5 x 5 variations....
 

would it be ok on my off days....to do wrist curls...neck flexes and maybe some shrugs?

friday i started on this...did the squats/bench/row....then did close hand pushups for the tri's and weighted situps...

then yesterday i did the wrist curls/neck and shrugs...

then today...squats/press/deads/pullups and then did barbell curls and side bends.

tomorrow i will probably take the whole day off...and then tuesday i'll do the squats/bench/rows again...with probably tricep extensions and more weighted situps...


look okay?


today's just killed me....felt good. :)

i have a few questions for you:

1.) have u planned ur progression for this?

2.) why are you doing accessory work?

3.) what are your maxes at the moment?

4.) why did today's workout kill you?

5.) what week of the 5x5 are you on?

6.) this should have been question #1 but which 5x5 program are you on?

cheers

Sentinel

first week...doing the bill starr thing...

i like accessories...my forearms felt left out :)

killed me because it was alot of work crammed into an hour. i'm not hurt or anything....i was just sweating my balls off and breathing heavy. i actually felt strained for the first time in awhile...


if by progression you mean adding weight...i'll just go buy feel...if i can get all 5 x 5 in..i'll add five pounds the next week...

5 rep maxes....

bench..145
squat..100
rows..115
press..85
deadlift..125

i'm just a little shit...but i'm tired of the 3 x 8 thing not putting on much mass...it may not even be possible for me to put on mass..been lifting for a year or so...and not a whole lot of change...although my diet was crap..and supplement schedule was crap..and i wasn't pushing myself super hard. and i didn't do any leg work in the last year. there is no one big in my family...i can pretty much each mcdonalds 7 days a week and not put on a pound.

although from november till now i've put on about 25 pounds.

Forearm work, trap work and basically any other accessory like that will hurt you in this program.

I guarantee that your deadlift number will go up faster than your grip strength so the last thing you need is tired or weaked forearms and traps when you're going for a 5x5 on deads. Your forearms and traps are also involved in other exercises as well.

For the time being I would even stray away from doing any extra tricep work.

Basically what I'm trying to say is, don't do accessories right now because you really need to focus on getting those compound exercises up and you don't want something like a fatigued forearm or bicep preventing you from hitting that weight, or worse yet injuring yourself because of it.

I take it your doing the advanced program. You'd be better off with a beginner or intermediate program.

A 5x5 program is PLANNED PROGRESSION. It is not done by feel. If you are doing something by feel then it is just using 5x5 reps but not programming it. The reps aren't the program, the progression is. Everything is mapped out in advance and you hold weight over when things don't go as planned or when you begin to reach plateaus but it is not done "by feel".

At first there really shouldn't be a question as to whether you will get all the reps in. If you are using enougth weight to where there is a question at first, then your will come to a screaching halt very quickly.

You need to read further into all this.

I agree with Kane that you'll probably be taxing your grip enough that you won't want a lot of forearm work. If you do a little at the end of the week when you have the most time to recover that would probably be ok. Certainly not two or three times a week. The off days need to be off days (or cardio maybe). Shrugs are definitely not something you want to do on off days. Too much fatigue introduced. You need lots of recovery time.

thanks for all the info guys...

are there links out there to an intermediate 5x5...i searched the sticky but didn't see one...may have missed it..:)

There's on buried in there somewhere :) It's linked a couple times.

Go here: Madcow

You'll find an intermediate 5x5 based on linear progression (based off of bill starr's beginner/intermediate program. That will serve you better. Also there is a Texas Method writeup in the Powerlifting section which would be a good follow up. You could actually do either one now but I would favor doing the linear one first....

coo dude...thanks :)

when i was doing 3x8's...i would do 3 days on and 1 off...chest/tri's, bi's/back, shoulders/neck....

and i'm a fairly active guy....it's hard to sit here...1 day on 1 day off....

i feel like a damn slacker. :)