5x5 without deloading?

[cubuff27]

I am finishing up my 4th week of my 5x5 and the gains have been great, but was wondering if there a true need for a de-loading phase while on AS? I mean I can see if you were doing this program naturually and your body, would need a break, but with AS my recovery is so much greater was wondering I needed a deloading phase at all or can I just jump right into the second phase?

 

[blut wump]

I am finishing up my 4th week of my 5x5 and the gains have been great, but was wondering if there a true need for a de-loading phase while on AS? I mean I can see if you were doing this program naturually and your body, would need a break, but with AS my recovery is so much greater was wondering I needed a deloading phase at all or can I just jump right into the second phase?

If you are still cruising along making weekly jumps in weight then stick with phase 1.

 

[Madcow2]

AS just increases your tolerance - there is still a limit. However, if you haven't reached it, I'd keep ramping if there's room. Go with modest increases and continue to set PRs. If you start missing PRs or feel really tired (i.e. peak performance may have decreased, you just haven't challenged yourself on the lifts enough to miss a PR yet) deload. You could probably get by with 1-2 weeks and then jump into the first phase again or do the 3x3 phase to completition. This is actually why AS makes this a lot harder, you don't know where your tolerances are and you have to plan pretty far out in line with your drugs which BBers generally don't give any thought to.

 

[cubuff27]

Yeah, AS does make this a lot tougher to figure out. Half the time I have to increase my 5x5 at set 2 or 3 knowing I didn't start high enough. My squats on 5x5 started at 275 and have just finished the 4 weeks at 335, bench went from 295 5x5 to 325 5x5, and rows were just insane (for me anyway) went from 225 to 265 5x5 and my bodyweight went from 230 to 234 in 4 weeks. This is truly unheard of for me. I was at a weight plateau of 230 for the last 4 months and my strength was increasing, but not nearly by this much.