Bill Starr 5x5

Linear Version for Intermediate Lifters 

INTRODUCTION:

Relatively easy program to understand.  It nicely illustrates the importance of making systematic progression to drive gains and increase the core lifts.  I highly suggest people read the Training Primer I've prepared as you will understand all of training so much better afterward.

HISTORY:One of the many flavors of Bill Starr's 5x5 workouts.  This particular one is designed with the intermediate lifter in mind and is from the Deep Squatter   site on this page  Deep Squatter is a great site so make sure you check it out along with all the great info located in the archives.  Someone who has experience with the lifts and some decent training history should do quite well.  It's important to keep in mind that this program is a snapshot, training changes with time, you don't do it forever, to get a better idea on how training changes over time I'd encourage people to read this interview (link is dead) from Glenn Pendlay and Mark Rippetoe on programming.

USAGE:

This program is based on weekly linear progress.  You take your current 5 rep maxes (5RM) and work up to them systematically by increasing weights in steady increments over 3-4 weeks.  You then hit your current 5RM on lifts and continue these incremental increases week to week which pushes you further and further out making new personal records (PRs) every week until you stall on the majority of your lifts.  If you miss reps, keep the weight constant the next week and don't move it up until you get all 5x5.  When you eventually stall on the majority of lifts, and you will, meaning something like several weeks of no progress in that you can't add reps or weight, you'll have to reset lower back several weeks and begin again.  If it's just one lift that has you stuck, reset on that and work up again but don't restart the whole program.  When restarting the whole program, a lot of times changing variables is also helpful here.  I'm not going to cover that.  Training is a blend of art and science, and knowing what parameters to change for a given lifter is more art.  This is a cookie-cutter, it's meant to get you big and strong, and more importantly training correctly.  The best programs are always tailored to a given trainee so being your own coach, you have to learn and seek out knowledge (generally not in bodybuilding sources as a rule and this will seldom do you wrong).

Rep speed is natural, time between sets is what you need.  Don't rapid fire compound lifts but don't be lazy.  2-5 minutes is probably right with 5 minutes being needed after a very taxing effort. 

CORE DESCRIPTION: 

Before beginning it is useful to know your 1 rep maxes or more ideally your real 5 rep max in each lift (there is a table and calculator in the TOC).  If you don't know this - it might be useful to test your lifts first or start light and allow for some flexibility in the weekly planning.  The whole key is the weekly progression and keeping workload low enough to not overwhelm someone with fatigue and enable them to get out in front and set records for as many weeks as possible.  Said a different way, the stimulus is not getting under the bar once with heavy weight but getting under it frequently and systematically increasing week to week starting within your limits and slowly expanding.

Exercise Sets x Reps Details

Monday

Squat 5x5Ramping weight to top set of 5 (which should equal the previous Friday's heavy triple)

Bench 5x5Ramping weight to top set of 5 (which should equal the previous Friday's heavy triple)

Barbell Row 5x5Ramping weight to top set of 5 (which should equal the previous Friday's heavy triple)

Assistance: 2 sets of weighted hypers and 4 sets of weighted sit-ups

Wednesday

Squat 4x5 First 3 sets are the same as Monday, the 4th set is repeating the 3rd set again

Incline or Military 4x5 Ramping weight to top set of 5

Deadlift 4x5 Ramping weight to top set of 5

Assistance: 3 sets of sit-ups

Friday

Squat 4x5, 1x3, 1x8First 4 sets are the same as Monday's, the triple is 2.5% above your Monday top set of 5, use the weight from the 3rd set for a final set of 8

Bench 4x5, 1x3, 1x8First 4 sets are the same as Monday's, the triple is 2.5% above your Monday top set of 5, use the weight from the 3rd set for a final set of 8

Barbell Row 4x5, 1x3, 1x8First 4 sets are the same as Monday's, the triple is 2.5% above your Monday top set of 5, use the weight from the 3rd set for a final set of 8

Assistance: 3 sets of weighted dips (5-8 reps), 3 sets of barbell curls and 3 sets of triceps extensions (8 reps)

The Progression :

So it's pretty obvious what's going on in this example is weekly increases of 2.5% of your top set of 5 on Monday.  So you do 100lbs for 5 on your top set on Monday.  Then on Friday you do a triple with 2.5% more, or 102.5.  The next Monday you come back and do 102.5 for your heavy set of 5, that Friday the triple is 105 and so on.  For the non-squat Wednesday lifts you just increase by the percentage week to week. 

Of course you start with a good margin to give yourself a run so you have to back into the initial weeks' weights.  That means using some math.  Put your current 5 rep maxes at week 4, figure out what 2.5% of the number is and go back and put that for week 3, do that back until you get to week 1.  The Friday triple is always the next week's Monday set of 5.  Pretty easy.*

Some people seem to think this is very slow progress (and maybe it is for a true beginner) but for most lifters this 2.5% weekly is fairly aggressive scaling.  Think about building up for 4 weeks and then 2.5% compounded weekly on your personal records after that.  If you can even get 4 weeks of PRs, that's over 10% on your lifts in just 8 weeks (there are people who would kill for this and many are lucky to manage 1-2% over that same time frame).  People who can keep it up for anywhere near 12 weeks (8 weeks of PRs) are looking at 20%+ on their lifts.  Even if one can't get long progression, this is still a good way to go for even a few increments as long as a lifter can make progress like this (and eventually they won't be able to and will have to do something a bit different that looks more like the Advanced version.

