Wantings Single Factor 5x5
 

This will be my attempt at The Bill Starr Routine. I'll use Verbatimreturned's personal journal as a template (http://www.bodybuilding.net/personal...-5x5-1576.html) and also be reffering to 0311's thread on the routine (http://www.bodybuilding.net/training...=single+factor)

Stats August 11th:
Weight-140
BodyFat- 11% (using electronic scale)
Goals-Stronger and gain some weight and size.

I haven't worked out since around end of June do to flooding in local YMCA.
Today is second day of reopening and I ran down there dismorning to find out 1rm for exercises, except for squat because leg room is still closed and im hoping that will reopen by monday.
They are pretty low but they are my current 1RM
Bench:155lbs
EZ-bar curl:80lbs
Incline Bench:115lbs
Deadlift:145lbs
Bentover rows:125lbs

Here is actual routine I'll be following
Monday – Heavy Day
Squat – 5 sets of 5
Bench – 5 sets of 5
DeadLift – 5 sets of 5
2 sets of weighted hypers
4 sets of weighted Sit-ups

Wednesday – Light Day
Squat – 4 sets of 5
Incline Bench – 4 sets of 5
Bentover Rows – 4 sets of 5
Sit-ups – 3 sets

Friday - Medium
Squat – 4 sets of 5, 1 triple, back-off
Bench – 4 sets of 5, 1 triple, back-off
Deadlift – 4 sets of 5, 1 triple
Weighted Dips – 3 sets of 5-8
Triceps and Biceps – 3 sets of 8 each

I'm going to start off fairly low for the weights until I'm more sure how much I can handle then start jumping the weight week to week till I can get the most I can out of this.

Supplements I'm taking are :
100% whey Protien, multi vitamin, Nitro T3, and CEE

No need to do a curl max...

I know but I was curious how much it dropped over a month or more time of not doing it. I don't plan on doing a lot of direct arm work, except Friday which I'll do an exercise focusing more on triceps

Wanting, good luck!

If it were me I'd do the bentover rows twice and week, MON and FRI and the Deads once, WED.

I'm also curious as to how high an incline you are using on the Incline Bench since the number is quite a bit lower. If it's real high then I would consider doing overhead presses instead.

Best of luck to you give it hell

Good luck! I wish I was doing the same thing at your age!! Setting yourself up for success fo' sho'!

The incline is probably 45 degrees. I might of been able to get a little more weight, but my shoulders are pretty weak I don't train them much cause they usually kill after words till the point where it hurts just letting them hang down.

Are bentover rows more beneficial than deadlifts? Personally I like bentover rows more, for deadlifts I find it hard to keep my back straight.

Oh I wasn't downing your weight, bro! Just looking at ways to help you get the most out of it. 45 degrees is standard for most benches but personally I think anything over 20-30 degrees if not less is a waste. You're getting more and more shoulder into it but in a weakened position. Hence my proposal of doing militaries instead. Do your shoulders bother you alot on overhead stuff too, our just the inclines?

I wouldn't directly compare them and rows are certainly not more beneficial. But if you do squats thrice a week and deadlifts twice something will have to give. And if you find it hard to keep your back straight as it is then you will be a hurtin puppy. If you can't keep your back straight on deads (which means slightly arched) then you need to use less weight. If you do the deads on wednesday you can still ramp up to a max set and squats will be "light". Check out this writeup by Madcow:

http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow...Linear_5x5.htm

Also, may be able to incorporate something else for lower back...low volume and higher reps to help stengthen it.

I took a 5 rep max calculator to make a first week plan for myself and the weights I'll be shooting for this week.

Squat- I'm just going to slap weight on for first day to figure what I can handle.(I never really done A2G, but what better time to start than present)
Bench-115x5 120x5 125x5 130x5 135x5
Deadlift-100x5 105x5 110x5 115x5 120x5
Hypers-25x10 45x10
sit ups-0x10 5x10 5x10 10x10 10x10


Thats for Monday hopefully by end of this week I'll know what needs to be fixed or tweaked. I'm going to consider this just a practice week.

First day- Good first day. Some of my weights got messed up because I threw 5lbs on each side instead of 2.5 so for now on I'm going to work with 10lb increments.

Squats- The leg room is still under work so I used a smith machine instead. This was my first real time doing A2G so weights kinda Low but I got up
70x5 70x5 90x5 100x5 100x5
Bench-115x5, 125x5, 125x5, 135x5, 135x5
Deadlift- 100x5, 105x5, 110x5, 115x5, 120x5

By the end of all that my legs were pretty tired so for hypers I only did 2 sets of 25x10
Sit ups 0x10 5x10 5x10 10x10 I forgot it was only 4 sets so I accidently added an extra in my last post.

I weighed myself dismorning before eating. Turns out my weight is down to 135. Plan will to be just to eat as much as possible keeping the carbs and protien high and if fat would like to jump in so be it.

