5 × 5 - training for strength and muscle mass - with auto-regulation

10, January, 2011 · Training · Børge Fagerli · 76 Comments

This program was originally a 30-year-old training program , but over the last few years developed and worked with the renowned American coaches Glenn Pendlay and Mark Rippetoe . The program has provided tremendous increases in strength and muscle mass for thousands of lifters around the world. Here are suggestions for auto-regulation.

The fundamental principles with a focus on progression, training each muscle group 2-3 times per week, and periods of lower burden for the collection and recovery are the same as we have today. Those who have tried these "nymoderne" programs are probably surprised to hear that the 5 × 5 is a 30 year old workout - first published by Bill Starr in his famous book, The Strongest Shall Survive! 5 × 5 program has received its new golden age is now using the experiences of Pendlay and Rippetoe and their coaching hundreds of athletes, and represents a more modern format with lots of ideas on the timing and variation for different goals today.

Before you begin any exercise program consists of basic exercises I recommend that you get proper instruction on proper technique especially squats, bench press, deadlift and shoulder press. Search like your videos on YouTube by Mark Rippetoe - although it should be noted that I personally have found that small differences in technique from what I have had the best experience of my athletes. Watch the YouTube channel min which I will expand the practice guide continuously. It is recommended not to replace any of these exercises with similar computer exercises, or to make major changes to the format - it usually ends up with much worse results if you do not know what to do. Do not count on how many questions I have received since the article was first published on all sorts of changes people want to do, and often before they even have tried it. If there had been a better way to set up the program, so we'd heard about it during the 30 years it has been in use worldwide. Think about it.

We get right to the base setup, and it looks like this:

Day 1:

Bench Press: 5 x 5 reps

Back (bent forward rowing): 5 x 5 reps

Squats: 5 x 5 reps - everyone should be able to drive deep squat where the femur is below parallel. If not, fix mobility and technique - or switch to frontbøy

Day 2:

Squats 2-3 x 5 reps with 20% lighter weight than day 1, or 3 x 3 reps on frontbøy

Deadlift: 3-5 x 5 reps - or work against a top set 1 x 5 reps, ie starting on heating and increase the weight 5-20kg on each set until you can not 5 reps more

Shoulder Press and Incline Bench Press: 5 x 5 reps (free-standing military press with shoulder wide grip) - you have a shoulder structure that only gives you hurt when you push the head, run incline bench presses here

Pull Down / Chins 5 x 5 reps

Day 3:

Bench Press: 5 x 5 reps

Rowing: 5 x 5 reps

Squats: 5 x 5 reps

A beginner (about 0-6 months serious training) to train so-called "pyramids" on everything. This means that in 5 sets are the first set very light (heating weight), the second set a little heavier, and so on to the last and fifth set which is the heaviest. This is also auto-regulation principle mentioned in this article ... but WITHOUT drop sets.

Example:

If you think you will manage 50kg of the heaviest set (top set):

20 to 30 - 40 - 45-50

or unless the jump:

30-35 - 40 - 45-50

There are no fixed rules on this, the point is that you get a certain volume (sets and reps) on the way up, and that state-set should be the heaviest.

Do you have muscles in my legs and ass, you should exercise squats

Rest breaks between sets:

1-5 minutter.Det would be natural that you take a short break at the first light sets, and then taking a long break when you are approaching the peak set. Do not make the mistake that you race through the exercises and still out of breath when you take the next set. This is not strength training and interval training. Yes, I know some bodybuilders train with 30 second rest break because they are "hardcore" and train with the "maximum intensity" and "pump". Now, do not pump any particularly reliable

indicator of how effective the workout was, in fact it is almost irrelevant matter how wonderful it feels and looks in the mirror. Moreover, the correct definition of "intensity" where heavy weight in relation to your max boost you are on, and with short breaks, you will not succeed in lifting heavy weights. You will get a better sense of how long you need before you are ready to provide the maximum on the next set of experience, but most require 2-3 minutes before the heaviest sets to achieve the maximum.