 

Program Week Lift for 5 Reps

Percentage Increase Over Current Personal Record

4 200 0.00%

5 205 2.50%

6 210 5.06%

7 215 7.69%

8 221 10.38%

9 226 13.14%

10 232 15.97%

11 238 18.87%

12 244 21.84%

13 250 24.89%

14 256 28.01%

15 262 31.21%

Although given the chart and what I've said elsewhere on this page it should be obvious, I will clarify the point that this is not a 9 week program (I think some people have downloaded only the spreadsheet rather than reading since I figured 9 weeks of calculations was enough to get the idea - not much I can do about that)..  You continue until it stops working.  If you are adding 2.5% a week to your big lifts and eating enough to move the scale consistently, there is nothing else you can do from a program perspective to encourage muscular weight gain.  Ride the horse and if lifts gives you trouble, either cut some warm up volume or reset it back a few weeks.  When the majority of the lifts are stalling, reset the whole program and build back up to PRs over 4 weeks.  Maybe change some variables (i.e. use 3x10) and/or some assistance lifts (front squat on Wed, lockouts instead of overhead).

Impact of Weight Gain/Loss and Experience Level:

I will also note that weight gain can be considered a tail wind to the progression.  Meaning, you will have an easier time getting stronger and making a longer progression if you are eating enough to drive bodyweight upward during the program (i.e. also known as bulking or trying to add muscle, see caloric excess).  This does not however mean that you should start heavier simply because you are planning to gain weight.  The effect is typically not that strong and this is the best way to blow this program up - always better to take more time than less. Another tailwind would be experience level, someone much closer to their ultimate potential is going to run out of steam and have to settle for shorter progressions than someone with 6 months of training under their belt. 

A headwind would be dieting or cutting.  If you are really making an effort to lose weight and using this program you might want to start significantly lighter or make smaller jumps week to week (i.e. take 6 weeks to reach your current 5RM rather than 4 weeks).  Basically the same 200lbs 5 rep max squat at a bodyweight of 200 is a stronger lift at a lighter bodyweight.  So if you are dropping bodyweight, you probably want think about starting lower because your 5RM estimates won't be accurate as your bodyweight changes and to get a reasonable shot at progression you don't want to be starting too high (that said, the less experienced the lifter they might have enough tailwind from their junior amount of experience to override a fair degree of headwind from bodyweight dropping).

Ramping Weights :

This is basically increasing your weight set to set like warming up.  If your top set of 5 is 315, you might go 135, 185, 225, 275, and then 315 all for 5 reps.  There are several reasons for this, you are warming up, getting a lot of practice and really groove the coordination of the lifts, and contributing to workload without raising it so high that fatigue overcomes you and you overtrain.  If you do 315 for all 5 sets, workload is a lot higher and doing that a couple of times a week ensures that you won't last long on this program.

Typically jumps can be somewhere between 10-15% per set based on your top set (or 12.5% and round up or down).  An easy way to figure this is to find out what 10% and 15% are for your top set and then track backwards into the other sets using the variance to round or help it make sense. 

Example:

Your top set is 100lbs

10% is 10lbs and 15% is 15lbs

Your 5th set is 100x5, 4th is 90x5, 3rd is 80x5, 2nd is 70x5, and 1st is 60x5

These are the minimum jumps of 10%, the math doesn't always look this neat but using 12.5% isn't as intuitively easy to see for explaining this.

 

Make sure this makes sense and you aren't so strong as to make the jumps ridiculous at 10-15%.  But keep in mind, going 200, 205, 210, 215, and 220 is a lot closer to 220 for 5x5 and that's too much on this kind of frequency, it will fatigue you a lot faster (i.e. prevent you from progressing) and hurt your ability to get as much as possible with your top set.

 *Note: for the math inclined you probably realized that when moving up in weight you are taking 2.5% of the current weight but when I have you set up the initial weeks moving backward you are taking 2.5% off the forward week which is a slightly larger number than moving in the other direction.  So if you want to really be exact, you can work it out the other way but the math is harder.

Possible Issues:

If people get stuck early it's because they start too high.  There is no negative to starting a bit more conservatively (just potential time spent acclimating at worst).  On the other side, starting too aggressively can kill the whole program.  You decide on whether you want to potentially risk a tad of time in the worst case scenario or waste all your time and blow it up getting zero results

Particularly if people have issues with a lift the bench is where people get caught.  A lot of guys have been training the bench hard forever.  Probably high frequency and generally maxing it or using lower reps than their other lifts.  Well, you want to push one lift hard and not bother much with others - you wind up with an asymmetry in your ability to adapt.  You have to pay the price for not pushing as hard on your squat, deads, rows, and overhead regardless of the program and that's just how it is.  This is compounded by not having plates lighter than 2.5lbs (so 5lbs jumps), which is often too much for people with the rounding and lifts that just aren't all that strong (look at the Microloading page).  Also people put their true, best case 5RM with limited warm-up out at week 4.  Most people won't have a problem but really, at week 4 you are expected to do the 5RM and do about 20 reps at varying weights beforehand.  This makes week 4 a personal record in reality.  Essentially, being more conservative with the bench is better especially if you are one of those die hard benchpress worshippers.

