5x5..which set to increase weight?

Degsy

So they old 5x5 for bench seems to be proceeding well and i'm looking to start adding weight to further progress.
The thing is which set do i add it on,is it better to be warmed up with some lighter sets or do it early when i'd be stronger?

DM-BM

I'm not sure i understand the question, i mean 5x5 is five sets of 5 reps all at the same weight, after warming up.

Gumbo

DM-BM wrote: »

I'm not sure i understand the question, i mean 5x5 is five sets of 5 reps all at the same weight, after warming up.

thats what i thought too.
lets say he is working out mon, wed, fri.
does he increase the weight on the wed from the mon or does he do one full week at the same weight then increase it for the next week and so on?

Degsy

Nah.What i meant was if i do 5 sets with roughly the same weight (+/- 2.5kilos)and i wanted to put another 5kilos on the bar do i do it after the 5 sets as an extra set or during the 5 sets and drop one of the others?

DM-BM

Degsy wrote: »

Nah.What i meant was if i do 5 sets with roughly the same weight (+/- 2.5kilos)and i wanted to put another 5kilos on the bar do i do it after the 5 sets as an extra set or during the 5 sets and drop one of the others?

Personally, if i was going to do a heavy set of 5, i'd work up to it, gradually increasing the weight, i.e. each set would be heavier than the next.

If i wanted to do 5x5, they would all be the same weight.

So basically i don't know what to say to you, other than what you seem to be describing wouldn't work for me, because if i did a heavy set of 5 first, then my 5x5 weight would suffer, if i did a 5x5 i had to work for, there would be no way i could go 5kg heavier and get 5 reps.

brianthebard

If it were me, I'd increase the weight the next time I was benching, not after completing the five sets.

DM-BM

kceire wrote: »

thats what i thought too.
lets say he is working out mon, wed, fri.
does he increase the weight on the wed from the mon or does he do one full week at the same weight then increase it for the next week and so on?

i think you would want to have pretty special powers of recovery to do 5x5 on the same exercise 3 times a week, at a weight that is any benefit to you, never mind increasing it from one workout to the next.

I found it possible to increase the weight each workout doing 3x5, but if i was using 5x5, the weight i was using would have been less and it would have been harder to increase the weight each time. I found 5x5 could grind me into the ground pretty fast, where 3x5 let me increase my weights and get stronger.

Gumbo

DM-BM wrote: »

i think you would want to have pretty special powers of recovery to do 5x5 on the same exercise 3 times a week, at a weight that is any benefit to you, never mind increasing it from one workout to the next.

I found it possible to increase the weight each workout doing 3x5, but if i was using 5x5, the weight i was using would have been less and it would have been harder to increase the weight each time. I found 5x5 could grind me into the ground pretty fast, where 3x5 let me increase my weights and get stronger.

i was basing my mon, wed, fri on the rotating starting strength programme if that helps.

Degsy

kceire wrote: »

i was basing my mon, wed, fri on the rotating starting strength programme if that helps.

Eh,no it doesnt.
I dont know anybody who'se benching three days a week.

DM-BM

kceire wrote: »

i was basing my mon, wed, fri on the rotating starting strength programme if that helps.

Starting strength is 3x5, not 5x5, if you tried to do ss using 5x5, it would grind to a halt very fast.

Gumbo

Degsy wrote: »

Eh,no it doesnt.
I dont know anybody who'se benching three days a week.

nobody mentioned anything about benching 3 times a week!

here is the basic starting strength routine :

Workout A
3x5 Squat
3x5 Bench Press
1x5 Deadlift

Workout B
3x5 Squat
3x5 Press
5x3 Power cleans

Workouts A and B alternate on 3 non-consecutive days per week.
hence my mon, wed, fri training days, now i hope thats a bit clearer.(sp)

Gumbo

DM-BM wrote: »

Starting strength is 3x5, not 5x5, if you tried to do ss using 5x5, it would grind to a halt very fast.

i never said it was 5x5

Degsy

kceire wrote: »

nobody mentioned anything about benching 3 times a week!

here is the basic starting strength routine :

Workout A
3x5 Squat
3x5 Bench Press
1x5 Deadlift

Workout B
3x5 Squat
3x5 Press
5x3 Power cleans

Workouts A and B alternate on 3 non-consecutive days per week.
hence my mon, wed, fri training days, now i hope thats a bit clearer.(sp)

I dont CARE about starting strength.I've been training for ages!!

Gumbo

Degsy wrote: »

I dont CARE about starting strength.I've been training for ages!!

you dont have to care about it, but the answers were besed on the same thing ie you increase the weight within you 5x5. for example
5x10kg
5x10kg
5x10kg
5x12.5kg
5x15kg

or the other case is to keep the same weight on all 5x5 for that day and the next day add on the extra weight and do a full 5x5 on that weight.

thats my take on it, hopefully im close to the spot!

you get out of bed on the wrong side this morning, yeah

VIS VIRES

When you do 5x5 of the weight that you're benching now add the 2.5kg on the next time you bench...

