Jumps and Throws in 5/3/1

Please note: This is not official 5/3/1 advice and is not associated in any way with Jim Wendler. If you want official 5/3/1 advice, buy the book.

Jumps and throws are explosive movements, like box jumps and medicine ball throws, that Jim Wendler programs before your main work in 5/3/1. They train power and wake up your nervous system so you’re primed to lift.

What Are Jumps and Throws?

Jumps and throws are a power and warm-up component of 5/3/1. Before you touch a barbell, you perform a small number of maximal-effort jumps or throws to develop explosiveness and prepare your body for the heavy work that follows.

Wendler treats them as a standard part of the program, not an optional extra. They keep you athletic and fast as you get stronger, which is easy to lose if all you ever do is grind slow, heavy reps. Lower body days use jumps, upper body days use throws.

Jumps and Throws Example

The prescription is simple: perform 10 to 15 total jumps or throws before your main work, spread across a few low-rep sets, with full recovery and maximum effort on every single rep. Quality matters more than quantity, so if a rep stops being explosive, you’re done.

A typical session looks like this:

• Lower body day (squat or deadlift): Box Jump, 5 sets of 3 reps (15 total)
• Upper body day (bench or overhead press): Medicine Ball Chest Throw, 5 sets of 3 reps (15 total)

Then you move on to your 5/3/1 main work as normal. The whole thing takes only a few minutes.

Common Jumps and Throws

You don’t need much equipment. Pick movements you can perform safely and explosively.

• Jumps
  • Box jumps
  • Vertical jumps
  • Standing broad (long) jumps
• Throws
  • Overhead medicine ball throw (backward, for height)
  • Medicine ball chest throw
  • Medicine ball slam

Why Jumps and Throws Matter

Heavy barbell training is slow by nature, and moving slowly is a habit your body will learn if you never train the other end of the spectrum. Jumps and throws keep your rate of force development high so you stay powerful, not just strong.

They also serve as an excellent dynamic warm-up. A few explosive reps prime your nervous system, so your first heavy work set feels sharper than it would from a cold start.

Jumps and Throws Resources

Here are some helpful resources on programming jumps and throws in 5/3/1:

• Jumps (Jim Wendler’s Blog)
• 5/3/1 and Athletes (Jim Wendler’s Blog)
• 5/3/1 for Beginners (The Fitness Wiki)

5/3/1 Glossary

Learn about other 5/3/1 terms in our 5/3/1 glossary.

5/3/1 Forever Book (Recommended Reading)

To best utilize the 5/3/1 training framework, the book is highly recommended. It’s a small investment for a lifetime of training knowledge.

About Kyle Risley

Kyle Risley founded Lift Vault in 2016 to make finding great powerlifting programs easier. Since then, the site has grown to include hundreds of programs for strength, bodybuilding, Olympic weightlifting, and more. He currently lives in Massachusetts and continues to compete in powerlifting.