In regards to the squatting or frequency, if you haven't squatted at all, or don't squat full range or haven't done much before it can be an issue particularly if you have enough training to move some weight.  Most people haven't had a problem but particular to the squats a few people have wound up with overuse issues.  It's not that people can't squat 3x per week - anyone can.  It's a matter of conditioning someone to be able to do it at the volume and intensities that this program calls for and acclimating to it immediately.  Just like walking 2 miles a day, anyone can do it but if you sit on the couch and your movement is limited to 100 yards per day to get the mail and feed yourself - well it might take some

time to build up.  Most importantly, if you start to get these issues (and not muscle soreness) but a chronic aching and soreness in the joints/tendons/muscles etc...you need to back off and not keep pushing.  That doesn't mean you get a little sore in week 1 and quit, this will take a few weeks but once this type of thing shows up don't just keep pushing.  A coach would have you back off or likely not start you here, you don't have a coach so you have to use your brain.  It just might take 4-5 weeks to build up and get things in shape to be able to begin this program.  That's okay but if you keep pushing and wind up with serious tendonitis it can take a while to resolve itself.  Not worth it.  This was covered on the Table of Contents Intro Page under the second topic but obviously people don't read everything so it's here too (and I assume some won't bother reading this either but you reap what you sow).  Like I said before, in general it isn't an issue but a program is just a 'point in time' example, some people might be ready for that point, some won't.  I tried to set this up where it should be okay for just about everyone, that doesn't mean than a few people may not have an issue with the parameters. 

 

Time Between Sets:

Don't over think this.  Use a natural rep speed, take what you need between sets.  Don't be lazy but don't rush.  You can't be doing rapid fire sets of big compound lifts.  Maybe on the lightest warm-ups you take a minute but most sets will be 2-5 minute range with 2 being between fairly easy sets and 5 being after a heavy set in preparation for another very serious major effort that drains you.  I can see exceeding the 5 minute limit by a tad when really pushing near failure in the PR weeks when you are uncertain of getting your reps on your last set.  Just use your brain and don't micromanage.

Diet:

Depends on whether you are trying to gain muscle or what.  I will say that for gaining muscle, caloric excess must be present.  Read the caloric excess topic in the table of contents.  More people, particularly bodybuilders, go wrong here.  If caloric excess is present and training stinks, you will get fatter.  The few guys who have come back with no weight gain got very strong and gained no net weight - guess what - they were already fairly lean (i.e. no excess in their diet otherwise they'd have been fatter) and they didn't gain fat or muscle (no caloric excess during training).  There's nothing any program can do if you won't eat.  For the purposes of gaining muscle or getting big and strong it's better to eat McDonalds and KFC all day long than not eat enough Zen clean ultra pure food which might be healthier but if not enough there's simply nothing to use to grow.  So caloric excess is a requirement, you don't need to eat like a slob but it will work infinitely better than not eating enough healthy food for this purpose.  Lots of people have gotten big and strong on diets that were bad, if you choose to eat squeaky clean, kudos to you but it is not critical to putting on muscle (it might be critical to a long high quality life though).  If you need a more in depth explanation, look here.

Incorporating the Olympic Lifts:The above is basically setup for someone who doesn't know the OLs. Starr's original workout included Power Cleans and High Pulls. Instead of Bent Rows substitute Power Cleans. Rather than Deads substitute High Pulls.  That’s a quick and dirty way of handling this without much disruption.

Substituting Exercises:Don't fuck with this. Every bodybuilder seems to have Attention Deficit Disorder and an overwhelming desire to customize everything. The bottom line is that these are all the most effective exercises and just about anything one does will result in less gains. As a rule those people who want to change it don't know enough to make proper alterations - those who do know enough, don't have much to change. The guy who is responsible for this program is of the best on the planet at bulking lifters and making people stronger. It's kind of like Sesame Street's Elmo offering neurosurgery advice at NYU. Anyway, it's absolutely essential not to screw with the squats, they are the foundation of this program. If you want to sub inclines or push presses for military that's okay. Do not sub machines - don't even think about it, hit yourself with a plate if you must. For arms choose a single biceps and triceps exercise and perform them at the end once per week for 3 sets of whatever - your arms will take a beating from all the pulling and pressing anyway. If you want to chin on Wednesday or do a few sets of pulldowns/ups that's fine (avoid the machines if you can use bodyweight). Core work is always fine. Cardio is fine - interval training is the best for this I'll just throw out. If this is just too much mental strain, take solace in the fact that it's just a few weeks, you'll gain a ton of muscle and strength and then you can spend the next 4 weeks adding the minute detail to refine the gained mass (like most care anyway - I have yet to meet a guy on this board who will trade 20lbs of muscle for a bit of added detail somewhere). In a nutshell, put your trust in some of the better coaches on the planet and enjoy the results.

