5/3/1 Training Max: How to Set, Progress and Reset It

Your training max (TM) is the number every 5/3/1 working weight is built from — and it should sit below your real max. The classic version used about 90 percent of a realistic one-rep max; many of Wendler’s later programs use 85 percent or less. Add a small, fixed amount after each cycle, hold when the reps get shaky, and lower it when you can no longer hit the minimum reps on your plus sets with good form.

The free 5/3/1 calculator does the arithmetic. This article covers the decisions behind the numbers: where to start, when to add weight, when to hold and when to reset.

1RM, e1RM and training max

These three get mixed up constantly:

• 1RM — the most weight you can lift once with good form.
• e1RM — an estimated 1RM from a multi-rep set. The calculator uses the Epley formula: weight × (1 + reps ÷ 30).
• Training max — a deliberately lower percentage of your 1RM or e1RM. Every percentage in the cycle refers to the TM, never to your 1RM.

Either a tested 1RM or an e1RM gets you there; you don’t need both. That gap between max and TM is the point of the system, not a fudge factor. It keeps working sets crisp and leaves room on the plus sets to beat your reps. For the full program structure, see Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 explained.

Setting your starting training max

You don’t need to test a max. Use a recent set of 3 to 8 clean reps — the further a set is from a single, the more the result depends on the formula, so a set of 15 is a poor starting point.

Worked example (squat): 225 lb for 5 clean reps.

• e1RM: 225 × (1 + 5 ÷ 30) = 262.5 lb
• Training max at 90%: about 236 lb

Rounded to 5 lb, that gives you (weight in lb × reps):

Notice the heaviest set of the cycle is 225 — the weight you just did for five, now asked for at least one. That cushion is what keeps the program running for months instead of weeks.

80, 85, 90 or 100 percent?

Wendler’s original 5/3/1 used 90 percent. His later material often goes lower: the beginner program uses 80–85 percent, and Building the Monolith calls for 85 percent. If you’re running a specific template, use its number.

The Coach Cedric calculator and app let you pick 80, 90 or 100 percent, with 90 as the default. Here’s how the options compare:

At 100 percent, the week 3 top set in the example above would jump from 225 to 250. When torn between two values, pick the lower one.

Common mistakes at the start

• Using a one-off personal best. A record set on a perfect day isn’t a realistic max.
• Using a sloppy set. Only count reps you could repeat with the same technique.
• Defaulting every lift to 90 percent. If you’re unsure about a lift, start lower on that one.
• Confusing a higher TM with more strength. A TM that climbs on paper while your reps drop isn’t progress.

Progressing each cycle

After each completed cycle, add no more than 5 lb to the bench press and overhead press and no more than 10 lb to the squat and deadlift (2.5 kg and 5 kg if you train in kilograms).

It looks slow. Twelve good cycles still add 120 lb to a deadlift training max. In reality not every cycle goes well — which is why holding and resetting matter just as much.

Don’t recalculate after every good day. A big plus set tells you the current TM fits. Turning it straight into a higher TM spends the cushion the next few weeks depend on. A post on JimWendler.com sums it up: a higher TM does not mean more strength, and the more progress you get out of a low TM, the better.

Add, hold or reset?

After each cycle you make one of three calls for every lift, based on your plus sets and the quality of your reps. Wendler’s beginner guidance sets the ground rule: if reps are slow, grinding or done with poor form, you don’t increase the training max.

Hold: stabilise for a cycle

The plus on a plus set invites extra good reps. It isn’t an order to go to failure. Hold the TM for another cycle if you only just hit the minimum with an obvious fight, your form broke down on the last set, or you missed part of the cycle.

Reset: when and how far

Reset when the TM has outrun your actual performance: you miss the minimum reps on a plus set — fewer than 5 in week 1, or no clean single in week 3 — and it happens on the same lift two cycles in a row. Often even the sets before the plus set feel heavy by then.

There’s no single percentage that covers every Wendler program. A practical rule of thumb — ours, not Wendler’s — is to drop the TM about 10 percent, or two to three increments, so your plus sets land comfortably above the minimum again. A 225 lb bench TM that stalls goes back to around 205 lb, then climbs as usual.

The same JimWendler.com post also describes a planned version called “5 forward, 3 back”: after five normal increases, take the TM back three increments before it stalls. The TM stays below what you can actually do instead of being corrected after a bad cycle.

Training max beyond 5/3/1: the 8/6/3 option in the Coach Cedric app

The training max comes from the 5/3/1 world. In the Coach Cedric app it also drives a second, more hypertrophy-oriented progression called 8/6/3. It’s the default in the app’s “Flexible muscle building” approach; the “Strength building with 5/3/1” approach uses the classic wave.

The math is identical up to the TM: 1RM or e1RM, then training max, then working weights. Only the percentages and rep targets change. With the same 236 lb training max as above (top set of each week):

To be clear: 8/6/3 is not an official Jim Wendler program. It’s Coach Cedric logic that borrows the idea of cycling off a training max. The public 5/3/1 calculator only shows the classic wave; you get 8/6/3 through the training plan generator or the app. The add, hold and reset rules above apply the same way — what counts is whether you hit the minimum reps on your plus sets cleanly.

Tracking it in the Coach Cedric app

In the Coach Cedric app’s Progression Builder, you decide how each new cycle starts:

• Standard increase: +2.5 kg for upper-body lifts, +5 kg for lower-body lifts (5 and 10 lb in pounds).
• Adaptive TM suggestions: the app compares the reps you logged on your week 1–3 top sets with the planned reps and suggests a change — which can also be holding or a small reduction. Without usable data it falls back to the standard increase.

You confirm every change yourself. The app also shows your estimated 1RM (e1RM, Epley) separately from the training max.

Summary

1. The training max is a deliberately lower working number — about 90 percent classically, 85 percent or less in many programs. 100 percent is very aggressive for classic 5/3/1.
2. One clean set of 3 to 8 reps is enough to set it.
3. After each cycle, make the call: add (5 lb upper body, 10 lb lower body), hold or reset.
4. Grinding or sloppy reps mean: don’t add weight. Repeatedly missing the minimum reps means: reset, usually by about 10 percent.
5. In the Coach Cedric app the training max also drives the 8/6/3 hypertrophy option — different reps, same logic.