5/3/1 Boring But Big

Is this a fit?

Boring But Big is the 5/3/1 template for getting bigger without giving up the heavy sets. You do the week’s 5/3/1 work on a lift, then 5 sets of 10 on the same lift at half your training max. That is the whole idea. Jim Wendler’s words: “easy to program, easy to use and great for gaining both strength and size.”

The template

Four days a week, one main lift per day: press, deadlift, bench, squat. Each day:

1. Warm up: 40% × 5, 50% × 5, 60% × 3 of the training max.
2. The week’s three 5/3/1 sets. The last set is “+”: as many reps as you can with good form.
3. Boring But Big: 5 × 10 at 50% of the training max (60 or 70% once you have earned it).
4. One or two assistance movements, kept small.

Every percentage is of the training max, which is 90% of your 1RM. Wendler’s rule of thumb for the 5×10: “use 50-60% of your Training Max for the 5 sets of 10 reps.” If you are new to 5×10 work he says to start lower, around 30%, and work up over cycles. His other warning is blunter: “start with the lightest weight on the bar that won’t embarrass you.”

After each cycle, add 5 lb (2.5 kg) to the press and bench training max and 10 lb (5 kg) to the squat and deadlift. Nothing else changes.

Same lift or opposite lift

Wendler gives two layouts. Same lift: press 5/3/1 then press 5×10, squat then squat. Opposite lift: press 5/3/1 then bench 5×10, deadlift then squat 5×10, so each lift gets touched twice a week. His verdict: “There is no ‘better,’ just different.” Same lift is the default here because the calculator computes the 5×10 from that lift’s own training max; for opposite lift, read the 5×10 line from the other lift’s table.

Calculator

Enter your 1RMs or training maxes. BBB is preselected at 50%; switch to 60 or 70% for later cycles, and use the cycle selector to see the training max step up.

Worked example

A 300 lb squat, training max 270 (90%). Weights round to the nearest 5 lb, exact halves round down.

At 60% the BBB sets are 160, at 70% they are 190. On the “+” sets, 10 reps at 230, 7 at 245 or 6 at 255 each beat a 300 e1RM by Epley; the calculator shows those targets as “PR at”. Next cycle the training max is 280, and week 1 becomes 180, 210, 240 with 5×10 at 140.

The 3-month challenge

Wendler’s Boring But Big 3-Month Challenge is three cycles of the same template with the 5×10 climbing: month one at “50% of your training max,” month two at 60%, month three at 70%. Two things change from regular 5/3/1. On the main sets “you will not go for any extra reps on the last set,” so the required reps only. And assistance is held to “one push, pull and abdominal movement per training day” at “25–30 total reps” each. It is “a 4 days/week program, not 3 days/week or 2 or 5,” and his condition for starting it: “unless you’re willing to eat big to get big, don’t accept the challenge.”

The calculator can show cycle 1 at 50%, cycle 2 at 60% and cycle 3 at 70%. It still displays the standard template’s “+” sets and rep-PR targets: those are not instructions for the challenge. Follow the challenge’s required-reps-only main work. The calculator also does not offer the lower BBB percentages discussed above.

Mistakes

• Starting the 5×10 too heavy. Fifty reps at 60% of a real training max is hard the first time. Wendler: lightest weight that won’t embarrass you, then build.
• Adding to it. “Do not try to add more to this program – this is the biggest mistake people make with the BBB.” The template already has eight working sets of a lift per day. One or two small assistance movements, not a second workout.
• Grinding the 5×10. The sets should be fast and clean. If set 4 turns into singles, the percentage is wrong, not you.
• Deadlifting 5×10 when it wrecks the week. Wendler allows light good mornings or straight-leg deadlifts in its place, and opposite-lift BBB puts squats there instead.
• Skipping week 4. The deload is part of the cycle. Three weeks on, one week light, then raise the training max.
• Running it on a cut. BBB is a size template. Wendler’s challenge article is explicit about eating; the regular template is no different in spirit.

BBB or FSL

First Set Last is the other common 5/3/1 supplemental: 5 × 5 at the week’s first-set weight (65, 70, 75%). It is heavier than BBB and lighter in reps, so it builds strength practice rather than size. Choose between their different workloads in the context of the template you are following; this is not a strict size-versus-strength divide. The calculator does both; it will not do both at once, and neither should you.