Oct 21, 2026 · 35 min · 14 segments
When your lifts stall on 5/3/1, the next step is block programming. Matt Reynolds explains how one three-week block grows into a 9–16 week program built on three phases: accumulation, transmutation…
to then eventually a top set of five, week one, a top set of three, week two, and a top single, week three, which is a three-week wave in my version of the 5-3-1 that Jim Winder invented.
The thing I want you to think about today, something like a 5-3-1 where you're working up to a top set of five, week one, and back offsets, a top set of three week two and back offsets and a top single week three and back offsets is that is just a single block.
These are all the same things, right? And so when we get to the point that we can't make progress on a three week block, then we expand to more than one three-week block.
And typically, blocks are gonna be three to four weeks each, right? Typically, that's just kind of the way the calendar works out.
So when you think about the term block or in the old school, like bodybuilding days, some of the old strength coaches used the term mesocycle.
A mesocycle tends to be what you do in a block, which is typically three to four weeks.
inside that 12-week program are essentially three or four blocks of three or four weeks.
And it typically is three blocks, and it would be a block of three weeks and a deload, and then a block of three weeks and a deload, and a block of three weeks, right, and a peak.
And so these are the individual blocks, which are just an expansion of what the 531 is, which is just a single block.
Block programming is a program that is multiple blocks, multiple three-week blocks.
to then eventually a top set of five, week one, a top set of three, week two, and a top single, week three, which is a three-week wave in my version of the 5-3-1 that Jim Winder invented.
The thing I want you to think about today, something like a 5-3-1 where you're working up to a top set of five, week one, and back offsets, a top set of three week two and back offsets and a top single week three and back offsets is that is just a single block.
These are all the same things, right? And so when we get to the point that we can't make progress on a three week block, then we expand to more than one three-week block.
And typically, blocks are gonna be three to four weeks each, right? Typically, that's just kind of the way the calendar works out.
So when you think about the term block or in the old school, like bodybuilding days, some of the old strength coaches used the term mesocycle.
A mesocycle tends to be what you do in a block, which is typically three to four weeks.
inside that 12-week program are essentially three or four blocks of three or four weeks.
And it typically is three blocks, and it would be a block of three weeks and a deload, and then a block of three weeks and a deload, and a block of three weeks, right, and a peak.
And so these are the individual blocks, which are just an expansion of what the 531 is, which is just a single block.
Block programming is a program that is multiple blocks, multiple three-week blocks.
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