The 8 / 5 / 3 Method

Creation of the 8/5/3 Method

Background

The 5/3/1 Program by Jim Wendler was one for the first strength training programs I was exposed to. Famous for its simplicity, consistency, and effectiveness the 5/3/1 system is an incredible foundation for coaches. When I started working with college throwers in 2016 we modified the 5/3/1 program to include Velocity Based Training, Olympic Lifts and their variations, and important accessory work. One major change was we built 3 Week Mini Cycles. Spending 3 weeks training sets of 5, 3 weeks training sets of 3, and 3 weeks on 1s (mainly in a French Contrast fashion). This program had great success, grounded in the foundations of 5/3/1.

Moving to the Youth Development Level

In 2019 I moved to the youth development space. This move prompted a very necessary audit of my training systems. I threw myself into learning everything I could about High School / LTAD strength & conditioning. One of the concepts that stood out was the need to Auto-regulate training loads. Young athletes are changing / growing so quickly. The rapid growth rate coupled unpredictable stressors outside the gym causes percentage based programs to become inaccurate very quickly.

At the same time, young athletes need “suggested” weights to use, at least a starting point. This is important for both safety and development. Hard to develop an injured player.

I also came to believe that volume, repetitions, is key for motor learning. Along with the belief hypertrophy often proceeds strength. I felt we needed a base of volume before diving into traditional strength rep ranges and percentages.

Need for APRE (Auto-regulatory Progressive Resistance Exercise)

I knew my athletes would be adapting to training quicker than a college or pro athlete. I also knew my athletes would go in and out of season, have family vacations, school holidays and more. We needed a program that would adapt and grow with them. This article describes the details of true APRE training. In short, an athlete does a “as many reps as possible” set at a suggested weight, based on their performance, the following weights are assigned.

Building 8/5/3.

Knowing our athletes needed a base of volume, and we did not want to do 1RMs with this young of training age, we shifted 5/3/1 to 8/5/3, adding a cycle of high volume. I then applied our 3 Week Mini Cycles from the throwers program to our 8s, 5s, and 3s.

For primary lifts, our last set would be an AMAP (as many as possible) set. Based on the performance of your last set a new estimated 1RM would be generated. This allows every day to be a “max out day” which the kids love. It also allows for daily adaptations to occur, as inspired by APRE.

What now?

I certainly did not invent any of these concepts just adapted them for my situation. Our programing is far from perfect but 8/5/3 has worked well for us. For us 8/5/3 is flexible and adaptable. It can be scaled up or scaled down at a moments notice. Also, the 3 Week Mini Cycles fit nicely in the academic calendar.

If you want to chat more about our system, your system, or share any thoughts, please reach out!

Thanks for reading!