Update on my Linear 5x5

[eat big]

Just completed the second Wednesday. Everything is going well thus far. The weight was a little heavier than I would like to feel already but we'll see what happens. I added a few things -- I know it's blasphemer! I added Pullups on Wednesday and Military Presses on Monday. That's it. Squatting three times a week is getting to me already. I feel exhausted but not sore in my lower body much more now.

 

[anotherbutters]

A common setup is:

Mon: squat, bench, rows
Wed: front squat, dead, military press, chins/pullups
Fri: squat, bench, rows

 

[djeclipse]

A common setup is:

Mon: squat, bench, rows
Wed: front squat, dead, military press, chins/pullups
Fri: squat, bench, rows

This is the set up I've been using and have had good sucess so far.

 

[Cynical Simian]

Good to hear everything's going well. It sounds like the volume is a bit of an adjustment. I assume you just plugged values into the spreadsheet to get your ramp from week to week and set to set, but depending on how well you acclimate to the volume, you might want to decrease the weight of the non-work sets a bit or lower the amount of assistance work.

AB and DJ are correct about where most people put OHP. Unless you're doing it in an higher rep range in place of one of the tricep assistance exercises, substituting it for incline bench on Wed. is probably the best way to go.

 

[eat big]

Good to hear everything's going well. It sounds like the volume is a bit of an adjustment. I assume you just plugged values into the spreadsheet to get your ramp from week to week and set to set, but depending on how well you acclimate to the volume, you might want to decrease the weight of the non-work sets a bit or lower the amount of assistance work.

AB and DJ are correct about where most people put OHP. Unless you're doing it in an higher rep range in place of one of the tricep assistance exercises, substituting it for incline bench on Wed. is probably the best way to go.

Here's my spreadsheet I made for it. I use it for just the military press for now. All sets are for 5 reps. If I can find some way to put this online, you all can use it too.

I know, I'm fucking with the program etc. and that's frowned upon and all. I felt that I needed some chins and one shoulder exercise per week.

 

[eat big]

You think it's too much volume?

It's nothing compared to what I used to do.

 

[fortunatesun]

How's your bench? You kick that plateau yet?

 

[Cynical Simian]

My volume comment was based on your description of yourself as "exhausted." Even with the ramped sets, you might be surprised how much weight you're moving each week on a program like this relative to an assistance-heavy split. Why didn't you substitute OHP for incline bench on Wednesdays?

 

[eat big]

My volume comment was based on your description of yourself as "exhausted." Even with the ramped sets, you might be surprised how much weight you're moving each week on a program like this relative to an assistance-heavy split. Why didn't you substitute OHP for incline bench on Wednesdays?

Cause my upper chest is awful. It won't grow. I need to use this program for my benefit.

My three weak areas are my upper chest, delts and back width which is why I just didn't want to overlook them anymore than I already have. This is summer time for me, have plenty of time to rest etc. so I figured I'd go for it. Especially since I just took two weeks off.

 

[eat big]

Just completed my second Friday W/O and I must say today's triples were much easier than last weeks. Must be working a little for me already maybe. We'll see how it goes. Could've gotten five for my triples today if I wanted to. Yes!

 

[blut wump]

What exercisee layout are you using across the three days?

 

[eat big]

What exercisee layout are you using across the three days?

I'll get some flak for this but here it goes, I changed it a little, I know -- bad.


Monday
Squat
Bench
Row
Military (4x5 with ramping weight, much like Wednesday)

Wednesday
Squat
Inc Bench
Deads
Pullups

Friday
Squat
Bench
Row

All assistance exercises are the same. I just added pullups and military.

 

[xblitz44x]

Actually I think it looks like a solid program. Good luck with it.

 

[blut wump]

I'm a fan of doing Military with flat bench so long as either one is viewed as main exercise and the other as assistance. It looks fine to me.

 

[Cynical Simian]

Yeah, it's fine. The OHP on Monday is the only odd thing; nearly everybody adds chins on Wednesday. Madcow's "don't fuck with the exercises" is more a warning against replacing squats with preacher curls or something absurd like that. Just be aware of how it affects you (if at all) as you move into PR territory and be willing to move things around if it's compromising your benching later in the week.

 

[eat big]

Alright cool, thanks. Will post all my questions and PR's in this thread.

 

[eat big]

This is week 4 for me and it isn't too hard yet which is good news. I did underestimate my 5 rep maxes a little as many suggested doing. So that could be what's keeping me going. For example, I just did 5x5 on squats with 310 (which I entered as my 5 rep max). About two months ago I could do 5x5 with 325. I took a break for two weeks about 6 weeks ago, came back after two weeks off and could barely get 315 5 times so I set the 5 rep max at 310 and it's working well.

Will keep you all updated.