[Program Review] A Half Dozen Cycles of 5/3/1: A Review on 21 Weeks Worth of Work : r/weightroom

5/3/1 is a fantastic program for beginner to intermediate, and possibly advanced lifters looking to get stronger. It is a simple program to follow, allows for plenty of room for modifications and growth, and has many opportunities to hit different PR’s. I would say that 5/3/1 is everything that Jim Wendler advertises it to be, which isn’t surprising but pleasant to hear nonetheless.

I’ve been strength training for roughly 8 years now, since I was 20. I’ve run a basic 5×5 when I was new to lifting, some 5/3/1 BBB for a bit after that, some fuckarounditis, and some hypertrophy stuff all in that timeline. Because of life and an insomnia diagnosis, the longest I’ve trained consistently without significant breaks is probably a year and a half at most, maybe just shy of that. I like to experiment a lot with lifting, so I’ve tried a lot of variations and ideas to come up with unique results for whatever I was interested in at the time.

I ran 5/3/1 from the beginning of October 2019 to the end of February 2020, totalling 5 months of 5/3/1. Each cycle was 3 weeks in length, and ran back to back with a 1 week deload in between. In essence, 6 weeks on, 1 week off.

I loosely kept track of my weight, tracking it weekly with the exception of about 4 weeks from mid December to January. I started at 172lbs/78.2kg, and currently sit at about 190lbs/86.4 kg. Basically, I put on a pound a week. My diet was rather relaxed, I didn’t stuff myself but I never said no to extra protein.

I’m going to say that conditioning is probably the most important thing for 95% of the people reading this. Cardiovascular health has benefits that far outweigh any numbers you can put up. If you aren’t doing some conditioning weekly/daily you really should start, but I’m not going to kid myself and believe this little blurb I’m writing is what is going to push you to start doing it.