I received an amazing testimonial today. An athlete had some great success using the 5/3/1 program and running/training for a 10K. As everyone knows, once you begin increasing your conditioning, something has to change in your lifting - you push something in and something has to come out. Too many people are doing way too much pushing and not enough pulling. Thus things get way out of balance and you end up short on both ends.
I love hearing testimonials and I love when people defy their own expectations. Read the testimonial below.
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.
This April I started training for a 10k race that I just ran this past weekend. I didn't want to go full bore into a running only program since I have been adhering to 5/3/1 for 3 years. So I decided to use your concept of keeping conditioning a priority while still having strength training in my program, along with mobility work. I did your two day program from beyond (squat/bench emphasis one week, deadlift/press emphasis the next) and I ran 3 times per week, sometimes upwards of 8 miles. And here were my results from this program:
-I dropped 8lbs
-I PR'd at least once per week on a lift. Sometimes two.
-I pulled a deadlift PR on Friday (the day before my race.)
-I PR'd on my 10k race and did it under an hour, medaled in my age group (25-29) all while pushing my 2 and a half year old son in a stroller who weighs 30 lbs.
-I then did a squat PR yesterday, two days after my 10k and hiked 4 miles with my son on my back.
I was pretty surprised with my results, I thought for sure I was going to lose strength, I certainly didn't expect to gain any. I thought I would lose momentum every time I hit a hill in my race, but I actually went twice as fast as everyone else (I attribute that to squatting.) And I learned that being in great condition DOES NOT make you weaker, it actually makes you stronger.
So I just wanted to say thank you Jim for sharing your 5/3/1 principles with all of us. I definitely would not have been able to achieve what I just did this last weekend. I would still be spinning my wheels in the gym.
