I have noticed in 5/3/1 Forever Jim lists example training weeks for the templates. Rather than seeing 5/5/5 for week one, 3/3/3 for week two, and 5/3/1 for week three, I instead see a flat 5/5/5. Two quick examples I found are Windowmakers on pg. 78 and BBB on pg. 47, 48, 49, etc. It lists 5/5/5 spread across multiple weeks. What is going on here?
Are you looking at the leaders and anchors or only the leaders?
Both. S.V.R. II (pg. 78 & 80) and 5x5/3/1 (pg. 88 and 94) are both examples where the leader and anchor has 5/5/5 rep schemes. FSL last lists tradtional 5/3/1 sets in the example but not BBB. Is BBB now recommended as a 3x5 rather than 5/3/1?
This all depends on the program, what barbel volume is desired, and how everything is intended to fit together.
Generally, the higher volume programs are done in 5’s PRO (5’s across sets and weeks).
Then, when the barbell volume drops, you go for PR’s. This is when the traditional 5/3/1 rep scheme comes bank into play.
It helps to always remember that 5/3/1 is at it’s core, about certain principals, and not just a rep scheme.
Hope this helps!
SVR II has the PR sets on week 1.
Usually this is to accumulate volume and for simplicity. I watched a Youtube video of Jim doing a seminar at a gym talking about how he goes about training his athletes. Basically he said he uses 5’s for everything with them because he has 40 some athletes together at once and its simple, easy, and he doesn’t have to explain stuff a million times. Everything is for a set of 5. When it comes to the Leaders I think the concept is the same, just do a set of 5.
Make sure you go over the section in the book about Leader and Anchors. It will give you a really good idea of why this is set up this way. And always pay attention to what Anchors are recommended after a particular Leader. Some Leaders can be followed only by a specific Anchor, other Leaders can be followed by lots of different Anchor setups.
This is also now why making sure your TM is correct becomes so important. On some of these higher volume programs if its too high your can have a hard time getting through them with 5’s pro and the supplemental work.
I mostly do 5s now. Main reason is when your not doing PR sets and using a lighter training max 1 rep on the last set is just kind of pointless and anything but 5 would make it more confusing because that’s usually what warmup sets are anyway. It really doesn’t matter that much but if it was left vague people would do too much and ask too many questions so exactly 5 reps is simple and easy.
This has been explained several times on this forum; and also in the Forever book. From a programming standpoint (which is most important), it allows the reps of the main work to be “constant” while the intensity varies.
Having a constant allows you to better program each training cycle.