Who agrees with me on 5X5's

[General Sus]

I still am pretty iffy about that 5X5's routine. I mean if you only work 1 or 2 body parts at the most a day you are getting minimal growth phases over a period of a year. Plus if you were to make it a 3 day split Mon/Wed/Fri and work 3 body parts per day I think that would be classified as overtraining.Depending on how you set up your body parts.(Push/Pull/Legs) ect.Once again everyones routine will be different. I was just wondering what you mentors and pros thought ?

 

[Mike_Rojas]

I'm not a mentor or pro, but I have an opinion .

Let's say your routine is like this:

Day 1 Chest
Day 2 Legs
Day 3 Rest
Day 4 Arms/Shoulders
Day 5 Rest
Day 6 Back
Day 7 Rest

Your chest/shoulders/triceps are all getting hit twice a week (Day 1 you do benches, Day 4 you do close grip benches and military presses.)

Your Lower Body is getting hit twice a week (Leg day you do squats, Back day you to deadlifts. Deadlifts are not strictly a back exercise - they really hit the lower back/glutes/ and hams.

Your arms get hit on arm day with curls, and with rows and pullups on back day.

You see what I'm saying? The muscles don't really work in isolation, especially if you do exercises like squats, deads, benches, rows, military presses, etc.

 

[Tom Treutlein]

I'd have to agree with Mike in this case. I do feel that doing 5x5, then 2x8 with two exercises for arms is too much. Shoulders, triceps, and biceps are all smaller muscle groups and don't need 9 sets at all. I'd say use 3x5 and one exercise with 2x8 for them. Makes more sense to me. Actually, I wouldn't use low reps with biceps, triceps and shoulders. I'd keep the 5 reps strictly to deadlifts, squats, and bench presses.

 

[Dave949]

I agree with both Mike and Tom and aside from the excellent points they both made I would like to add something into the equation. You DO NOT have to follow a particular routine
(in this case 5x5) to an absolute T. You can follow the core principals and the meat and potatoes of the routine but you can make changes to suit your own individual
needs / likes / dislikes. aka instinctive training.

One small example for instance: You don`t have to do 5 x 5 for everything. You can do 3x5 or whatever. (Tom hit on this in his post also). Keeping the core principals intact and making slight deviations according to your own instinctiveness will by no means minimize the impact of the routine but you will actually enhance the routine by customizing it to suit your own individual needs while at the same time keeping the (core value) of the routine perfectly intact.

And who can argue with what works for you ?

Answer: No one can.........

 

[needsize]

I've always said that the routine can be tailored to individual needs. For arms, I tend to do all 9 sets as thats what mine need to grow, but i've put others on a similar routine with less sets to suit their body, and that worked too.
For quads, I only do 6-7 sets max, and they are by far my best bodypart...its all about finding what works for you

 

[HS Lifter]

Do you increase the weight every week with the 2X8-10 exercises?

Or only with the 5x5?

 

[chewyxrage]

Do you increase the weight every week with the 2X8-10 exercises?

Or only with the 5x5?

it's not as important to be increasing the 2x8-10 exercises.

if you are continually going up with the 5x5 you will most likely be too spent to continually increase the other two.

 

[Tom Treutlein]

it's not as important to be increasing the 2x8-10 exercises.

if you are continually going up with the 5x5 you will most likely be too spent to continually increase the other two.

Exactly.

 

[JKurz1]

I agree with myself............5x5 is a very balanced and solid routine, no matter how you cut it.........

 

[General Sus]

Thanks guys appreciate the feedback!

 

[leatherface]

Agreeing with mike and needsize and everyone else that posted anything similiar Great routine, muscles are hit directly once a week, but also indirectly atleast 1 more time. blah blah..not enough time to post anything else

 

[protobe]

I'll tell you that 5x5 works i've gotten 1/2 inch in my arms,20lbs to squat and 20lbs to inclined press in 2 months. It all depends on how well you work with the program. Its great at one big workout to totally tax and destroy the muscle then the rest of the wekk recover (that muscle) its great. I will be doing the HST in april but until than i'm just gona sit back and watch the gains.

 

[Griz1]

I'll certainly attest to the success of a solid 5X5/3X5 routine. I'm currently banging away with a 3X5 on most body parts and I'm still seeing gains. Wish I'd started training this way YEARS ago. I be a bigger MF than I am now.

That being said IMO I still recognize that what works for some, may not necessarily work for others. 5X5 has definately worked for me (185lbs to 212 in a year and half at the same bf). I am a walking short term 5X5 success story. But if someone followed what I did it may just fail miserably and they may be better suited to HST, Westside, DC, whatever...

Matching other factors to 5X5 is CRITICAL IMO. Look at Needsize, he's eating 450g of protien a day. I'm doing a minimum of 2X my weight usually pushing it towards 3X and without that protien intake (all CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN FOODS!!), and vitamins, it likely wouldn't have worked. Protein and veggies!!

 

[gymtime]

I'd have to agree with Mike in this case. I do feel that doing 5x5, then 2x8 with two exercises for arms is too much. Shoulders, triceps, and biceps are all smaller muscle groups and don't need 9 sets at all. I'd say use 3x5 and one exercise with 2x8 for them. Makes more sense to me. Actually, I wouldn't use low reps with biceps, triceps and shoulders. I'd keep the 5 reps strictly to deadlifts, squats, and bench presses.

Normally, I would agree with this. I think it's too much for smaller muscle groups. However, my own experience says otherwise.

I've been doing the 5x5 for around four months now, very happy with it to say the least. For several years now, my bis have been very stubborn. They got as big as they were gonna get and I've really only been maintaining them despite trying different strategies to add a little more size.

My bis are finally getting more in proportion to my tris. And the only thing I've done differently is the 5x5 on the first set, followed by 2-4 lighter sets.

And I don't mean to say that you're wrong simply because my experience was different. I agree with needsize about tailoring the excercises to your strengths and weaknesses. What I like most about the 5x5 is how adaptable it is. But, like any other workout, it will affect different people differently.