5/3/1: The Simplest and Most Effective Training System for Raw Strength (2nd Edition) (8 page)

Week Two

Monday

Monday

Press – 65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5+

Press – 70%x3, 80%x3, 90%x3+

Close Grip Bench Press – 50%x10,

Close Grip Bench Press – 60%x8, 70%x8,

60%x10, 70%x10

80%x6

Lats, Upper Back, Triceps, Biceps

Lats, Upper Back, Triceps, Biceps

Tuesday

Tuesday

Deadlift – 65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5+

Deadlift - 70%x3, 80%x3, 90%x3+

Front Squat (or Safety Bar Squat) -

Front Squat (or Safety Bar Squat) - 60%x8,

50%x10, 60%x10, 70%x10

70%x8, 80%x6

Hamstrings, Lower Back, Abs

Hamstrings, Lower Back, Abs

Thursday

Thursday

Bench Press – 65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5+

Bench Press - 70%x3, 80%x3, 90%x3+

Incline Press - 50%x10, 60%x10, 70%x10

Incline Press - - 60%x8, 70%x8, 80%x6

Lats, Upper Back, Triceps, Biceps

Lats, Upper Back, Triceps,Biceps

Friday

Friday

Squat - 65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5+

Squat – 70%x3, 80%x3, 90%x3+

Straight Leg Deadlift - 50%x10, 60%x10,

Straight Leg Deadlift – 60%x8, 70%x8,

70%x10

80%x6

Hamstrings, Lower Back, Abs

Hamstrings, Lower Back, Abs

Week Three

Week Four

Monday

Monday

Press – 75%x5, 85%x3, 95%x1+

Press – 40%x5, 50%x5, 60%x5

Close Grip Bench Press – 65%x5, 75%x5,

Close Grip Bench Press – 40%x5, 50%x5,

85%x5

60%x5

Lats, Upper Back, Triceps, Biceps

Lats, Upper Back, Triceps, Biceps

Tuesday

Tuesday

Deadlift – 75%x5, 85%x3, 95%x1+

Deadlift - 40%x5, 50%x5, 60%x5

Front Squat (or Safety Bar Squat) - 65%x5,

Front Squat (or Safety Bar Squat) - 40%x5,

75%x5, 85%x5

50%x5, 60%x5

Hamstrings, Lower Back, Abs

Hamstrings, Lower Back, Abs

Thursday

Thursday

Bench Press – 75%x5, 85%x3, 95%x1+

Bench Press - 40%x5, 50%x5, 60%x5

Incline Press - 65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5

Incline Press - 40%x5, 50%x5, 60%x5

Lats, Upper Back, Triceps, Biceps

Lats, Upper Back, Triceps,Biceps

Friday

Friday

Squat - 75%x5, 85%x3, 95%x1+

Squat – 40%x5, 50%x5, 60%x5

Straight Leg Deadlift - 65%x5, 75%x5,

Straight Leg Deadlift – 40%x5, 50%x5,

85%x5

60%x5

Hamstrings, Lower Back, Abs

Hamstrings, Lower Back, Abs

Notes:

 I firmly believe that this is one of the best and easiest templates to get strong. If you have any doubts on what to do for assistance work and you want to be strong, follow this template. It is easy to follow, attacks all the main areas you will need for strength (i.e.

weak points) and allow you to program everything effectively.

 The additional assistance work for the upper body (Lats, Upper Back, Triceps, Biceps) and lower body (Hamstrings, Lower Back, Abs) I recommend picking one exercise for each of these body parts and simply doing 3 sets of 10-20 reps. If anything, do more back and upper back work on upper body day; you can really never do too much of it.

Don’t kil yourself on any of these lifts; you don’t get a medal for being a Pro Barbel Curler or Sgt. Side Raise. Do the exercises with good form, get a pump, don’t get psyched up for the lift and get out. If you press 225lbs overhead no one is going to care that you are using 20lbs dumbbells for rear dumbbell raises. Let the big lifts stress the joints and mind; let the smal lifts stress the muscles. John Bott once told me, “Your body can’t tel what weight you are using on these small lifts. It’s best to use the lightest weight possible so you don’t wreck your joints.” That is wisdom.

