3 Forward, 1 Back or 5 Forward, 3 Back?

Hi all, I am currently in my 12th cycle of 5/3/1 and I am barely getting 5 reps on my bench press on the 5/3/1 week, not to mention the reps are sloppy and slow. I understand “how” to apply both principles, but not “why” to apply 5 forward, 3 back or which would be optimal in my situation. I realize my TM needs to be reset one way or another.

My bar path gets sloppy and looking back I realize I’ve been psyching myself out and rushing through the eccentric portion of the lift thinking, somehow it will make the set more efficient and I will set a PR. While setting PR’s are nice it is more important to me to stay healthy and “own” the weight i’m under.

[quote]badboy69cancer wrote:
Hi all, I am currently in my 12th cycle of 5/3/1 and I am barely getting 5 reps on my bench press on the 5/3/1 week, not to mention the reps are sloppy and slow. I understand “how” to apply both principles, but not “why” to apply 5 forward, 3 back or which would be optimal in my situation. I realize my TM needs to be reset one way or another.

My bar path gets sloppy and looking back I realize I’ve been psyching myself out and rushing through the eccentric portion of the lift thinking, somehow it will make the set more efficient and I will set a PR. While setting PR’s are nice it is more important to me to stay healthy and “own” the weight i’m under. [/quote]

Why?

“My bar path gets sloppy and looking back I realize I’ve been psyching myself out and rushing through the eccentric portion of the lift thinking, somehow it will make the set more efficient and I will set a PR. While setting PR’s are nice it is more important to me to stay healthy and “own” the weight i’m under.”

Why you’re applying this is because it’s a progressive overload. You back the TM off to hit PR’s and basically use it somewhat as a reset to a degree. Whether you choose 3/1 or 5/3 doesn’t really matter in the long run. What matters is consistency & the principles of your training

I’m sorry, I should have just asked for a better explanation of 5 up, 3 back. I’m familiar with 3 up, 1 back as it’s in the first edition of the original book, but I haven’t found the latter explained in either.

[quote]badboy69cancer wrote:
I’m sorry, I should have just asked for a better explanation of 5 up, 3 back. I’m familiar with 3 up, 1 back as it’s in the first edition of the original book, but I haven’t found the latter explained in either. [/quote]

There are other ways to progress besides intensity and 5/3 is a good way to get a mixture of progress methods. 5/3 also ensures that the TM sticks within that 85-95% of your RM range without having people whip out the calculator and work out if they need to make a smaller increment to their TM or even reset it. Prevention is better than cure.

As for a selection between the two, I actually think 5/3 fits nicer with cycles and challenges and the drop of 2 cycles does a bunch of good for bar speed but having not really experienced 3/1 I can’t comment.

Thank you!

Thank you!