The Origin of 5/3/1
By
Jim Wendler
[This is an excerpt from the book
The 5-3-1: The Simplest and Most Effective Training System for Raw Strength
In the summer of 2005, I was burned out from competitive powerlifting. I was
tired of bench shirts, box squats, bands and being fat. Two years earlier, I’d
written down three goals I wanted to accomplish. In my last meet, I’d done all
three. Satisfied with reaching my goals, and dissatisfied with how I felt, I
needed a change – but I didn’t know exactly what I wanted or how I was going to
get there.
My first order of business was losing weight. I was about 280 pounds, and I
wanted to be able to tie my shoes without turning red. I wanted to be able to
walk down the street without losing my breath. Like many people, I played
football in high school and college. I was in shape then, and could do just
about anything. Fast forward five years, and I was at the bottom of the food
chain. That feeling of being a fat-ass was awful. I was exactly what I despised.
I remember once watching a young woman walk for exercise when I was in
college. She wasn’t overweight, and she didn’t look like she was suffering from
any kind of physical ailment. I was mystified as to why this seemingly fit woman
was simply walking. Why wasn’t she running? Why wasn’t she running with a
sled? Why wasn’t she pushing a car, or pushing an SUV up and down the
street?
Walking?
I remember thinking to myself that if I ever reached a point in my life where
I had to walk to get exercise, it might be time to clean out my ears with a gun.
Fortunately, I didn’t follow through with my plans. The point, however, is
this: I was fat and out of shape. And even though I’d recently squatted
1000 pounds, I really wasn’t strong. I couldn’t move, and I couldn’t use this
strength for anything other than waddling up to a monolift and squatting.
A few months later, I’d managed to lose about 25 pounds. Simply walking and
not eating as much helped me out immensely. I was able to move again. I could
run, sprint, jog, jump rope or do just about anything.
But damn was I weak.
I knew where I wanted to go. I simply wanted to deadlift and squat over 600
pounds again, and I wanted to bench press 405. That was it. And I wanted to do
it without the aid of powerlifting gear like bench shirts and squat suits. I
also wanted an easy plan to get there. I didn’t want to have to do a million
different exercises. The bench press, parallel squat, deadlift and standing
press have always been staples of any strong person’s repertoire, so I knew what
exercises I wanted to do.
I needed a plan for all of this. I needed something very simple, and I didn’t
want to have to think about it. I had recently become a father, and my
priorities had changed. I still wanted to be strong, but I didn’t want to have
to spend all my time thinking about it. I wanted to go in the weight room, have
my work planned for me, and get out. No bullshit, no problem.
I’d started playing around with the concept of 5/3/1 months earlier, so I
knew I was on to something, but I wasn’t sure how it would work. Because my
bench, squat and deadlift goals were so straightforward, I gave myself 12 months
to accomplish them. I worked backward from these numbers and ended up with
beginning weights that were really light. I mean ridiculously light.
I had a plan, though, and I followed through. I figured once I finished each
month of training, I’d be ready to move on to the next – and the next, and the
next, until I finally reached my goal. Of course, this was wishful thinking – it
doesn’t always work like this – but I needed a simple plan, and this was the
best one I could come up with. Or the simplest, at least.
Sometimes, however, the simplest is the best. In my case, this proved to be
true. I was breezing through my workouts, putting on some muscle, and having fun
again. I began pushing my last set for as many reps as I could, setting personal
records in the process.
Training was fun again. Gone were the three hour marathons of bench shirt
training and sweating my ass off wearing tight polyester gear. I was in and out
of the weight room in 30-45 minutes, and I was still getting stronger. After
about three months of training, I got a wild hair up my ass and tried to pull a
max deadlift. After my sets were over, I loaded up the bar and pulled for 3 reps
what I thought I might be able to pull once. 610 x 3.
Now, this isn’t any kind of world – or even personal – record, but it was
really, really good for me at the time, especially when you consider the fact
that I was used to wearing a deadlift suit and briefs and had lost so much
weight. Plus, the deadlift was always my worst lift. I can blame this on any
number of things, but the bottom line is that I just wasn’t strong. Now, with
this program, I could feel myself inching toward “strong” without having to be a
blob of disgusting lard.
I began playing more and more with this program. I switched things up,
experimented on friends and training partners and read some old books on
training, and this is what I came up with. Hell, it may change even more with
time, but the basics will always remain the same.
Jim Wendler is the author of
5/3/1: The Simplest and Most Efficient Training System for Raw Strength.
He was a fullback at the University of Arizona, earning 3 letters and the
admiration of his mother, who was his only fan. Not good enough to play in the
NFL, Jim turned his sights to the world of powerlifting and squatted 1000,
benched 675 and deadlifted 700, with a 2375 all-time best total. He has since
removed the large build up of muck from his arteries and tries really hard to
reclaim his youth and vigor. You can find his articles and ask him a question
at www.elitefts.com.
