About the Jim Wendler 5/3/1 Coaching category

Coach Jim Wendler’s free forum specifically dedicated to the 5/3/1 program. Ask about any of the different training templates, find out how to fine-tune 5/3/1 for your goals, and get feedback from other lifters who’ve followed the plan.

1 Like

I’m a little hesitant to post this, but I’m curious of anyone’s thoughts on training 2 consecutive days per week (think weekends), but with the full intensity. I’ve read the books and I know Jim recommends alternating intensity for squats and deadlifts each day, but if I can handle the intensity is there any down side to doing this? And even more crazy, what about only one day per week, maybe split up (deadlifts, ohp in the a.m. and squats, bench in the p.m.) if I can handle the workload. My reasoning had to do with long work hours combined with a long commute which already leads to a slight lack of sleep throughout the week, so the forthcoming advice of " wake up an hour earlier to train" would only shorten my sleep even more. Not trying to sound like I’m looking for excuses to cop out, it’s the opposite, I really want to train so I’m trying to figure out how to make it work on my off days. I’ve been running 531 for 3 cycles with good progress and did starting strength for 6-8 months before that, with moderate lifting experience before that. My lifts are squat 330, deadlift 385, bench 260 and press 150, all singles. Any insights are appreciated.

You still have a lot of improvement I think you could make on your lifts, but for only starting a few years ago it’s a great start. First to even think about this am I safe to assume your on some type of gear. If so a lot of the time your ave to hold yourself back a little, it’s harder to overtrain on it, I hate that work by the way. I think most people way under do it. But if you’re not getting a lot of sleep already I probably wouldn’t attempt it. If you’re doing these main compound lifts properly and with the right intensity you shouldn’t really be able to do them that often or if you are at least able to probably not at the intensity you need to. I would up my poundages on add in another working set or two befor you even thought about adding another day. Have you tried holding reps longer or doing all the little tweaks to the lift you can already? If you want to workout more add in a day where you concentrate on a weak body part and do isolation work. When you’re doing your compounds don’t stop until your body is wrecked and there’s nothing left in the tank, especially on squats and deadlifts. I do commend you though for doing the “tough” lifts and trying for strength increases and not just hypertrophy and looks. Good luck man

Been doing this for 2 years. 5’s kill me but enjoy the 3’s and 1’s. Really like doubles too. I use wrist wraps( bench ), a crane belt and knee wraps ( squat and deadlift ). I have done great with it but feel I need to mix up other methods at this point.