2nd workout
Wednesday

Squat-70x5 70x5 90x5 90x5
Incline Bench- 70x5 80x5 90x5 100x5
Bentover Rows-80x5 90x5 100x5 110x5
Sit ups- 3 sets of 5x10

What you need to be doing is to drink at MINIMUM 1/2 gallon a day of whole milk (no less than 2%). It's not expensive and is an excellent source of cals. A gallon of milk is roughly 180-200 grams of protein right there. I buy my milk in bulk for $5 per 2 gallons. So I spend around $15 or so a week. Now combine that with a few protein shakes, and at least 3-4 whole food meals and you got yourself some muscle.

Since you're only 135, a half gallon of whole milk is good to go. Your goal is to finish it by the end of the day. Put it in cereal, mix your protein shakes in it, whatever..Just keep chipping away at it.

That's my .02, and what got me where I'm at.

Well I took your advice and ran out bought 2 gallons. I see it being no problem to get a 1/2 gallon down a day. I also ran out to buy more protien while I was at it. I'm pretty excited about this program and want to gain some serious weight.

Man it's good to see another youngster out there as well as myself who's serious about lifting. Good to hear that you're doing Bill Star's 5x5. I just finsished doing about 9 weeks on the same routine but instead of deadlifts I did powercleans. I like powercleans better than deadlifts. But yeah I have made some good gains out of my "cycle" it that's what it's called. I'm new to all this lingo. My signature tells what gains I made so you can have an idea of what I got out of Bill Star's routine. I could have made some bigger gains if I would have eaten more. I thought I was eating alot, but in reality I actually wasn't. Just make sure that you eat alot of food while on this workout. It's a very high intensity workout IMO. I think I might do what 0311 suggested to you about the milk thing. Alright well I hope you keep us updated on your progress.


KJ

Blah good and bad day

Squat-70x5 70x5 70x5 80x5 95x3 70x8
Bench-115x5 120x5 125x5 130x4 140x1
I messed up in bench today I'm thinking I have my weight increments to close together and get tired out too fast. Monday I plan to switch to 10lb increments.
Deadlift-100x5 105x5 110x5 115x5 125x3
Dips 0x8 10x8 10x8
Biceps-50x8 60x8 60x8
Skull crushers-30x8 40x8 40x8

A mess up in the bench, but everything else went alright. As far as my diet is concerned I'm eating a meal every 1-2 hours protien has got to atleast be 200-250 grams and im not shy eating carbs either best guess atleast 200 but probably more I have ahrder time keeping track of that.

Goodluck with this :)

Monday 4th workout

Squat-70x5 80x5 80x5 90x5 95x5
Bench-95x5 105x5 115x5 125x5 140x4
Deadlift-105x5 110x5 115x5 120x5 125x5
Hypers-25x10 25x10
situps-5x10 5x10 10x10 10x10

Ive been trying to eat as much as I can. and its been like 4 days since I really tried putting on weight. started at 135.6 weighed self dismorning 138.6. 3lbs in 4 days not bad; in the next week im gonna add cardio in 20 mins two times a week. I figure I can probably gain 2 lbs a week maybe.

starting Weight-135
Goal-150
Time:8 weeks

afterwards
I want to gain to 160
Time- 6 weeks

Wednesday 5th w/o

Squat-70x5/80x5/80x5/90x5
Incline-80x5/90x5/100x5/110x6/120x5
Bentover rows-90x5/100x5/110x5/120x5
Situps- 3 (10x10)

For my incline 1rm its apparently much higher than 115. I used 45 degree angle today also. I was curious to see how high I could get it and thats why I added the extra set on.

Friday 6th w/o

Squat-70x5~80x5~80x5~90x5~100x3~80x8
Bench-95x5~105x5~115x5~125x5~142.5x5~115x8
Deadlift-105x5~110x5~115x5~120x5~130x5~115x8
Dips-10x8~10x8~15x8
Curls-60x8~70x8~70x8
Skull Crushers-40x8~50x8~50x8

Monday starts school where I'll be going to the gym after school everyday so on tuesdays and thursdays I plan to do cardio.

Monday

Terrific day!! first day of school and i seem to workout stronger in afternoon than morning
(5sets of 5)
Squat-70/80/80/90/100 (pretty easy could have gone heavier)
Bench-95/105/115/125/145 (decided to go from 142.5 to 145 not big jump but felt i could do it)
Deadlift-105/115/115/125/135/145(I added extra sets because I felt strong still after 5 and wanted to see how much I could get up)
Hypers-25x10 25x10

thursday (because wednesday I had time problems)

Squat-70,80,80,80
Incline-95,100,105,110 then 115x3
bentover rows-95,105,115,125
situps- 3(10x10)
Pull-ups- 1x12 1x10

hey wanting...are ur lifts in lbs or kgs?

Sentinel

only lbs sadly but maybe one day kgs :)

^^^no thats ok....dont look at it like that......

the mostimportant thing right now is for you to PROGRESS...even if it means adding only 1lbs to the bar every session.....

best of luck

Anuj

ps: i will be watching this journal :)

sunday

squat-70,80,80,90,105x3
Bench-95,105,115,125,150x3,125x8
deadlift-105,115,125,135,150
dips-15x8 20x8 25x8
curls 60x8 70x8 70x8
skull crushers 40x8 50x8 50x8

Tuesday

squat-80,80,90,100,105
Bench-105,115,125,135,150x3,135x5
Deadlifts-105,115,125,135,145
DB press-45x5 50x5 50x5

what r ur stats wanting?

