Most strength programming advice sounds complicated. Percentages, periodization blocks, readiness scores. And some of it is worth knowing. But the framework I always return to for strength, speed, and power has been around for nearly a century: the “3x5” protocol. This is how it works: 3-5 days per week... 3-5 exercises per session 3-5 sets per exercise 3-5 reps per set 3-5 minutes of rest between sets The range is not a prescription. At the low end, it’s 3 exercises, 3 sets of 3, 3 days a week; you're looking at roughly 20 minutes. That is the entire program, and it works. At the top end, 5x5 at real weight, you're doing something genuinely brutal that most people shouldn't, and probably can’t sustain for long.show more

Isn't 3-5 minutes of rest between sets too much?

This is how it works ... Turn up. Do something. Go home.

ACSM’s new RT Guidelines land on reps/set generally higher than this. Are you proposing leaving more than 1-3 RIR? Or, that we train with heavier weights (& thus lower reps) than they propose? To increase the % of the population consistently engaging in RT this seems a high bar.

4X4 is a sweet spot. 4 days a week - ULUL 4 exercises -per session 4 sets - per excercise 4X6 reps - per set

A little simplistic

How does warmup factor into this? Is there any warmup, or would someone short on time just go straight into 3 reps x 3 sets x 3 minutes rest x 3 exercises? Thank you.

Yes. 3 sets use to contribute 46% of the gain!

Worth adding the hormone footnote, because a lot of men pick a program believing the set and rep scheme is what raises their testosterone. West and Phillips followed 56 men for 12 weeks, and the acute post workout rise in free testosterone showed no significant correlation with gains in lean mass or leg press strength. Whatever 3x5 is doing for strength, it is not doing it through the endocrine system.

@DrAndyGalpin Please give credit to who popularized this since it was not you. @BeStrongFirst

Great approach and it works!! Keeping it simple is the way to sustain. Travelling for work can impact the routine. However the 3-5 routine allows a tremendous amount of flexibility where we can stick to the routine even if weights are not available!! Excellent share!!

The rest line is the one people skip, and someone below already questioned it. Three to five minutes feels absurd until your third set finally matches your first. Cut it to a minute and you are training endurance with a heavy bar. The strength research keeps landing there.

The 3–5 framework is memorable because it removes most of the noise. Enough structure to progress without turning programming into a math problem.