My 5x5 workout totally SUCKED today. Needsize, need your input again.

[Slyder190]

I've been going strong on the routine for about 5-6 weeks now. I had back and delts today. Only got 4 on the last set of deads and on my final set of Hammer Strength rows I got 5 instead of 8. For delts I only got 3 on my 4th set. I was pretty mad at myself. Almost just walked out of the gym at that point in disgust. I got a solid 8 hours sleep last night and a good breakfast. What do I do now? Keep those weight s and give it another run next week?

 

[Atomic Punk]

May I ask, with all the different angles that you need to hit with the two muscle groups you mentioned, why you choose to do those on the same day? My two longest workouts(because of the fact that for shoulders you have 3 parts to work separately, and with back you need width as well as thickness lifts) are Delts & Back, and if there were 2 groups that I would never even consider soing on the same day, it would be those, right behind Quads & Hams. Just curious as to why you put such a heavy workload on the same day is all.

 

[Slyder190]

Workouts

I only workout 4 days a week with weights. better for recover I feel. My routine looks like this -

Mon - Arms, foreamrs and abs
Tues - legs and calves

Thurs - chest and abs
Fri - Back, delts and traps

I would not hit bi's and back on the same day, nor would I do tri's on the same day as delts or chest. Others like bi's and back and tri's and chest on the same day. For me, one of the muscle groups would suffer because it would be too exahusted to go all out.
Legs and calves I like to do on the same day. I just keep lower body movements all on the same day is all. So, delts get done after back, followed by just 2 sets of shrugs for traps.
That's the deal.

 

[BlkWS6]

First off I would give those weights another go next time around. However, if you do start stalling out maybe you should look into switching up to a 3x5 or a 5x3 for a bit. Doing either of these should allow you to keep adding weight longer and when you stall out on these, go back to the 5x5 weights you had trouble with and you should be able to handle them and keep going.

When I started stalling on the 5x5 I went to a 3x5 for a little while, then a 5x3 for some more time then back to the 5x5. When I got back around to that initial 5x5 weight I had trouble with, it was never a problem because I gained a lot of strenth with those other two variations. Give it a try! If NS has a better recommendation by all means follow it, but I believe he too would switch it up like this when he started to stall out. Hope this helps.

 

[Slyder190]

Thanks

thanks BLK - karma to you. Still would like to hear from the man himself wehn he gets a chance.

 

[Debaser]

Take a week off, then start off another training cycle with 75% of your previous maxes. It sounds like you are burned out. This is why cycling your training intensity is so effective.

 

[Slyder190]

time off

I just took 10 days off about 2 months back after not having a week off in over 4 months.

 

[needsize]

BlkWS6 hit the nail on the head, try switching to 5 sets of 3 reps, or 3x5 reps, I would suggest the first one though. That will allow you to keep adding weight for a while. When you plateau on that, go back to the weight you were stuck on today, and I bet it goes up easy

 

[Cut]

I've just hit a plateau on my 5X5 routine too. That 5X3 sounds like an excellent idea because I really didn't want to drop the weight back down. I'm going to give that a shot too.