Weight gains from 5x5 the mad version????

[marqui77]

What were your weight gains like? I decided to try it, my first workout went really well on monday. I used the needsize version last year and made great gains. I am hoping to gain some quality mass and strength from this.

 

[RipStone]

Weight gain is gonna be dicated by what kind of caloric surplus you are in, not really by your training program. Having said that, if you are eating at a caloric surplus while doing Madcow's 5x5, you should gain a good deal of strength, size, and weight.

 

[Madcow2]

On the very first page of the table of contents is around 8-10 different accounts of those trying to bulk from when the program first started getting popular here: So check post #1 in the thread or scroll down and look at the bottom of section 1 here: http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow1/table_of_contents_thread.htm

To be honest, I've considered removing it since a lot of people on a lot of boards seem to have had a good amount of success. Maybe I should leave it up a bit longer - it's certainly not current though. Just too many people and I've lost track. Maybe some people can link their journals for you.

 

[marqui77]

On the very first page of the table of contents is around 8-10 different accounts of those trying to bulk from when the program first started getting popular here: So check post #1 in the thread or scroll down and look at the bottom of section 1 here: http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow1/table_of_contents_thread.htm

To be honest, I've considered removing it since a lot of people on a lot of boards seem to have had a good amount of success. Maybe I should leave it up a bit longer - it's certainly not current though. Just too many people and I've lost track. Maybe some people can link their journals for you.

Got it! Seems like the average weight gain was about 15lb, which is really good. I know diet plays alot, I am not concerned about that, I was just looking to get some feed back. I'm allways kinda excited to start a new workout program, to see how my body will respond to the stimuli.

 

[Madcow2]

Well - it's been around a long time and worked accross a lot of people. Pretty simple recipe to increase the big lifts. And the easiest recipe I know for gaining muscle is to increase the big lifts in a decent hypertrophy range and eat. There is no rocket science. I think the worst cases I've seen are people getting stronger without gaining weight - that basically means the program is working but they aren't eating enough (or they'd at least get fat if the program sucked and calories were there to grow). In every case I saw, when they increased their intake, the muscle started to show up for them quite nicely.

 

[blut wump]

I don't really eat to grow but I know that my body has changed composition a lot over the past year. I've dropped about 6-7% bodyfat at a bodyweight of around 270 lbs. This equates to about 15-20lbs of new muscle since last Jan or Feb. That's actually a bit of a shock to me, I hadn't bothered to calculate it before.

 

[cubuff27]

Everybody is just so vastly different that it would be impossible to say how much weight you would gain. So many factors like genetics, motivation, juice, enviroment, and such just take every one down there own separate path. The big thing for me has been to keep a decent journal of your lifting weights and diet so you can correlate the two. It is great motivation to see my week one squat at 295 for 5x5 and my week 5 at 365 for 1x5..which is good for me. It is a kick lately to see 335 on the bar and know I am going ATF on that lift. I see tons of people with 315 on the bar doing 1/2 squats. Then when I see the look on people's faces when I step away and drop my ass to the floor...it is almost as good as the strength gains themselves.

 

[doyouyahoo]

Everybody is just so vastly different that it would be impossible to say how much weight you would gain. So many factors like genetics, motivation, juice, enviroment, and such just take every one down there own separate path. The big thing for me has been to keep a decent journal of your lifting weights and diet so you can correlate the two. It is great motivation to see my week one squat at 295 for 5x5 and my week 5 at 365 for 1x5..which is good for me. It is a kick lately to see 335 on the bar and know I am going ATF on that lift. I see tons of people with 315 on the bar doing 1/2 squats. Then when I see the look on people's faces when I step away and drop my ass to the floor...it is almost as good as the strength gains themselves.

Totally agree. I'm doing 2days on 1off, training each body part twice per week. Works good so far, and it beats being sore the entire time.