3x3 experience

[galya]

I am about to start my first 3x3 program and I would be happy to hear what others have experienced with it as well as how well you were recovering compared to higher volume workouts? Did you notice any considerable side effects such as difficulty falling asleep, increased appetite, more soreness, etc? What was your exercise selection? At what % of your 3RM did you work? I am planning on using 90,80 and 70% on different days, working out three times per week, changing the intensity for different days every week, so if workout 1 was at 90 % during week 1 it will be 80% during week 2, etc.
Ideas are welcome, I am generating more and more excitement about this

[newf]

What excercise selections are you going with? Any speed work?

For most people there 3RM is roughly %90 of there 1RM.

[Frank.S]

Remember 3x3 or 5x5 or whatever you choose does not mean that every excersise should be done in that format. There are several approaches to 3x3 training.

A 70% 3x3 is not going to be all that benificial in strength training unless you are practacing maximum speed on the lifts.

Id personally stick to one 3x3 excersice every session (3-4x per week) and then have accessory work that helps on building that main component. Each week progress the load around 2% and you should be able to steadily gain. Ive seen to many people say 'im doing 5x5 or 3x3' and see something like this:
squats 3x3
press 3x3
triceps 3x3
etc etc

Very few people can tolerate a program like as in your case, on a 90% day your going to be doing 4-5+ 90% lifts. Thats really taxing for someone who is a little more advanced which it seems you are.

[CC dad]

I use it much like Frank is describing. 5/3-5 reps for the big lifts and more reps of the accessory stuff. In the past I have done routines consisting of 3 exercises in the 3/3 setup. The last one I remember doing was sumo dead lift, floor press, clean all 3/3 and that was the whole workout. Doing this really improved my strength with a new 3 rep max coming every week or two. They were also very easy to recover from. I enjoyed the simplicity of just focusing on moving a lot of weight. This isn't necessarily the routine to build a lot of muscle but like I said I did get a lot stronger. I can say that while I didn't gain any size these routines did make me look more dense or thick or however you want to say it.

[galya]

Thank you. Strength is my main goal together with thickness while avoiding visual hypertrophy. I am coming off a higher volume program and I need to lose some of the extra size I don't need.
So your suggestion is to work at roughly 90% of my 1 RM in all the workouts. I am using a template originaly developed by M. Mahler using the clean and press, deadlift and weighted pull ups as a base. I modified it and I will post the routine I decided on later for critique, its on my other PC. I have planned some accessory work in the 5-8 range, too. The main idea for using lower intensities on some days was to avoid fatigue. Speed work is not specific to my goals, so I should probably not even go there. So you say I should probably go 90% and not do the varied intensities.
Thanks for your feedback and I'll be posting more later

[GqArtguy]

The 3*3 cycle was intense for me. The way I did it was like this:

Monday:

Squat at about 90% 3*3

Wed:

Front squat: 80% 3*3

Fri:
Work up to a new 1,2 or 3RM

Then monday I would either use 90% of my new PR weight or try to get Friday's weight for a triple. Friday is very mental because youre breaking barriers so often times youll miss a weight after 1-2 reps simply because you dont know if you can do it again. Monday gives you a chance to try again.

This was intensification cycle so I was definately overreaching during the weeks that I did it. But afterwards I did very little squatting and kept it at about 70% then just built up linearly. Squat went up nicely during that process.

[galya]

The lifts I'll be using are
BB clean and military press/DB clean and military press
Renagade rows
Conventional DL
One arm side press / DB clean and military press
Weighted pull up
1 leg KB deadlift
BB bent over row
Lunge

My accessory exercises will be among
Lateral raises
Bicep curls or inverted rows
DB Swing/Snatch
Push ups
Tricep extensions
w/chops
Full Contact Twist
Bg SQ

I will add those to make for 5-6 exercises a day/ 3 heavy and 2 accessory + one energy system exercise like swings/snatches.
That' the plan anyhow I am open to changing it.

[galya]

GqArtguy, thanks for sharing this

[CC dad]

When I did this my second set in every workout was at my 3 rep max or an attempt at a new one. On my last workout of the week I would go for a new 3 rep max by trying to add 5 pounds to the previous 3RM so my sets would be something like:

3RM-5lbs. /3
3RM+5lbs /3
3RM-10lbs /3

If I didn't get 3 reps on the second set then I kept the weights the same. If I got it then I reset all my sets based on my new 3RM. I usually did one to two warm up sets before each exercise. I went light on that last set because I just like being able to get all the reps on my last set. This may not be exactly what you want to do but it worked for me. Hope this helps.

[GqArtguy]

Originally Posted by galya

The lifts I'll be using are
BB clean and military press/DB clean and military press
Renagade rows
Conventional DL
One arm side press / DB clean and military press
Weighted pull up
1 leg KB deadlift
BB bent over row
Lunge

My accessory exercises will be among
Lateral raises
Bicep curls or inverted rows
DB Swing/Snatch
Push ups
Tricep extensions
w/chops
Full Contact Twist
Bg SQ

I will add those to make for 5-6 exercises a day/ 3 heavy and 2 accessory + one energy system exercise like swings/snatches.
That' the plan anyhow I am open to changing it.

For me, I chose one lift to really beat into and let the others be at 5RM simply because the 3RM is really tough. So a sample monday would like this:

Squat: 90%*3/3
RDL or row: 3*5 so youre treading around 80%
Press: 3*5 same.
Accessory 1
Accessory 2

The accessory stuff was stuff to either maintain a lift or hit a weak point.

Ive tried 3 rep lunges, those are rough, didnt get too much out of it either. If you really want to do cleans and are really going at 80% or so, do those first, it will be hard to do them after being drained by the squats.

[galya]

That's what I do, I put the cleans in the beginning
Yesterday went great, hit pretty good numbers