my dual factor 5x5 journal

[enigma4dub]

After several months (probably longer) of reading through the training forum i have decided to try my own dual factor 5x5. I have been training seriously for about 3 and a half years. my weight is about 203 and im 6' tall. My goals are signifigant mass and strength gains. ultimately, down the road i'd like to be 230 and about 8% bf

week 1 monday
squats 1x5 215
bench 5x5 245
row 5x5 185 pendlay

dont know if I set the weights too high to start, will find out as weeks go on.

 

[Madcow2]

Good luck on your program. It's encouraging to see someone who has only 1 post and was able to read and digest everything on their own. Sometimes with all the questions I kind of wonder if the information needs to be altered more.

Anyway, if you have questions just ask. Lots of people here can help. Also there is an updated table of contents here for now until I get things finalized. It links to everything here and is a lot more current than the 1st post in the thread. http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow1/table_of_contents_thread.htm

 

[enigma4dub]

madcow,to be honest with you i have read and re-read almost everything you and the others have posted regarding the 5x5. so many people have asked a lot of the same questions over and over again and a lot of it has sunk in. but not to worry the questions will be coming! for instance, for the wednesday workout are the squats, deads, standing overhead presses and pull ups all done in five sets of five and how do i approach the warm ups for these excercises?

 

[Madcow2]

for instance, for the wednesday workout are the squats, deads, standing overhead presses and pull ups all done in five sets of five and how do i approach the warm ups for these excercises?

Yeah they are all 5x5 with single working set weight. For warm ups, and this is true for any warm ups unless like the 1x5 days your warm ups (or at least some of them) are implicitly part of the volume, you want to warm up your joints, muscles, etc... Do not grab 135 and do 15 reps. 1) that will unnecessarily fatigue you 2) pumping a lot of blood into a cold muscle is a recipe for disaster. So anyway, if you are totally cold, you might start with the bar for a set or so, then scale upward in weight doing as much work as you need to accomodate the targeted working sets. I generally go by feel but you'll rarely see me do much more than 2-5 reps unless the weight is very light.

 

[enigma4dub]

for the 1x5 days would you say that you do about 4 warm up sets 2-5 reps prior to the working weight? set with progressiveley higher weight? if i remember correctly i did the bar for like 6-7 then front squats with bar 6-7 followed by 95x5
115x4
135x3
155x2
215x5

 

[tay1506]

good luck with ur journal ill be reading i wanted to start myself up one but i dont have the time atleast i can compare our strength gains because i just started the 5 x 5 today