Is Bill Starr's 5x5 For Me Or Should I Stick With My Current Training Method?

[Vanchatron]

First of all, sorry for the long post, but it needed to be this long in order to get my point across. Many people will ignore the post because of it's length, but for the people that do stay & read it you'll see I'm in quite a predicament and would REALLY appreciate some help.

I'll start with my stats:

Age - 21
Height - 5,10"
Weight - 245lbs
Bodyfat - 13/14%
Experience - 6 Years
Insulin Dependent Diabetic

AAS Experience - Just come off my first ever cycle & I'm fine with admitting that. No point lying if I'm looking for help. I won't say any more than that incase it's against the rules.


Equipment:

I train at home & have access to: Power Rack (with pullup attachment), Olympic Barbell/EZ Bar, Olympic Dumbbells, Olympic Weights, Inc/Flat/Dec Bench, Preacher Attachment.



Goals:

My goals are simple. Basically I want to get as big as I possibly can & have the aesthetics to go with it. I'm happy with my bodyfat at the moment and can probably afford to add a couple % to my bodyfat & still be content. For an idea of just HOW big I want to get here's an example... If somebody said to me "you can look like Lee Priest/Markus Ruhl/Kevin Levrone etc RIGHT NOW" I would jump at the chance.

I'd also like the muscle to be functional (e.g. strength to go with it) but that's not TOO important. I'm mainly in it for the size.



Here's my situation:

For the first couple years of training it was mainly experimental stuff etc & I didn't really know a lot about diet/training etc. I then started to get more knowledgeable about things & designed my own routine based around what I had learnt. Over the years I've make some changes to it, but the general idea has stayed the same. I start off with routine number ONE & do it for 8 weeks. I then take a week off & change to routine number TWO & do that for 8 weeks. The only difference is that nearly every single exercise has changed, but they target the same muscles. E.g. I change from Barbell Bench to Dumbbell Bench or change from Close Grip Bench to Dips etc.

If after a while I'm starting to notice that I'm plateauing I'll change my rep ranges from 6-8 to 10-12. This usually helps, but recently I've noticed that even this isn't working that well anymore. I've never used a "cookie cutter" program such as Bill Starr's 5x5 before & am wondering whether it will do me any good to try it out for a while (I would use the advanced program). The thing is, like I mentioned above I'm going for mainly size & am not sure how well Bill Starr's 5x5 will benefit me in that section (e.g. is it mainly a strength routine?).

So basically I'm not sure whether to just stick with my routines & carry on the way I've been training (changing rep ranges/exercises every 8 weeks etc) & hope that the reason my gains have been slowing down is NOT the routine but other factors (diet, sleep etc?) OR I could change my routine completely & try out Bill Starr's 5x5. I could even try out something else, but the one thing I don't want to do is waste my time trying out a routine that hasn't been tested & shown to work. Routines like Bill Starr's 5x5 have been shown to work, so that's one of the reasons I'd choose it.


Bill Starr's 5x5 - http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow1/5x5_Program/Periodized_5x5.htm



Here are my routines I use & alternate like I mentioned above:

ROUTINE ONE (Ever so often I change from 6-8 to 10-12 reps)



Monday - Chest/Triceps/Traps

3 x 6 Flat Barbell Bench

3 x 6 Incline Dumbbell Bench

3 x 6 Flat Dumbbell Chest Flyes

3 x 6 Close Grip Bench Press

3 x 6 Skull Crushers

3 x 6 Barbell Shrugs


Wednesday - Back/Biceps

3 x 6 Weighted Pullups

3 x 6 Barbell Deadlifts

3 x 6 Barbell Rows

3 x 6 Dumbbell Rows

3 x 6 Barbell Curls

3 x 6 Hammer Curls


Friday - Legs/Shoulders

3 x 6 Barbell Full Squats

3 x 6 Straight Leg Deadlifts

3 x 15 Seated Calf Raises

3 x 6 Military Press

3 x 8 Bent Over BTB Raises

3 x 8 Side Lateral Raises

ROUTINE TWO (Ever so often I change from 6-8 to 10-12 reps)



Monday - Chest/Triceps/Traps

3 x 6 Flat Dumbbell Bench

3 x 6 Incline Barbell Bench

3 x 6 Incline Dumbbell Chest Flyes

3 x 6 Bench Dips

3 x 6 Triceps Extensions

3 x 6 Dumbbell Shrugs


Wednesday - Back/Biceps

3 x 6 Weighted Pullups

3 x 6 Rack Deadlifts

3 x 6 Barbell Corner Rows

3 x 6 Weighted Supine Rows

3 x 6 Preacher Curls

3 x 6 Standing DB Curls


Friday - Legs/Shoulders

3 x 6 Barbell Full Squats

3 x 6 Straight Leg Deadlifts

3 x 15 Single Arm Standing Calf Raises

3 x 6 Dumbbell Military Press

3 x 10 Lying BTB Raises

3 x 10 Lying Lateral Raises

 

[powerhawk]

I'd say try 5x5, you should make some solid strength gains from it.

 

[Vanchatron]

The thing is, I'm not too bothered about the strength though. It's the size I'm mainly interested in (see the GOALS section above).

 

[skyflyer231]

The type of routine you do has less to do with how much size you gain as your diet does.

As for my opinion on which of those 2 routines is better, I would say the 5x5 is much better than your current routine.

Reason being that it has a logical theory in progression, and you are hitting pretty much every muscle group 3 times a week. I'm actually pretty surprised you got to where you are doing that routine.

So in conclusion you want to get bigger, work on your diet and make a habit of prepping tons of food to eat. And at least try the 5x5 for a few months and see what happens.

 

[al420]

So in conclusion you want to get bigger, work on your diet and make a habit of prepping tons of food to eat. And at least try the 5x5 for a few months and see what happens.

Perfect advice. Hugeness is a journey, not a destination, and you will ahve to switch up programs a lot over the course of time.

Lee Preist trains at the same gym as I do, and I have had many discussions with him. He used to train super heavy w/ low reps, now he trains super light and does 25-50 reps on a given exercise.

 

[highlander555]

About a year ago I made the switch from strictly bodybuilding to strength training (like the 5x5 program). Surprisingly, once I stopped caring about only being big and started focusing on increasing my strength, my overall size and muscle quality increased dramatically. It was weird in that when only wanted to get big, progess was slow. Once I stopped carring about being big, I exploded.
Go fig!?

 

[TheOak84]

The thing is, I'm not too bothered about the strength though. It's the size I'm mainly interested in (see the GOALS section above).

Strength = size... with proper diet