Bill Starr's 5 x 5 program... Variation per Madcow2 (thanx) So here it is! K up now!

[Madcow2]

Yeah man, conditioning will come with time as will one's ability to tolerate greater training loads. You can only manage so much at once. This is why when people decide to try training their bodyparts 2x per week most fail horribly. The wind up taking their 1x per week program and doing it twice. Weekly load is increased by 100% instantly. They might be able to gradually work up to this load over a long period but a 100% increase almost guarantees failure unless the base was bad. A better option would be distributing existing volume more evenly and then gradually increasing it.

When I say push hard I mean within the confines of the program - which has been tailored to a degree and the load seems to be about right for most BBers as is and can be increased in several ways as needed to accomodate those who require more as they gain experience. There's no hurry though, if you are consistently gaining strength in a hypertrophy range and making progress - keep at it. Keep a journal and gradually you'll begin to find out what's right for you and dial everything in better.

 

[Madcow2]

in week 9 right now. Im definitely gonna run this again, so should i start the next 5x5 at the weight that i last left the 5x5 off before the deload. My last week of the 5x5 was at 150 so should i start off the next run at it with that weight or move it up a little.

Not at all. You can't start at your best lifts otherwise there is no room to scale/ramp upward. This is covered in my main description in the TOC but essentially you can take your previous records and put them in week 3 for the 5x5/1x5, work up to those, and exceed them in week 4. Of course this may be pretty conservative and you might be significantly stronger so play it by ear and adjust as required so that you are pushing hard in the final two record weeks.

 

[Madcow2]

Re: Bill Starr's 5 x 5 program... Variation per Madcow2 (thanx) So here it is! K up n

madcow, i apologize if im being pushy and you did see my post, but im guessing you happened to overlook it with all the people asking you questions (including me). um yeah, thanks

psst madcow don't mean to bother you but do you read your inbox at all?

also i was wondering about the value of the old powerlifting periodization which generally is something like this:

week 1+2: 2x12
week 3+4: 2x10
week 5+6: 2x8
week 7+8: 2x6
week 9+10: 2x4
week 11+12: 2x2
week 13: 1x1 with new max
I heard these were crappy and that the earlier weeks have no real carryover to the later ones and thats what pushed me away from periodization in the beginning. On the other hand, Ed Coan is a big fan of this style.

(i dunno if this belongs here, for some reason i keep getting an error when trying to make a new thread)

Yeah, I forgot to get back to you. But I actually wrote something fairly pertinent on it the other day so I'll just requote myself:

Source Post: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showpost.php?p=5973067&postcount=9

For most advanced lifters hypertrophy and strength increases aren't going to come linearly week to week. Also when periodizing you might have blocks of training where you are gradually tapering over a longer period i.e. month to month but within any single month you might have 2 fairly taxing weeks of loading. I'm not of the mind that an old school PL style taper over a period of 10+ weeks is the best way to do it mainly because I feel that fitness drops off too significantly. Coan used to use these a lot and if you've followed him you've no doubt heard that his best lifts were never in competitions but in training. I believe he's claimed to have doubled 900 in the DL in the gym and posted some other ungodly lifts. I would say that constant tapering of volume over that many weeks decreases fitness too significantly whereas a very similarly purposed program can maintain fitness levels and gradually disappate fatigue over the course of a long period to allow the lifter to arrive at peak condition (link below talks about cycles of 3 years of relative loading and 1 year of deloading to synch with the Olympics).

Snipped

 

[Boss101]

When you do the 2x intensity phase you drop Fridays workout and do 3x3 for everything. Mondays workout is squat 3x3, bench 1x3, row 1x3 and Fridays workout is squat 1x3, bench 3x3, row 3x3.

My question is since I'm dropping Fridays workout do I just add 2 more sets to the 1x3, bench and row on Monday or do I just use the weights from the 3x3 bench, row from Fridays workout and put them into Mondays workout? I hope this is clear.

