Back in February, we introduced a select few of you to Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 training scheme and other members have hopped on board along the way. What seems easy at first gets progressively tougher, but I do occasionally get people who lament the back off week or don’t feel very challenged with the work. The question then is how do you know if you’re doing training hard enough?

In Wendler’s newest release, 5/3/1 for Powerlifting, he addresses the back off week with a different option. If you want to push yourself a little bit more, you can take your weights from the first week of your current cycle (65%, 75%, 85%) and do them for 3 reps each. Note that there is not a 3+ set, but these working weights will be a little heavier and some of you may prefer this route. Also take care that you don’t jump the gun and change your working 1RM for these. You should still be working off the same working 1RM that you started the cycle with.

Speaking of the plus sets (5+, 3+ or 1+), we initially tell you to “leave one to two reps in the tank”. But how do you know if you’re pushing hard enough? Believe it or not, it is possible to set goals for these sets and make your day a little more challenging. In 5/3/1, Wendler calls these rep maxes and he gives a way to compare one to another. For example, you may be stumped how you can measure doing 160 for 3 reps in the press against doing 135 for 7 reps. Using the following equation, we can calculate an estimated 1RM allowing us to make a comparison:

Weight x Reps x 0.03333 + Weight = Estimated 1RM

Now of course there are tons of 1RM calculators out there on the internet, but Wendler gave this one in 5/3/1 and I have found the results of this equation to be amazingly accurate. Taking the example above, let’s see what the 1RM would be for 3 x 160:

160 x 3 x 0.03333 + 160 = 175.9984

Comparing that to 7 x 135,

135 x 7 x 0.03333 + 135 = 166.49685

we see which was a harder effort (hint: higher estimated 1RM is better). With this info in hand, we can then calculate how many reps we need to get on our next effort to beat our last time under the bar.

Now if you calculate your numbers and see you have been doing less than your actual 1RM, it’s time to step it up! Likewise, make use of this and set mini-goals for each day to ensure you’re pushing yourself as hard as you should be. These ought to be reps in good form, so see my previous post if you have ANY question on what that means. If you are consistently able to get over 10 reps for your plus sets on a particular lift, let your trainers know — you likely need to have your working 1RM numbers tweaked to ensure you’re being sufficiently challenged.

All this said, some days you’re not going to be feeling 100% and it’s perfectly fine to mail it in, doing just the bare minimum (5, 3 or 1 rep). Wendler emphasizes that it’s wise to pick your battles wisely and some days just get the work done without any extra. However, if you’re having those days more often than not, you may need to take a look at factors outside the gym — food, sleep and stress — that are holding you back.

WOD 06.21.11

Annie-ish

• 50 Double-unders
• 50 Situps
• 40 Double-unders
• 40 Kayaks
• 30 Double-unders
• 30 V-Ups
• 20 Double-unders
• 20 Toes-to-Bar
• 10 Double-unders
• 10 Ball Ups