I just did some thinking and came up with my next strength routine. This will be a 5x5 and Rippetoe hybrid. I will basically leave the squats and deads as is in the 5x5 while doing upper body lifts starting strength style. Reasons for this are twofold. Rippetoe’s routine is designed for beginners who can recover from squatting all out 3x a week and doing deads on the same day as heavy squatting. I know this would bury me so I basically have no choice but to leave this as done in the 5x5. That and I responded really well to the way I trained these lifts on the 5x5 so I see no reason to mess with this.
I am hypothesizing that my upper lifts will respond better to straight sets than to ramping. The only upper lift that I had a perfect experience with on the 5x5 was the press (aka standing military) and that was done only once a week and with just a 4x5. Even with how well the previous routine worked for this lift, I still think it can benefit from straight sets so I will do this one starting strength style as well.
With the restrictions I outlined above in mind, I wasn’t really left with a whole lot of choice on how to set this up. This is what I came up with (2 weeks listed so lift rotation is obvious).
Week 1: Monday
Squat 5x5 ramping
Bench 3x5 straight
Rows 3x5 straight
Week 1: Wednesday
Squat 4x5 ramping light
Press 3x5 straight
Deadlift 4x5 ramping
Chins/Pullups 3x5-12 straight
Week 1: Friday
Squat 4x5 ramping, 1x3 weight increase, 1x8 back-off
Bench 3x5 straight
Rows 3x5 straight
Week 2: Monday
Squat 5x5 ramping
Press 3x5 straight
Chins/Pullups 3x5-12 straight
Week 2: Wednesday
Squat 4x5 ramping light
Bench 3x5 straight
Deadlift 4x5 ramping
Rows 3x5 straight
Week 2: Friday
Squat 4x5 ramping, 1x3 weight increase, 1x8 back-off
Press 3x5 straight
Chins/Pullups 3x5-12 straight
So basically this boils down to the squat and deadlift receiving the exact same treatment as they do on the SF 5x5. The other lifts are grouped into rotating workout A: bench, rows and workout B: press, chins. Why include chins with the core lifts? Since I’m not including the deadlift in the rotating workouts I needed something to fill the hole and a vertical pull seems to make sense for this.
Progression will be the same as on the 5x5 for the squat and deadlift and a toned down version of what Rippetoe recommends for the rest. I will figure out a comfortable percent to add to each lift when I get all the reps that should net out similar increases as the SF 5x5's 2.5% each week; Rippetoe's "add a lot of weight to the bar every workout" approach won't work for non-beginners.
As far as assistance goes, I will probably add situps and hypers on a day or two like in the 5x5. On the other hand, I am going to stay away from doing any direct arm work at all since both biceps and triceps are being hit with straight sets every single workout.
If you have experience with this approach to training (no split nazis please
), feel free to critique this. The only thing I see a potential issue with is Wednesday’s workout being too taxing with deads basically being thrown in on top of everything else. Another approach to this would be to do deads with only a warm-up and 1x5 like how Rippetoe treats it but to still keep it to one day a week.
Let me know what you guys think.
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