5X5 routine, experiences and tips??

Powerstroke32

Powerstroke32

New member
hey guys, i've been doing the same work out regiment for about 2 months now. I like to switch it up every 1-2 months. I'm planning on trying out the 5x5 routine starting monday (5 sets of 5 reps maximum weight) I never tried it before and hear good solid/strong gains from this regiment. my current regiment is 4 sets of 10,8,6,4

any of you work by this 5x5? and how does it work out for ya?? gains,response, soreness etc.
 
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WHY WOULD YOU TRY THIS ROUTINE ASK YOURSELF THAT
I TRIED IT BUT IT DID LITTLE FOR ME...OTHER THAN SLIGHT STRENGTH GAINS
I ACTUALLY LOOKED ATTROPHIED SLIGHTLY FROM DEREASED REPS
i CHANGED MY ROUTINE OUT TO 1 WEEK OF EVERY MONTH FOR HEAVY LOW REP CORE MOVEMENTS
OTHER THAN THAT I JUST CHANGED THINGS UP AND KEPT THINGS THE SAME
 
70w30 said:
WHY WOULD YOU TRY THIS ROUTINE ASK YOURSELF THAT
I TRIED IT BUT IT DID LITTLE FOR ME...OTHER THAN SLIGHT STRENGTH GAINS
I ACTUALLY LOOKED ATTROPHIED SLIGHTLY FROM DEREASED REPS
i CHANGED MY ROUTINE OUT TO 1 WEEK OF EVERY MONTH FOR HEAVY LOW REP CORE MOVEMENTS
OTHER THAN THAT I JUST CHANGED THINGS UP AND KEPT THINGS THE SAME
Click to expand...

figured i'd try something different. I heard good things about that routine, so you think i should stick with my 10,8,6,4 and one week out the month do the 5x5??
 
to really try out a routine and know if it works for you, you would need to use it for at least 6 + months you wouldnt know after 1.5 months bro
 
Everyone grows differently but Im doing the 5X5 right now.

I love it on leg day. I also do it on shoulder day but gains are much slower, I cant up the weight like Im supposed to every week.

When I did the 5x5 for chest it didnt work, I actually lost strength and WAS doing it properly so I changed that. Never really tried it for my back workout, I used pieces of it but not the exact workout.

To give you some number for what Im talking about.

Bench I went from my last set being 245lb for 4 to only being able to get it once. Thats why I changed that. Shoulders Im up to 70lb db for shoulder press. Im pleased with those results.

I started at 225 for the 5X5, for squats, I havent had a week yet where I havent been able to add weight. Now I am up to 285 for the 5x5 on top of that every aspect of my legs have increased in size, strength and definition.

EDIT: Im not on gear either, Im sure if I was this might be different. It would have been much easier to increase weight every week
 
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barnzy7 said:
Everyone grows differently but Im doing the 5X5 right now.

I love it on leg day. I also do it on shoulder day but gains are much slower, I cant up the weight like Im supposed to every week.

When I did the 5x5 for chest it didnt work, I actually lost strength and WAS doing it properly so I changed that. Never really tried it for my back workout, I used pieces of it but not the exact workout.

To give you some number for what Im talking about.

Bench I went from my last set being 245lb for 4 to only being able to get it once. Thats why I changed that. Shoulders Im up to 70lb db for shoulder press. Im pleased with those results.

I started at 225 for the 5X5, for squats, I havent had a week yet where I havent been able to add weight. Now I am up to 285 for the 5x5 on top of that every aspect of my legs have increased in size, strength and definition.

EDIT: Im not on gear either, Im sure if I was this might be different. It would have been much easier to increase weight every week
Click to expand...

interesting.. so your chest didn't respond to the 5x5 well. what about your arms?? did you try 5x5 for bi's and tri's??
 
Powerstroke32 said:
interesting.. so your chest didn't respond to the 5x5 well. what about your arms?? did you try 5x5 for bi's and tri's??
Click to expand...

Just started for tri's this week. starting to do close grip bench. Figured I wanted to switch it up so maybe this would work.

Right, chest didnt respond well at all.

And have not tried Bi's. If your looking for an arm workout that actually seems to work really well Ill find it for you. Its hard to explain but I actually found it on youtube lol on accident.

I didnt really notice a big size increase but my roomate told me he thought I started juicing because my arms got bigger real fast. Just a thought.
 
I cant find it. I throw a seperate day in for arms because I like training them, but on back day I also do light bi, and chest with light tri.

The bicep workout I was talking about you pick up DB's you just want to get the blood flowing and get a little tired for these. You curl up,down, back up and hold, then switch to the other side. Go back and forth like that until you get to 10. Immediately following you grab another DB go to the preacher curl...count to 4 on the way down, count to 4 again and hold at the bottom. Then explode up, 4 with each arm. Immediately following, put weight on BB or EZ bar, whatever you like. curl it 10 times, 1 second intervals up and down. So no break at bottom or top. You count 1 up, 1 down. You should feel a crazy pump after those.

You do 3 sets of the entire thing, rest 2 minutes in between sets.
 
barnzy7 said:
I cant find it. I throw a seperate day in for arms because I like training them, but on back day I also do light bi, and chest with light tri.

The bicep workout I was talking about you pick up DB's you just want to get the blood flowing and get a little tired for these. You curl up,down, back up and hold, then switch to the other side. Go back and forth like that until you get to 10. Immediately following you grab another DB go to the preacher curl...count to 4 on the way down, count to 4 again and hold at the bottom. Then explode up, 4 with each arm. Immediately following, put weight on BB or EZ bar, whatever you like. curl it 10 times, 1 second intervals up and down. So no break at bottom or top. You count 1 up, 1 down. You should feel a crazy pump after those.

