Home / 5/3/1 Workout Generator

5/3/1 Workout Generator

Updated: 9/7/2026

Enter your training max for each lift and get the full four week cycle, 
working weights, warm ups and accessory work included.

Your training maxes

Not sure what to enter? Your training max is 90% of your true one rep max, not your true max itself. Work it out with our 1RM calculator, then take 90% of the result.

Advanced options
Bar and rounding
Which day will you train each lift?

You can also set or change these after your program is generated.

Your favourite accessory exercises

Leave any of these blank to use our default suggestions. Separate exercises with a comma.

Tap a suggestion to add or remove it, or type your own above.

Your 5/3/1 cycle

What is 5/3/1 & Why You Should Use it?

5/3/1 is a strength program built by Jim Wendler, a former competitive powerlifter, around four lifts: squat, bench press, deadlift and overhead press. Instead of chasing a new max every week, you work off a training max, a number set slightly below what you could really lift, and build up from there over a four week cycle.
 

Where it came from?

Wendler competed for years under the heaviest training styles powerlifting had to offer before deciding to strip things back to basics. His advice, repeated throughout his writing, is blunt:

 "Start too light" 

— Jim Wendler, 5/3/1: The Simplest and Most Effective Training System for Raw Strength

Most lifters who stall out haven't been slacking off. They've usually been grinding heavy singles and doubles for months without any real let-up, and their body hasn't had a chance to catch up. Working off a training max builds that break in automatically, without you having to consciously ease off yourself.

 

The weekly wave: 5s, 3s and then a single

Each week in the cycle has a different rep target. Week one works in sets of five, week two drops to three, and week three tops out at a single heavy set. The weight climbs as the reps fall, and every week finishes with a set where you push for as many reps as you can manage on top of the minimum, more on that below.

Why less variety works in your favour

What makes it different from a typical gym workout or general fitness plan is the lack of variety, deliberately. Most general programs rotate exercises often to keep things interesting or to hit muscles from different angles. 5/3/1 does the opposite: the same four lifts, the same rep scheme, cycle after cycle, with only the weight and your accessory work changing. That's the trade-off, less variety, but a much clearer picture of whether you're actually getting stronger, because you're comparing the same lift against itself every month rather than switching things up before you can tell if anything worked.

How to use 5/3/1

Each cycle runs for four weeks. Three of them are working weeks with a different rep target, and the fourth is a deload where the weights drop right back down. Most lifters train four days a week, one main lift per day, though it also works on three days if you rotate through the lifts and let the cycle run a little longer than four weeks. A common four day layout looks like this:

 

The order isn't fixed, plenty of lifters run these in a different sequence around work and family commitments. What matters more is that each lift only gets trained once a week, which is what allows the weights to keep climbing without burning you out. You can set which day of the week suits each lift in the advanced options, or once your program's generated.

 

Day Lift
Day 1 Squat
Day 2 Bench press
Day 3 Deadlift
Day 4 Overhead press

Picking your accessory work

The main lift on this page is only half the session. What you do afterwards shapes whether the program builds size, keeps you fresh for a busy week, or leans harder into strength. A quick guide to the options in the dropdown:

 

Option What it is
First Set Last Repeats your first working set for extra sets of five to eight reps instead. It's lighter than Boring But Big, so it's a better fit if you're short on time or recovering from a heavy stretch of training.
Second Set Last Works the same way but uses your second working set as the repeated weight, a touch heavier again.
Triumvirate Swaps the extra sets on the main lift for two accessory movements instead, five sets of ten each. Good if your main lifts are progressing fine but you want to build up a weak point on the side.
None Exactly that, just the main lift, and you handle accessory work yourself.
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You don't have to stick with one choice for the whole time you run this program. Plenty of lifters run Boring But Big for a few cycles to build a base, then switch to Triumvirate closer to a competition when recovery matters more than volume.

Do you need other exercises outside the four main lifts?

Yes. Wendler builds this in rather than leaving it to chance. Beyond whichever assistance option you choose, he recommends rounding out each session with some straightforward push, pull and core or single-leg work, chin-ups, rows, dips, lunges, ab work, that sort of thing, generally somewhere in the range of 25 to 50 reps per category. 

 

None of this needs to be complicated, its job is just to fill in the gaps the four main lifts don't cover, add a bit of muscle, and keep your shoulders, hips and core resilient enough to keep squatting and pulling heavy for years rather than months.

 

Every day in the generated program includes a default set of accessory exercises for that lift, and you can edit them directly once they're generated, or add your own favourites ahead of time in the advanced options.

Deloading

Week four drops right down to 40, 50 and 60 percent. It looks like nothing on paper, and that's the point. This is where the previous three weeks of work actually turn into strength. Skipping it to keep pushing heavier tends to catch up with you two or three cycles later rather than immediately, which is exactly why it's easy to talk yourself out of.

Moving your training max up each cycle

Once you've finished all four weeks, add roughly 2.5kg to your upper body lifts (bench and press) and 5kg to your lower body lifts (squat and deadlift), then run the numbers again for the next cycle. If your AMRAP sets felt genuinely hard rather than crisp, hold the training max where it is for one more cycle instead of pushing it up. The program is built for slow, unglamorous progress over months, not weeks.

Where this fits if you're also thinking about a meet

This program is built for steady strength gains, not for peaking. If you're getting close to a competition, most lifters shift away from Boring But Big and either drop assistance work back or move onto a dedicated peaking block a few months out. 

 

If you're already thinking that far ahead, our bench press comparison tool and strength standard calculators are worth a look to see where your current numbers sit before you commit to a full meet prep cycle.
Title

CONTENT AUTHOR:

Adam B. / Director, Turtle Strength

 

Adam is passionate about powerlifting, strength training and digital marketing. Created Turtle Strength to find the best possible product to meet the needs of training. 

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