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krrrhonJune 14, 2021

5/3/1 is primarily a strength program, but it will definitely benefit general wellness and resting metabolic burn.

In terms of barbell-oriented strength programs, 5/3/1 is a good program to do after you've mastered the basics and started to plateau with something like Starting Strength [0] or Stronglifts 5x5 [1]. Those two programs take advantage of the linear gains that are possible for people in their first year of training, and 5/3/1 is a methodical approach to continuing to improve strength when simply adding 5lbs to the bar every workout stops working.

Starting Strength is a great book for understanding the principles and benefits of barbell lifting (and the videos from the old DVD are very good). The introductory essay is considered to be one of the best summations of strength training and its benefits. A lot of people believe that they aren't interested in strength training because they don't feel attracted to the extreme manifestations of the sport, but then discover that it delivers mental health and brain sharpening benefits in ways that they didn't expect.

All of the programs I mentioned are built around the core barbell lifts, which are squat, deadlift, shoulder press, bench press, cleans, and rows.

[0] https://startingstrength.com/about

[1] https://stronglifts.com/5x5/

AftononJune 14, 2021

Goals goals goals. The implicit assumption is that your goal is to develop something specific over time. You want to get stronger, you want to get bigger, you want to increase your endurance, for example.

Since those specific goals are so common, they fade into the background. But if your goals are more or less one or more of those goals, then yes, do the same set of exercises 50-100 times (progressing weights/intensity/etc). That will stimulate improvements. Doing a bunch of different things every time is 100% better than sitting on the couch, but won't allow you to progress very much. You'll essentially only be progressing e.g. strength when you happen to overlap some motion with the right amount of increase to cause improvement.

But something that you'll do is better than a perfect thing that you'll get bored of and stop doing. Existence is the primary predicate and all that.

Incidentally, Starting Strength (the book) talks about this somewhat. He distinguishes between 'training' and 'exercising'. Training is about progressive overload. Exercise is about moving your body. If you want to change your body, you'll want to train.

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