 

[blut wump]

When you do the 2x intensity phase you drop Fridays workout and do 3x3 for everything. Mondays workout is squat 3x3, bench 1x3, row 1x3 and Fridays workout is squat 1x3, bench 3x3, row 3x3.

My question is since I'm dropping Fridays workout do I just add 2 more sets to the 1x3, bench and row on Monday or do I just use the weights from the 3x3 bench, row from Fridays workout and put them into Mondays workout? I hope this is clear.

Clear as mud.
Take Friday's week4 5x5 weights to transition into week5 3x3 for row and bench on Monday. Monday then is squat 3x3, bench 3x3, row 3x3 plus appropriate warmups as needed.

I'm moving the Weds then to Thurs for light squat, deads, MP, chins.

 

[Boss101]

Thanks thats what I thought just making sure. I'm going to do the 2x a week intensity phase like you on Mon/Thurs this time around.

 

[TheOak84]

a comment on my back and delts, all these heavy rows for 9 weeks made my back and bis and grip so much stronger. just for fun, i did close grip cable rows and did the stack (300) for 5 reps, ive never in my life did over 200 for reps. and my delts are do much rounder. pressing rules. even though my delts overpower my chest, appearence wise, i dont mind. i can wait to see the gains the 2nd time around

i have 2 more days left, today and friday.. then im doin 1 week od sets of 20 for squat bench and dead.. then a week of max testing, then a week off, then start the routine over, i cant wait

 

[JL_204]

hey madcow, i caught a cold/flu so i had to miss day 1 of deload (tuesday).
I know this happened to someone else running this program but they went on anyway and still had some gains.
I plan on going back to the gym on thursday but do you think i should deload for 2 weeks before upping the wieghts, or will that just completely botch the program???

BTW it seems everytime i start to see gains in the gym i get sick. It doesnt help with the shit weather up here either. It went from 30 c last week to a rainy 5 c this week.

 

[TheOak84]

Re: Bill Starr's 5 x 5 program... Variation per Madcow2 (thanx) So here it is! K up n

my first 5x5 routine, all workouts, and progress

Squat|220 |230 |240 |250 |250 |270 |280 |295 |305 |
Bench|255 |265 |275 |285 |295 |305 |315 |325 |335 |
Row |205 |210 |225 |225 |245 |245 |245 |225 | cgr |
Curl |85 |95 |125 |135 |145 |145 |135 |145 |125 |

Dead |220 |230 |240 |250 |250 |315 |325 |335 |335 |
Squat|175 |185 |195 |205 | x | x | x | x | x |
OHP |120 |130 |150 |160 |160 |170 |185 |190 |205 |
Chin/ |bw |5 |10 | x | x |190 |200 |215 |225 |
pulldown

Squat|275 |285 |295 |315 |325 |335 |345 |355 |355 |
Bench|205 |215 |225 |245 |255 |265 |275 |285 |295 |
Row |160 |160 |170 |185 |195 | x |205 |215 |225 |
Shrug|275 |295 |315 |325 |315 |335 |405 |405 |405 |


i havent done friday yet, but i predict thats what ill do, im redoing squats because i didnt like how i did them last friday, on shrugs the first time was 405x5, the next week 8, ill attpemt 10 this week.

i still have 2 more weeks of training before i begin the next one.

ill post my before and after maxes in 2 weeks also, after i test for them.

 

[swordfish151]

hey madcow, i caught a cold/flu so i had to miss day 1 of deload (tuesday).
I know this happened to someone else running this program but they went on anyway and still had some gains.
I plan on going back to the gym on thursday but do you think i should deload for 2 weeks before upping the wieghts, or will that just completely botch the program???

BTW it seems everytime i start to see gains in the gym i get sick. It doesnt help with the shit weather up here either. It went from 30 c last week to a rainy 5 c this week.

30 min after you PWO shake try taking in 500-1000mgs of Vit C bro...take a good multi and you should be good...good luck