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Building the Monolith. Jim Wendler

Building the Monolith Review: Did It Actually Work...

I'm 5'9", 195 pounds. I've lifted all kinds of programs for twenty years now, so I'm not experiencing beginner gains or whatever. I've been all 5/3/1, a little bit of a Wendler homer, and pleased with every result I've gotten since I decided to go all in with 5/3/1 about 14 months ago. I'm an average guy: literature and writing professor, dad and husband. I'm definitely not someone who can do things most others aren't physically capable of doing...

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Jim Wendler Deadlifting

8 Simple Ways To Build A Better Grip

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.
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Quad Dominant or Hamstring Weak

Quad Dominant or Hamstring Weak

Quit thinking you're quad dominant. Unless your quads hang over your kneecaps like an elephant's testicles, you're not quad dominant. You're just hamstring weak. I too was hamstring weak at one point. Today, I don't know if I'm hamstring STRONG, but certainly not hamstring weak. It took a lot of time to bring my hamstrings up to a level that was acceptable. This was also the case with my lats, lower back, and abs. The solution was simple:
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5/3/1 and N.O.V Gift Guide 2016

5/3/1 and N.O.V Gift Guide 2016

13 Great Gifts $30 Or Less- Starting At $5. Don't let a holiday stress you out.  Be thoughtful and efficient.  All of the gifts and "stocking stuffers" below serve a function and meet the 5/3/1 and NOV standards of awesome...

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Jim Wendler laughing with friends

Ramble On - Random Thoughts on Training

Signs you are a Training Asshole

1. You do more tinkering than training.
2. You train harder than you can recover.
3. You aren’t honest about your goals or your effort.
4. You use the exception to prove the rule.
5. You don’t eat to support your goals...
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Pressing the Bar Overhead Kicks Ass

Pressing the Bar Overhead Kicks Ass

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.
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The Training Max: What You Need to Know

The Training Max: What You Need to Know

Once you've been using 531 for a while you should get to a point where your training max (TM) doesn't have a direct correlation (percentage) with your actual max. The 90% rule was the recommended starting point, Beyond 531 may mention 85% or 80% or whatever but the bottom line is you manipulate your TM based on current training goals, current programming, current level of strength, etc. There is no hard rule for your TM. In my opinion the more progress you can achieve out of a low TM the better.
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5/3/1 For College & Pro Baseball

5/3/1 For College & Pro Baseball

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...

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How To Build Your Own Kroc Dumbbell

How To Build Your Own Kroc Dumbbell

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.
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Fasted Cardio

Fasted Cardio

Question: Fasted cardio...worth it? If your schedule permitted and your main goal at the time was fat loss, would you do some of your prowler work/hill sprints in the morning on an empty stomach?

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Weighted Chin Ups

Weighted Chin Ups

I like weighted chin ups. I'm not voting for them in the next "Five Awesome Exercises" election but they certainly have their place. I've championed chin ups for years, mostly because they're great for the upper back, lats, and arms. And because you can do them anywhere – chin-up bar, top of the Smith machine, scaffolding, top of the monolift, playground equipment, etc. Weighted chin ups are a good idea IF you can do them, and even then you still need to keep bodyweight chin ups as part of your training (unless you can bang out multiple sets of 20 with good form). And if that's the case, gain some weight!
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Small Changes, Big Impact

Small Changes, Big Impact

Basically, we kicked the rest of the world’s butt, stole their lunch money and slept with their girlfriends when it came to track cycling. When the performance director was asked by the outside media about the key practices they had implemented in pursuit of this success, he told them with a bone dead straight face that they had super round laser cut wheels which gave them a major speed advantage. The morons lapped it up. The foreign newspapers printed the story. Everyone laughed...
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Mentoring Wendler

Mentoring Wendler

I was intimidated. I couldn't even put 25-pound plates on the bar to incline press. My bench was equally as awful. My squat sucked. But I stuck with it.

My older sister, who was in high school, was even told that I was going to get beat up if I kept coming into the weight room. I figured a good beating was worth it; no one was going to keep me away.

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Training and Fashion

Training and Fashion

Training and Fashion Clothing-wise, wear whatever you think is comfortable to train in. I generally  wear cutoff cargo pants and whatever T-shirt/long sleeve shirt I have on that day.        As for gear, the two biggest things that...

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Uni-lateral Training: Let it mellow or flush?

Uni-lateral Training: Let it mellow or flush?

The best thing about the fitness and strength industry is that you can always rely on it for some really good laughs. The fact that unilateral exercises have sparked such heated debate is amusing, and as always, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. First, let's examine the pro-unilateral crowd:
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