My 5/3/1 Template, What Do You Think?

Monday

  • Squat 531
  • Deadlift 5x10 @ 50%
  • Calves 531 superset 5 sets of abs
  • Leg Isolation work 5x10
  • 100m Sprints 6-8reps, max 10 minutes

Tuesday

  • Bench 531 superset 4x5 Dumbell Rows
  • Press 5x10 @ 50% superset 4x10 Barbell Rows
  • Pull-ups/Lat-pulldowns 5x10
  • Upperbody Isolation work 5x10

Wednesday

  • Barbell bicep curls 531 (yes, I want to do big bicep curls)
  • Traps 5x10
  • Facepulls 5x10 with tricep-pushdown 5x10
  • Punching bag 45 second sets with 45 second rests. Max 10 minutes.

Thursday

  • Deadlift 531
  • Squat 5x10 @ 50%
  • Calves 5x10 @ 50% superset 5 sets of abs
  • Leg Isolation work 5x10
  • 100m Sprints 6-8reps, max 10 minutes

Friday

  • Press 531 superset 4x5 Dumbell Rows

  • Bench 5x10 @ 50% superset 4x10 Barbell Rows

  • Chin-ups/Lat-pulldowns 5x10

  • Upperbody Isolation work 5x10

  • I keep my training max low enough to be able to do 10 reps on 5+ set,
    8 reps on 3+ set and 6 reps on 1+ set. That would be about 85% of my
    real 1 RepMax.

  • Optional joker set or two after top set.

  • 6 weeks lifting, 1 week deload. Is it ok to do 5x30minutes of light cardio on deload week?

  • Isolation sets are for lagging body parts. If I feel my delts are
    lagging behind, is it ok to do lateral raises for 5x10 on tuesday and on
    friday for full 6 weeks or is it too much?

  • I try to build my pull-ups up to 5x10 by doing the reps I can for each set (not to failure), then filling rest of the set with lat-pulldowns. I must say, about half a year ago I tried to do pull-ups/chin-ups on every workout like you are recommending here. It broke my shoulders even thought my form is perfect. I only do twice a week for now on.

  • What do you think about my conditioning work?

Honestly, I don’t like it much. It’s a lot of volume. The BBB sets are taxing enough, supersetting will add to that. Add in that much assistance and IMO you’re asking for trouble.

How about you actually do 531, do BBB, add your bench and press supersets and then pick one assistance exercise per day and superset it with calves on squat and DL day and curls on bench and press day. Get rid of the other junk (Wednesday included) except your conditioning.

I’m not trying to be a dick. It’s just that I’m doing 531 BBB and I don’t know if you’ve done it before but it’s taxing just doing your 531 sets, BBB and one assistance exercise. Especially if you’ll only deload every six weeks.

Needs wrist curls…

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Apart from isolation sets and wednesday, it’s just like it says in the book. Isn’t it?

edit:
Templete two:
Press - 5/3/1
Bench press - 5 x 10
Lat work - 5 x 10

Deadlift - 5/3/1
Squat - 5 x 10
Abs

and dumbell rows between working sets. That’s what’s in the book.

So the rowing sets between BBBsets are too much. Isolation sets are in because I do have obviously lagging bodyparts. How else would I even out?

Typo?..pretty sure 5/3/1 can’t be applied to isolation exercise

About the wednesday

quote from user Curodd from year '14

Not to be that rhetorical idiot on the forum that
doesnt answer questions, but why do you want to do more? Conditioning?
Boredom? Like moving around every day? Cant stay out of the gym?
…
Extra work will most likely hamper recovery unless its light or
restorative in nature… If your doing it just because you like being in the gym, find
something restorative to do instead, foam rolling stretching yoga etc
maybe if your worried about the extra session taking away from the main
lifts

That’s exactly for me. I should keep volume and intensity low enough on so it doesn’t take away from main lifts. Wednesday stuff is just accessory work what I can do while I’m at the gym anyway hitting punching bag.

I’m at a loss for words

@peltosenkeke , What are your short-term & long-term training goals? What have been doing prior to this in order to achieve those goals?

After looking at your template, it looks like you’re trying to gain strength, add size, become a bodybuilder, and a well-conditioned athlete. There isn’t a one-stop-shop template. List your goals, then prioritize them. That will at least give you an idea of where to start.

Do you have the books? The books are pretty great.

Normally I would help you out and correct a template, but you obviously have different goals than what 5/3/1 is for.

If you wan’t a biceps day, there are numerous other websites that will gladly pedal that crap.

If you want to be big, strong, fast and athletic, then drop the extra and do the program.

This is a great start, but you should add a 5/3/1 shake-weight day on Saturday, then 5/3/1 scull-crushers day on Sunday. (of course including assistance exercises of equally poor training economy).

The thing that’s most baffling is you mentioned the book, implying you’ve read it to some extent.

I know I’ve asked some dumb questions, but it’s posts like these that make me amazed Jim has the patience to keep returning to this forum. If I had created 5/3/1, written the books, and all of the articles available, seeing things like this being called 5/3/1 templates would make me throw up.

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My goals are to gain strenght, size and improve aerobic capacity. Sprinting has been enormous help to my lifts. I’m not out of breath all the time.

How about this?

Monday

  • Squat 531
  • Deadlift 5x10 @ 50%
  • Calves 5x5 superset 5 sets of abs
  • 100m Sprints 6-8reps, max 10 minutes

Tuesday

  • Bench 531 superset 4x5 Dumbell Rows
  • Press 5x10 @ 50%
  • Pull-ups/Lat-pulldowns 5x10

Wednesday

  • Foam rolling, stretching
  • Punching bag 45 second sets with 45 second rests. Max 10 minutes.

Thursday

  • Deadlift 531
  • Squat 5x10 @ 50%
  • Calves 5x10 @ 50% superset 5 sets of abs
  • 100m Sprints 6-8reps, max 10 minutes

Friday

  • Press 531 superset 4x5 Dumbell Rows
  • Bench 5x10 @ 50%
  • Chin-ups/Lat-pulldowns 5x10

You aren’t doing anything aerobic though. I recommend the AirDyne bike (or something similar to the AirDyne) for 20-30 minutes done 4-7 days/week. It doesn’t have to be hard though - that’s one of the things people fuck up with aerobic work; they make it too hard.

The only tip I would throw your way would be to up your reps on your DB rows. Try doing 2 reps pull for every 1 push.

To me, that looks much better.

And of course, add aerobic as suggested.

Allright thanks all of you for helping!

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