New or Beginner Lifters:This is not a beginner program.  You will make faster progress with less workload on a true beginner program.  I really recommend Rippetoe's Starting Strength for beginners or novices.  It's so critical to learn the lifts correctly and get started on a good program (i.e. not what one typically finds on bodybuilding sites).  Rippetoe is the man at coaching beginners and putting muscle on them with 30-40lbs in 4-6 months being quite normal.  The book will handle teaching you all the lifts.  It's written for coaches and no, given what I see in commercial gyms, the internet and Joe Schmoe at your local gym are not capable of instructing you properly - they will screw you up and make you look like a moron or possibly get you hurt. On top of that the book covers everything to get you set up on a program that is time proven as one of if not the best beginner programs available.

Advanced Lifters:After a while, linear progress doesn't work so well.  You want to do this for as long as you can.  And I mean, resetting and running at your records, changing some exercises, rep ranges, whatever, just keep trying to get some linear progress as you want to milk this kind of progression for all it's worth.  After a while it will become pretty obvious this doesn't work for you any more.  Welcome to periodization.

Bill Starr - Glenn Pendlay 5x5Periodized Version for Advanced Lifters

Intro to Periodization

 INTRODUCTION: Okay, this is a simple program - the problem is that people have very little experience setting something like this up so we now have a giant document and all kinds of crap to answer the questions that most often arise (even some of the most inane ones).  This is simple, effective, and very direct training.  You will see how simple it is after you do it once but people seem to do a lot better with a surplus of information than a deficit so this is a very comprehensive piece that should answer just about everything.  HISTORY:

This program and variants have been making the rounds on the internet for a few years now.  Variations have been made for specific lifters, it’s been rehashed and re-explained by various people ranging from your standard guy who had a lot of success with it all the way to some fairly high level coaches in multiple sports using it on their athletes or using it to illustrate periodization.  It’s been cut/pasted into articles, internet forums, interviews, etc…  Heck I've put it out there a lot and tried to give credit to every source I could locate as I was able but still my name wound up getting attached to it even though I was pretty clear that this was not a program I designed.  This version here is one that I've tweaked a bit in an effort to make it more accessible to the variety of people using a program like this for the first time (i.e. trying to set it up to be as tolerable as possible).  All that said the real origins stretch back fairly far but for practical application there are three primary sources who are responsible for it’s popularity over the most recent 30 years: Bill Starr, Glenn Pendlay, and Mark Rippetoe. Bill Starr:  This is a variation of Bill Starr's classic 5x5. Bill is without doubt one of the best strength coaches ever, serving at multiple universities, pro teams – including the Super Bowl 1970 Colts, and holding records in both PL and OL. His articles are frequently reprinted in Milo, have appeared in Ironman for years (they might still be in there periodically), and are generally all over the strength and conditioning world. His book on training for football, 'The Strongest Shall Survive', is a classic for coaches, players, and any strength athlete - you can pick it up at Ironmind.Glenn Pendlay: An accomplished powerlifter and Olympic weightlifter in his own right and a fantastic strength coach, Glenn has found his real calling training and developing others.  He founded and serves as the head coach for Wichita Falls Weightlifting – which he has quickly turned into one of the best teams in the nation.  He is also the coach of the MSU weightlifting team, head coach of a Regional Olympic Development Center.  Coming to OL relatively late he still managed to snatch 170 kilos (375lbs), cleaned 210kilos (463lbs), push pressed 200

