I’m on my third cycle of 5/3/1 and i’m about to enter the deload week. In the third cycle i’m on the 70% of 1 rep max for 10. Is my deload supposed to be 60% x 5, 65% x 5, 70% x 5, 5 sets of 70% for 10?, or just stop after the main work and move on to the accessory lift? Up till now i’ve been doing te boring but big on the deload as well but i kind of seems like overkill I just want to be sure.
In the deload you are supposed to do:
40% x 5, 50% x 5, 60% x 5. ( dont do more than five )
When it comes to the assistence you can do what you do on the other weeks or you can do less or you can nothing except the main lifts, the mainpoint with the deload is to DELOAD.
If you dont have the book, I will recommend that you buy it, most questions possible about the 5/3/1 method is answered there.
If your doing it as per the book the deload week is 40%x5, 50%x5, 60% x5 (no all out on the last set) for the main sets. Wendler doesn’t give specifics about percentages to deload on your assistance but he does say if you are going to deload… then deload. IF your doing your BBB sets of 10 are at 70% I would cut them back as well, if not then you miss the point of deloading and you may as well just skip the deload and go into your next cycle.
Edit: I guess I was too slow in answering.
For accessories I’d halve the volume or halve the weight.
Thanks guys. That’s kind of what I thought repo. The boring but big accessory was more than the actual working deload. I figured I was doing more than i was supposed to, i just wanted to be sure.
[quote]panzerfaust wrote:
For accessories I’d halve the volume or halve the weight.[/quote]
^this
Just get one of the books. Boring but big is 5 sets of 10 @50%.
[quote]RampantBadger wrote:
Just get one of the books. Boring but big is 5 sets of 10 @50%. [/quote]
I think he is doing the boring but big challenge that was posted on here awhile back, it has a slightly modified scheme for the BBB work.
[quote]panzerfaust wrote:
For accessories I’d halve the volume or halve the weight.[/quote]
IMO it is better to lower the weight and keep the volume the same (or even increase it slightly). As I progress in my lifting career, I’m learning more and more that the physical body can handle a ton more than we normally throw at it. As long as you are not injured.
The mind/CNS is a bit different though, and really does need a break more so than the physical body, IMO. So I think it is better to reduce the intensity since that is more of a neurological consideration, and keep the volume up.
I end up doing more assistance work during my deloads, FWIW.
This isn’t exactly what Wendler suggests, but I usually work up to 70% and do a triple. Light enough to feel like you did “nothing” but heavy enough to do some form work with weights that aren’t ridiculously light. I also don’t do any assistance exercises that are like the main movement.
For example, if I was benching I wouldn’t db press or close grip bench after. I only do the exercises meant to balance out the main work or to hit areas that aren’t hit hard by the main lift.
actually, Wendler just posted on his home page jimwendler.com about this and he has modified it in a three MONTH wave where by you do 5 sets of 10 @ 50% the first month., 5 sets of 10 @ 60% the second, then 5 sets of 10 @ 70% the third month.
this would be your DELOAD week programming, just to be clear. The rest of the 5/3/1 stays the same…
Look back in his previous posts on HIS site and you may be able to find this.
I believe he called it his Three Month Challenge…fwiw.