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Expectations of 5x5
- Thread starter gunit
- Start date
there are alot of factors, most of it having to do with diet and rest. your weight gains will be almost completely dependant on your diet. also, someone whos been weightlifting for 20 years isnt going to pack on the pounds as easily as a beginner, but id say expect to gain anywhere from 10-25 pounds.
Guinness5.0
New member
More than you'd gain doing just about anything else. Like the poster above said, a lot of it will come down to diet- more specifically whether or not caloric excess is present.
Also, by saying you're doing it for 16 weeks I assume you're using the single factor version and are therefore somewhat new to using all compound movements? If so you'll grow like crazy.
Personally I haven't put on a ton of weight from it but then again I've been lifting since I was 14 (I'm 25 now) and though my past training was less than ideal I've always relied on the big movements with little machine work, and I somewhat recently finished an AAS cycle. So in my case if I had put on ten pounds it would have been nothing short of miraculous. That said I've definitely put on some size.
Also, by saying you're doing it for 16 weeks I assume you're using the single factor version and are therefore somewhat new to using all compound movements? If so you'll grow like crazy.
Personally I haven't put on a ton of weight from it but then again I've been lifting since I was 14 (I'm 25 now) and though my past training was less than ideal I've always relied on the big movements with little machine work, and I somewhat recently finished an AAS cycle. So in my case if I had put on ten pounds it would have been nothing short of miraculous. That said I've definitely put on some size.
cwc73
New member
I've been more of the strenght gainer from it. My weight hasn't gone up really any at all. Maybe I have replaced a couple lbs of fat with muscle, because I think my body fat is a little lower. My diet it the problem. It is almost dead on for like 3 days at a time, but then I get distracted and get off track for a couple of days. Plus, it is hard for me to pullas many calories as I need to gain. Oh, and I don't like doing cardio. 
Ok the last 4-5 sentences have been nothing but excuses. It HAS BEEN MY FAULT. The program is top shit, and just look at everyone's results from it. Have the faith bro, keep the diet in check, and grow!
Ok the last 4-5 sentences have been nothing but excuses. It HAS BEEN MY FAULT. The program is top shit, and just look at everyone's results from it. Have the faith bro, keep the diet in check, and grow!Diet is really the key. If there is caloric excess - you will gain weight. A good program will ensure that most of it is muscle. If absolute weight doesn't change, you might get some body composition change (i.e. the calories that were previously directed to maintaining fat stores get redirected to newly built muscle). This is a lot easier to pull off if your body fat is relatively high - once your bodyfat is decently low the body is very resistant to trading fat for muscle as the body's primary purpose is to survive (hence you wind up with bulking and cutting programs). Also, as you continue to add muscle your base caloric requirement increases (even if weight stays the same or decreases, it takes more calories to maintain a pound of muscle than a pound of fat. So you wind up with a scaling need for more calories as you increase your muscle mass and weight.
Anyway, at 12% - I wouldn't try to pull over the body composition change. You might get a small margin of success but it will be short lived. You'll sacrifice a lot of potential muscle. If you were at the 20%+ point, this isn't so hard.
So anyway, you need a good program - the periodized version of the Starr 5x5 is pretty popular here but if you don't have a number of years of hard training under the bar you'll make equal and possibly better gains with the single factor novice version (periodization is a curse, not a blessing - if you can make good gains without it, hammer it for all you can).
Hopefully you are familiar with the lifts. There are descriptions of the powerlifts here (very good ones - read them no matter how proficient you think you are in training): http://www.midwestbarbell.com/totalelite/index.php?showtopic=14. My main thread is here: http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=375215. You'll find the programs (The single factor and dual factor/periodized), the correct way to do rows links, and some links to sites with videos of exercises.
So between a good program (and the Starr 5x5 has obviously proven very successful here recently and elsewhere over many years - at least as good as anything out there when applied to a broad range of lifters and athletes) and adequate food intake that should take care of itself. The program will get you very strong very quickly in a very viable hypertrophy volume range - this is all a program can do (and even the people that didn't eat to gain muscle or were cutting can vouch that they got much stronger so obviously the mechanism is in place), after that it's diet and your body. At 6'1" and 176lbs, you have a lot of potential growth in you but some will gain quickly while others will gain slowly, that's just the nature of the beast. This is a more in depth post on diet and caloric excess which you should read carefully: http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4866519&postcount=465
Anyway, at 12% - I wouldn't try to pull over the body composition change. You might get a small margin of success but it will be short lived. You'll sacrifice a lot of potential muscle. If you were at the 20%+ point, this isn't so hard.
So anyway, you need a good program - the periodized version of the Starr 5x5 is pretty popular here but if you don't have a number of years of hard training under the bar you'll make equal and possibly better gains with the single factor novice version (periodization is a curse, not a blessing - if you can make good gains without it, hammer it for all you can).
Hopefully you are familiar with the lifts. There are descriptions of the powerlifts here (very good ones - read them no matter how proficient you think you are in training): http://www.midwestbarbell.com/totalelite/index.php?showtopic=14. My main thread is here: http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=375215. You'll find the programs (The single factor and dual factor/periodized), the correct way to do rows links, and some links to sites with videos of exercises.
So between a good program (and the Starr 5x5 has obviously proven very successful here recently and elsewhere over many years - at least as good as anything out there when applied to a broad range of lifters and athletes) and adequate food intake that should take care of itself. The program will get you very strong very quickly in a very viable hypertrophy volume range - this is all a program can do (and even the people that didn't eat to gain muscle or were cutting can vouch that they got much stronger so obviously the mechanism is in place), after that it's diet and your body. At 6'1" and 176lbs, you have a lot of potential growth in you but some will gain quickly while others will gain slowly, that's just the nature of the beast. This is a more in depth post on diet and caloric excess which you should read carefully: http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4866519&postcount=465
rbtrout
New member
I just started the 3X3 final phase. I'm increasing my food intake to put on some mass and see how it goes. I gained a butt-load of strength (no size, I ate only to maintain bodyweight) during the first weeks of the program. The 3X3 will be intersting to see how much muscle I can pack on.
eat big
New member
It varies from person to person. I've constructed my own 5x5 with a few different concepts and have gotten great results. I started at the end of last summer, at 185. I'm now 217 at just about the same % bf. Much of my progress does pertain to my diet but it's also that my body responds well to the 5x5. On some weeks, if it is much easier than expected I will do 7x5 and surprisingly the week after I do 7x5, my 5x5 is much easier.
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