4th week of 5x5, (madcow)

[TheOak84]

gained 3 pounds of bodyweight, (never changed diet, just stuff my face 5 times a day)

great amount of strenght gained on legs as well as endurance (because of never having to squat 4 times in 8 days.)

a decent amount of strenght in pressing (although i have always done chest 2x a week and delts once) so not a big change there

bicpes, traps and forarms have new growth, triceps dont

ive added in calves (6x20) 3x a week and bb curls (3x5) 1x a week, and for the last 6 weeks am adding in 1 tricep movement, prolly on monday

i really like this routine alot, for the 5x5 days ive added 10 pounds a week on the pressing, deading and rowing, and 20 pounds a week on the squats

and for the 1x5 days, 10 pounds on everything

i dunno y i didnt gain as much weight, i 'think' i look thicker as do my friends.

im still happy about the numbers goin up.

id suggest this routine to anyone.

p.s.

my partner is doin it, in the 4th week, has added the same numbers as I. his bench went up extremely so far, he ws doin 5x5 with 115 the first week and now is doin 155, and just for fun we tested his max which before was 170 (is doin that for 1x5) is now 195.

good shit.

 

[nutsnack]

good deal man, keep up the hard work and ull keep seein the gains!

 

[Madcow2]

Well a few things - some of which are just general because I get the sense that a lot of people who use the program like to read the 5x5 posts and see how others are doing[note: you can post this in my main thread too - I always check it, and don't be surprised if it gets moved there by the mods]:

1) 3lbs over 4 weeks isn't exactly shabby. We are talking 30 some odd pounds a year. It's tough to make comparisons accross people. Some people simply gain better than others. Some have big frames so a few pounds is nothing to them where a 5'2" guy it's a bigger % of BW. If your capacities in the big lifts are going up - that's really all you can do. It's not like if you had some leg extensions in there the whole world would be different. Growth sometimes is not linear, you might find you gain mostly strength for a long time with very modest gains and then voila all of a sudden you sprout a bit.

2) For most conditioned athletes the gains show up in the deloading period. I think people have had their expectations spoiled a bit by some lucky people who have gained throughout. Once you get used to running programs like this and get past that initial spurt, you'll mainly gain only in the deloading - strength as well as size. (see #4 also - there's something I'm not sure about)

3) Tricepts just aren't going to be puffy and pumped with blood all the time like you get from a dedicated tricept workout. They will grow in proportion (unless they were out of proportion beforehand). A bit of direct work is fine if it makes you feel good. Doesn't hurt anything I swear just keep it modest.

4) Another thing - I notice you are adding weights week to week but weeks 3 and 4 (or the final 2 weeks anyway) should be record type weeks. Ussually I see references like, "OMG - I can't wait for week 5" or some such. Are you doing the single or dual factor version? I notice your friend started with 115 on the bench so I'm thinking maybe the single factor one in which case your gains will be more steady. I don't see stats on your lifts or whatnot but if you guys don't have a few years under your belts of squatting and pulling than this is definitely how it should be going.

5) I've become a bit leary on trusting people with diet. Some guy won't be getting any gains and you'll find out he's 6% bodyfat and spending 5 minutes extracting all the yolk off each egg white in the morning and eating 1000 calories below his maintenance requirements. I'm sure someone else is in the final prep phase for a marathon and wondering why he's not gaining weight. Another guy is probably looking at the advice I give one of the ultra-leans to just chow down for a bit and uses it as an excuse to eat a bucket of wings and Mcdonalds every meal - he'll tell me the program made him fat but bigger and stronger. Since I find diet pretty boring I'll just default to the fact that within reasonable limits this program works quite well for just about anyone. It's as close to a 'one-size fits all' as I've ever found, and that's something fairly rare in training. Reasonable limits are up to the trainee, no warranty implied.

