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5x5 workout
- Thread starter lacoste
- Start date
Ton of info here: http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow1/table_of_contents_thread.htm
These are the two cookie cutter variations that people tend to start with here. The first is for a more novice to intermediate lifter and will afford someone like that faster progression. The second is for a more advanced lifter who will make faster progression by periodizing (note that the "advanced" program will result in slower gains for a novice and that the "novice" program just won't allow for much progress for a more advanced lifter). I have to say this otherwise every 13 year old, 120lbs kid will do the "advanced" program.
http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4497774&postcount=15
http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4764723&postcount=381
These are the two cookie cutter variations that people tend to start with here. The first is for a more novice to intermediate lifter and will afford someone like that faster progression. The second is for a more advanced lifter who will make faster progression by periodizing (note that the "advanced" program will result in slower gains for a novice and that the "novice" program just won't allow for much progress for a more advanced lifter). I have to say this otherwise every 13 year old, 120lbs kid will do the "advanced" program.
http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4497774&postcount=15
http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4764723&postcount=381
preemo said:
Effective training. It can work well for athletics, adding muscle, cutting, building a strength base. A lot depends on what you do in the kitchen. Most here use it to add muscle, a few have used it for cutting and I think go2failure had the best results there with flat weight, major strength increases, and measurement increases in all bodyparts (i.e. lost fat and gained muscle very The main idea is to get the big core lifts that represent 95% of your strength/hypertrophy gains up as quickly as possible (i.e. when you put weight on your squat, dead, bench, row, and overhead under caloric excess - you will put on muscle very quickly).
To do this, we get rid of most of the isolation and assistance work found in typical programs. Rather than proactively throwing everything and the kitchen sink in every training cycle and wasting one's limited resources on a shotgun array of exercises with very minimal potential to meaningfully contribute, people focus on the big lifts that matter and represent the bulk of one's progression in any program. By freeing up this space, we can train with much higher workload and frequency on those core lifts.
So people find they get much stronger and better at performing the lifts, and depending on diet, people have a very easy time putting on muscle or retaining muscle and increasing strength base under caloric deficit. Most have found that they need a lot less assistance work than they used to believe as the body develops quite symmetrically all on it's own, and if something does come up either aesthetically or functionally it is addressed as needed.
In addition to pure utility the 5x5 also serves the purpose of education. It teaches proper program design, progression, and manipulation of key variables while doing away with the typical BBing myths concerning 1x frequency (i.e. a muscle takes exactly 7 days to recover irregardless of stress imposed) and the need for a boatload of isolation work. People learn to manage workload - the periodized version is a very simply and easy to understand introduction to dual factor theory style loading and deloading periods (i.e. produced delayed adaptation - stimulus is a block of workouts rather than stimulus and recovery workout to workout). People also learn the value of creating a training plan based on systematic progression and sketching out a more macroplan to better address their specific needs over the coming months (i.e. 5x5 for 8 weeks, transition 2 weeks, 6 weeks higher rep work, 4 weeks weak points, next....).
So in a rather large nutshell, that's the big picture. I don't know of anyone who hasn't been pretty pleased with results - regardless of experience level (although the program is ideally tailored to the individual's experience level - we only have 2 cookie cutters but they are a decent fit for experienced BBers). Most have continued to apply the fundementals and tried to learn more about effective program design. On the whole you see 'PR', 'weight up X lbs', and smiley faces quite a bit here - so obviously it works fairly well. Probably useful to try at least once and chances are something similar will find it's way into your macroplan at least a few times a year and make a big contribution.
Protobuilder
New member
Madcow2 said:
This is BY FAR the BEST thing I've learned in my weightlifting "career" . . . and I just learned it over the past few months due largely to the 5x5 plan (extra special thanks to Madcow and Pendlay). I think it's much "sexier" to learn a million bodybuilding exercises and play w/ angles, etc., so people spend TONS of time picking their exercises and playing w/ rep schemes, "shocking" techniques, blah, blah, blah. But they don't pay attention AT ALL to the training variables Madcow described above. As a result, most of them (myself included) spin their wheels, doing thousands of diff't exercises at all kinds of angles etc. and barely adding a few pounds a year.
Paying attention to the variables above is a HUGE step above and beyond typical bodybuilding plans.