 If you are doing the 5/3/1 for Powerlifting template, the weeks for the assistance lifts are changed accordingly. So for example:

Week One – 60%x8, 70%x8, 80%x6

Week Two – 50%x10, 60%x10, 70%x10

Week Three – 65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5

Week Four - 40%x5, 50%x5, 60%x5

 I still recommend doing chins/pull-ups between every pressing set (including warm-ups for the pressing movement).

 Because you are already warmed up from the main lift of the day, you will only need to do 1 or 2 warm-up sets for the assistance lift (if at all). Keep the warm-up sets to no more than 5 reps.

 Do not change the big assistance lifts. Stick with one for at least 3-4 cycles and change if you’d like. You have to stick with them in order to see progress. As long as you are consistent and you program it correctly, you will get stronger.

Squatting Exercises

Pressing Exercises

Front Squat

Log Press

Safety Bar Squat

Log Bench Press

Box Squat

Close Grip Bench Press

Pulling Exercises

Football Bar (Swiss Bar) Bench Press

Straight Leg Deadlift

Football Bar (Swiss Bar) Press

Good Morning

Incline Press

Trap Bar Deadlift

Floor Press

Rack (or Block) Deadlift

5/3/1 and Rest/Pause Training

One of the more innovative training programs in recent history is DC Training, or DoggCrapp Training. This was started, tweaked and made popular by Dante Trudel. The name, DoggCrapp is taken from his anonymous screen name on a forum – and it stuck. Dante struggled to gain weight and strength, graduating high school at around 120lbs. He began to grow and use typical high volume routines popularized by Arnold and many other bodybuilders.

Though he gained weight and strength he believed that there had to be a better way. With a lot of experimenting, eating and research he came up with what we currently know as DoggCrapp training. Simply put, Dante is a beast. And his list of clients that have gained an enormous amount of weight (muscle mass) and strength is amazing.

DC Training is a detailed and well-thought out training program that uses rest/pause, breaking records and big movements. For those that don’t know what rest/pause training is, here is an example. A lifter wil perform a movement, let’s use the press as an example, and perform an all-out set at a given weight. After this all out set, he will take 10-15 breaths and perform the press again with the same weight, obviously for less reps, to failure. He will rack the bar, take another 10-15 breaths and do another set to failure. So a rest/pause set would look like this: Press – 155x10 reps, 10-15 breaths, 4 reps, 10-15 breaths, 2 reps To make it easy: do one set for as many reps as you can, take short break, do the same weight to failure, take another rest and do one more set to failure. After the first set, your reps will diminish greatly so don’t be alarmed. You may only get 2-3 reps on the final set.

Note: You do not rest/pause the deadlift and the squat.

For those that have done this sort of training, they know it is not easy. It requires a ton of mental and physical strength to get through one of these sets. And while it may not seem like a lot, you will be gassed and huffing for air when you are done. It is something that you have to physically ready for (including a LOT OF FOOD) and mentally prepared to handle. Each exercise that you do is done so that you break a personal record, so you have to focus.

Additionally this is not for the undisciplined lifter that resorts to bad form when doing an exercise to get the additional reps. If you fall into this category, do not attempt this style of training.

Now let me go on record by saying that what I’m proposing is not DC Training. He has his own training program and it works. What I’ve done is applied his overal principles to the 5/3/1

training program and tweaked it to fit. I don’t like when people bastardize my program and stil refer to it as “5/3/1” so I wil not say this is DC Training. Rather it is my interpretation on how to apply it to the 5/3/1 program.

There are a few templates you can use but as I sat down to think about this, I decided to give myself a limitation. All the exercises that are in the Rest/Pause template can be done in a garage gym i.e. simple, basic barbell exercises. Many of the exercises that are advocated by Dante are specialized machines such as the Hammer Incline Press Machine or something similar. There is nothing wrong with this but many people reading this do not have access to those machines but all have access to a barbell, rack and bench press. Or at least I hope you do. If you want to learn more about the system, please do some research. Dante has done a great job with providing the public with a ton of free information regarding the training, his diet recommendations and answering thousands of questions.

There are four rules I want everyone to follow when attempting this sort of training.

1. You will eat to grow – this is not time to be on a cutting diet or be in a caloric deficit.

You must eat a ton of protein (strive for AT LEAST 2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. This is a minimum.) Every meal should have a huge serving of meat or eggs, a protein drink and whatever carbs you can shove down your gullet. This is not a time to cut carbs.

