Question about this 5x5 split...

[seizer]

Madcow, now my first week is over. Pretty solid, but i have a couple of regrets. 1) According to what the regime in you say, i should be pretty speedy with my 5x5's...which isn't the case...i can push out the force easier than i normally can, but if by what u mean by speedy is like 1 second down 2 up, then i fail. Also, for the 1x5's, on espeacially my bench, i definitely put too much too soon. I could push it, but my first weeks work shouldn't have felt like that. I guess its obvious what i have to do now - bring down the load next week, but my question now is wont this affect the whole dual theory in that i am not raising next week but decreasing? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose? I guess it would, perhaps i'll take this week as experimental hoping it wont affect further results too much. Not that im stupid with all these q's, i just wanna be wise with my time and energy spent in the gym, i dont want to assume details, i want to know them. With that said, say my max bench was 185 or something. What would i want to START at for 5x5's and 1x5's and what would u think is the best weekly weight increment for both? 5 pounds each?

 

[Madcow2]

There's too many variables for me to program weights accruately - this is why a training log is valuable and having been through the program once or twice makes just a massive difference when someone isn't used to this type of training. I screwed around with some numbers but what's applicable to one person is not going to crush or be too little for another.

I personally would start out fairly easy for week 1. You should be moving at a good clip. You shouldn't need major rest between sets. When I say accelerate the bar, you're just moving it as quickly as you are able, you don't need to be flying around with it. What you don't want to do is get the bar moving and then lower the force output by keeping it moving at a constant rate. You'll get much better training like this and be able to handle heavier weights better. On the really heavy sets the bar will move slow no matter what because you can't accelerate it much. That's fine, just keep trying. A good way to get the feel for this is to work with bands popular at westside.

Week 2 should be pretty moderate because week 3 is going to be hard and you want to be ready to make the jump.

Week 3/4 are record weeks.

Week 5 is deloading so dropping wed squat and keeping the weight constant but pulling volume is going to be a lot easier (it's a happy week trust me).

For the intensity phase just move up from that point.

After you've been through, you'll be conditioned and be able to know better how to set the weights and you can experiment starting heavier or lighter than the last time to see how your body responds to increased or decreased loading.

If you think you truly botched this week and won't be able to get much more than a 5/10 pound increase over the course. You might want to take a breather week. Workout twice with low volume, figure out your best 1x5 and 1x3 for the bench squat row and begin again with more info. Normally I'd say don't do this because it sets a shitty quitting precedent. You'll probably be just fine working through, which is what I'd do but if you really blew it and need to slash the weight for next week or you're working just a maginal amount off your record weeks already - that could be an issue. But, like I said, everybody botches this program the first time through unless they are really good at this stuff and those people are generally not seeking advice on internet forums and this is nothing new to them.

I'd likely just suck it up, work through and push hard. There are a few valves. For instance on your 5x5 squats, you can do 3 sets at X weight and 2 sets at X-Y weight. The week after do all sets at X weight or something. I know I'm rambling but the first time through is a learning experience anyway (amply rewarded though) so you might as well just buck up and work through it.

 

[seizer]

Buckin it up then! Thanks for the important madcow. I know i can still handle the weights for the next few weeks, its just i dunno if i will beable to push with the max speeds...w/e. Like u said, its a learning experience. Besides a challenge never hurt.

 

[Madcow2]

Your max speed is whatever it is you can do. If you are pushing as hard as you can, the weight will move as fast as you are able.

Wednesday will be easier to get the feel of it on the squats anyway.

 

[Richie_Awesome]

I'm the one who wrote the post. If you want some inclines in the program, swap them in for military on Wednesday. This is fairly common. If you do use the militaries they should be standing barbell preferably - and don't ever use a smith machine for any of this. Eventually you could also do very low incline benches in place of the flats - a typical incline bench's angle decreases the amount of weight used too much. But for now, just do inclines instead of military. It works very well.

As a general rule - run this program the way it is intended. It has all the best exercises and is setup by two of the best strength coaches to walk the planet. The best course of action to take is to simply put your trust in them (like many incredible athletes have), run on full autopilot, work hard in the gym, eat big and reap the rewards.

Invariably every person used to BBer workouts wants to screw with it in some way (you are #5 in the past 5 days believe it or not) but I liken this to Sesame Street's Elmo giving neurosurgery tips at NYU. He's cute, fuzzy, has good intentions, but the most likely outcome is that little Elmo is going to labotomize some guy if you let him touch the scalpel.

You can run the full program back to back without problems (obviously you'll need to adjust your weights before begining a new cycle because you will be stronger).

Here is a post on Bentover Rows - worth a read (two variations are presented - one in the beginning and the other towards the end): http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=366601

Wow, great reply.

 

[thesuaveone]

How many pages back did it take you to find this post? Sheesh.