Anyone ever try 5x5 training?

[bklyn21]

Will it really pack on some mass?:dunno:

[cook]

One of the best programs I ever did. I should go back to it.

[retwa]

Works great for strength. As for size, that will of course depend on your diet, and on how your body responds to the lower reps.

[simon85]

you should try the advanced german volume training training by charles poliquin. very good for hypertrophy. Basically, you pick the best exercises for the body part your training (bench press for chest, squat for leg...) and you perform 10 sets of 5 reps, with a 4-5 seconds negative. So i will take about 30-40seconds to perform your sets. 90sec break between sets. You need to chose a weight that is 60% of your 1rm. So same weight for the whole workout. You increase weight when you did 5reps at the 10th set. You will start to struggle around the 5-6th set.

I added so much strength and size on it. I added an accessory movement (3x8-10, such as fly) after I did the 10X5.

[tiramisu]

5x5 and it's variants are time tested and proven to put on strength and mass on novices and intermediates.

You shouldn't try advanced anything as a novice/intermediate trainee. A novice should be using an essentially linear program with basic compound movements.

Bill Starr's 5x5, Madcow variation, Texas Method, Starting Strength all meet these criteria. The reason for avoiding advanced routines and programs is that they will put on strength and size far more slowly than a novice or intermediate program for a novice or intermediate.

Advanced/Elite lifters can not recover as quickly as a novice, nor can they increase their strength or size as fast as a novice. Advanced/Elite lifters also have spent years strengthening tendons and developing the neural efficiency to make their lifts much closer to their maximal ability.

When a novice/intermediate lifts @ 60% this is far more likely to be more like 40% as a result of neural inefficiency which is going to be developed primarily by lifting higher percentages of your maximum lift.

Don't think that you are not a novice because you have been lifting for 10 years. The vast majority (>90%) of lifters are novices and would find a year to 18 months of consistently applied linear or weekly phased programming would provide them with significant strength/muscle size progression when combined with excess calories.

After 18 months (give or take) of novice or advanced novice programming weekly progressions intermediate two phased programs like 5/3/1, texas method, Bill Star Advanced 5x5 type programs will likely provide the best bang for the buck in terms of strength/muscle for the next few years.

The first thing you need to realize if you want to be a bodybuilder is that you AREN'T a bodybuilder. Bodybuilding is a sport that advanced weightlifters have chosen as a specialty on top of a base of fundamental strength and mass training.

For those of us who are not the .00001 percent of genetically gifted the first 5 years of weight lifting can get us to the point of entry to become a bodybuilder. By this I mean that your programming will have progressed (and your progress degraded) to the point that further improvement requires specialization (hypertrophy, strength, endurance) to see significant further progress. The advanced programs are designed to eak out the last few percent of an athletes potential through specificity in training. Again, they tend not to be effective for athletes who have not maxed out their strength efficiency and general physical preparedness.




Far too many buck sixty five lifters in the gym think they are bodybuilders on the first day they enter the gym.

[bklyn21]

Thanks for the info. Finished my 2nd day yesterday and pretty much am wiped.

[retwa]

The first thing you need to realize if you want to be a bodybuilder is that you AREN'T a bodybuilder. Bodybuilding is a sport that advanced weightlifters have chosen as a specialty on top of a base of fundamental strength and mass training.

...

Far too many buck sixty five lifters in the gym think they are bodybuilders on the first day they enter the gym.

Whatever...I don't see why you're trying to make the term 'bodybuilder' so exclusive. As far as I'm concerned, anybody who is dedicated to building up their body (hence the term, bodybuilder), is a bodybuilder. It's not some special club that you only reach after x number years of lifting...