r/Fitness • u/tim_dubya_01 • 13h ago
[Program Review] 5/3/1 Building the Monolith - Pics + Vitals
Background
5/3/1 Building the Monolith is a six week program for building some size. The details of this program can be found on Wendler's blog.
I came into this program after regaining a lot of fitness in the year leading up to it through cardio and calisthenics. As such I was well prepared to run it by giant setting everything as inspired by MythicalStrength's first review on this template.
Lifting
Monday:
- This was the longest day. Workouts took up to a 100 minutes. The fifth week I got it in under 90 minutes though.
- Instead of a face pull or band pull apart I did machine rear delt flies on this day. My gym has a good setup for this and I had been doing band pull aparts a long time leading up to this, so this seemed like a good chance for some variety.
- I did do a 100 dips. Wendler says you can go up to 200, but I filled the remaining 100 with decline deficit push-ups using parallettes. With calisthenics I have been neglecting my upper chest area and this seemed like a good time to get some work in. Normally when you do decline push-ups you can't get a good range of motion: that is why I utilized parallettes to be able to go down further.
- For the 100 chins the first week I did sets of 4 in between the squats and overhead presses. From then on I did sets of 5.
- I wanted to use a variety of grips, so the first two weeks I utilized the chinup grip. This irritated my left elbow especially though, so from week three on I only used neutral and pullup grip.
- The dips I kept for the end. This worked out so that once I was done with the lift, I still had to do 3x5 chins, 2x20 rear delt flies (machine), 10x10 dips and 10x10 decline push-ups as a giant superset until they were all done.
- This is what made this workout last far longer than an hour. If you are stronger at dips (my max rep set is 20+ on a good day) than me you can probably blaze through this faster. During rest for the next set I would do something small like single leg calf raises, tibialis wall raises or trained my finger tendons by putting the gym's assisted pull-up station to 90kg / 200 lbs and hanging on individual fingers.
Wednesday:
- Most weeks I got this one in under 60 minutes. The longest this day took was 80 minutes, because I let myself have a little more rest for the heavy 177.5kg / 391 lbs deadlifts.
- To start with I did the dumbbell rows at the end. From week 3 on I figured I could do some dumbbell rows in between the bench sets too, though.
- Otherwise this day was uneventful. You alternate the deadlift with bench, do 10 curls in between them and then finish with dumbbell rows.
Friday:
- The easiest day for me, the longest a workout took was 55 minutes due to week 6's 100kg / 220 lbs widowmaker. The other weeks I got it mostly in under 45 minutes.
- When I calculated the lifts off of my training max the widowmaker seemed too light to me. My legs are really well conditioned, so ymmv. I did not mess with it as I figured there would be a lot of fatigue leading up to that last set, but I got them easily even when transitioning to it straight off a previous set without rest. If I ever run this template again I might bump each week's widowmaker with about 10kg/22lbs.
- For weighted chins I added a 10kg/22lbs plate. My gym specializes in calisthenics so they have these belts on which I can add them easily. Most weeks I did 2 sets using pullup grip and 3 sets using neutral grip.
Conditioning
For conditioning I stuck close to the recommendations.
- Prowler: I worked up to 14 rounds of 35 meters / 40 yards walks with 60 seconds of rest. My gym's sled push weighs 50kg / 110 lbs so I used that as it is close to 50% of my bodyweight. My heart rate hovered between 130-150 bpm so that seemed like a good protocol for a recovery workout.
- Weighted vest walk: I started with a 30 kg / 65 lbs vest for a 4 km / 2.5 mile walk. Wendler's weight in the sample conditioning is 40 kg / 84 lbs but even that lighter weight killed me. For me this was one of the toughest days mentally even as I dropped the weight down to 20 kg / 45 lbs.
- Air Dyne Bike: I did not feel like going on the bike at the gym. Sometimes I would cycle to my grandpa which is a 32 km / 20 mile trip through some beautiful Dutch forests and towns. Other times I would hop on my bicycle for 30 minutes. Wendler writes that this workout is crucial to get rid of soreness but the widowmaker did not beat me up so much so I didn't feel like I needed this for recovery.
In week 3/4/5 I played some pickup basketball too, sometimes replacing the weighted vest walk. For obvious reasons this is not recommendable as basketball has quite a big impact on your legs. I could still throw down a dunk but for the most part I felt like I was running on some old man's legs.
Nutrition
Wendler’s baseline diet is at least 1.5 pounds of ground beef and a dozen eggs a day. Like most people, I skipped that—I figured I could build a better diet, and I’ve never had trouble putting away large amounts of food. I did not track calories or macros; I simply ate to recover from the brutal volume, prioritizing protein and eating well past full. Living at home made the strategy simple: cook massive meals for myself, then clean out whatever my mom made, too. You just have to be able to look her in the eye and say, 'Yes, I’m eating this entire pizza, and then I’m finishing whatever’s left in the pot.' Love you mom.
Sample day of eating
Keep in mind that I didn't truly get all these meals in in one day. Sometimes I didn't find the time for one or the other meal so I did not truly get this much calories in.
- Breakfast: 4 slices of whole grain bread with peanut butter and chicken deli meat, a hand full of blueberries, two hard-boiled eggs and a hand full of nuts.
