5,3,1 or 8,6,4,2,1?

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nhecu942

New member
I have always done my bench and squat workouts by using less weight and slowly increasing it by going 8,6,4,2 and sometimes 1 rep at the end but I recently heard from a friend that he uses the same plan but just as a 5,3,1. Doesn't anybody know which would work better? I've been progressively increasing my bench max by using the 8,6,4,2,1 version but I'm wondering if the 5,3,1 would work the same way just taking up less time for rest in between sets. Anybody have any ideas?
 
@nhecu942 531 is a highly respected set of programs created by Jim Wendler. They work

8,6,4,2,1 is simply a set of numbers. That is not a program.

The actual program you follow doesn’t matter as much as many think. Staying consistent and progressively overloading over time is all that matters. This being said, actually following a program will very likely provide better results. My advice would be to follow a program and not just randomly lifting weights.
 
@nhecu942 I might be in a different boat than most people because I have a physical job, but I started just going until the point a have to cheat the last rep up and control the decent and how many sets I do depends on how the day was. If it's an easy day at work I might do the normal 3 to 5 sets, then there are days where I technically did a whole 8-10 hour workout already and all I can manage is is the ol' Mike Mentezer one set to failure.

Someone will probably be along to tell me I'm wrong, but it's how I've started seeing the most gains. Just listen to your body and see what works best.
 
@nhecu942 The answer is pretty much always to just try it. Sometimes “better” doesn’t even matter because anything can get stale if you’ve been doing it for too long.

But your friend may be talking about the actual 5/3/1 system and not just the basic rep scheme to be done in one workout
 
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