Workout of the Week #57

Welcome to Workout of the Week, number 57. This time we are on the second modified 5/3/1 workout: a five-day modified 5/3/1 workout.

So what’s the training goal? It’s to build strength.

The training variables: We have 80% to 95% of the one-rep max for the main lifts, 70% to 90% of the one-rep max for the assistance lifts, and 65% to 80% of the one-rep max for the accessories.

The rep ranges: 1 to 5 for the main lifts, 2 to 6 for the assistance lifts, and 4 to 10 for the accessories.

Before you shout that I don’t know what the original 5/3/1 is, please go back and watch the intro series. This is not to regurgitate the 5/3/1—it’s a modified one. Yeah. And I’m not saying it’s better than the original one. This is how I would do it if someone would ask me to modify it.

Exertion: moderate to near maximum. Training effort: maximum and repeated effort.

If we look at the exercises, it’s centered around the main exercises: the squat, the deadlift, the bench press, and the overhead press. Then there are push assistance exercises, then there are pull assistance exercises, and single-leg and core assistance exercises. Again, go back to the intro video. There I explained it a bit more in detail. The exercises are ordered from heavy compound to lighter assistance exercises.

Training variables: The frequency now—five days a week. It’s a station training, including some complexes. The training split is an exercise split but does include some full body elements.

So how does it look? Here is our program, and we’ll jump into it.

Here we are inside our five-day modified 5/3/1 workout. So you download that PDF, you get an overview of what it is about, you get a table of contents. And then you have the weekly structure of this modified 5/3/1. So you do Workout Number One—the squat, around the squat. Workout Number Two—around the bench. One day of rest. And then Workout Number Three—the deadlift. Workout Number Four—the pressing. And Workout Number Five—accessories.

Yeah, so the idea between—or the idea of having Workout One, Workout Two, rest, and then three workouts—is just to have two days between the squatting and the deadlifting, because at times for most people it can be a bit taxing on the lower back.

So let’s have a look at Workout Number One: the squat. Yeah, so we do front squat as the main exercise. Yeah, so a bit of a modification here. It should be the back squat, but the main exercise is the front squat. Then the second exercise is the back squat. And then we do as an accessory the leg curls.

Why do we do the front squat as the first exercise? Well, for the simple reason that for the second exercise, repetitions are a bit higher. The front squat is not the best exercise to do higher repetitions. Yeah, because it gets difficult to hold, difficult to breathe, once you have the bar on your front delts. So some people say the rule of thumb is never to do more than five reps in the front squat. Whether that is true or not, I don’t know, but give or take one repetition, we are probably very close to where you should be with your front squatting. Yeah, I tend to have it even a bit lower than that. So anyway, long talk.

Three sets of five repetitions at 80% for the front squat, three sets of six repetitions at 75% for the back squat, and then three sets of eight at 70% for the leg curls.

If we go to Workout Number Two: the bench. We do bench press as a standalone, and then we have a complex of the dumbbell incline bench press and the face pull. So you can see now, in this structure the way I’ve set it up, is that we have antagonistic complexes. Yeah, you saw we have—the third exercise is an antagonistic exercise. So for the squat, you could see the squat mainly being for the anterior chain, and then the leg curl being for the posterior chain. So here we have pressing movements, and the third exercise is a pulling movement.

Again, we have our three sets of five at 80% for the main exercise, and then three sets of six at 75% for the dumbbell incline bench press, and three sets of 10 at 65% for the face pulls.

If we go to Workout Number Three: the deadlift, centered around the deadlift. So what we do is we do deadlifts, and then at the second exercise we do deficit deadlifts, and then we do the GHD. So GHD—glute-ham developer. So here I deviated a little bit from what I just explained, that it’s an antagonistic exercise. Anyway.

Important here: for the deficit deadlift, ideally you have a max or a predicted max. If you don’t have it, you take 75% of your regular deadlift. Obviously depends a little bit how high the deficit is. Let’s assume you stand on a 25-kilo plate—then take 75% of your normal deadlift.

So three sets of five at 80% for the deadlift, three sets of six at 75% for the deficit deadlift, and then for the glute-ham developer, three sets of eight with body weight.

If we go to Workout Number Four: the pressing workout. So here we have the shoulder press, followed by the dumbbell shoulder press and the lat pulldowns with the pronated grip. Again, I said pronated—palms facing away from you. Palms facing towards you is a supinated grip.

And then here we have our three sets of five for the main exercise, three sets of six at 75% for the assistance exercise, and three sets of 10 at 65% for the lat pulldowns.

And then we go to the accessories. Remember, there is a list of accessory exercises, assistance exercises, and this is what I’ve done here. Yeah, so you have 1A-1B, 2A-2B. So the idea is 1A is a single-leg squat variation, 2A is for the posterior chain and a deadlifting variation. Yeah. And then the single-leg variation is complexed with a pull, and the RDL—the hinging movement—is complexed with a push.

So split squats: three sets of six at 75%. And then the pull-up is three sets of eight at 70%. Then we go to our RDL and dips. So RDL: three sets of six at 75%. And the dips: three sets of eight at 70%.

And this concludes the program. Download the PDF. You get a glossary explaining the terms. You can read about myself. You can see what my former athletes have to say about me, my colleagues, my mentees. And last but certainly not least, you can subscribe to the membership. In a minute, I’ll explain to you what the membership is.

Let’s move back and finish it. So now we are back. What are the next steps?

You download this workout PDF. Then you join the membership. What’s the membership? Inside the membership, you get the four-week periodized program. Yeah, so this is the first week of a four-week program. Considering we are at week 57, there are another 56 workouts based on becoming stronger, becoming more explosive, building muscle mass, strength endurance—all these kinds of things. Two days, three days, up to six days a week. So join.

And you like and subscribe. You can grab all workouts here—all free workouts. You can watch the previous workout here, and if you haven’t already, subscribe.

I’ll see you next week with the third modified 5/3/1 workout.