I am absolutely obsessed with Jim Wendler’s 5-3-1 program (2); I think it is a work of genius. The best part of it is the creativity it allows me as a coach/lifter to have. The rep range is perfect; I do not know of an athlete that doesn’t need to get better at 5s, 3s, and most importantly 1s. It is a great method for training; the problem is that I do not have athletes that are capable of performing this.

Here is my predicament: I work in a Division 1 setting with full scholarship athletes. I see them primarily most of the year, exception being holidays and intersession between semesters. All in all it works out to be 40-45 weeks every year. To break this down even further most of the year we are in either post season, pre season, and in season. I really only have an 8-10 week block of hard training. As much as I would like to say I have a good lifters, this is not enough time to say I can develop elite lifters.

Yes there are always exceptions; the kids that are absolutely obsessed with the weight room. These are the kids that motivate me to take the time to sit and think of stuff like this. However, for everyone one of those kids there are ten that think the exact opposite. They all want to be great at their sport, but lifting weights is not something they exist for.

So this creates the dilemma. There are these great lifting schemas out there that I would absolutely love to incorporate, but I do not think 90% of my athletes are ready physically and mentally for this level of advanced programming. So this creates the need for certain modification, to accommodate my athletes.

Relative Intensity:

For those who have not heard of relative intensity the concept is simple; essentially it is an intensity chart to modify your work outs so you do not work up to a true max every time lifting. A true rep/max chart would bring you to the amount of max repetitions you could hit based on the percentage. According to this chart your max reps you can hit at 73% is 10.

The problem with going with this chart verbatim is that you will be working up to a 100% relative intensity every time you train. This doesn’t account for unloads or different progressions you may want to utilize. If you do choose to unload, it becomes an arbitrary selection based on how the coach or practitioner feels at that moment.

This therefore created the need for a way to manipulate percentages for certain reps in a sound and organized manner.

The Program:

The movements I max my athletes on are Clean, Squat, Bench, and Chin Up. These are the movements that I work up to a true single on with all my athletes. I stick with these movements majority of the year (pre season and in season I utilize Hang Clean and Front Squat).

I love the idea of exercise rotation just not with my athletes. They still need so much work on just learning the intricacies of the above mentioned movements that I think it would best serve them to stick with one movement at a time. So that leaves us with only th movements we plan on maxing out on.

How do we incorporate the 5-3-1 program over an 11 week training cycle with out maxing every time: the utilization of relative intensity. This will allow me to progress each phase to a 5RM, 3RM, and finally a 1RM. It will give all the much added benefit of getting better at those reps, but still progressing in an appropriate manner.

Loading Scheme For: Clean, Back Squat, Bench, Chin Up:

Phase 1:

• Week 1 (82% Relative Intensity): 5/61, 5/64, 5/67, 5/70
• Week 2 (91 % Relative Intensity): 5/70, 5/73, 5/76, 5/79
• Week 3 (100% Relative Intensity): 5/79, 5/82, 5/85, Rep Max/88
• Week 4 (70% Relative Intensity): 5/52, 5/55, 5/58

Phase 2:

• Week 5 (82% Relative Intensity): 3/64, 3/67, 3/70, 3/73, 3/76
• Week 6 (91 % Relative Intensity): 3/73, 3/76, 3/79, 3/82, 3/85
• Week 7 (100% Relative Intensity): 3/82, 3/85, 3/88, 3/91, Rep Max/94
• Week 8 (70% Relative Intensity): 5/52, 5/55, 5/58

Phase 3:

• Week 9 (82% Relative Intensity): 1/67, 1/70, 1/73, 1/76, 1/79, 1/82
• Week 10 (91 % Relative Intensity): 1/76, 1/79, 1/82, 1/85, 1/88, 1/91
• Week 11 (100% Relative Intensity): 1/88, 1/91, 1/94, 1/97, 1/100, Max

As you can see every three weeks we progress up to a performance week. The end of the first phase we are looking to hit a 5RM, if the athlete blows it up for 6 reps+ I bump their max up for Phase 2. If the athlete tanks it (probably will see this on the second and third set) then I lower the max and hope they will respond better to threes in Phase 2.

If you really look at it, I guess it looks similar to Bill Starr and his 5 by 5 program. The major difference being that it uses relative intensity as a means of dictating weight selection over the athlete’s natural ability to progressively overload.

The final phase is where we want to hit a 1RM, by this time my athletes have conditioned themselves to the idea of a performance week. It is not a shock to their psyche on the idea of performance, in this case a 1RM. Hopefully by week 11 they took the time to acclimate themselves on hitting a 1RM, as we all know is a skill in itself.

