Five/Three/One - 531 Workouts

• Beyond 5/3/1 Pack — $5.99
• Custom Weight Plates — $2.99

Last verified 6 Aug 2026

4.8 1423 ratings · App Store

1. 4/5Customizable but a little restricting

   The app is very customizable assuming you want exactly what is pre-programmed for the primary workouts. I was hoping for a FSL add on to each workout similar to the jokers but you have to choose it as the primary and then edit the assistance workouts. This will require buying the optional add-ons. The other restriction is you are stuck with whatever order your assistance lifts are set as prior to the workout. Not helpful in a busy gym where you need to adjust on the fly. This app is also limited to the original 531 (beyond) and doesn’t consider 531 forever so if you want those workouts, you are out of luck. In general, the app does what it says it does, fairly good customization but limited for on the fly adjusts.

   ZBall-1116 · 6 Aug 2026

2. 2/5Good start, lots of work to do

   I like the approach taken here vs other lifting or program specific apps, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to make this worth the cost of its add-ons. Here are some initial bugs/suggestions. 1. A bit pedantic, but “dumbbell” is spelled wrong everywhere it is mentioned. 2. Why, no matter what variation of 5/3/1 I choose, can I only adjust the timer of the Boring But Big sets? If I’m doing FSL, that setting should be for FSL sets. 3. Need to be able to choose to complete exercises out of order. Let’s say it’s bench day and two of my accessories are the fly machine and dips, and in the app the are entered in that order. If the fly machine is taken and I have to do dips first, there is no way for me to log dips as I go. This same scenario also applies to warm up exercises. I like to do hip abductors and adductors before squatting, but have no way of logging those as I do them since the only way to get to them is to skip all the squat sets. 4. Should be able to set a timer per accessory exercise, instead of a one size fits all timer. Edit: have to take another star off after experiencing another bad design flaw that made me stop giving this app a chance. If you miss a workout you could only reschedule that missed workout, and none of the other upcoming workouts, without resetting the entire cycle. So let’s say you have Workout A scheduled on Saturday and then Workout B scheduled for Sunday. If you miss Workout A then you could reschedule it for Sunday. But there is no way to reschedule Workout B too until that workout is also considered missed. The result is that the app tells you that you have to complete 2 workouts each day, unless you reset your whole cycle. You should be able to just push all workouts ahead by however many calendar days or workout days were missed.

   westcarey · 6 Aug 2026

3. 2/5Looks nice in the surface, but frustrating to actually use

   My last 531 app went out of biz, so I switched to this one based on reviews… and I’m SO annoyed with it. If you stick to the schedule perfectly, it’s fine, but if you have a job or a life and miss a week here or there, it doesn’t adapt with you… I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done the wrong workout because instead of loading the next workout in YOUR PROGRESSION, it loads the workout that it scheduled for you when you did the first workout in the cycle. So aggravating. It also doesn’t seem to adapt and respond to my performance, it just gives me what it thinks it should based on whatever I entered six months ago.

   Jimalaiyah · 6 Aug 2026

4. 2/5(Was)Great program - too many bugs - no support

   I’ve used this for a year about and I love(d) the ease of scheduling and the way it increases weight as you progress through cycles. Unfortunately if you miss a workout you need to be in the calendar view to reset it and move your other workouts. If you do it from the page “missed workouts” it will move only the one and now they’re mixed up. There’s no undo. Calendar now randomly goes to old dates. There’s no resetting or canceling a cycle and starting over and finally there’s no support or documentation. So good luck. Also, now that I’m at the gym, I’m remembering that you can’t do exercises out of order. If a machine is being used you have to just wait to continue with the app. There are better options.

   gregorhalenda · 6 Aug 2026

5. 1/5Erased and lost complete training history

   I lost 5 cycles of data in an instant. I should have known because the App has been erratic and buggy from the start. Here’s what happened: I adjusted my “training max” from 90% to 80% to see what the numbers (weight) would be. The iPhone screen went white. When I exited and restarted the phone, all my data was gone. It’s not the end of the world, but charting my progress over time was the point. I only had 5 cycles recorded, but it is disappointing. I was preparing for week 3 and I remember exactly what my 1+ set weight numbers are. I can recreate week 3 and week 4 (de-load week). This App just seems like an inexperienced kid put it together.

   I need more information · 6 Aug 2026

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