my weight. I still have a long way to go with a current weight of around 140lbs but since I've moved to 5/3/1 I feel that my body fat has started to rise but my weight has stagnated. I have love handles and most of the fat seems to have accumulate (not surprisingly) around the abs. So my question is: did I switch over from starting strength to 5/3/1 too quickly?

• Something wrong with your Squat/DL ratio. My guess is either you're cutting your squats high or you're sandbagging on the DLs.
• You can probably get 20+lbs more on your bench and press with SS before you need to change anything. Are you resetting by 10% when you stall? Have you reset 20% more than twice?
• Which 5/3/1 variant are you doing? Did you cut your RM weights by 90% as wendler recommends in the ebook?
• If you were not gaining weight on SS but are now getting fat on 5/3/1 you were not eating enough for SS and are now eating too much for the slower gains of 5/3/1.

I was starting to stall on my lifts on starting strength and the weight progression was not really happening and this was the reason I switched. The diet has not changed significantly - if anything it has gone down as I moved from two scoops of whey/day to one but I parallely added more whole foods. If my weight was increasing I wouldn't have been concerned but the weight gain has stalled. Any advice on this issue? Thanks as always.

Stalling is part of SS. You stall, drop the weight 10% and work back up and past the previous max. If you stall, reset and stall again at the same weight you reset 20%.

I'd recommend you go back to SS with a 20% lighter Wednesday workout or do something like GSLP (which is basically SS with 5/3/1 and autoregulation added) for a few months before going to 5/3/1, or the beginner version of 5/3/1.

 

[randomax]

bbaquiran, thanks for your reply. PLease see below for my answers to your questionsw

• Something wrong with your Squat/DL ratio. My guess is either you're cutting your squats high or you're sandbagging on the DLs.
  
  I am cutting a little higher on my squats. The ligament around my left knee was torn when I was 10 or so and my left leg is weaker than my right. So when I squat I can barely reach parallel.
  
• You can probably get 20+lbs more on your bench and press with SS before you need to change anything. Are you resetting by 10% when you stall? Have you reset 20% more than twice?
  
  I most definitely did reset but don't remember if I reset by 20% more than twice.
  
• Which 5/3/1 variant are you doing? Did you cut your RM weights by 90% as wendler recommends in the ebook?
  
  I am doing his basic workout schedule described in t-nation. Yes, I cut my RM weights (which were based on my 3*5 weights) to 90%
  
• If you were not gaining weight on SS but are now getting fat on 5/3/1 you were not eating enough for SS and are now eating too much for the slower gains of 5/3/1.

Stalling is part of SS. You stall, drop the weight 10% and work back up and past the previous max. If you stall, reset and stall again at the same weight you reset 20%.
I'd recommend you go back to SS with a 20% lighter Wednesday workout or do something like GSLP (which is basically SS with 5/3/1 and autoregulation added) for a few months before going to 5/3/1, or the beginner version of 5/3/1.

I am definitely leaning towards going back to starting strength. Once again, thanks for sharing your thoughts.