Beyond 5/3/1: Simple Training for Extraordinary Results (16 page)

get sober for anyone else but themselves. When the addict commits to getting sober

for himself, the chance for recovery improves greatly.

I’m not telling you to ignore your family or your job. Far from that. When you

commit to a

goal, do it for yourself. Whether it is a lifting goal, a goal of writing a book or

painting a self-portrait, do it because the fire inside you MUST be quenched.

The desire to succeed cannot be for any other reason but an all out selfish

pursuit of insanity.

Because you bought this book, you are already ahead of the pack. Not from the act

of buying it but because you are probably familiar with my writing and my

programming. There are no casual fitness people that know me, other than

relatives. I’m not going to be on a talk show or do a guest spot on NBC. So we

both know you are pretty damn serious about training.

What I’m asking of you is to complete these challenges with desire and single-

mindedness. Make a pact to have no excuses. You miss a day? Suck it up and

train two days in a row. You are sore? Get in line. No sleep? Try going through

Hell Week as a Navy SEAL. Can’t eat? Force yourself. I’m sick of the laundry lists

of “can’t” in the questions that I get. It’s

like I’m a full-time therapist for the weak and pathetic.

I thought my childhood was easy. Middle class and married parents. We lived in a

good neighborhood and I was never hungry. Then I look around and read some of

the questions I get and realize that half of the people wouldn’t have survived a day

with my father. Any self-pity or loathing or “woe is me” was not tolerated. My

dad is quiet but the inferno that brewed under that exterior would have sent half of

America crying to their mothers. Unfortunately, my mother would just say, “Quit

being a pussy and stop crying.”

I am 100% convinced that some people are just more competitive than others. Some

are born more pitbull than poodle. But even the poodles and lap dogs can be

groomed to fight. If you find yourself in the poodle category, I also believe

that you can train yourself to be a harder individual. Tougher to kill.

Tougher to beat. And this training, these challenges, should carry over to other things

in your life. You won’t be a doormat anymore. Women won’t walk all over you and

your boss won’t take you as a chump. This is how you train yourself to be better –

to be (as Henry Rollins said), Part Animal, Part Machine.

Good luck. You might fail, but you might succeed. Let your cock out and let it

swing.

The Challenges

The challenges below will test your strength, conditioning and pain threshold.

The Prowler

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challenge sucks - you will be in phenomenal shape but you will hate every

minute of it. The Boring But Big Challenge starts off easy but once that third

cycle comes around you will struggle. All of these challenges offer something

unique.

Here are the challenges:

• Boring But Big (Hypertrophy) Challenge

• Strength Challenge

• Prowler Challenge

• Rest Pause Challenge

• 100 Rep Challenge

All of these have performance goals. This will give you tangible, real-life proof of

reaching

your goals.

Boring But Big 3 Month Challenge

Performance Goal: perform 5 sets of 10 reps at 70% on each of the lifts for the

final

cycle.

Since I released the first edition o
f 5/3/1: The Simplest and Most Effective Training

System for Building Raw Strength
in 2009, I have been asked numerous questions

about assistance work. The most popular, effective and brutal accessory plan is

something I coined Boring But Big. I came up with this idea in a Fudrucker’s in

Tucson, Arizona in 1998 or 1999. I was eating lunch with a friend of mine and I

wrote the idea down on a ketchup-smeared napkin.

The Boring But Big assistance program is simple. After completing the strength work

with the basic exercise (squat, press, bench press or deadlift), perform 5 sets of 10

reps with a lighter weight. This may not seem like a lot of work but believe me –

this will lead to new gains in strength, hypertrophy and soreness.

The problem that most people face with the Boring But Big program is determining

the correct weight size for the five sets. I have always recommended using

50% of your training max – and for the first cycle of the program that is exactly

the prescription.

However, the second and third months of the program will push the boundaries and

lead to some bigger and better gains. I was recently inspired by my good friend

Matt Kroczylewski’s workout . He pushed the boundaries of good taste by doing

5 sets of 20

reps in the squat with 415 pounds. One set of 20 reps at 415 is pretty

good. But 5 sets? Absolutely disgusting!

