In the Wendler 5-3-1 workout you use 90% of your max to determine your starting weight and then use the percentages indicated below:
|
Week 1 |
Week 2 |
Week 3 |
Week 4 |
Set 1 |
65%x5 |
70%x3 |
75%x5 |
40%x5 |
Set 2 |
75%x5 |
80%x3 |
85%x3 |
50%x5 |
Set 3 |
85%x5+ |
90%x3+ |
95%x1+ |
60%x5 |
In other words for a 300 bench you would base percentages off of 270. However, I find this method confusing. You are essentially using a percentage of a percentage. A simpler method would be to use 100% of the 1 RM and adjust the percentages down by 10%. The weights used would be the same.
For example in week 1 the heavy set is 85% of 90% or 76 % of the 1 RM. Simply dropping 10% keeps the math far simpler as shown below.
|
Week 1 |
Week 2 |
Week 3 |
Week 4 |
Set 1 |
55x5 |
60x3 |
65X5 |
60x5x3 |
Set 2 |
65x5 |
70x3 |
75X3 |
|
Set 3 |
75%x5+ |
80X3+ |
85x1+ |
|
As I said previously I am a big fan of the concept but much of our audience consists of younger athletes or older adults. Neither group lends itself well to either triples or singles. Because of this we would use the same concept but, we have simply modified the rep range from 5-3-1 to 8-6-4 as shown below.
|
Week 1 |
Week 2 |
Week 3 |
Week 4 |
Set 1 |
50x8 |
55x6 |
60X4 |
60x5x3 |
Set 2 |
60x8 |
65x6 |
70X4 |
|
Set 3 |
70%x8+ |
75X6+ |
80x4+ |
|
Give this a try with your athletes and shoot us some feedback. The nice part is that the slightly higher rep range means we can do this with exercises like split squats or 1 leg straight leg deadlifts as well as bench press. The exception would be Olympic lifts as I would not recommend eight reps in the hang clean.