Can anyone help with my 5x5?

[Jamieinge]

So…. its a new year. From today I start for the first time a proper training program, having never really done anything structured before.

So i’m going to start on a 5×5 program, having read some good articles on it, it sounds like it would do me good, with obviously my main goal increasing predominantly size and then strength.

If I do the 5×5 program, should I only do one exercise per main target muscle group in a workout or can i mix in others?

For example, if i followed something like (in this order):

bench press, chest flyes, chest pullover, military press, bent rows, barbell curls, upright rows, squat.

doing a 5×5 on that? would that be any good? and then doing that every other day?

Any help would be appreciated, as i’m really unsure as to how to work this!

Thanks,

Jamie

[John Prophet]

youd probably do the 5x5 only on bench, squat, military press

or maybe only bench, squat and then do something like 3x6-8 on rows, militaries

maybe 3x8-10 on the other stuff

I wouldnt do both flyes and pullovers...do one or the other


and upright rows suck, lol



one of the main ideas of 5x5 type training is that you only do a handful of exercises....if you add too much to it you wont make as many gains

the fact that you are doing squat and bench 3x per week is already plenty of stress on the body.....so you dont want to add too much "small change" on top of that

[SchemeSC]

http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow...Linear_5x5.htm

[Jamieinge]

ok thanks! i'll try cut it down. from your experience, which is better for gaining mass, chest flyes or pullovers?

[Jamieinge]

can i use the 5x5 as a core workout, and also do other exercises of like 3x8 or would this be a bad idea? if i follow 5x5, should i just do 5x5 on compound exercises for a while, (like bench, military and squat), and then later change routine and begin doing other exercises?

Thanks

[r_graz]

Originally Posted by Jamieinge

can i use the 5x5 as a core workout, and also do other exercises of like 3x8 or would this be a bad idea? if i follow 5x5, should i just do 5x5 on compound exercises for a while, (like bench, military and squat), and then later change routine and begin doing other exercises?

Thanks

http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow...Linear_5x5.htm

Read through that carefully. This is an effective 5x5 that includes several "assistance" exercises in addition to the core compound lifts. The idea though is to make solid progress in the core lifts, and doing too much other stuff (depending on how advanced your state of training) can be counterproductive to that. So running the base program and adding lots of stuff on your own can essentially blow the program up, unless you've got lots of experience and really know what you're doing.

From the 1 rep maxes you list in your profile, I'd say you'd be better served by just sticking to the program as written and eating to gain some weight.