531 Doesnt Add Up

been on the 531 for 2 years now, problem is on bench I can always do the 3rd week easy but the 1st is always hard… Im not gaining strength anymore… Ex. i set my maxes higher bc after completing the 3rd week I always hit the last set for 3. if I set my max to that , i can not complete the last set of the 1st week… anyone have this problem?

I need to get on something for bench strength and for what ever reason this isnt working anymore, for example, today on my 3rd week it called for the last set of 1 rep at 330, i did 335(dont like 2.5’s) and then went to 365, and to 385 for 1… What routine can I do just for bench to go up… my last max was 380 before i got the flu in december…

ideas or welcome

Reset.

CS

Don’t set the maxes higher just because you hit a new 1RM on the 3rd week.

Just reset the weights and start fresh.

I’d say that if your 1rm has gone from 380 to 385 then your bench is actually progressing. Anyway, I’d reset my training max to 90% of the lowest estimated 1rm (in your case, use your “5” week) and go from there.
That’s what I’ve been doing since I do 5/3/1: whenever I fail to get my reps I reset for the next cycle. This ussually puts me using weights similar to a couple of cycles prior so a couple of months later i’m hitting the same “problematic” weights again, this time smoking them.

I hope this helps.

How does one get that strong without understanding basic programming or knowing what makes them stronger in the first place?

GruntOrama: 5/3/1 is pretty much foolproof, there’s no much room to f**k it up.

Read the book again. It’s fool proof but not idiot proof.

[quote]Triceptaurus wrote:
Read the book again. It’s fool proof but not idiot proof.[/quote]

did i write something terribly wrong in my first post or what?

[quote]MrEdofCourse wrote:
been on the 531 for 2 years now, problem is on bench I can always do the 3rd week easy but the 1st is always hard… Im not gaining strength anymore… Ex. i set my maxes higher bc after completing the 3rd week I always hit the last set for 3. if I set my max to that , i can not complete the last set of the 1st week… anyone have this problem?

I need to get on something for bench strength and for what ever reason this isnt working anymore, for example, today on my 3rd week it called for the last set of 1 rep at 330, i did 335(dont like 2.5’s) and then went to 365, and to 385 for 1… What routine can I do just for bench to go up… my last max was 380 before i got the flu in december…

ideas or welcome[/quote]

It’s neural inefficiency.

Reconfigure your deload week. I followed it as per the program, but it doesn’t work for me. I generally just pick a weight which isn’t challenging, say 60%, and do 5x5 with it. It’s fixed that issue in the first week of the weights feeling heavier.

Just make sure you’re moving that weight as fast as possible out of the hole otherwise you won’t activate your higher threshold motor units.

Did you just do 1 rep with 330? Rep it out if you can actually move 380 for a legit single.

…and follow the program as it has been laid out.

I always feel the “5” week is the hardest so it’s not just you.

I don’t get why people are so afraid to take one step back to go three steps forward. Rep records WILL increase your 1rm.

So basically, you did exactly what Wendler says not to do and now you are saying 5/3/1 doesn’t work?

[quote]GruntOrama wrote:
How does one get that strong without understanding basic programming or knowing what makes them stronger in the first place?[/quote]

Apparently OP’s BW is 285… it’s not that hard to get to a 1.25-1.5xBW bench while doing things wrong, in my experience.

Read the Book

From 5/3/1 First edition

This program allows you to break a wide variety of rep records throughout the entire year. Most people live and die by their 1-rep max. To me, this is foolish and shortsighted. If your squat goes from 225x6 to 225x9, you’ve gotten stronger. If you keep setting and breaking rep records, you’ll get stronger. Don’t get stuck just trying to increase your one rep max. If you keep breaking your rep records, it?ll go up.

You’ll no longer have to just do a set of 5 reps. You’ll focus on beating the number and beating the weight.

OP, your reading skills don’t add up. There’s a book called the 531 program, read it, good stuff…

[quote]bigmac73nh wrote:

it’s not that hard to get to a 1.25-1.5xBW bench while doing things wrong, in my experience. [/quote]

It does, it’s 9.

I’m sure I’ll get flamed for this but IDC… I bought Wendler’s book and did it verbatim. I was coming of of a “West-Side” routine so I knew my actual 1 rms. I dropped a little weight off of those and calculated 90% of that so I’d have room to grow. Well, I got good a repping light shit. When I tried to “Max” to see if I had improved, I got stapled with a weight I used to be able to do for an somewhat easy triple. Thinking that I had fucked up somewhere I “reset” and started over. A few cycles later same shit… weaker. Went back to a congugate system and haven’t looked back.

“Wendler” works well for a lot of people but I didn’t enjoy it and it didn’t seem to work for me for the 8 months that I did it. If I ever get into Crossfit or some shit where I need to rep the shit out of light weights this may work great for me.

[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
I’m sure I’ll get flamed for this but IDC… I bought Wendler’s book and did it verbatim. I was coming of of a “West-Side” routine so I knew my actual 1 rms. I dropped a little weight off of those and calculated 90% of that so I’d have room to grow. Well, I got good a repping light shit. When I tried to “Max” to see if I had improved, I got stapled with a weight I used to be able to do for an somewhat easy triple. Thinking that I had fucked up somewhere I “reset” and started over. A few cycles later same shit… weaker. Went back to a congugate system and haven’t looked back.

“Wendler” works well for a lot of people but I didn’t enjoy it and it didn’t seem to work for me for the 8 months that I did it. If I ever get into Crossfit or some shit where I need to rep the shit out of light weights this may work great for me.

[/quote]
So you were maxing out repeatedly after doing your regular 5/3/1 sets?

If you were doing it after your 5/3/1 sets, no-shit you’d be weaker, you should be tired. If you were doing it some other time, you werenâ??t doing 5/3/1.

[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:

[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
I’m sure I’ll get flamed for this but IDC… I bought Wendler’s book and did it verbatim. I was coming of of a “West-Side” routine so I knew my actual 1 rms. I dropped a little weight off of those and calculated 90% of that so I’d have room to grow. Well, I got good a repping light shit. When I tried to “Max” to see if I had improved, I got stapled with a weight I used to be able to do for an somewhat easy triple. Thinking that I had fucked up somewhere I “reset” and started over. A few cycles later same shit… weaker. Went back to a congugate system and haven’t looked back.

“Wendler” works well for a lot of people but I didn’t enjoy it and it didn’t seem to work for me for the 8 months that I did it. If I ever get into Crossfit or some shit where I need to rep the shit out of light weights this may work great for me.

[/quote]
So you were maxing out repeatedly after doing your regular 5/3/1 sets?

If you were doing it after your 5/3/1 sets, no-shit you’d be weaker, you should be tired. If you were doing it some other time, you werenÃ?¢??t doing 5/3/1.
[/quote]

I’m also not getting how you got good at repping out 80% of your max + 8 cycles worth of increases and your 3 rep max went down. You should probably have ended up “repping out” that same weight. I’m also not sure why you were resetting when you were still repping out light weights. I’m assuming that means you increasing your training max, meaning you should have been using weights that were above your old 3 rep max.