Three Day Work Out Split: Sample Off Season Work Out (Summer Basketball):

Worked off 5-Day Split; Conditioning Work Outs Done Between Lift Days

Day 1:

Warm Up:

• Foam Roll
• Ankle Mobility, Hip Mobility, T-Spine Mobility
• Dynamic Warm Up
• Movement Prep (P1-Iso Lateral Squat, P2-Tempo Lateral Lunge, P3-Lateral Plyometric)
• Lateral Speed Work

Work Out:

• 1a- Hang Clean
• 2a- Back Squat — Usage of 5,3,1 Programming
• 2b- Chin Up — Usage of 5,3,1 Programming
• 3a- Horizontal Single Leg Lower Body Push
  • (P1-DB Split Squat, P2-DB Reverse Lunge, P3-DB Forward Lunge)
• 3b-DB Horizontal Upper Body Push
  • (P1-DB 2 Arm Incline, P2-DB Alt. Incline Bench: Single/Single/Double, P3-DB SA Incline Bench)
• 3c-Bent Leg Lower Body Pull
  • (P1-PB Leg Curl, P2-Glute Ham, P3-Partner Glute Ham)

Day 2:

Warm Up:

• Foam Roll
• Ankle Mobility, Hip Mobility, T-Spine Mobility
• Dynamic Warm Up
• Movement Prep (P1-Iso Split Squat, P2-Tempo Split Squat, P3-Linear Plyometric)
• Linear Speed Work

Work Out:

• 1a- Hang Snatch
• 2a- Power Clean — Usage of 5,3,1 Programming
• 3a- Horizontal Upper Body Pull
  • (P1-DB Scap + Row, P2-DB Staggered Stance Row, P3-DB Neutral Stance Rotational Row)
• 3b- Vertical Single Leg Lower Body Push
  • (P1-BW Lateral Step Up Bottom Toe Up), P2-DB Step Up, P3-BB Step Up)
• 4a-DB Vertical Upper Body Push
  • (P1-DB Shoulder Press, P2-DB Alt. Shoulder Press: Single/Single/Double, P3- DB SA Shoulder Press)
• 4b-Straight Leg Pull
  • (P1-Hyper, P2-DB RDL, P3-BB RDL).

Day 3:

Warm Up:

• Foam Roll
• Ankle Mobility, Hip Mobility, T-Spine Mobility
• Dynamic Warm Up
• MB Throw Series (P1-Kneeling, P2-Athletic Stance, P3-Pivot)
• Footwork/Change of Direction Work

Work Out:

• 1a- DB Explosive
  • (P1-DB Jerk, P2-DB Snatch, P3-DB Split Jerk)
• 2a- Bench — Usage of 5,3,1 Programming
• 2b- Glute Training
  • (P1-Cook Hip Lift, P2-Isometric Valgus/Varus Stress Glute Bridged, P3-Band Pull Through)
• 3a- Vertical Upper Body Pull
  • (P1- Lat Pull Down, P2-Neutral Grip Pull Up, P3-Pull Up)
• 3b-Closed Chain Single Leg Lower Body Push
  • (P1-Negative SL Squat, P2-Pitcher Squat, P3-SL Squat)
• 3c-Shoulder Series
  • (P1-Rear Delt Raises, P2-Big 30 — 10 Front/10 Side/10 Rear Delt Raises, P3-Big 50 — 10 Front/10 Side/ 10 Rear/ 10 Upright Row/ 10 Curl to Press)

Results:

I follow a four year progression with my athletes, in which each year they progress to a greater level of training then the previous year. I try to make planning as simple as possible by not changing the exercises, but changing the loading schemes I use with them for my testing movements (Clean, Squat, Bench, Chin Up).

This is the program I use with my most advanced athletes (Elite). So for them they have at least three years of resistance training in a collegiate setting. I found these loading parameters to be very successful by allowing my athletes to acclimate better to the performance oriented training; by means of the 5, 3, and 1 Rep Maxes. On another note they seemed to respond well mentally by looking at each phase as building up to a challenge and as another area to compete with their teammates.

I use this program with four of my women’s basketball players and the numbers results came out to an average of:

• Squat: 218 in 2008 to 230 in 2009
• Clean: 138 in 2008 to 148 in 2009
• Bench: 126 in 2008 to 131 in 2009
• Chin Up: 3 out of 4 couldn’t do a chin up in 2008, to all of them performing at least 2 *One that could perform a chin up went from adding 25 to adding 60lbs for a single on chin up.

I was afraid of plateau mentally as well as physically in their final off-season and I found that this did not occur this past off season. In previous years the athletes did not seem to be physically ready to hit a single rep on the above mentioned movements. I found this was not the case after using this rep scheme. Now this could be assessed two ways: one being the program made the difference or two being my athletes have matured physically in their training and were better able to perform. I personally believe both had a huge effect on their training.

Final Notes:

The relative intensity progression chose here is one that I find works best for my athletes. I work this in with primarily basketball players which are primarily explosive athletes. To further elaborate they are Type IIb muscle type athletes. They perform tremendous feats of strength and power, but subsequently need more rest. Charlie Francis and Charles Poloquin discuss this topic about the need for greater recovery for these kinds of athletes, and I couldn’t agree more.

I have tried to come back and hit 90% Relative intensity following performance weeks, and it was needless to say a wasted week of training. I would rather undershoot than over shoot with them, because the caution for error is so much higher. One being they are elite athletes that if injured or not performing well on the court, I potentially loose my job. Two being the training time is so limited, I cannot afford to take a chance and push these athletes past what they can handle.

I encourage you to take chances in your training and experiment with higher or lower percentages. You might find that you respond much better to staying above 90% Relative Intensity all of the time, or it could be the exact opposite. That is your job as a coach or practitioner to find these things.

References:

1. Rogers R. Relatively Speaking. Taken From http://sbcoachescollege.com/articles/RelativelySpeaking.html. SB Coaches College LLC 2004.

2. Wendler J. 531: The Simplest and Most Effective Training System for Raw Strength. Jim Wendler 2009: 8-16.