The Official Gym & Fitness Thread

Jim Wendler has several routines available. Most of them are in his books (which I highly recommend).

Find out your maxes using a 1RM calculator. Bodybuilding.com has a good one. Pick a weight you manage well but you can only do a few reps at, do as many as you can (with adequate form) then throw the numbers into the calculator.

Use those 1RM and plug into Wendler’s formula and go.

I recommend using his standard program first. Follow it to the T, do not make any changes and see how you do over 3-4 cycles.

Easy as pie.

Online there are excel spreadsheets you can download so all you need to do is plug in your maxes and it gives you the whole 4 weeks.

If you are new to lifting and your maxes are lower do not start out with Wendler’s Boring But Big routine (@zacharypaul89 is doing a version of that). My personal opinion is that plan is better suited for someone who has some good base strength and can handle the volume. Not sure what your experience level is.

Just my 2 cents.

 

I always video my maxes

5/3/1 standard for your first lift of each day:

- Week 1: 65, 75, 85 % of your 90% max (3 sets of 5)
- Week 2: 70, 80, 90 % of your 90% max (3 sets of 3)
- Week 3: 75, 85, 95 % of your 90% max (3 sets of 5,3,1)
- Week 4: 40, 50, 60 % of your 90% max (3 sets of 5)

Day 1:
OHP: 5/3/1 standard
chest exercise: 5x10
back exercise: 5x10
bicep exercise: 3x10
triceps exercise: 3x10
shoulder exercise: 3x10
trap exercise: 3x10

Day 2:
deadlift: 5/3/1 standard
squats: 5x10
quad exercise: 3x10
hamstring exercise: 3x10
abs: 5x10-20
calves: 5x10-20

Day 3:
bench: 5/3/1 standard
chest exercise: 5x10
back exercise: 5x10
bicep exercise: 3x10
triceps exercise: 3x10
shoulder exercise: 3x10
trap exercise: 3x10

Day 4:
squat: 5/3/1 standard
deadlifts: 5x10
quad exercise: 3x10
hamstring exercise: 3x10
abs: 5x10-20
calves: 5x10-20

I'll show you an example of each week's bench press 5/3/1 so it makes sense

- Week 1: 65, 75, 85 % of your 90% max (3 sets of 5)
- Week 2: 70, 80, 90 % of your 90% max (3 sets of 3)
- Week 3: 75, 85, 95 % of your 90% max (3 sets of 5,3,1)
- Week 4: 40, 50, 60 % of your 90% max (3 sets of 5)

Bench press max: 350
90% of that: 315

Week 1: 205x5, 236x5, 268x5
Week 2: 220x3, 252x3, 284x3
Week 3: 236x5, 268x3, 299x1
Week 4: 126x5, 158x5, 189x5

After week 4 you add 5 lbs. to your bench and shoulder press maxes and 10 lbs. to your squat and deadlift maxes and start the program over based on your new numbers. You also want to actually attempt your new maxes sometime during week 4 to make sure you're actually progressing. If everything is done correctly, you should be adding 5-10 lbs. to your max every 4 weeks. I'm in week 4 of my first run now, so we'll see if it's actually working lol

 

In b4 “my phone fell over”

 

Hey, that only happened one time and I re-did the lift to prove it, ya pencil neck.

 

https://youtu.be/wmCn4z7gvFo

Ignore my fat roll

 

Looks like your max is more than 415.

 

ive been doing the same routine for a while...and im getting a bit tired of it, and i dont think its hitting each muscle group enough. And because you outlined it so well. imma jump on the band wagon lol!

when you do the 5x10s...you just find a weight that you hit failure at 10? and figure out where that is? move down weight if you cant hit 10 for the next set?

It seems like these 1rm for the 5/3/1 are pretty low...like doing 85% of my 90% max for ohp puts me at a weight i can do 4 or 5x of...

 

Get it!

 

I don’t think I could’ve gotten 415.5 lol. I saw stars after that.

For the 5x10, you do 50% of your max. If you can’t get it, you’re wrong about what your max is lol. The first few days for 5x10 squats sucked, but I got a little conditioned from it and it’s not as bad, but it still sucks after set 3.

The percentages for 531 start out easy, but it gets harder and it works. You’re not supposed to feel gassed afterwards. I thought the same thing, but you’ve just got to trust the process. It’s meant to leave some gas in the tank.

 

Haha well you handled it well.

Didn't Arnold say you should squat until you actually pass out?

 

good to know about the 50% for the 3 and 5x 10s!
It just takes so much for me to feel gassed doing low rep workouts (even at weights higher in my max%). doing a simple 5/3/1 at those low %s will hardly even feel like a warmup. I'd have to do that 5/3/1 like 3 times to feel like i had an effective OHP lift... not saying that I should be lifting heavier, my maxes are what they are. Id never trust it if i wasn't told to lol. But for kicks ill let it roll.

 

Trust me after 2-3 cycles 5/3/1 becomes more challenging. It takes a few cycles to get seated into your "max". But that's the point of his program. You hit a reset button for a moment and then he builds you up correctly.


You guys are making me miss bulking LOL. Did Wendler for all of 2017. Love it.

 

Anything that is 3x10 is just for fun...you don’t have to do 50% of your max on it...that’s just extra stuff. When doing higher weight, lower volume will get the job done. Just do it for a while and see what you think.

 

How long does this routine take you? I got to the gym with one hour before it closed and I said fuck it imma hammer this thing through, and got it done in like 50 min. Even being “generous” with my maxes for given workouts to cut in half I got through all the 10rep lifts fairly easily. Good change up going to the higher rep range tho.

It’s finally snowing hard here again, and after a quick boot pack up to the usual quick back country route I realized I’m in shitty shitty back country shape. After 3 weeks of no BC skiing, Doing the 1400ft climb used to take about 50 min, took about 1:10 and I felt it. So provided avy conditions don’t go to shit, I’m going to do the hike at 7am every morning for the rest of the week, as well as ski in the resort for a bit, which will make the leg workouts a bit taxing but I’ll give it a shot

 

It usually takes me an hour and a half on leg days and an hour on the others.

 

Ha just kidding. With 18” of new snow the gym takes a back seat. After hiking this morning..ripped the resort till noon. Going to repeat tomorrow and the next day till the snows all gone

 

I’m like that when the surf is good. Haha

 

I’m like that when the buffet is good

 

Class got cancelled today, so it's chest max day. I'm hoping for 350, but I'm thinking it's gonna be like 340-345.

 

315 is 3 plates so unless your momma raised a bitch you should just slap 25s on it and go for 365