kilos (440lbs), and military pressed within a few pounds of 400 on multiple occasions.  You can learn more about him in his interview (link is dead).Mark Rippetoe: Owner of Wichita Falls Athletic Club, co-author of Starting Strength, is well known for his outrageous success in adding muscular bodyweight to new lifters (30-40lbs in 4-6 months being fairly typical).  Has trained countless lifters over the years.  Link to his interview (link is dead). For those interested in a more full overview of how Mark and Glenn typically train their athletes this is a solid piece to read: Pendlay/Rippetoe Programing (link is dead) USAGE: This program and variations are very much in common use all over the place even being common to elite athletes in various sports. This program is very effective at increasing strength and lean body mass, it focuses on the core lifts that drive full body hypertrophy and getting those lifts up as quickly as possible.  There is little isolation work and what is generally used is targeted and specific, not the typical shotgun array of ‘let’s do everything and the kitchen sink’ that serves mainly to dilute a program’s effectiveness.  Solve problems as they arise, do not waste time trying to preempt every possible future issue one can imagine.  Most people who haven’t trained like this tend to be pretty amazed that the body grows very proportionately all on it’s own from a small assortment of compound lifts.  The idea is you do a few things and get systematically better at them over time, don’t try to do everything all at once.  Focus on what matters most and remove all the garbage so you can do it a lot and get really good. People have had a lot of success using something like this while cutting.  I have seen a number of reports of people keeping bodyweight constant, losing body fat, and increasing in most relevant measurements (chest, thigh, arms) so that says something.  If you are close to a weight class limit you’ll need to be very careful.  All that said, this program will make you strong but if you want to put on muscle there absolutely must be caloric excess.  Read my piece on caloric excess if you haven’t already, more people screw this up than anything else.  This program has gotten results for 30 years and still continues to get excellent results from bodybuilders, strength athletes, or those looking for better performance.  It is a very good method of getting big and strong.  In addition, specific to bodybuilding it breaks a lot of the typical voodoo myths running around like “training a muscle 1x per week is required for recovery” or that “isolation work is required or one will develop all out of proportion”.  This program is about simple training and results.  However, there is a ton of science behind it and one would do well to familiarize themselves with dual factor theory and the properly used concepts of volume, frequency, intensity, and workload.  There is more to training than simply going into the gym, getting under a bar, and working hard hoping to come back better.  So by running this program one gets gains and learns at the same time, sort of a "teach a man to fish..." This program is not ideally done as a “cookie-cutter” but should be tailored to the experience level of the trainee.  It is setup here for an experienced lifter who is completely familiar with the core lifts and is beginning periodization (i.e. with experience making week to week record progress becomes less and less a reality for all lifters over time so this would be a balanced version to use) .  For most people unfamiliar with this style of training, which is a lot more taxing than doing a bunch of isolation work, it’s a good starting point.  Some might find that they can be more aggressive with the weights and load harder, some might need more volume, some might find themselves doing really well in the volume phase and realizing that a single factor program with more emphasis on frequency and the core lifts is what might work best as significant strength increase during the initial phase would be  a good indicator that linear progress is still available but programming must be improved (i.e. you don't need periodization, you need a good training program).  Anyway, it’s a progression not a static cookie cutter although we have to start somewhere which is why I’ve drawn it up the way I have.  I’ve tried my best to cover that as have others but still people get attached.  As a lifter progressed workload will be expanded and obviously you can’t just keep hammering the same thing again and again.  The programming interview from Pendlay and Rippetoe here http://www.readthecore.com/200510/markr.htm (link is dead) can probably provide more insight and they have a book coming out with Lon Kilgore called Practical Periodization (available early 2006) that is intended to cover multiyear training plans and development.

If you've just randomly come to this topic or been provided a link - there is a large amount of information here: Table of Contents

Before beginning it is useful to know your 1 rep maxes or more ideally your real 5 rep max in each lift (there is a table and calculator in the TOC). You can base your 5x5 max off your 5 rep max just by cutting back a bit. If you don't know this - it might be useful to test your lifts first or start light and allow for some flexibility in the weekly planning so you can make adjustments on the fly as you ramp the weights week to week to across the board records in the final weeks of the volume phase. Don't overly stress on this - it's easier than it sounds and once you've run it once, subsequent cycles fall right into place.

 

LOADING DELOADING AND INTENSIFICATION

Volume Phase Option 1: Deload and Peak 3x3 OR Option 2: Pure DeloadWeeks 1-4 Weeks 5-9 Weeks 5-6 or Extended

Monday Monday Monday

Squat 5x5 3x3 3x3

Bench 1x5 1x3 3x3

Row 1x5 1x3 3x3

Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday or Thursday

Squat5x5 (10-20% < than

Monday) Drop This Lift 3x3 with 70% of Monday

Deadlift 5x5 3x3 3x3Military or

Incline 5x5 3x3 3x3

Pull-ups or Chins 5x5 3x3 3x3

Friday Friday

Squat 1x5 1x3

Bench 5x5 3x3

Row 5x5 3x3

 Clarifying Examples

 (numbers are random - do not read anything into this)

Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 55x5 = Straight Sets 315x5 315x5 315x5 315x5 315x53x3 = Straight Sets 315x3 315x3 315x31x5 = Ramped Sets 225x5 255x5 275x5 295x5 315x51x3 = Ramped Sets 275x3 295x3 315x3

Volume/Loading Phase - Weeks 1-4:

So 5x5 is 5 sets of 5 reps with working set weight (warm up to the target weight for the week and proceed through 5x5 with that weight). Where 1x5 is present you are ramping the weights upward each set to a target set weight for a single set of 5 (it's still 5x5 but each set gets heavier and your target set is the top set of 5). The exception is the Wednesday squat for 5x5 using somewhere between 10-20% less than the working weight on the Monday 5x5 workout (the Wed squat may increase less than the Monday squat over the ramping weeks - meaning it may start at 12% less and wind up at 22% less by the last record week if one needs some extra recovery). What you are doing is gradually increasing the target weights week to week so you wind up performing record lifts in the final two weeks of the volume phase (weeks 3/4 in this case). If you miss a weight, hold it constant for the next week by carrying it forward (you should not be missing until weeks 3/4 though).  Keep in mind that you have separate targets for 5x5 and 1x5 even though they are the same lift (i.e. bench press). The ramping is set separately for these and they are treated separately. It's a good idea to start conservatively as this gets fairly backbreaking and you'll be begging for week 5. The most common mistake is people starting too high. It's useful to start light and then be flexible either adding an extra week to the ramp up or moving your targets a bit as you feel your way. This is far easier in the intensity phase because you already have a reference - likewise the

