The 5/3/1 Training Max: What It Is and How to Calculate Yours

What is the Training Max?

The Training Max is the number every 5/3/1 percentage is calculated from, and it is deliberately not your real max: Jim Wendler sets it at 90% of your true or estimated 1RM. This is the single most misunderstood part of the program. Lifters plug their gym-PR into the spreadsheet, wonder why week 3 buries them, and conclude 5/3/1 is too hard - when the program was never meant to run off the 1RM at all.

Why 90%? The logic of starting submaximal

The 10% buffer is the engine of the program. Because the top sets are calculated from a submaximal number, you can add reps to the AMRAP sets week after week and add weight to the TM cycle after cycle without grinding. Wendler's reasoning: strength is built over years, and a program you can progress on for 12 months beats one that feels heavy for 6 weeks and stalls. Bar speed stays crisp, technique holds under fatigue, and the PRs come from beating rep records, not from testing maxes.

Getting a 1RM: tested or estimated

You do not need to test a true max to start 5/3/1. Two options:

• Tested 1RM: use a recent, clean single - not a ground-out PR from six months ago.
• Estimated 1RM: take any hard set of 2-10 reps and apply the Epley variant Wendler uses: weight x reps x 0.0333 + weight. Example: 80 kg x 8 reps = 80 x 8 x 0.0333 + 80 = about 101 kg estimated 1RM (in lbs: 175 x 8 x 0.0333 + 175 = about 222 lbs).

The estimate is usually the better choice - it reflects what you can actually do for reps, which is what 5/3/1 trains. Hardy's free 1RM calculator does this math for you, and the training max guide walks through the whole calculation step by step.

Worked example: 100 kg (220 lbs) bench press

Notice the week 3 top set is 85.5 kg (190 lbs) - a weight a 100 kg (220 lbs) bencher can press for 3-5 reps. That is the design working: the "1+" set should produce multiple reps, not a max-effort single.

Picking first-cycle weights: start too light

Wendler's advice for your first cycle is blunt: start too light. If you are torn between two Training Maxes, take the lower one; some lifters even start at 85% of 1RM instead of 90%. A light first cycle costs you nothing - the AMRAP sets let you express whatever strength you have anyway - while a heavy first cycle costs you the next three months of clean progression. You will pass your old numbers within two or three cycles either way.

How the TM moves: increments and resets

After each 4-week cycle, add 2.5 kg (5 lbs) to your press and bench TMs and 5 kg (10 lbs) to your squat and deadlift TMs. That is the whole progression model - small, almost insultingly patient increments that compound into big totals over a year of progressive overload. When a lift stalls - repeated missed reps or grinding AMRAP sets - reset that lift's TM to 90% of its current value (or recalculate it from a recent AMRAP estimated 1RM) and rebuild. Stalling and resets are covered in depth in 5/3/1 common mistakes.