5x5 question

[madein_korea]

For those of you that go by a 5x5 routine, do you do 5x5 for every exercise? or for only the first 1-2 exercises or something? and is a 5x5 scheme primarily for strength purposes? or do u use it for hypertrophy/strength?

[raymond3]

Ive done 5x5 before, actually one of my favorites..its good in my opinion not only for strength, but for cutting or bulking as well, depending on your diet. If you are in a caloric deficit, its good as it maintains strength and muscle to some degree, better than that high rep bs.

There are a few ways you could do the 5x5, but the most common, or what I did anyway, would be like this:

1 set 5 reps
1 set 5 reps
1 set 5 reps
1 set 4 reps
1 set 3 reps

You dont need to go failure either. Hope that helps.

[OldGuy]

The idea of a 5x5 is to do 5 sets of 5 reps. The 5th rep should be the last one you can get with good form. If you can do 6 (with good form) you need to increase the reps.

What raymond gave you is what may occur when you start doing a 5x5 routine. But your goal is to get 5 sets of 5 reps. When you can do that you need to increase the weight.

Check out this routine:

http://www.ruggedmag.com/index.php?type=Article&i=3&a=8

[madein_korea]

But would you do a 5x5 rep scheme for every exercise? say you were doing chest and you did flat, incline and decline....would you go 5x5 for each exercise? or would you do it for, say only flat, then go a little easier on the next exercises?

[OldGuy]

Your not going to do three exercises for chest in a 5x5 scheme. Once you finish 5 sets you would move onto another body part. Like in that routine in that link he mixes chest with curls, deadlifts with shoulder presses.

If you can do more on a body part after doing a 5x5 you're not doing it right.

[freeloader]

Usually the 5x5 stuff is for the big compounds, with some upper body push being done (e.g., bench, military), some pulling motion (e.g., deadlift, cleans, etc.), and some squatting motion (e.g., uh, squat). Other accessory or beach-type work is done with lighter weights and higher reps for 2 or 3 sets. If you really do 5x5 for squat, deads, and bench, believe me, you will not want to do much more.

[raymond3]

Originally posted by OldGuy:
The idea of a 5x5 is to do 5 sets of 5 reps. The 5th rep should be the last one you can get with good form. If you can do 6 (with good form) you need to increase the reps.

What raymond gave you is what may occur when you start doing a 5x5 routine. But your goal is to get 5 sets of 5 reps. When you can do that you need to increase the weight.

Check out this routine:

http://www.ruggedmag.com/index.php?type=Article&i=3&a=8

Yeah that is what I meant, but Oldguy said it better. You want to be able to do 5x5, once you can do all 5 sets and 5 reps, then you up the weight. Once you up the weight, or when you first start, for the first 3 sets or so you should be hitting the 5 reps, then on the 4th and 5th, you may only get out 4 or 5 reps...once you can complete all of the sets with 5 reps, then increase the weight.

Like the others said, you will be using compound movements, ie squats, deads, bench (only 1 flat or inclined, etc) weighted dips, chins, rows, military press..

Some split these up for example you may do 4 exercises on Monday and call it workout A...rest tues, then on Wed do 4 different exercises and call that workout B, then rest Thur, and on Friday do workout A again...then the following week switch it up (ie B,A,B)...just make sure you are balanced (push/pull, horizontal/vertical, etc) and you will be straight.

Or you could do the link Oldguy left you which is RRD, another setup, but effective.

Im doing "full body fat loss" which is from Ruggedmag as well...basically thats 2 days of 3x5, and two days of 3x12..kinda the best of both worlds.

[GqArtguy]

Go to www.testosterone.net and look up "OVT." Check out the link that Oldguy posted and then do a search on this forum for the "Bill Starr Routine."

This will show 3 of the many different ways to apply 5*5. As you will see, you can use it for cutting or bulking, size or strength (or both) depending on how you set things up.

[madein_korea]

thanks guys, i appreciate the posts