Overall though, it sounds like you are enjoying yourself (the most important) and you are getting results (hint: no one is ever satisfied - if you gained 10lbs you'd think you could have gained more or should look more impressive or lift more). Keep hammering the weights up and over time the size will come.

EDIT - I'll also add the perspective is important. Next time you are at the store lay out some steak and get a good look what 5 lbs, 10lbs, 20lbs, and even 3 lbs looks like. This is not insignificant in any way. Granted holding absolute fat weight constant is impossible but adding significant muscular bodyweight is a big process for the body and sometimes people loose perspective when they here 20lbs or whatever someone claims to have gained. Adding a lot of muscle in a short timeframe isn't particularly easy on the body.

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

good to see the results on 5x5 theoak. im doing it too and on the 1st cycle of 3rd week.

i agree with all 5 of madcows points except #2- i am not fully conditioned so i dont know. i will probably gain throughout my first cycle or two in the loading phase as well as deloading until my body gets "hardened"

also, i am a natural ecto that doesnt eat enough, so i probably wont see much weight gain. most of the gains to be had will be in the strength department.

 

[Tom Treutlein]

An ecto who doesn't eat? Damn man, most ectos I know put away the food like no tomorrow, they just stay tiny.

 

[TheOak84]

thnx for the input.

i have several years of heavy lifting under my belt, but my partner is pretty new to heavy weights. he is actually getting better results then i am.

i got the flu real bad over the winter, and lost some strength and never gained it back,
but this routine has helped alot. im gonna try a 2nd cycle but should i take a week off before i start a new one?

 

[Madcow2]

Okay - so it is the dual factor version or the single factor version? If dual, you should be getting pretty burned out in the final week of loading. This should be records on every day in every lift (wed squat being the exception).

EDIT - if dual and using the 2x deloading protocol you can step back in right away. If using the 3x, you'll have to wait and see how you feel. An easy week is likely to do you a world of good.

 

[TheOak84]

i dont know what dual or single means, ill give u wnat im doin...

m

squat 5x5
bench 1x5
bb row 1x5
bb curl 1x5
calf 6x20

w

squat 5x5 70% of monday
deadlift 5x5
military 5x5
weighted pullup 5x5

f

squat 1x5
bench 5x5
row 5x5
shrug 3x5
calf 4x12

this was the first day of the 5th week. ill post numbers at the end of the cycle

 

[Madcow2]

Is there a phase where it drops to 3x3 and 3x1 (i.e. from 5x5/1x5)? This is the dual factor with loading and deloading periods. You have to be hitting record weight and in the final weeks of the volume phase which is generally weeks 3-4 or 5-6 for those who ramped up slower. When you didn't say anything about being dead or crushed from the workload and just increasing a constant amount week to week I figured you might not be using this (or your capacity is many magnitudes better than anyone elses on this board)
http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4764723&postcount=381


There is the single factor verision where you just hammer on it week after week sort of like this: http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4497774&postcount=15

I get the feeling you may have missed something between the 2. At this point you can probably continue doing what you are doing for a while but as the weights increase, that's a lot of volume to handle. I don't know how low you started but if you stop progressing for a period - maybe a week or a bit more (i.e. not just a bad day, all lifts start to decay) you need to turn it off fast and deload using the 2x protocol in the first link.

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

An ecto who doesn't eat? Damn man, most ectos I know put away the food like no tomorrow, they just stay tiny.

i have been known to eat a lot and not gain, but i just dont eat more than 3K cals per day ussually. its enough to keep a smidge of fat on me. im probably at 7 to 8 % lately as i have stopped riding my bikes as often @ 140 bw for the last 4 years.


i tried the single factor 5x5 for quite some time last year into this year. there probably was about 6 or 7 hard months of training in the gym in the last 12 months. i always got burned out on the numbers that im basically hitting now, and i am currently just on the 1st day of 3rd week. i could never get past them, and this double factor and deloading schedule just might be the ticket. i think i was wearing myself out with single factor.