A Fitness Plan That Can Change More Than Your Physique
Article From Entrepreneur Brain Dump
Wendler 5-3-1
đź“– 2min Reading time
Jim Wendler was an elite powerlifter back in the day squatting over 1000lbs among other insane feats of strength.
“The Wendler 5-3-1” was the training program he devised that was the foundation to all of his strength. The beauty of it lies within its simplicity.
It takes the 4 main powerlifting exercises (squat, bench, deadlift, overhead press) and puts them into a mesocycle or “wave” of training.
Then progressively loads the weight up, over the training cycle with a deload week at the end.
It looks like this:
And here’s an example using a 300lb squat as your 1RM
Didn’t think you were reading a fitness newsletter did you? Gotta keep you on your toes. Here’s the relevance:
Inspired by James Clears 321 - 3 ideas from the author, 2 quotes from others and 1 question for you, we have our spin on that with the 5-3-1. The 5-3-1 series will vary, but the numbers will remain.
The benefits of the 5-3-1 progression aren’t just for strength thorough lifting, this progression can make you strong in other facets as well.
Adopted to running:
Week 1: Walk 5 miles, 3x in that week
Week 2: Jog 3 miles, 3x in that week
Week 3: Run 1 mile, 3x in that week
Week 4: 1 day walk 5 miles, 1 day jog 3 miles, one day run 1 mile.
Repeat and get better.
Now let’s take this system outside of fitness:
Writing a book:
Week 1: Write down 5 ideas, 3x a day
Week 2: Spend 3min writing about your ideas, 3x a day
Week 3: Spend 1 hour reading through your notes, 3x per week
Week 4: Come up with 5 new ideas, spend 3 min writing and 1 hour of processing, 1 time that week.
You’ll have accumulated:
- 20 Ideas
- Written about each idea
- And reread your work multiple times with ample opportunity to process.
The concept with 5-3-1 is steady progression. Or progressive overload. Bit by bit you add to what your capable of.
You “retest” your “max” and then determine new percentages to work off of and new goals to obtain.
Sometimes when we set goals too lofty, we tell ourselves it’s impossible before we get there.
But if you progressively load the volume on, adding just a small percentage of growth each week, you’ll look back from your 10th cycle and not be able to even see where you once were.
Ever so often we will be including a 5-3-1 series in our newsletter with mesocycles of actionable items included or simply digestible nuggets provided in the 5-3-1 format.