76 reviews for 5/3/1 Building the Monolith

3 weeks complete

6 years of prior experience

As expected strength gains

More than expected muscle gains

Second run of Bram, swapped out bench for more overhead pressing, zercher's instead of regular squats and swapped one set of face pulls with rows. The volume and intensity on the accessories with this program is great to make some good improvement on both conditioning and muscle.

3 weeks complete

8 years of prior experience

As expected strength gains

As expected muscle gains

Great program absolutely recommend just keep grinding through and you'll see results

5 weeks complete

8 years of prior experience

More than expected strength gains

As expected muscle gains

Good program to run every now and then to change things up and break plateaus. I'll probably run it again in 3 to 6 months.

3 weeks complete

8 years of prior experience

As expected strength gains

As expected muscle gains

I felt like this is a good program if you want to level up you strength. You really have to go all in and bust your ass. Eat right and get rest.

4 weeks complete

3 years of prior experience

More than expected strength gains

More than expected muscle gains

One of the more challenging programs I've tried. 100 chin ups/ dips were difficult but I got better at it. Will transition to another 5/3/1 program after 6 weeks. Make sure to eat in a surplus.

3 weeks complete

8 years of prior experience

Less than expected strength gains

Less than expected muscle gains

This Program is not fit for Powerlifting, it has high reps, this is calisthenics or CrossFit program not for powerlifting

5 weeks complete

6 years of prior experience

As expected strength gains

As expected muscle gains

It's a lot

6 weeks complete

8 years of prior experience

As expected strength gains

As expected muscle gains

I intentionally made significant changes to this program: I had an injured shoulder, and dropped all pushing motions from this program. And, it was still a test of mental toughness. I don't know if Jim wrote this as pure punishment for us transgressors against the 5/3/1 or if it was created to encapsulate some unique form of genius for growth. Whatever the reason, it will push you, in all aspects: your lifts, your recovery, your eating, but you will finish it, and feel accomplished.

3 weeks complete

8 years of prior experience

More than expected strength gains

More than expected muscle gains

100% recommend this program I've trained for over a decade bodybuilding style programs but after a few years of getting into the worst shape of my life and not committing to any kind of fitness I thought it would try this program but not expecting bodybuilding results,but I've been totally blown away ,trust the process and don't add anything if your thinking there's not enough exercises it absolutely ticks all the boxes.🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿💪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿💪

6 weeks complete

8 years of prior experience

More than expected strength gains

More than expected muscle gains

Started this program after my first powerlifting comp where I hit 434lb squat 270lb bench and got one white light on a 583 deadlift attempt at 209 body weight. With those numbers I started with about 77% training max on squats and 85% on everything else and ran the program back to back for 12 weeks. Just hit 5x5x350 squats without any struggle in this last week of my second time through. Body weight increased to 219lbs in these 12 weeks eating “like a champ.“ Although I could not keep up on the 1.5 lbs ground beef everyday I did get about 8-10 eggs every day and ate probably 3500+ calories on average always hitting over 200g protein. Some fat gain but really not much considering almost 10lbs of weight gain, mostly upper body muscle. For accessories I just did 100 reps or as many reps as possible over 10 sets max. Also added calf raises and subbed lateral raises for face pulls in the second time through. Of course 20 rep squats were challenging, but really not as bad as I expected, probably because I started with 77% TM on squats. Final day of second cycle was still 275lbs. Also did the cardio air bike riding, weight vest walking, and in the second time through added a couple boxing classes a week instead of other cardio. Plan to test some PRs after this week or maybe after running 1000% awesome template, but already hit rep/weight PRs for squats 5x5x350 and deadlifts 3x5x475. Bench is feeling stronger so we’ll see if I can get something close to 300 finally. Overall great program as long as you eat to gain weight and don’t be scared.