next time you run this workout, it'll be a no brainer. The main point in this phase is the volume. Lower the weight if need be but get the sets and reps in. If you fail on an exercise just carry the target weight forward into the next week. Some people who are new to this might find it easier to run this phase for 6 weeks starting much lighter and building slowly. If your working weights for the deadlift are 2x bodyweight (meaning you are a 200lbs lifter and you'll be doing 400+ for 5x5 throughout the cycle) it's probably a good idea to do lower the volume on that lift to 3x5 in this phase. The easiest way to set this up the first time is to put current PRs in week 3 (with more experience and relevant lifts you might have new PR goals in both weeks 3 and 4).  Your 5RM can be calculated and just drop off a given percentage for your 5x5RM (try 7.5% maybe) you get a week 3 figure for those lifts.  Now back down to week 1.  A conservative number to start with might be 80% of your Week 3 PR lift then split the difference for Week 2.  If you are really strong (and jumps are large), you might need more weeks to ramp up.  What you don't want to do is start too high, you can always tack on another week but if you start too high you blow the progression.  Anyway, week 4 lifts are a margin above week 3, maybe 5%.  It's important to plan it out and then play it by ear as you go, adjust where need be so that you culminate with the 2 final weeks.  If that means starting lighter and running for 6 weeks that's fine.  If that means, you thought 4 weeks was fine but you were unexpectedly stronger (or got stronger during this phase) and need to add an extra week to avoid a big jump, that's okay too - just be very conscious of fatigue level.  Your first time through you'll feel pretty beat up after the last week, that's okay.  If you are beat up entering the 2nd to last week, that's something to watch.  You want to 'overreach' which is before overtraining.  Sometimes you'll encounter a performance deficit and not be able to set PRs (very common for advanced athletes loading hard), without experience though you don't want to push it too hard and overdo it - takes too damn long to recover from. OPTION 1 - Deload and Peak 3x3: This option provides for deloading in the middle weeks and working toward new PRs in the final weeks (think of it as almost 2 loading phases as the 2nd will likely fatigue you by the time you are done).  This makes it a bit harder to handle particularly for first timers.  In addition, trainees might need a light week or two before moving back into another loading period.

Deloading Week - Week 5:On week 5 drop the Wednesday squat workout, begin using the Deloading/Intensity set/rep scheme, and keep the weight the same as your last week in the Volume Phase. In reality the whole intensity phase and this week are the same thing, I just break this week out because there is no weight progression so in reality after the volume phase the whole thing is deloading/intensity which for the purposes of this workout are synonymous. Also my 3x per week layout tends to get pretty aggressive as many find themselves fatigued again by the end so it kind of makes logical sense to break this period separately. Largely semantics.

Intensification Phase - Week 6-9:Everything is the same principal except that you use 3x3 and 1x3 setting records on week 8 and 9 (or the final 2 weeks of this phase). No Wednesday squatting. It's important that you recover before getting into the heavy weight PRs again so if you have to keep Week 6 light, go ahead.  The important aspect of this phase is the weight increases. If you are burned out and you need an extra day here and there that's okay - this won't hurt you at all and unless you are feeling ripe it might well be beneficial. If you can't do all the work that's okay too. Just keep increasing the weight week to week. It might also help to keep the first week in this phase just incrementally higher than the Deloading Week to provide for extra recovery if needed.  During this phase you'll be ramping the weights from your deloading week to your 3x3 and 1x3 records in the final 2 weeks. In this 3x per week pattern, start light once again and get a breather.  Taking extra days or cutting out volume isn’t encouraged but if you need extra recovery do it and then adjust your future training plans accordingly. If you don’t get an adequate deload first (that 1 week may not be enough) you will cripple your gains. Better to get 90% out of a training cycle than 10%. You'll learn a lot about your tolerance for volume loading and unloading here - there is no need to try to be a hero. Get some experience and the next time you run this you'll be spot on but you wind up feeling your way to a degree the first time.

Post Cycle:Depending upon how you feel, it's probably a good idea to deload again before moving back into another volume phase if you ran the 3x per week like I outlined above. See the alternative schedule below and perform this light for 2 weeks working on speed/acceleration. If you ran the 2x alternate schedule below for your deload/intensity you can likely move straight back into another volume phase. OPTION 2 - Pure Deload:

This is designed to get you recovered without too much hassle or worry.  Frequency is dropped to 2x per week and the Friday workout is dropped.  The Wednesday workout can be moved to Thursday if desired.  This phase can be run as long as needed to recover or until one wants to do something else.  Maybe that's 1-2 weeks for some people to build enough steam to jump back into a loading phase.  Maybe that's 4-5 weeks if someone feels they are really getting a lot out of it. 

Week 5 and on switch to 3x3 and drop the Friday workout altogether. Week 5 weights are the same as the final week of loading. Over the following weeks increase the weight workout to workout if you get all 9 reps. If you don't get all the reps, keep the weight constant. You'll likely be able to move straight back into another volume phase after this is complete.  As for the increases week to week, probably best to use a percentage but to make it easy for first timers maybe add 5lbs to benches and rows then 10lbs to squats and deads. 