Next training is likely to become stronger, and can increase the weight. Just do not be over-ambitious and increase too much. You quickly become stronger in the beginning and may be able to add the 2.5-5kg, but eventually you have to reconcile yourself with that progress will go in fits and starts and does not increase linearly each week. If you could increase 2.5 kg on a lift every week, you had gone from 60kg to 210kg in a lift in one year! You can see yourself that it is not realistic.

Auto-regulation

The point of auto-regulation is that you customize the progress from training to training in relation to the present form, that is quite a difference if you eat well the day before, slept long and is healthy and well rested - or if you ate badly, had to work overtime or read the exam, slept badly and is a bit småforkjøla. Are you training for a real progression, most view it as a personal defeat if they suddenly missed a boost. It is better to think that each exercise has an effect, but it's not always you have the capacity to demonstrate the peak strength - we say that it is "masked" by exhaustion. Rather, think of it as if you need to take a step back to take three steps forward. Rather than taking the zero step forward for several weeks because you have worked beyond your recovery abilities.

To illustrate this from workout to workout can look like this:

Training 1: 20 - 30 - 40 - 45-50

Training 2: 30 - 40 - 45 - 50 to 52.5

Training 3: 30 - 40 - 45 - 52.5 to 55

Exercise 4: 30 - 40 - 45 to 52.5 ... and you could barely 4 reps on last set. Then stop here and come back rather stronger next time

Exercise 5: 30 - 40 - 45 - 52.5 to 57.5

Exercise 6: 30 - 40 - 50-55 ... No. 5 rep was so heavy and you were in bad shape, so you stopped there

Exercise 7: 30 - 40 - 50 - 55-60 ... a new personal best!

Think primarily RPE 9 for the first 2-3 weeks, so you can test the RPE 10 (ie max) for 1-3 weeks. Or break it down into RPE 9 and RPE 10 different workouts.

The intermediate and advanced

After 6-9 months it begins to stagnate often, which is normal. What used to be enough exercise for a beginner, is now too small - but while the requirement for volume and load is higher exercise tolerance is not as much higher. Therefore it is wise to vary between a "volumdag" with constant weights and 5 sets x 5 reps, and a "intensitetsdag" where, as in a training program for beginners ala what we've posted before, working up towards a peak seen 5 reps.

You can also choose whether to run harder on 5 x 5 days, or if you want to push the intensity day by reaching new 5 rep max (and rather take it more easy in 5 x 5 days). It may be smart to focus on 1-2 lifting one will give priority in a period, for example, bench press and shoulder press / incline bench presses, and so be more careful with the progress of the other events. I'll show you both how to do it with a regular progression, and auto-regulation.

According to the Dual Factor theory, one can achieve greater increases in the voluntary training of the body close to overtraining point and then go back on the amount of exercise while continuing to

increase the weights. Then the sequence will be 5 sets x 5 reps as described here, and then continue with the same exercises but with 3 sets x 3 reps (where, before the trained 5 × 5) and 1 set x 3 reps (where it trained until 1 × 5 ). The first week or two of the 3 x 3 program will often be very heavy, but suddenly you get a real "boost" in force, and the last two weeks, lift the new personal records on most of the promises.

Format of training for advanced:

Day 1 (volumdag):

Bench Press: 5 x 5 reps

Back (bent forward rowing): 5 x 5 reps

Squats: 5 x 5 reps

Day 2:

Deadlift: 5 x 5 reps - every other week top set 1 x 5 reps

Squats 5 x 5 with 20% lighter weight, or 3 x 3 on frontbøy

Shoulder press or incline bench presses: 5 x 5 reps (free-standing military press with shoulder wide grip)

Pull Down / Chins: 5 x 5 reps

Day 3:

Bench press: top set 1 x 5 reps

Rowing: top set 1 x 5 reps

Squats: top set 1 x 5 reps

Progression

If you want to set up the progress in advance, ie without the auto-adjustment if you think it is too difficult right now, this is a proposal on how it might look like:

Week 1:

1 x 5 reps: 5RM minus 10-15kg (depending on exercise)

5 x 5 reps: 5RM minus 15-25kg (depending on exercise), and you use the same weight on all sets

Week 2:

1 x 5 reps: 5RM minus 5-10kg

5 x 5 reps: 5RM minus 10-20kg

Week 3:

