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Home » Resources » Leader & Anchor Cycles in 5/3/1

Leader & Anchor Cycles in 5/3/1

By Kyle Risley
Last updated November 21, 2021


As an affiliate of various sites, including Amazon Associates, I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases via links in this post at no extra cost to you. See Full Disclosure

Leader and anchor cycles are types of training cycles introduced by Jim Wendler in 5/3/1 Forever.

Table of Contents

  • 1 What are Anchor Cycles?
    • 1.1 5/3/1 Anchor Cycle Example
  • 2 What are Leader Cycles?
    • 2.1 5/3/1 Leader Cycle Example
  • 3 Sequencing Anchor and Leader Cycles
  • 4 5/3/1 Resources
    • 4.1 Related Posts

What are Anchor Cycles?

Anchor cycles use higher intensities on the main lifts, less supplemental work, and more assistance volume.

5/3/1 Anchor Cycle Example

An example of an anchor cycle is 3/5/1 with PR’s on week 1 and 3, 3×5 first set last for supplemental work, and 50 to 100 reps per assistance exercise.

What are Leader Cycles?

Leader cycles uses lower intensities on the main lifts with higher volume supplemental work and less assistance volume.

5/3/1 Leader Cycle Example

An example of a leader cycle is 5’s PRO with 5×5 FSL as the supplemental work and 25 to 50 reps per assistance exercise.

Other leader cycle examples include Boring But Strong (BBS) and Second Set Last (SSL).

Source:

  • Leader/Anchor Cycles for 5/3/1 Beginner (T-Nation Forums)

Sequencing Anchor and Leader Cycles

Below you’ll find generalized guidance around anchor and leader cycles. To understand exactly how they’re used, you’ll need to pick up 5/3/1 Forever.

This is just to give you a basic understanding of their purpose and how they’re used in training.

The most common sequence is to run two leader cycles and one anchor cycle, starting the first leader cycle with a training max no higher than 85%.

Source:

You can read a pretty solid discussion of decisions around anchor and leader cycles in this discussion on the T-Nation Forums.

5/3/1 Resources

To learn more about 5/3/1, check out our 5/3/1 glossary or the /r/531Discussion subreddit.

To best understand how to put this information into practice and actually get stronger, it’s highly recommended that you pick up 5/3/1 Forever by Jim Wendler.

5/3/1 Forever
5/3/1 Forever: Simple And Effective Programming for Size, Speed and Strength
5/3/1 Forever: Simple And Effective Programming for Size, Speed and Strength
$44.98

The most up-to-date and complete collection of Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 programming framework. Contains dozens of templates to keep 5/3/1 fresh and adaptable.

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05/26/2022 12:05 am GMT

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    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. What is 5's Pro? 5's Pro (aka 5's progression) is a rep scheme used in the 5/3/1 training program.…

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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.

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