Wendler 531 6 month review

Thi is a short summary of where I am at after being 6 months an the 531 workout. So far progression is positive, but first cracks start to show which have to be monitored and, if persistent, countermeasures will have to be taken.

Starting out

I started the program on a 120kg bench press, 120kg Squat and 170kg deadlift. I am 185cm tall and weigh usually somehwere between 82 - 89kg depending on the season. My squat depth was not satisfying when I started and I just came out of having busirtis in my elbow due to being on Stronglifts 5x5 for a year.

Current progression

So far I have progressed to a 150kg squat, 140kg bench press and 190kg Deadlift and I am happy with this progression. You can see the full development on my youtube channel Marathon Crossfit if you are interested in the details.

The switch up

Two months ago I decided to go a bit faster on the program. I started with four session a week with squat, bench press, deadlift and overhead press a day each. Then I adjusted to doing squat / bench on one day and deadlift / overhead press on the other day. This left me with a couple of free days in the week where I decided to focus on band and chain work to develop more explosive movement patterns taking a leaf out of the westside barbell method.

First Cracks

After speeding the program up and the holiday season I am seeing the first cracks in my progression. I try to avoid a reset, but it looks like the time has come. The absolute tell was a 167kg deadlift which I aimed to do for a as many repetitions as possible set in the range of 4 - 7 and only manged to pull once. Same for the bench press where I faiöled a repetition on a 124kg bench press which I was not supposed to fail.

I will observe the developments after the holiday season but if this continues to happen for the next cycle, I will readjust.

Nutrition

My nutrition while on 5/3/1 is fairly simple and I do not overcomplicate it. Whey Shake in the morning and in the evening, Creatine before and after the workout itself. In addition I eat eggs, avocados, rice and meat. I strive to have 6 meals a day, three snacks (apples bananas and the likes) and three mains (breakfast, lunch, dinner).

What's next

I am keeping this post fairly short, as I want to do a proper review of the program when I did for a year. Hopefully I will have progressed to a 200kg back squat by then, which would be pretty sweet.

Conclusion

It is a good program with a lot of moving parts. Be careful with speeding up your progression as I did, as this is undermining the basic Jim Wendler 5/3/1 template and therefore I might have shot myself in the foot regarding my progression. We will see what comes of it.