Training Forum: This is a discussion on The Original 5x5 Program within the Bodybuilding forums, part of the extensive steroid information at MESO-Rx; Best advice.....forget the Bi and Tri specific exercises. I hate inefficiency, and time spent curling is the poster child for ...
Best advice.....forget the Bi and Tri specific exercises. I hate inefficiency, and time spent curling is the poster child for the aforementioned. Rows and chins will always put more of a load on your bi's.
Des - Explain your situation. How can you not have an hour? Unless workoing out at home, the time to go back and forth to the gym will easily equate to 1 hour. Not to mention that warming up 3 times as opposed to one, will take even more time. Do you watch TV for 1 hour a day? Perhaps you have 2 jobs, and a family to support?
That said, your best bet would be pairing antagonistic exercises together. That will shorten your workout and still give you sufficient rest between sets of the same exercise.
Courtesy of bill starr bill starr, the greatest strength coach who ever lived, popularized this in the 70's with his great book, The Strongest Shall Survive, which was aimed at strength training for football. I believe he had essentually two different programs which both are 5 sets of 5. The first, which is more suitable for beginners, is to simply do 5 sets of 5 with similar weight jumps between each set so that your last set is your top weight. When you get all 5 on the last set, bump all your weights up 5 or 10lbs. Example for squat... 185 for 5, 225 for 5, 275 for 5, 315 for 5, 365 for 5. If you get 365 for 5, move all weights up. This is especially good for someone who is just learning a particular exercise like the squat, because the amount of practice with light but increasing weights is a good way to practice form.
For more advanced lifters, he advocated a warmup, then 5 sets of 5 with a set weight. For example, the same athlete used in the other example may do 135 for 5, 185 for 5, 225 for 3, 275 for 2, 315 for 1, then 350 for 5 sets of 5. When successfull with all 25 reps at 350lbs, bump the weight up the next workout by 5 or 10lbs.
This is not outdated, and is a good program for gaining strength. Many elite athletes still use it during at least part of the year. I in fact do 5 sets of 5 on squatting for 4 weeks as part of an 8 or 10 week training cycle. Personally, i do it 3 times a week, but most people will probably make better progress doing it 2 times per week, or even doing version 1 once a week, and version 2 once a week.
In any event i described a system in a post a while back that goes something like this:
Monday use the heaviest weight you can for all 5 sets (same weight each set)---- in other words when you get all 5 sets of 5 reps up the weight (most workouts you will get 3 or 4 sets of 5- and maybe your last one will be for 3 or 4 reps)
Wednesday use 10-20% less weight- in other words if you used 200lbs on monday use 160-180lbs on wednesday- actual amount depending on your recovery
Friday work up to a max set of 5-
In other words lets say that your best ever set of 5 is 215lbs and you used 200lbs on monday for 5 sets and 170lbs on wednesday. On friday your workout might be like this 95 for 5 135 for 5 175 for 5 200 for 5 then attempt 220 for your last set of 5.
This tends to work better as a long term program than doing the same thing 3 times a week. On exercises where you only do them once a week like deadlift you can just do the 5 sets of 5 like i described. On monday on exercises that you are only doing twice (rows) you could do both exercises like the monday workout or lighten one of them depending on your recovery ability. Be conservative with the weight when you start- that is important.
Also i have used this program VERY often with athletes and it IS result producing. However many of your gains will show up after you use it for 4-6 weeks and you switch to training a bit less frequently and lower the reps and volume. However this is one program i have had a LOT of success with. In fact i rarely if ever use it with athletes who are at the top of their weight class because it causes too much weight gain unless you severely restrict your food.
this program sounds like for power lifter .. MY Q? am going to have a nice big Muscles as a Bodybuilder ??
this program sounds like for power lifter .. MY Q? am going to have a nice big Muscles as a Bodybuilder ??
Yes.
The very last line of the original post said "In fact i rarely if ever use it with athletes who are at the top of their weight class because it causes too much weight gain unless you severely restrict your food." I think that explains it enough.
Arms will typically grow without "direct" work. Also consider that you are hitting back 3x/wk, so bis get work there. Then you are benching 2x and military 1x/wk, so theres 3x for tris.
I trained very differently till now. the last few months I did 5 times per week doing monday chest/biceps, tuesdays back/triceps, wendesday legs and shoulders etc. I ow will switch as of next week and let you know how it feels and works.
Would you extend this program to a 4 days? If yes how would it look like? I also assume that you do 3 times a week 30 min of cardio? The only part I am not sure is for "Standning" military press. could you do a different one? Sitting e.g.
I trained very differently till now. the last few months I did 5 times per week doing monday chest/biceps, tuesdays back/triceps, wendesday legs and shoulders etc. I ow will switch as of next week and let you know how it feels and works.
Would you extend this program to a 4 days? If yes how would it look like? I also assume that you do 3 times a week 30 min of cardio? The only part I am not sure is for "Standning" military press. could you do a different one? Sitting e.g.
Typically, no, you would not do the 5x5 4 times a week. If you do you will probably find yourself overtraining very quickly. I fairly certain that if you do it, you will not have enough gas in the tank to do another day anyway. If you are interested in a four day a weeek program you might look at DFHT. As far as the military press goes, Why? You will get more from standing and you will find it is easier on your back, as far as spinal compression goes.
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