You do 3 sets of the entire thing, rest 2 minutes in between sets.
Click to expand...

that sounds pretty intense lol, I'm going to try that on my arm day
 
I've done the 5x5 many times and am currently following such a plan. I have had success but agree some people develop and respond differently. With anything I also agree it takes many months; nothing is over night.

This type of routine was meant as a strengthening routine. When it says 5 sets of 5 reps you probably could do 6 reps with easy but you don't. You leave that one in reserve and also you will want to take more time for resting so you will be at your strongest. This can be any where from 3 minutes to 5 minutes between sets. I normally don't use the 5 minutes till later in the workout and normally only for legs as it seems those take the biggest hit for myself.

Unlike a body building routine you do not want to go to failure so again keep that one lift in reserve.

When I use this I am also doing it due to other things I do like martial arts where I am lifting explosively. How you train is how our muscles will perform.
 
DLC I'm about to start the 5x5 program today. I'm assuming that one would probably do their 5x5 sets as slow and with the best form as possible, correct?

That's what I'm going to shoot for.
 
Depends what you are looking for out of the program. I used good form and technique; that is a must for any lifting, however because I want to be explosive I lift as such. My thinking for lifting is, "Lift explosively, lower slower". How you train is how your muscles will react. By lifting explosively I will be explosive. For lowering slower this is the negative of the lift and that is where the most benefit comes from. To me that just makes sense.
 
DLC68 said:
Depends what you are looking for out of the program. I used good form and technique; that is a must for any lifting, however because I want to be explosive I lift as such. My thinking for lifting is, "Lift explosively, lower slower". How you train is how your muscles will react. By lifting explosively I will be explosive. For lowering slower this is the negative of the lift and that is where the most benefit comes from. To me that just makes sense.
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interesting, and should I be using maximum weight while using 5x5?? or start semi light and go up in weight? usually when I do chest DB i go 75,80,85,90 with reps of 10,8,6,4 so should I just start with the 90LB DB and do 5 sets of 5 reps with that??
 
To be honest, you can tailor any program to your liking to fit your needs. For me I go by the standard 5x5 and lift heavy for all lifts. What I can lift 6 times and be burned out I lift only 5; that is the amount of weight I use. The thing with the 5x5 it is originally a strengthening type workout. You are meant to lift heavy for all of the lifts. The whole idea of banking the 1 lift and taking 3 to 5 minutes between lifts is so that you are fully energized to lift heavy again.

When doing a body building workout you are usually going to failure on all of your lifts thus creating more muscle tears to create larger muscles. With a strengthening routine you are not going to failure and though muscles will increase they won't increase like they would in a body building routine but your strength will increase greater. That is the original plan of a 5x5 routine.

With this type of routine you really have to focus on challenging yourself every workout by throwing on more weight. You can always drop but you should always try to lift more weight or lift another rep; keeping again in mind not to go to failure. And you have to gauge your body when it is recovered enough to go again and hence a minimum of 3 minutes and up to 5 minutes if needed. It may seem like a lot of wasted time doing nothing but it is called for. I did not have as much success originally because I was so used to waiting a minute or two between sets which also meant I was not fully recovered to lift properly again. You need this to get the best benefits.

One thing with this type of routine for myself is over training. Being 40 years old and always on the go with weight lifting 3 days a week and doing martial arts 2 days a week, over training has been a continued issue for me. You will need to watch for signs when lifting, actually any lifting program for that matter. Make sure that periodic breaks are taken even if it is an extra day off just to recover fully. This part you probably already know but always a good reminder.
 
DLC68 said:
To be honest, you can tailor any program to your liking to fit your needs. For me I go by the standard 5x5 and lift heavy for all lifts. What I can lift 6 times and be burned out I lift only 5; that is the amount of weight I use. The thing with the 5x5 it is originally a strengthening type workout. You are meant to lift heavy for all of the lifts. The whole idea of banking the 1 lift and taking 3 to 5 minutes between lifts is so that you are fully energized to lift heavy again.

When doing a body building workout you are usually going to failure on all of your lifts thus creating more muscle tears to create larger muscles. With a strengthening routine you are not going to failure and though muscles will increase they won't increase like they would in a body building routine but your strength will increase greater. That is the original plan of a 5x5 routine.

With this type of routine you really have to focus on challenging yourself every workout by throwing on more weight. You can always drop but you should always try to lift more weight or lift another rep; keeping again in mind not to go to failure. And you have to gauge your body when it is recovered enough to go again and hence a minimum of 3 minutes and up to 5 minutes if needed. It may seem like a lot of wasted time doing nothing but it is called for. I did not have as much success originally because I was so used to waiting a minute or two between sets which also meant I was not fully recovered to lift properly again. You need this to get the best benefits.

One thing with this type of routine for myself is over training. Being 40 years old and always on the go with weight lifting 3 days a week and doing martial arts 2 days a week, over training has been a continued issue for me. You will need to watch for signs when lifting, actually any lifting program for that matter. Make sure that periodic breaks are taken even if it is an extra day off just to recover fully. This part you probably already know but always a good reminder.
Click to expand...


good deal, thanks for the help and info man. I'll take it and experiment with it next week and post back here to let you know how it felt and how I did.

thanks
 
its diff for everybody ...check out what works for you first..at ur level before jumping into some fack 5x5....okwhat are you capable of
 
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