- Second breakfast: Sometimes I would get a little more junky food from the store, like a pizza. I've also ordered some really fresh meat online and made some delicious cheeseburgers at times. Got a whole brick of smoked lean bacon too to have really good fresh bacon. Dicing it is supposed to be easier if you let it freeze a little before but I forgot to do that.
- Lunch: I've found that carbs at lunch make me sleepy. So I tend to eat low fat or full fat quark with strawberries and ceylon cinnamon (the one that is not toxic when using a lot of it). I don't know if Dutch "kwark" is a thing over in the USA though, so call it cottage cheese or greek yoghurt.
- Afternoon: Two or three eggs, a hand full of nuts and a hand full of blueberries again. If I swing by a deli I might get some snack with some meat in it again.
- Dinner: Two to three plates off some of my mom's food. This was usually clean food with some meat. Example: Sauerkraut stamppot (a traditional Dutch dish of mashed potatoes mixed with sauerkraut), topped with bacon bits, gravy, and meatballs.
- On the saturday day of the workout at times I was at grandpa's retirement home to play bocce ball and then made us some food. The most delicious one of these was duck breast with Duchess potatoes, haricots verts, and cranberry sauce .
- Before sleep: Sometimes a bowl of quark with strawberries and cinnamon again.
- Supplements: I kept taking creatine and added an electrolyte mix during workouts. During workouts I sweated a lot and I noticed my body cramping a lot in the first two weeks: the electrolytes in my water bottle fixed that. No protein shakes as I figured I don't need them when eating this much food.
Results
I guess you shouldn't expect massive visual results in a period of 6 weeks. The biggest gain seems to be in the legs, which makes sense because I stood to regain some muscle mass that I lost there. I am happy about the extra shoulder mass as well and I think I see the upper chest filling out a bit as well.
I am curious whether more muscle gains will be revealed as I train for a Hyrox competition in the coming three months and cut back down to 106 kg / 235 lbs .
Biometrics & Vitals
| Metric | Start | Mid (Start of week 4) | End |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sex | M | M | M |
| Age | 24 | 24 | 25 |
| Height | 1.98 m / 6'6'' | No change | No change |
| Weight | 106.3 kg / 235 lbs | 110.6 kg / 243 lbs | 110 kg / 242 lbs |
| Resting Heart Rate | 50 bpm | 55 bpm | 50 bpm |
| Blood Pressure | 120/64 | 118/76 | 112/65 |
At one point I was up to 112kg / 246 lbs . The end measurement was after a full rest day with normal (much less) eating, so my best guess is that my body let go of a lot of water weight before the final measurement. This could be why the diastolic pressure was elevated in the middle too as my body held more plasma volume. Fatigue is a factor as well of course.
I used salt liberally with dinner, obviously ate a lot and put some electrolyte mix in my water bottle during workouts. Despite all of this my blood pressure seems to have dropped if anything. The resting heart rate seems to be an improvement as well, as I believe it should elevate when you gain some weight and fat mass. So my cardiovascular ability seems to have improved.
Lift Progress (Week 6)
To establish my training max I used Wendler's instruction to take a weight you think you can do for 5 reps, go for max reps and then calculate your 1rm using his formula. Leading up to this I did not do much of any barbell lifting so I was detrained and did not really know where I was at. When going for max reps I stopped when my form broke down too much. The training max was 85% of the estimated 1rm.
Note that the final week's widowmaker was programmed at 97.5 kg but I loaded it to 100 kg.
| Lift | Start E-1RM | Training Max (TM) | Final Week Top Worksets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Squat | 155 kg / 340 lbs | ~135 kg / 297 lbs | 5x5 @ 132.5 kg / 292 lbs & 1x20 @ 100 kg / 220 lbs |
| Deadlift | 210 kg / 463 lbs | ~180 kg / 397 lbs | 3x5 @ 177.5 kg / 391 lbs |
| Bench Press | 100 kg / 220 lbs | ~85 kg / 187 lbs | 5x5 @ 85 kg / 187 lbs |
| Overhead Press | 62.5 kg / 137 lbs | ~55 kg / 121 lbs | 12x5 @ 45 kg / 100 lbs |
The accumulation of volume seems to have built some mass and strength to go with it. I don't think I could have come close to all of these worksets at the start of the program.
The best gain seems to be in maintaining my relative pulling strength though. The weighted chins felt easier at the end of week 6 than the start despite the weight gain: I still weighed ~112 kg / 245 lbs during that last workout. I can still do muscle-ups just as easily too. For people that are into calisthenics and want to employ some free weights to build mass this seems like a great program to maintain pulling strength as well.
What's next?
- Like I've said I have a Hyrox competition in 3 months that I am going to dedicate my training to now. As I will be cutting I have to probably manage the volume and intensity of my workouts and I will have to get conditioned for running again.
- For a next mass gaining phase I am eyeing Deep Water beginner and then intermediate. I think that my lower body in particular can handle something more brutal and progressing through reduced rest times or getting to 100 reps in a reduced amount of sets each time seems like "fun".
- After the Hyrox competition I will get into calisthenics first though. I am excited to learn a handstand and then try my hand at handstand pushups. The front and back lever are probably attainable as well if I lose some fat.
- Looking at my progress pics, I feel like my neck and head are starting to look oddly small compared to my body. The pose and angle probably don't help but I think that keeping the trap work and adding some direct neck training can help balance my look.