*If anyone sees this and wants it taken down, aka Mr. Wendler himself then tell me and I gladly will. It is his brainchild and I am by no means an expert on this nor do I claim to be. All of this is a skeleton of a workout and his original work is well worth the money. PM me with questions since I don't want to peeve anyone off.
I didn't want to post the plan because it is a 90 page long book that I read on it. Impossible to summarize, especially since there are a ton of variations with assistance exercises and what not. I will post my response to someone that PMed me. This is in no way the complete thing, but it gives you the gist of it. If you really want the full details then I suggest you go to elitefts.com and buy Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 guide. He is a great guy and it is a solid book that answers all of your questions and then some. It does work. I'm only only polishing off my second week but I've already broken through a wall I've had with gaining some mass. If you're a girl then don't worry about that. You aren't going to get freakishly huge unless you somehow cut your estrogen off.
For now I'll give you the basic breakdown so you have an idea. The workout in its raw form is simple a periodization cycle. It is based around 4 core lifts as the true indicator of strength and progerssion, but there are others involved. The 4 lifts are the (standing) military press, bench press, deadlift and squat. The 5/3/1 workout is just that. You have your one rep max for each one of those lifts, whatever it is. For your first cycle you take 90% of that one rep max. (This is the time to check your ego at the door)
Once you take that 90%, that is your "working" or "functional" one rep max. Keep track of those numbers, because that is what everything will be based off of. I actually have a spreadsheet for it.
A cycle is one month long. The first week, if you choose the 4 lifts, will be 4 workouts. The first week you will warmup however you choose and then do the 3 sets of your core lift each day. So, first week is 5 reps of that core lift at 65%, 75%, and 85% of your one rep max. Then you do two higher rep "assistance exercises". The second week you do 3 reps with your lifts at 70, 80 and 90%. The third week is 5X75%, 3X85 and 1X95% your one rep. The 4th week is considered a "deloading" week and you do 40, 50, and 60% for 5 reps.
Excluding the fourth week, the last set of each set is balls to the wall. You should always get the 5 reps or whatever but push for a personal record each time. When you are done with the cycle, you add 5 pounds to your 90% calculation and repeat.
My workout for this week looks something like this.
Monday: Bike 10 minutes, light stretching, jump rump, warm up shoulders.
Military press: (5x45 lbs, 5x65 pounds, 5 by 95 pounds) warmup sets that get my mind in the game
Work sets: 5 x 110, 5x 120, 8x130. The last set was ALMOST failure. I made up the numbers because I can't remember exactly.
Assistance Exercises:
kroc rows: 3 sets of as many as I can (20+) with as much weight as I could handle
Dips: 5 sets of 15 reps
Shrugs: 3 Sets of 20 with whatever I could handle
---------------------------------
Tuesday:
Light warmup on treadmill, some stretching, getting heart rate up
Deadlift: Warmup sets( 5 reps at 30, 40, and 50% your one rep max)
Work sets: (using the percentages) 1x5x65%
1x5x75%
1x5+x85%
Assistance exercises:
Weighted Lunges 5 sets of 12 (body weight is fine too..stretch it out and do lots)
2x20x(whatever weight you can handle) Leg Curls
Good mornings: 2 sets of 20 with lighter weight. Go really low with good technique
Ab Work (I think I did weighted situps on a decline. Hold the weight ABOVE or BEHIND your head..not on your chest. Prepared to be humbled)
Conditioning: Uphill sprints till near death
--------------------------------
Wed. Day Off
_____________________________
Thursday: Normal warmup, if you have a foam roller use that for it too. Warm up shoulders, etc.
Bench Press: Same type of warmup as with deadlift, just benching. Then follow whatever you are on with the 5/3/1 workout.
Pullups/Chinups: I set a personal goal to do 50 using different grips. The entire point is to do a TON of them. Do NOT do pulldown. If you can't do pullups then start with flex arm hang where you hold yourself up and then slowly go down. (Repeat for at least 4 sets of 4) If the gym has the cybex pullup machine then use that. Make it hard. Pullups are one of the best exercises you can do. I like to alternate mine between benchpress sets.
Dumbell Incline Bench: 5 sets of 15 at whatever weight
Abwork: Side bends. 2 sets of 20 with 50 pounds was enough to make me pretty sore.
Conditioning: Running hills, sled pulling, prowler pushing...anything that is really hard and you loathe doing. If you don't feel like collapsing in a heap when you're done, you aren't doing it right.
________________________________________
Friday: Normal warmup. On a bike. I wear neoprene knee sleeves to keep pressure on my knees and keep them warm.
Squatting: ( I use a different bar called a Safety Squat bar and do very low box squats which I advise everyone to use)
Safety Squat Bar Squats off of 14 inch box:
Normal routine that you've seen before. I might lower the weight a little more than the calculated if you have no idea what you're box squat weights are. It is harder and forces you to go down much lower and pause.
Assistance:
Bulgarian split squats with added ROM
5 sets of 12 with bodyweight
These sound fancy, but basically all I'm doing is setting up a bench on one side and one of those stepping blocks about 2 feet on the other. I stand on one foot and throw the other back on the bench. Since you are raised up you go much much further down. Be prepared for soreness the next day, but you'll get great legs and ass.
Glute Ham Raise*:
5 sets of 15
*If you don't have a GHR at your gym, then do RDLs or Straight leg deadlifts
Also, if you have any question about what the lifts are. Check out youtube. Anything by Defranco will be solid.
_____________
Rest and go on to the next progression for increasing weights. It is important to give yourself a bit of a rest between certain days
_________________________________
The focus with assistance exercises is using the biggest compound lifts you can find. Don't use that bodybuilding crap with 90 exercises. Do lots of chinups with different grips, lots of lunges, glute ham raises, reverse hyper extensions, bent bb rows, kroc rows, pushups, db bench press, dips, good mornings, RDL, etc.
While the 4 lifts are a constant, think of the assistance workouts as a way to get balance in your muscle groups. Out of all of them the only ones that stay constant in my routine are dips, pullups, goodmornings and lunges. I rotate pretty much everything else. If you realize you aren't working lower back that hard then throw something in for that. Avoid machines like the plague unless you are rehabbing. I'd say the only machines that are REMOTELY ok are leg press and leg curl. MAYBE leg extension if you have a bad knee, but in that case I say throw in total knee extensions as a warmup instead.
Also, important to realize that you HAVE to have ab work in there. I'm not talking easy stuff. I'm talking hanging leg lifts where you touch your toes to the bar, holding the weight behind your head when you do decline situps, side bends etc. Think of the most difficult exercises that require the most use of your body and do those.
For conditioning you run hills, push a prowler or pull a sled. That simple.
Do realize that this SOUND complicated but once you break it down it isn't. All I'm saying is to do 3 or 4 exercises each workout that utilize A LOT of muscles. You are just managing the weight used and not killing yourself with one rep maxes every week. I tried to sum up a 97 page book in this one email, so I'll expect some questions.
