5x5 with dbs?

[bgflpydnky]

I'm thinking about doing incline bench with dbs as my main 5x5 chest exercise. Anyone use dbs for 5x5? How would you add weight every workout? 5 lbs seems like a lot....

 

[Buddy_Christ]

if you have magnetic plates to put on the dbs so you can go up in much smaller incriments, then it'd work. going up 5lbs per db every week, however, you'd probably plateau a lot faster than you wanted to. the weight increase is just too much.

5x5 will net you gains if you do it right. my flat bench max went up 35lbs in the past 3 1/2 months. i'm going to switch to incline bench 5x5 when i come off of this week and a half rest. i don't want my incline bench to lag too far behind my flat bench.

use dbs for your 2x8-10. or you can do what i've been doing. i do 3 sets, 10, 8, 5-6 reps, in that order. i increase the weight every set, and the weights i pick for each set are heavy enough that i just about hit fatigue on every set. i liked this better than doing 2 sets, and if i hit 6 reps on the 3rd set, most of the time i would bump the weight up on each set the following week or every other week.

quite a few people around here running 5x5. you'll get lots of good advice.

 

[WhatNot51]

use dbs for your 2x8-10. or you can do what i've been doing. i do 3 sets, 10, 8, 5-6 reps, in that order. i increase the weight every set, and the weights i pick for each set are heavy enough that i just about hit fatigue on every set. i liked this better than doing 2 sets, and if i hit 6 reps on the 3rd set, most of the time i would bump the weight up on each set the following week or every other week.

I do the exact same thing and I've had great success with it. Would love to hear more about the 5x5 routine tho. So bumpage.

 

[Buddy_Christ]

i've been running 5x5 since mid-January. i'm no expert on 5x5, but i've made some gains with it.

what do you want to know? i might have some answers.

 

[UA_Iron]

if you have magnetic plates to put on the dbs so you can go up in much smaller incriments, then it'd work. going up 5lbs per db every week, however, you'd probably plateau a lot faster than you wanted to. the weight increase is just too much.

5x5 will net you gains if you do it right. my flat bench max went up 35lbs in the past 3 1/2 months. i'm going to switch to incline bench 5x5 when i come off of this week and a half rest. i don't want my incline bench to lag too far behind my flat bench.

use dbs for your 2x8-10. or you can do what i've been doing. i do 3 sets, 10, 8, 5-6 reps, in that order. i increase the weight every set, and the weights i pick for each set are heavy enough that i just about hit fatigue on every set. i liked this better than doing 2 sets, and if i hit 6 reps on the 3rd set, most of the time i would bump the weight up on each set the following week or every other week.

quite a few people around here running 5x5. you'll get lots of good advice.

Nice to see the crack covered...

35 lbs in 3.5 months!! thats pretty good, I average about 10-15lbs a year. hmmmmm, I should try this 5x5 routine

 

[Buddy_Christ]

well, i'm a noob, so my gains should be coming in pretty fast. i'm sure it will slow down eventually

 

[Griz1]

Total agreement!

Early in your 5X5, the 5lbs is about right. It's when you start reaching a plateau that your "hooped". With the barbell you can really "creep" the weight up even by using collars if you have to to add weight s l o w l y. .. .

I found this problem really showed itself with DB military presses for shoulders. Started with 40s and got up to 70-75lbs a side and after that it was just too much to move up by 5 lbs each side. Went to the barbell and I could creep it up to the point of ridiculousness with no problems. Seemed there was no limit til my cuffs started to ache in a bad way, and I backed off quick.