5'9'' about 140lbs. 17 years old. been working out for a year and a half but atleast 6 months were me not knowing what to do, also only about 9-10 months have I've been going to a gym before that I used equipment at home.

Probably one of my biggest set backs is not doing legs. I just started doing legs and doing squats with this program.

wednesday

squat-80,90,90,100
incline bench-105,115,115,125
bentover rows-105,115,125,125

Friday
squat-80,90,90,110,90
bench-95,105,115,125,135,155x3
deadlift-135,145,145,155
curls-60,70,70

Squat-90,90,100,110
deadlift-135,145,155,165,175
DB press-45,50,55,60,65

65x5 new PR
and well considering i never did deadlifts much or squat before they are usually new PRs too but lol

friday

squats-90,90,100,100,120x3,100x8
bench-135x5,135x5,140x4,135x5,155x1,165x1
deadlift-135,135,145,155,165

Looks good man, keep it up.

I took a bit of a break work was messing with my schedule.

thursday
squats-90,90,95,95,115x2
bench-135 ,5x5 pretty cool considering last year this time I could barely get it up for 1-2 reps
deadlift-135x5 145x5 145x5 155x5 165x5 175x5
^^^
new fav exercise

friday

squats-90,90,95,110
incline-95,105,110,115
db curls-40x10 40x10 40x10
ez bar-60x8 60x8 60x8

Monday

Squats-90,95,95,100,110
bench-135x5 140x5 140x5 140x5 140x4
deadlift-135x5 145x5 155x5 175x5 185x5 1RM 205

thoughts:: 6 weeks so far and all of my old PRs are passed aside from curls.

my deadlift max went from 145 to 205
Bench is slowly but surely getting higher
Squats are moving up little by little

I like this routine so far I'm hoping to continue to see gains in the next few weeks. As long as gains are being made ill stay on the program.

Hey Wanting I see you're keeping the volume pretty high, i.e. ramping up with small increments or no jumps at all. I take it you're looking primarily for mass which is fine but what you may not realize is that your workload is jumping all over the place.. on some things. That can make a big difference in terms of putting weight on the bar since this is high frequency.

I understand why your doing it but significant increases (or decreases) in volume from one workout to another can be hard to recover from and seriously hamper the weight on the bar and length of program. There is a big difference between ramping up and doing 5x5 same weight (or close to it). Typically you're using 5 pound increments which is 125 pounds (according to the day) but sometimes you may be increasing the volume by 400 or so. If you had started out with same weight then you volume would be much lower but still harder to maintain over a long period.

The number one point of this program is progressive load. Workouts should not be viewed individually but as cycle of progression. Challenging yourself with more volume is fine in general but not if it hampers progression....in this case putting weight on the big lifts.

Do whatever increments you like but I would advise you keep them steady. If you don't get reps then carry the weight over. Just some thoughts to help you get a good long run and better gains out of this. :)

There will come a time sooner or later when your 'gains' will not be quite as dramatic. As of now, you're lifting optimally for the first time IMO. The template is there...Frequency, compound lifts, squat dominant, ect. Powerlifters look for 5 lb PR's a lot of the time and that's still real progress.

If you DO top off with some PR's, I would KEEP the program, but make some subtle changes to continue progress keeping the same format.

Some examples:

- Monday everything becomes 3 x 8 for a month..

- Rotate out deadlifts for power cleans for a month..

- Rotate out bench press for close grip bench for a month..

The idea is to keep what you are doing relatively the same. Exercising ideas like these will keep you fresh, motivated, and most importantly PROGRESSIVE!

That being said, continue with everything like you are doing. Good job thus far. :)

I guess that means you disagee with what I said. I just told him to go back to the consistent but steady loading he was doing at the beginning and keeping the increases in volume consistent with the load increases. Wanting, I still think you should do that and not do the haphazard thing you've been doing the last few weeks. I guarantee that will keep you on it longer and give you better results. Increasing the volume* by 10% one workout and then 100% the next workout is NOT the way to progress steadily on a program like this (it's single factor after all). That being said, you ARE doing a good job, a perhaps I should say that to people more often :) .

*By volume I mean workload and not just reps times sets.

LOL, then I read what he was doing wrong!!

I was only commenting on how to continue progress without monkey fucking the program. I thought he was doing exactly as prescribed. I must've glossed over him going kamakazie on his own..

LOL, I figured something like that but I didn't want to assume. Must have missed my previous post. To be honest I thought you might come up with some convincing reason and then make me all confused thinking the moon is made of cheese :biglaugh: . He was going pretty much perfect at the beginning so it would make perfect sense why you said that.

Friday (attempted to get back on track)
squat-90,100,105,110,115,120
Bench-115,125,135,145,155x4
Deadlift-135,145,155,165,185

Then did some curls. Hopefully bench is back on track to what you suggested. I probably should of done 150 instead of 155 that way I could of got up 5 reps.