5/3/1 I’m Not Doing Jack Shit

5/3/1 I'm Not Doing Jack Shit is Jim Wendler's stripped-down 5/3/1 template: one main lift per session, its three working sets, and nothing else. Four short sessions a week, a four-week cycle, and a training max that climbs after every cycle. Hardy calculates each set from your training max and stages the raise for you.

Wendler calls it his favourite of the assistance templates in the 5/3/1 book (page 50 of the second edition), "aptly named for those times when you only have time to hit the PR in your key lift and leave". His defence of it: "Sometimes, instead of what you do in the weight room, it's what you don't do that will lead to success."

When to run it

• No time: warm up, three sets, out, 20–30 minutes a session.
• In-season or on a brutal work schedule, when recovery goes to the sport or the job.
• As a quasi-deload between harder templates; a testimonial on Wendler's site ran Jack Shit for eight months, three of the cycles as two days a week, and went back to Boring But Big stronger.

It is not a forever template. One to three cycles, then add an assistance lift back.

Weekly structure

• Day 1: overhead press
• Day 2: deadlift
• Day 3: bench press
• Day 4: squat

Week 1 is 5 reps at 65 / 75 / 85 % of your training max, week 2 is 3 reps at 70 / 80 / 90 %, week 3 is 5 / 3 / 1 reps at 75 / 85 / 95 %, and week 4 is a deload at 40 / 50 / 60 % for 5 reps. The last set of each working week is an AMRAP, the deload sets are straight sets. Rest 3 minutes between sets. Warm up with the empty bar and two or three light sets first; they are not written into the routine.

Progression

Your training max is 90 % of your 1RM (why 90 %). After the deload week Hardy adds 2.5 kg (5 lb) to the press and bench training maxes and 5 kg (10 lb) to squat and deadlift, shown for review after the session. Miss a week-3 top set and that training max drops by 10 %. Chase rep records on the AMRAP sets: on this template the record, not the weight on the bar, is the progress marker.

Tips

• Two days a week: pair press with deadlift and bench with squat, or run 5/3/1 for MMA & Combat Sports, the two-day template with assistance already written in.
• When time comes back, 5/3/1 Triumvirate adds two assistance lifts per day and 5/3/1 Boring But Big adds 5×10 volume; 5/3/1 vs 5x5 covers who should be on 5/3/1 at all.
• For more, see Jim Wendler's website and buy his books.