One day I was talking to this dude about training, we were talking and talking and he brought up the 3 – 5 rule, and till that point I have never heard of it. I asked what it was so gave me a brief explanation that just went right through my head and we never really got back to the topic. I was curious what it was so I did a bit of research.

As the name suggests this is the rule of 3 – 5 where you do 3 – 5 reps, with 3 – 5 sets, and between 3 – 5 minutes of rest. This rule can really be put into any training context but especially applies to strength training because strength training revolves around that rep range.

What Is The 3 – 5 Rule For Strength Training

One day I was talking to this dude about training, we were talking and talking and he brought up the 3 – 5 rule, and till that point I have never heard of it. I asked what it was so gave me a brief explanation that just went right through my head and we never really got back to the topic. I was curious what it was so I did a bit of research.

As the name suggests this is the rule of 3 – 5 where you do 3 – 5 reps, with 3 – 5 sets, and between 3 – 5 minutes of rest. This rule can really be put into any training context but especially applies to strength training because strength training revolves around that rep range.

The 3 – 5 Rule For Frequency

When I am talking about frequency I am talking about how many days per week you should be training. I already know that this article could get a little bit repetitive but if you have not gotten it already, the number of days you should be training is 3 to 5 days per week.

I think that 3 to 5 days per week is a great range where not only depending on your split you can hit all of your different muscle groups while also giving the right amount of rest so that your body can perform at its best.

Though for some people out there 3 to 5 days just might not be enough, and for those people I say you can still exercise, just add a little bit of variety. So for some of your rest days you can go for a walk, a hike, or go for a swim the options are really unlimited.

The 3 – 5 Rule For Reps

Once again the rule of 3 to 5 is for each set you should be hitting 3 to 5 reps. This is once again an amazing range for strength training.

This is because when training for strength typically people train between the 1 to 5 rep range, this is because many different studies have shown that in terms of strength gains 1 to 5 is by far the best, but why 3 to 5?

Though training between the 1 to 2 rep range is great for strength gains it also has the highest likelihood of injury and should be done more sparingly.

Doing reps between 3 to 5 is the best range to both maximise strength gains and minimise injury.

If you want to learn more about the rep range you should be training in than this is the article for you!

The 3 – 5 Rule For Rest

The 3 to 5 rule of rest, the 3 to 5 rule for rest is measured in minutes. 

This is a great rule to follow because after this 3 to 5 minutes you should feel refreshed so that you can go all out for your very next set.

If there was one thing to follow from the 3 to 5 rule it would be this, because I see so many people cut their gains in half because they rest for maybe 1 or 2 minute and just can’t go as hard as they were the previous set.

This is because they did not take the right amount of time to rest, just remember the rest is just as important as the set.

The 3 – 5 Rule The Good, The Bad , The Ugly

The 3 to 5 rule is fantastic if you are training for strength, I personally think that this rule is an amazing blend of rest and intensity for you to maximise your strength gains.

But this is where it does not look as good, when looking at 3 to 5 reps though it is great for strength training it is very limited at helping you train your muscular endurance and muscle gain.

So before you embark on the journey of 3 to 5 you really have to analyse what your goals are and go from there.

If you want to learn more about the 3 – 5 rule there is a great article here!

Intensity

There is something very brief that I want to mention, and it is that intensity is the most important factor to training. You could throw away everything else and do something completely unconventional but at the end of the day if they are training more intensity than you they will probably make more progress than you.

So just remember following the 3 to 5 rule without any intensity will lead you to no where.

Though you don’t have to train until you are completely exhausted it is important that you progressively overload, if you want to learn more about progressive overload you can read about it here!

Conclusion

So to re cap the 3 to 5 rule just means do everything from your sets, reps, rest etc between the numbers of 3 to 5, and this rule is fantastic for strength training.

But this rule is not for everyone, so you should really find out what your goals are and then decided if you really want to follow the 3 to 5 rule. But no matter what you goals are, or no matter how great your routine is if you do not train without intensity you will not make any progress.