OTHER PERTINENT INFORMATION

The Lifts:Squats - these should be full range Olympic style squats. Use the full range of your body - that means as low as you can go which for almost everyone is past parallel. If the top of your thighs aren't at least parallel it's for shit. If you think this is bad for your knees going low, you and whoever told you that are relying on an old wives tale. Anyone who knows the human body will tell you that below parallel is MUCH safer on the knees whereas parallel and above put all the sheer right on them and doesn’t allow proper transfer of the load to the rest of your body (this is how your body was designed). Read the Squat article from Arioch linked in the TOC for a complete description and references on the mechanics of the squat and depth.Deads - each rep is deweighted fully on the floor. No touch and go. This is called the 'dead'lift because the weight is 'dead' on the ground. You can touch and go warm ups but that's it.Military - standing overhead presses. Supporting weight overhead is a fundamental exercise and stimulates the whole body.   Push presses are a fine substitute.Rows - 90 degrees and done dynamically (Accelerate the weight into your body - do not jerk it but constantly increase the pace like an oar through water).  There is a TOC topic on rows, a good read that also illustrates a version done from the floor.Common Sense - this program has you train very hard and build quickly to heavy weights. If any of these compound lifts are new to you (like dynamic rowing from the floor or deadlifting) it is unsafe to subject yourself to this kind of unaccustomed work. Compound exercises have a way of finding weak links in the body - heavy lifting has a way of stressing these weak links. What this means is that the chance of injury is greatly increased. Spend some time working with the lift(s) before beginning a program that pushes you this hard.The rest is self explanatory. Time Between Sets:Don't over think this.  Use a natural rep speed, take what you need between sets.  Don't be lazy but don't rush.  You can't be doing rapid fire sets of big compound lifts.  Maybe on the lightest warm-ups you take a minute but most sets will be 2-5 minute range with 2 being between fairly easy sets and 5 being after a heavy set in preparation for another very serious major effort that drains you.  I can see exceeding the 5 minute limit by a tad when really pushing near failure in the PR weeks when you are uncertain of getting your reps on your last set.  Just use your brain and don't micromanage. Diet:Depends on whether you are trying to gain muscle or what.  I will say that for gaining muscle, caloric excess must be present.  Read the caloric excess topic in the table of contents.  More people, particularly bodybuilders, go wrong here.  If caloric excess is present and training stinks, you will get fatter.  The few guys who have come back with no weight gain got very strong and gained no net weight - guess what - they were already fairly lean (i.e. no excess in their diet otherwise they'd have been fatter) and they didn't gain fat or muscle (no caloric excess during training).  There's nothing any program can do if you won't eat.  For the purposes of gaining muscle or getting big and strong it's better to eat McDonalds and KFC all day long than not eat enough Zen clean ultra pure food which might be healthier but if not enough there's simply nothing to use to grow.  So caloric excess is a requirement, you don't need to eat like a slob but it will work infinitely better than not eating enough healthy food for this purpose.  Lots of people have gotten big and strong on diets that were bad, if you choose to eat squeaky clean, kudos to you but it is not critical to putting on muscle (it might be critical to a long high quality life though).    If you need a more in depth explanation, look here.

Learning about Your Tolerances/Setting Up Your 2nd Training Cycle:This can be somewhat daunting to set your weights the first time you run this and for reasons already stated it's a lot better to be on the conservative side. I don’t provide percentages because this is very individual and I want people to pay attention to their bodies and learn – stated percentages have a way of short circuiting the learning mechanism even in the face of common sense.  Once you've been through this once, you'll learn a lot about your tolerances and you'll have a set of very relevant records which you can sub right into the next training cycle. Your best 5x5 would become week 3 and then week 4 a margin above it (this is conservative) - or ideally week 3 would exceed your best 5x5 by a margin and then week 4 above that (this makes for a tougher loading cycle and this is one of the things you'll learn whether or not to do for

your current state of conditioning). In addition, if you are really loading hard, performance will decline towards the end so setting records and actually getting the lifts may not be possible (and that’s okay because the juice comes on the other end).  The other lifts 1x5, 3x3, 1x3 are similarly adjusted based on previous records. Also, people's tolerances vary widely at every level. Take 2 top competitive lifters - they may lift exactly the same weight, have similar training history, and be equally sized but one requires a massive amount of volume in training while another does not. No ego just what each needs to stimulate progress. As you go, you'll learn all about what you need, what you can handle, and what is too much. Eventually, you'll be able to tailor this program or an entire 6 month training cycle to your individual specs and requirements.  Obviously reading the Training Theory topics in the TOC is going to really assist in providing you a framework in how to quantify and design your programs.

Incorporating the Olympic Lifts:The above is basically setup for someone who doesn't know the OLs. Starr's original workout included Power Cleans and High Pulls. Instead of Bent Rows substitute Power Cleans. Rather than Deads substitute High Pulls.  That’s a quick and dirty way of handling this without much disruption.