2. Have a spotter – this is especially true on any bench press movement. And very important when you are using rest/pause.

3. You have to do some kind of cardio work – this is essential (more on this later).

4. You have to start at 90%of your true max.

The 5/3/1 Rest/Pause Template is done three days per week. These workouts should be done on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Because we are using percentages on many of the assistance lifts, you will have to know your maxes (or estimated maxes) for each of these.

Again, take 90% of these maxes (your training max).

The training template that Dante suggests is as follows: Day One

Monday - Chest, shoulders, triceps, back width, back thickness Wednesday - Biceps, forearms, calves, hamstrings, quads Friday – Repeat of Monday’s workout

Monday – Repeat of Wednesday’s workout

The workout for the first week would look like this, modified for 5/3/1.

Workout One

Bench Press - 65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5+ (all out set, rest pause) Press - 65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5+ (all out set, rest pause) Close Grip Bench Press – 50%x5, 60% x rest pause

Pull-ups – one warm-up set, then rest pause

Deadlift - 65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5+, 65% x as many reps as possible (no rest pause performed on this lift)

Workout Two

Straight Bar Curls - 50%x5, 60% x rest pause

Reverse Grip Bar Curls - 50%x5, 60% x rest pause

Squat - 65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5+, 65% x as many reps as possible (no rest pause performed on this lift)

Straight Leg Deadlift – 50%x5 (if needed), one all out set at 60% (no rest pause) The problem with the above template is that we are training 3 of the 4 main lifts in the first session. You can certainly try this if you’d like but there are a few other ways we can tweak the 5/3/1 program and this style of training. We will keep the Workout One/Workout Two style for the first template.

Monday

Squat - 65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5+, 65% x as

many reps as possible (no rest pause

Press - 65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5+ (all out set,

performed on this lift)

rest pause)

Close Grip Bench Press - 50%x5, 60% x

Deadlift - 65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5+, 65% x

rest pause

as many reps as possible (no rest pause

performed on this lift)

Chin-ups (palms supinated) – one warm-up

set, one rest pause set

Chin-ups (palms forward) – one warm-up

set, one rest pause set

Reverse Grip Bar Curls - 50%x5, 60% x rest

pause

Straight Bar Curls - 50%x5, 60% x rest

pause

Friday

Straight Leg Deadlift - 50%x5, 60% x rest

Press - 70%x3, 80%x3, 90%x3+ (all out set,

pause

rest pause)

Wednesday

Deadlift - 70%x3, 80%x3, 90%x3+, 70% x

as many reps as possible (no rest pause

Bench Press - 65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5+ (all

performed on this lift)

out set, rest pause)

Chin-ups (palms forward) – one warm-up

Straight Bar Curls - 65%x5, 80% x rest

set, one rest pause set

pause

Straight Bar Curls - 50%x5, 70% x rest

Straight Leg Deadlift - 65%x5, 80% x rest

pause

pause

Straight Leg Deadlift - 50%x5, 70% x rest

Friday

pause

Bench Press - 75%x5, 85%x3, 95%x1+ (all

Monday

out set, NO rest pause. 75% x rest pause)

Bench Press - 70%x3, 80%x3, 90%x3+ (all

Squat - 75%x5, 85%x3, 95%x1+, 75% x as

out set, rest pause)

many reps as possible (no rest pause

performed on this lift)

Squat 70%x3, 80%x3, 90%x3+, 70% x as

many reps as possible (no rest pause

Close Grip Bench Press - 65%x5, 80% x

performed on this lift)

rest pause

Close Grip Bench Press - 50%x5, 70% x

Chin-ups (palms supinated) – one warm-up

rest pause

set, one rest pause set

Chin-ups (palms supinated) – one warm-up

Reverse Grip Bar Curls - 65%x5, 80% x rest

set, one rest pause set

pause

Reverse Grip Bar Curls - 50%x5, 70% x rest

Monday

pause

Press - 75%x5, 85%x3, 95%x1+ (all out set,

Wednesday

NO rest pause. 75% x rest pause)

Press - 75%x5, 85%x3, 95%x1+ (all out set,

Deadlift - 75%x5, 85%x3, 95%x1+, 75% x

NO rest pause. 75% x rest pause)

as many reps as possible (no rest pause

performed on this lift)

Deadlift - 75%x5, 85%x3, 95%x1+, 75% x

as many reps as possible (no rest pause