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Under his own admission, Gabe thought these goals were pipe dreams. However see his progress after a year of dedicated training with the 5/3/1 program.

Some of these standards may be easy; others may be hard. Don't be upset with the standards if you fail to make the grade. Standards should exist regardless of the social consequences. They don't exist to make you sad, unhappy, or a victim.

The following is an excerpt from the Jim Wendler Forum - it is in response to a question from a forum member that wanted to increase his deadlift.  It wasn't a specific question; more it was any suggestions that any of us had regarding the deadlift and how to increase it.  Additionally, he also had a question regarding being weak at the bottom of the movement.

Let's face it, chasing the Big Three (squat, bench press, deadlift) can get tiresome, and having an acceptable substitution that can be used for several months might be just what you need to keep the fires burning.

Remember walking back from track practice amazed at your new speed? Remember looking up at the sky and thinking, "Making my body stronger made my body faster?" Don't worry, this secret is safe with us as few people seemed to have grasped it, "experts" included.

The following is an excerpt from the new book, 5/3/1 Forever.  This book outlines how to program all areas of your training including assistance work. Yes, that's right; no more questions about assistance work. Everything is tied up, nice and tight AND allows for a lot of personal choices.  Each and every program detailed in the book has a specific assistance profile which allows you to plug in a variety of different movements; all customized to you.

Since I released the first edition of 5/3/1: The Simplest and Most Effective Training System for Building Raw Strength in 2009, I've been asked many questions about supplemental and assistance work.

The most popular, effective, and brutal accessory plan is something I called Boring But Big.

The Boring But Big supplemental program is simple. After completing the strength work with the basic exercise (squat, press, bench press or deadlift), you perform 5 sets of 10 reps with a lighter weight. This might not seem like much work, but it'll lead to new gains in strength and hypertrophy.

Ever since I started pressing, I have been obsessed with making it better. Partly because I was so weak at it for so long (which meant that it had no place to go but up) and because it is simply a cool exercise to do. The death of the Press as a movement can be attributed to a lot of things, none of which actually matter. BUT, if you view this lift with as much enthusiasm as I do, use these tips to improve what I consider to be one of the most fun movements in the gym.

One of the keys of doing grip work is to make it economical - there is no point in doing direct grip work when you can EASILY add to an exercise you would already be doing. And the BIGGEST excuse is "but I can do more weight if I don't use overhand grip or X". Well, guess what? If your grip ain't strong, it won't matter what you can tug. You are simply WEAK. Get over your own ego and do things right.

I needed to rely on my gut and my experience, and certainly not any trends. I had to start by being brutally honest with myself and realize that I was plain weak. Weak everywhere. Everything needed to get stronger. Weak Point Training, while good in theory, suggests that you have "strong points." I'm sorry, but few people with such glaring holes can really classify themselves as strong, period. So I resolved to make everything strong.

I recently got a text from a good friend of mine who is a university strength and conditioning coach. He is the head coach for all sports and works directly with the baseball team. For 2.5 months (about 3 cycles) he used the 5/3/1 BBB training plan and reported the following...

Before we start with the simple process, let me define the Kroc Row. Named after everyone’s favorite Polish American Powerlifter, Matt Kroczaleski, the Kroc Row has quickly become a staple exercise in many lifting circles. In its infancy this exercise was simply a single set of high rep dumbbell rows with the heaviest weight possible. Matt did this because of necessity – the dumbbells he had access weren’t heavy enough to perform the requisite “10-12” reps that is often prescribed. To combat this, he just did a ton of reps with the heaviest dumbbell available. Initially done to build his upper back for his bench press, this exercise also gave him great deadlift lockout strength as well as grip strength.

6 Week Training Template for size: So this template is not easy but it is very doable – but only if you are dedicated to making it happen. “Dedicated” doesn’t just mean that you want to do it; it means you are dedicated to doing what it takes to get it done and that means EATING right. I had 4 people run this and all of them ate like champions – all ate at least..

This the second half of the Instagram Q/A - lots of questions and my soft, gentle answers.  When in doubt: squat and run hills (or just run).

Hey Jim, first off I wanted to say thank you for writing the 5/3/1 program. I love it, it keeps me grounded and I am making great gains from it. So much so that I wanted to share them with you. You don't hear a lot about conditioning goals being reached on here so I thought you might appreciate this.