1 x 5 reps: 5RM plus 0-5kg

5 x 5 reps: 5RM minus 0-10kg

Week 4:

1 x 5 reps: 5RM plus 5-10kg

5 x 5 reps: 5RM minus to plus 5kg 5kg

In Week 5 (and 6) can continue the progress of another week if week 4 was very easy, but it's time for a little more lavrepstrening and 3 × 3

The auto-regulation , read the link earlier in the article, I recommend that you use the method with several drops seen in the same number of reps on volume day. At the top set the day you can use the method with a drop kit and max reps, but I ask you to exercise caution - all think they can take more training than they really do try first a few weeks without this drop set, and then you can consider trying it out.

It is not strictly 5 × 5 longer, because the number of sets will vary from day form.

On day 2 in such a training program will use the volume and peak seen every week on the deadlift, volume on the chins and shoulder press / incline bench, and either RPE 8 on squats or 3 reps volume frontbøy.

Do you want to focus more on volume day and bring in more ads there, use RPE 9, and a drop rate of 4-7%, that means you get more sets before it stops. On top set days just working up to the heaviest weight you can do that day, like RPE 10 if you feel strong. As mentioned, you can also try out the method where you take 20% weight and a set of maximum repetitions. I will recommend you to be conservative on volume day, and spend 2-4% of the drop sets to limit the number of sets.

Let's see how it looks on the volume of the day:

20 - 40 - 50-55 ... this was great set, now we take of 2.5 kg (5%)

52,5 - 52.5 to 52.5 ... on the last set where no 5 rep began to get very heavy, you might clear one 6.rep but no more. The RPE 9

To illustrate the 2-4% drop we need to use heavier weight, it is difficult to get to 1.25 kg less weight in practice when lifting 50kg in the drop set:

40-60 - 80 - 90 to 100 ... as you see, we use a few more sets warming when it's heavier weights. Now we take of 2.5 kg (ie 2.5%)

97.5 to 97.5 ... will often end up with just a drop set also, two is okay, can you get three, you have good volume tolerance or it was just a little cautious on the top set

On scales between 10-30kg, you can take two sets of state-set since it is rarely possible or practical to remove the only 1kg of the drop set.

On top set days

20-40 - 50 - 55 to 57.5 ... this was an RPE 10, then you stop there or we'll take 20% (10kg) and have

47.5 x 11 reps

But that said ... I recommend you are careful with this, the experience shows that there is plenty with a volumdag and toppsettdag for 95%, so I can certainly come to regret that I proposed to add a drop seen

here. It seems the more that 95% believe they belong to the last 5% of unique snowflakes that respond tiny bit better on the extra amount of exercise.

Let's see what happens on the training days where daily fitness is not quite at the top:

20 - 40 - 50 ... uffda, here stopped up and you had to squeeze out rep 5 on the last set there. This lets you be to increase further, and instead go right to drop the sets

47.5 to 47.5 (x4) ... actually, it was enough of a drop set, but you were a little stubborn and ran a set. There were only four reps, then you stop there. Go home and get food and rest, then come back stronger next time.

Top Set Day

20 - 40 - 50-55 ... RPE 10, so you stop here, since you know that the form is not good then stop without taking any drop sets of max reps. Had you done that it might have been

45 x 6 reps ... go home and eat, your stabukk

I recommend strongly that you take care of your core muscles, read this article for more information ...

In addition, you should warm up with dynamic stretching before every workout, and in particular I would recommend preventative exercise for shoulders with rotator exercises. For practice guide on my YouTube channel here ...

And for those who miss more training for biceps: Ok fine, you can add 2 sets 1-2 of the week's workouts, train them, often in a slightly higher reps range of 8-12 reps. However, please note that plenty of biceps training of rowing and pulldowns / chins, so it takes very little direct training to. The biggest mistake many make is adding too much biceps curl in their applications, typical 10-20 set, and then they wonder

why their arms do not grow ... I have countless examples of people I've convinced to drop absolutely any direct biceps training - and after 2-3 weeks the arms increased by 2cm in circumference!

Please ask in the forum if you have any questions, but it's nice if you can read the thread about 5 × 5 first , most of it is black on there. Use the Search in the forum to find specific posts.