wow, sorry for the long ass post.
lol bro i made a huge mistake well not huge but well i added in a arm day on sat which was suppose to be my off day and so today is monday and my tries and bies are totally fryed lol. so yah i think im just not gona fuck around with it anymore and just stick out with it. any other tips you could share with me, you seem to know your shyt when it comes to this program
I am no way an expert on anything, I was here when Madcow first started sharing his 5x5 with us. I've done my research, read his site and spoke with him though PM's and e-mail many times about the program. He was very active here and on other lifting message boards, he for what ever reason wanted to share this program/ way of lifting with us and educate us. I have a pretty good understanding of Madcow's 5 x 5 program, what is involved, and why works.
In the 90's and early 2000's for the most part our only information about lifting came from muscle mags that had one goal... to sell us a bunch of supplements. In those mags these crappy useless workout routines that we all believed to work so well because there was a picture of some juiced up Body Builder, telling us we could add an inch to our arms if we did his wicked dope 50 sets Bie workout. So of course when the internet came, and message boards became popular those were the types of programs that flooded the message boards (for the most part).
So of course, not knowing any better we followed those types of workouts. Sure over time people would see results, with the help of juice some saw better results than others. But what we didn't know, or what we were too blind to see that type of training wasn't optimal for growth and strength.
Madcow came here and shared with us the 5x5 thanklessly answered questions and wrote what were pretty much articles on the subject. Then one day when he felt enough people have learned from him, enough to pass that info on, and keep it going he left, his work was done I guess.
Unfortunately, like I said earlier, it is human nature to take something that is simple and works, change, it make it complicated and completely mess it up. lol Not long after Madcow left and a lot of people started training this way others took notice because they were getting results in a very short time. "5 x 5" name in itself became popular and you started to see many imitation programs that called themselves 5 x 5 but had nothing to do with the Madcow/ Bill star 5 x 5. Even some online mags (and probably paper mags) had their butchered version of the "5 x 5" program, that was nothing like the real thing. The irony would be that they have butchered the program so bad that it was completely opposite as far as theory of the original 5 x 5. Adding in extra shit, most were just your typical one body part/ week split just 5 sets of 5 reps for the exercises, lol
Every once and a while I'll get an e-mail notification that someone has made a post in some thread I once replied to years ago. So I'll come and check it out. This board goes through stages, sometimes it will lean towards the old school one body part/ week type routines, and every now and again you start seeing people going back to the basics and you'll see a bunch of 5 x 5 threads again.
Before the 5x5 I was one of those one body part/ week guy. Training 5-6 times/ week, sore every day, doing way too many sets for Chest, Back, bies, what ever. It took a lot for me to give that up and try a program that was only major compound lifts and only 3x per week.
At first it feels like nothing, you are tempted to add in another day, or a bunch of extra crap, but I stuck with it, just as it was laid out, to a T. After week 4 when you start making 5-10lb Personal Bests on all your lifts you realize tha program does work. Soon you look back and realize you have added 30-40lbs to your bench press, 50-60lbs to your deadlift, & squat, you look in the mirror and you are bigger, but not just bigger in the chest, or arms, you are bigger everywhere. You look back and realize it simply works. And the best part is it is only 3 times a week, which leaves 4 days a week to do what ever you want, for me it is sports. As long as you get enough rest though as rest is just as important as lifting.
Anyway.... Ya, if the accessory work is getting in the way of your big lifts don't bother with it.
Missing a Bench Press PR is not worth a few sets of tries. Ditch the isolation work and keep moving big weight, that is what will make you grow. As madcow said, if you feel you need to do isolation, add in 2-3 sets of curls, and 2-3 sets of some triceps movement at the end of friday. Just one movement, 2-3 sets though, not an entire workout.
Isolation is only used to help if a part of the body is lacking.
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