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This is a 3 day per week program (at least the ones that I referenced - apparently there is another popular program running around the BBing boards that is also called 5x5 but this is the famous one of the same name). I happen to really like it because it provides a lot of extra time during the week for an athlete to pursue skills in his or her own sport (or do whatever you want) without compromising progress on your overall foundation of strength and power. These workouts get damn hard in the last weeks of the volume and intensity phases. The deloading periods are welcome when they come.
I wouldn't ever really bother training calves directly. Increase your squat and pull and your calve power will increase (dynamic pulling i.e. power cleans/high pulls/power shrugs) can also work these effectively.
The primary drivers for long term arm growth are overall body mass generators (squats/dead/heavy presses/rows). Direct work just tends to flush them out a bit. If it really worked well you can bet by now that one of the noodlearms in the gym who spend their lives training bis would have lucked into the right combination. If they spent their lives pulling and squatting - they'd be a lot bigger and have bigger arms. You can throw in a single bicept and a single tricept exercise if you wish. If volume gets overly hard, cut these if you choose.
The athletes in question are generally close to a class restriction or are already near their ideal weight for their sport. Take that to mean, low body fat levels. Diet is kind of outside the scope of all this. To be honest, get enough protein, space the protein throughout the day, take in more calories than your body needs to maintain itself (if you already have some decent fat on you, you are covering this). Satisfying basic dietary needs for growth is not rocket science but it is also not a license to indulge. Eat what you need but if the goal is to get bigger it will be very hard if you are worried about a gram of this and a gram of that straining out your egg whites. In short, eat to grow and the program will do the rest. If body fat levels are rising too quickly, scale back your carb/fat a bit and overall calories should adjust.
EDIT - I'm considering doing a complete write up of this program for this board. It's in 1000 other places around the net but this is a very easy to use program and it's a good illustration of regulating volume and intensity with the 2 distinct phases and the deloading week in the middle. It's very bodybuilder friendly once the powercleans are subbed out. I might also throw in some instructions for basic dynamic pulling.
I wouldn't ever really bother training calves directly. Increase your squat and pull and your calve power will increase (dynamic pulling i.e. power cleans/high pulls/power shrugs) can also work these effectively.
The primary drivers for long term arm growth are overall body mass generators (squats/dead/heavy presses/rows). Direct work just tends to flush them out a bit. If it really worked well you can bet by now that one of the noodlearms in the gym who spend their lives training bis would have lucked into the right combination. If they spent their lives pulling and squatting - they'd be a lot bigger and have bigger arms. You can throw in a single bicept and a single tricept exercise if you wish. If volume gets overly hard, cut these if you choose.
The athletes in question are generally close to a class restriction or are already near their ideal weight for their sport. Take that to mean, low body fat levels. Diet is kind of outside the scope of all this. To be honest, get enough protein, space the protein throughout the day, take in more calories than your body needs to maintain itself (if you already have some decent fat on you, you are covering this). Satisfying basic dietary needs for growth is not rocket science but it is also not a license to indulge. Eat what you need but if the goal is to get bigger it will be very hard if you are worried about a gram of this and a gram of that straining out your egg whites. In short, eat to grow and the program will do the rest. If body fat levels are rising too quickly, scale back your carb/fat a bit and overall calories should adjust.
EDIT - I'm considering doing a complete write up of this program for this board. It's in 1000 other places around the net but this is a very easy to use program and it's a good illustration of regulating volume and intensity with the 2 distinct phases and the deloading week in the middle. It's very bodybuilder friendly once the powercleans are subbed out. I might also throw in some instructions for basic dynamic pulling.
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