The problem with many hypertrophy-based programs is that they leave out the strength

component. You might get bigger as a result of the program, but if you don’t get

any

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stronger, you are still a chump. I don’t care how big you are, if you aren’t strong

you are a sham. That’s not even debatable. Having big muscles and no strength

is the same as wearing a strap-on. All show and no go.

The Big Lifts

The first part of the Boring But Big Challenge is that you will continue to perform the

squat, bench, press and deadlift with the 5/3/1 sets and reps. You will increase

the normal five pounds on the upper-body lifts and 10 pounds on the lower-body

lifts after each cycle; nothing changes with regards to the progression. Make sure you

begin this challenge with your training max set at 90% of your actual max. If you

have to reassess your training max, then do so. The one thing that you will change

is that you will NOT go for any extra reps on the last set. You will only do

the required reps and move on to the 5 sets of 10 reps. This will have the

following three results:

Because hypertrophy is the goal of the program, this will leave you fresher to perform

the 5

sets of 10 reps and eventually do these at a higher weight.

It will AT LEAST maintain your strength levels – you are still tapping into heavy

weights

that will keep your body used to them.

Many people will get stronger when they dial back the last set. You don’t always

have to push to failure to make gains – this is a belief held by novices and those

with limited knowledge.

The Assistance Lifts

The second part of the Boring But Big Challenge is the 5 sets of 10 reps. For

those who have done this and done it correctly know that this is nothing

to sneeze at (unless you are allergic to hard work and soreness). This is a

brutal way to put on some size provided you do it correctly. And by do it correctly, I

mean the following:

• The first month of the program: Perform the sets with 50% of your training

max.

• Second month: Perform the sets with 60% of your training max.

• Third month: Perform the sets with 70% of your training max.

After you perform your 5/3/1 squat workout, do your 5 sets of 10 reps with the

deadlift. Flip the other days as wel – (see workout example below). This will

keep things a little less boring.

You may have to do a few warm-up sets leading up to your 5x10 weight. This

is fine. Just

do 1-2 sets of 5 reps and then get to it. These warm-up sets do not count.

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Feel free to superset the assistance work. This will shorten the workout time and

keep you

from sitting on your ass between sets.

The assistance work after the assistance work (yeah, I know that is confusing) is

important but I wouldn’t keep track of it. It’s important that the upper-body work

be paired with a pulling movement (in this case, some kind of row or chin up

works best). I recommend changing your grip on chin-ups – pronated, supinated,

close, medium, wide, narrow, rope/towel. It is very important to get stronger in all

areas of tugging. Also, let’s keep kipping where it belongs: in the trash.

Though it’s been said a million times, if you can’t do 10 reps of a chin up, do lat

pulldowns instead. If you want to do another lat/upper back movement other

than rows or chins that is up to you. These two movements have proved superior

in developing your lats and upper back. For the lower body, I only recommend

doing some abdominal work as extra

assistance work. Your lower back, hamstrings, quads and glutes are getting the

beating of a

lifetime with this program. You don’t need any extra work. Stick with whatever

abdominal exercises you like that keep you motivated to do ab work. I know how

boring it can be so some variety might do you well. Also, if you can, take the belt

off for all your 5x10 sets.

You are welcome to do some extra biceps, triceps or upper back work on the upper

body

day. The exercises that I recommend are:

• EZ Bar Curls/DB Curls/Straight Bar Curls

• Triceps Pushdown

• Face Pulls/Rear Laterals

This is done after the main work is done. I only recommend doing a few sets of 1-3

exercises and none of this should be anything that really “matters.” It should be

effort-free. The older, experienced lifters know exactly what I’m talking about. These

are the guys that can do a curl with a 20-pound dumbbell and get more out of it

than a kid doing a 135-

pound barbell curl. There is an inverse relationship to what you do in the

beginning of the workout and the end – the guys pulling 600 pounds for reps

seem to trying less hard on the curls than the kid pulling 285 for his first double.

Something to think about.

Food

Now if you are going to embark on this quest for strength and mass (and who the

hell doesn’t want that?) you had better start eating like you want it. This is not a

time to be eating like a bird. This is not a time to be swept away by the newest

eating or diet claim. This is not a time to be scared by carbs or animal fats.

Now if you are afraid to eat, then please don’t do this program. This is not for

you and not for someone that is scared that

ONE NIGHT of eating big will make his skirt fit a bit tighter. So unless you are

willing to eat