Degsy

VIS VIRES wrote: »

When you do 5x5 of the weight that you're benching now add the 2.5kg on the next time you bench...

Yeah but on which set???

Gumbo

Degsy wrote: »

Yeah but on which set???

on all them iirc

Degsy

kceire wrote: »

on all them iirc

So you reckon i should add extra weight and then continue to do 5 sets of 5 reps as normal?Like as if i hadnt added extra weight at all,like?:rolleyes:

kevpants

I'm not a 5x5 guru at all Degsy but how I might approach it would be to use getting 5x5 as a goal with a weight and once you get it, add weight and build up. So what I mean is you might get 5x5 with lets say 70kg. Next week make it 72.5kg. You may only get:
x5 reps
x5 reps
x4 reps
x4 reps
x3 reps

but the next week you might get 4 reps on the last set as you get stronger. Once you get strong enough to get 5 sets of 5. Add another 2.5kg. I'd add 5kg for Squat and Deadlifts and 2.5kg for bench. Just an idea. It might be something different even if it's not what you had in mind.

Hanley

I can't believe some of the replies I'm seeing.... why's everyone making it so complicated?

Week 1: Xkg 5x5
Week 2: X+2.5kg 5x5

If you get all 5x5 on week 2, go up again in week 3. If you don't, stick with it til you can do 5x5. If you can't get to 5x5 after say 2 weeks of no progress, but can do 3x5, then add 2.5kg the next week and try 3x5 again. If you can do that, go up 2.5kg AGAIN the week after. If not, stick with it til you can.

After all that you can drop back and build up to 5x5 again, or (my personal preference) add 2.5kg and go for one set of 5. And if you can do that, go up 2.5kg again until you can't do sets of 5 anymore.

Then either drop the weight a little bit and repeat the whole process using 5x3, 3x3 and 1x3 as your progression, or drop back the weight a bit more and start again with 5x5, 3x5 and 1x5.

Simple.... Just gotta keep working, adding weights and not complicating things!

Gumbo

Degsy wrote: »

So you reckon i should add extra weight and then continue to do 5 sets of 5 reps as normal?Like as if i hadnt added extra weight at all,like?:rolleyes:

yes you should, whats wrong with that?, just look at what people are posting, they are answering you many times over.

BossArky

Thanks for the ideas there Hanley on what to do after the 5x5 becomes too much.

Degsy, I have been adding 2.5kg to my squat and deadlift 5x5 each week since beginning of the year (except for first two weeks where I added 5kg). I haven't stalled yet, but may be getting close.

I happen to have the increases down here on paper as I was plotting it out the other day:

e.g. Deadlift - these are all 5 sets of 5 reps:

3rd jan - 100kg
8rd jan - 105kg
13rd jan - 110kg
20rd jan - 112.5kg
26d jan - 115kg
3 feb - 117.5kg
10 feb - 120kg

Before starting this my 5x5 max was 115kg. Slowly building up has made stronger. Obviously, don't start off at your max.

For the bench i guess you would be looking at making smaller increments if possible.

Before xmas my bench got stuck on 75kg 5x5. Maybe I should take a leaf outta my own book and try to increase that with tiny increments :pac:

Degsy

BossArky wrote: »

Thanks for the ideas there Hanley on what to do after the 5x5 becomes too much.

Degsy, I have been adding 2.5kg to my squat and deadlift 5x5 each week since beginning of the year (except for first two weeks where I added 5kg). I haven't stalled yet, but may be getting close.

I happen to have the increases down here on paper as I was plotting it out the other day:

e.g. Deadlift - these are all 5 sets of 5 reps:

3rd jan - 100kg
8rd jan - 105kg
13rd jan - 110kg
20rd jan - 112.5kg
26d jan - 115kg
3 feb - 117.5kg
10 feb - 120kg

Before starting this my 5x5 max was 115kg. Slowly building up has made stronger. Obviously, don't start off at your max.

For the bench i guess you would be looking at making smaller increments if possible.

Before xmas my bench got stuck on 75kg 5x5. Maybe I should take a leaf outta my own book and try to increase that with tiny increments :pac:

You're right,the bench is a very different animal to almost anything else.
It has taken me weeks and weeks to hit 5x5 at 80kilos..and that was by very small increments indeed.
Just to put that in proportion
Everything else i have managed to add 10-40 kilos onto in the same period!
Bench is frustratingly slow i find.

kevpants

Degsy wrote: »

You're right,the bench is a very different animal to almost anything else.
It has taken me weeks and weeks to hit 5x5 at 80kilos..and that was by very small increments indeed.
Just to put that in proportion
Everything else i have managed to add 10-40 kilos onto in the same period!
Bench is frustratingly slow i find.

It's probably just because you're a human and the world is round and the sky is blue. The bench is a hoo-er, it always will be.