Substituting Exercises:Don't fuck with this. Every bodybuilder seems to have Attention Deficit Disorder and an overwhelming desire to customize everything. The bottom line is that these are all the most effective exercises and just about anything one does will result in less gains. As a rule those people who want to change it don't know enough to make proper alterations - those who do know enough, don't have much to change. The two guys who are responsible for this program are some of the best on the planet at bulking lifters and making people stronger. It's kind of like Sesame Street's Elmo offering neurosurgery advice at NYU. Anyway, it's absolutely essential not to screw with the squats, they are the foundation of this program. If you want to sub inclines or push presses for military that's okay. Do not sub machines - don't even think about it, hit yourself with a plate if you must. If you want to do arms choose a single biceps and triceps exercise and perform them at the end once per week for 3 sets of whatever - your arms will take a beating from all the pulling and pressing anyway. If you can't chin due to bodyweight, pulldowns are okay. Core work is always fine. Cardio is fine - interval training is the best for this I'll just throw out. If this is just too much mental strain, take solace in the fact that it's 9 weeks, you'll gain a ton of muscle and strength and then you can spend the next 4 weeks adding the minute detail to refine the gained mass (like most care anyway - I have yet to meet a guy on this board who will trade 20lbs of muscle for a bit of added detail somewhere). In a nutshell, put your trust in some of the better coaches on the planet and enjoy the results. If it doesn't look like a typical program to you, that's because most programs suck and almost require drugs or a total novice lifter to see gains. For a lifter with some experience, it is not enough to go in and work hard - you need a program that properly regulates volume and intensity (either that or you'll settle for very suboptimal gains or simply use increased drug dosage to compensate for shitty training). Read the dual factor and training theory topics in the TOC.

Bands/Chains/Speed/DE:If you don't know what this is, don't worry about it. Read up on Westside sometime - it's not integral to the program but incorporating work like this into your training cycles can be worthwhile no matter if you are a PL, general athlete looking for performance or bodybuilder. For those that do and want to incorporate them, the 1x5 days are the days you would choose for these in the generic layout.

New or Novice Lifters:A dual factor program is unnecessary. This is more work than you need and slower progression.  Why add weight once every 4-8 weeks if you can string together new personal records for weeks at a time back to back.  I really recommend Rippetoe's Starting Strength for beginners or novices.  It's so critical to learn the lifts correctly and get started on a good program (i.e. not what one typically finds on bodybuilding sites).

Advanced Lifters:As one learns about one's tolerances and progresses over time one will generally find that one is able to gradually accommodate more volume. Some might find it more advantageous from a recovery standpoint to do all their 5x5 work on Monday and save the 1x5 for Friday.  In terms of this generic template what generally happens is that a lifter will remove the pyramid 1x5 workouts and swap them into a second 5x5 over time. In addition, an advanced lifter might start their ramps much closer to their record weights (that said, this same lifter might need a longer period of acclimation before being able to handle record weights so a lot depends on the individual and the current state of the athlete). As one's weights increase the volume can also be spread over 4 days rather than 3 to accommodate the fatigue from the heavier weights – especially the Wednesday deadlift. These lifters might also compress the training cycle into 2-3 weeks of loading and 1-2 weeks of deloading once they are geared up and training hard (this would be within the context of a longer training plan like a planned out Macrocycle – give a read to Planning Your Training Cycle and the Training Theory section of the TOC). I'm just going to state, this stuff is for someone who has spent some time doing this type of work. I only include this for completeness because it is needed to illustrate progression and if I put an “advanced” version down you can bet everyone would be doing it, burning out, making zero progress, and I’d be “wrong” and this program would be “bad”. The way I have it listed above will overload just about anyone besides an accomplished seasoned lifter and push them to their limit if they set their weight right. You apply more volume when you need it, not as an ego thing. This will destroy or drastically limit your gains. Don't do this

unless you've run many dual factor training cycles and are absolutely sure you need it. I'm being overly cautious but most people on this board come from a bodybuilding background where typical programs are the 3 day split variety hitting each muscle 1x per week. This base program itself is a whole different world of volume and the tweaks here can make it much more taxing and in every single case that I've seen where someone is even relatively new to this style of program - they should not be employed. 

SAMPLE TEMPLATE This is a downloadable Microsoft Excel file that calculates your relevant lifts and plots out what this program might look like over 9 weeks.  It makes a lot of assumptions that might not be right or near optimal for any given lifter.  I've tried to make it applicable to an experienced trainee, familiar with the lifts and just starting to run programs like this.  Understand that this is just a reference for what it might look like as some people do a lot better with an example - you don't need or necessarily want to adhere to this.   Some of the assumptions for those interested:

Current records are in week 3 Previous weeks' 1 and 2 sets are calculated as a percentage of week 3 Week 4 is a given percentage (5%) above 3 New max lifts are calculated from week 4 performance and applied to week 8 Week 5 weights are constant from week 4 Weeks 6 and 7 weights are even increments between week 5 and 8 Week 9 is a given percentage (2.5%) above 8 Ramped sets of 5 are calculated as a given percentage of the top set for the day