Five Years of 5/3/1

It’s now five years since I started training using Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 lifting protocol for my workouts. My writing on the subject is some of the most read lifting content on the internet. But recently one reader asked me this:

Are you still lifting/using 5/3/1. Did you gain strength or size. A follow-up would be cool. Love your site.

Dave

So I decided it was time to look back on five years of training with ‘The Simplest and Most Effective Training System to Increase Raw Strength’.

Six Years of Jim Wendler 5/3/1 – Does it Work?

A little over five years ago, I was done. And I mean finished. I had completely burned out working like a dog, training like a machine while not getting enough sleep or eating properly.

I hit a wall and fell hard. I was crushed under a wave of exhaustion, unable to eat, work or walk about. When my little girl was born, I was took weak to stand. Recovery came slowly. And then, a change.

Before, my training had consisted of balls to the wall, high weight, high volume six days a week. I’d bought into the ‘there’s no such thing as overtraining’ philosophy and was in the process of damaging myself. I knew I had to change.

That change for me was doing 5/3/1, three times a week. It worked. I gained strength, lost fat and felt incredible.

But that was then, what about now – five years down the line.

5/3/1 – Five Years Later

Five years later I’m where I started – training 5/3/1 in a no-frills gym in downtown Perth, Scotland. I still use the spreadsheet that I developed for this article. Now, with a bigger family, more demanding job and less recovery time than I’d like, I’m working on the ‘2 days a week programme’ which sounds easy but isn’t (think 4 days of 5/3/1 crammed into 1).

I do my lifts and leave. That’s the beauty of 5/3/1 – you have your lifts written down, you do them and you get out. That’s why it’s perfect for Dads – no messing around, no constant revision – just lift and leave.

That’s not to say my training has been linear. When my wife had our third child, training took a back seat for a few months. And now training can get pushed aside for an early start for work – or a hunt…

But in 250 weeks or so since I’ve started this training, you’d be hard pushed to find 20 weeks that I didn’t go to the gym at least once, lift some heavy stuff and leave.

Why Strength Training and Not Something Else?

Want to do Crossfit? Cool. MMA or other martial arts? Also fine. But you will get injured. When I trained in Muay Thai, I probably had an injury that stopped me training on average one week out of four.

Now, looking back, I think (though I can’t quite remember) of one (yes, one!) injury I had doing 5/3/1 when I pulled my back a bit. And that’s it. Five years of training with no injury.

When most people think about strength training, they think about big powerlifters, ripped muscles and ‘roids. But that’s not my experience.

Back then though I wanted to get big. Like really big. But the training killed me. That all changed when I saw a YouTube video of Powerlifter Dan ‘Boss’ Green training. His physique was incredible.

I thought to myself:

I’ve tried getting ‘big’. Why don’t I focus on getting really strong and see what happens.

The result was (of course) that I did get bigger. And leaner and faster. Strength training is where it’s at homies.

What Now for My Gym Training

You know what I love? Being in the gym, lifting the big weights and then leaving. I do that a couple of times a week, eat reasonably healthy and live an active lifestyle. I’ll do that from now right up until old age.

Lifting is good for you, prolongs life and helps sex drive (science has proven all this). Keep your functional fitness and your unbelievable complex workout programmes.

I’ll be in the corner, headphones on, hood up, doing my core lifts like I had done for the last five years.

Much Love

Neil

P.S. I used to write loads about fitness but now it’s more about gardening and sustainable living. My new book on that is out soon.