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EricT · 09-12-2007, 06:17 AM

I agree with 0311 on the basic differences. It's all about workload and recovery. But talking about which one gives better gains it's not a one is better type of thing and I doubt anyone could even tell you whether it would be more effective for a beginner/intermediate to start with ramped sets or sets accross because you could make arguments either way. In terms of recovery what changes is how you manipulate the intensity.

But BOTH can be used at different times. What it comes down to progress and if you look at it like ramped sets do that and sets across do this you will just be limiting yourself because both make can help you progress and get stronger and when once ceases to work the other might just be the ticket.

For instance if you were to do the 'single factor' (God, I hate that term) 5x5 with ramped sets for while and then reach a point of no progress, but you wanted to keep going, well, you could start doing sets across on monday with a slight back off on weight. That might require some changes to wednesdays workout or whatever. Nothing drastic. You could do ramped sets on Friday with nice wide increments. Manage it as two different "progressions". Boom, your in business again. You're still training intermediate.

On the ramped sets the last set being higher intensity is a good thing. Peak intensity does matter but what really matters is progress. In the end the advantage of the ramped sets is as 0311 said to get the total workload down and make for a simple linear scheme that is easier to recover from.

People make a big deal out of the last set being heavier but you have to keep in mind that the preceding sets count to. When you take those into account you get a much lower OVERALL intensity. Yes you get some work at a higher intensity but the general "intensiveness" of the workout is less. This gives sets accross a seeming advantage.

Using some of the numbers above say your max is 280. Based on that I actually think 245 is a bit high for 5x5 sets across on average. That puts you darn close to 90%. Not that I want to argue that point I’m just setting up my math.

Say a guy with 280 can do a top set of five of 245.

So he does
165
185
205
225
245

So the top set at 245 is around 88% for five reps. So you can pat yourself on the back for that if you were able to do it. BUT the total workload is 5125 pounds. 5125 divided by 25 reps is 205 pounds average. So you’ve just managed an average intensity of 73% or so.

BTW, you can just add the numbers and divide by 5 to get the same answer rather than adding all the sets together. 1025 divided by 5 is 205.

For a beginner who doesn’t need much stimulus that’s fine but for a more advanced trainee it aint going to do much to further weekly gains in and of itself.

Now look at only 225 pounds for sets across. That’s 5625 pounds total. Huge difference don’t you think. And it’s closer to around 80% average intensity. 225 is conservative, of course. More workload at a higher intensity will probably stimulate more gains for an advanced guy.

I am not trying to belabor percentages and math and all that, I’m just trying to put these things in perspective.

For the ramped sets example, if the increments were changed closer together then up goes the challenge. That in itself would be progress.

On the other hand if you started with sets across and in order to continue to progress you switched to ramped sets in order to keep loading the bar you’d get a sort of deload and the apparent gains on the bar would mostly be due to that although you might make a bit more progress before stalling again.

So it would make more sense for someone to start off with ramped sets and back off or drop things here and there in order to continue progress. At some point sets across would be a way to up the anty and continue gains provide appropriate changes were made. Then thing could be further adjusted as needed. That would make more sense than the other way around because in general switching from more work to less work is not a good way to stimulate continued and consistent gains.

But a low intermediate could do either ramped or sets across and get very good results either way. Fatigue is just managed a bit differently.

Which one someone chooses could well depend on their goals and how long they wanted to stay on 5x5 type training. If the goal coming out of the beginner phase is to milk a run of intermediate 5x5 for all it’s worth my recommendation would be to start with the ramped sets and continue to progress by later on going to sets across. Essentially the program would morph into something like the Texas Method at the end.

If you just wanted to get a good run at an intermediate 5x5 for a shorter period, meaning as long as you could progress with one way of programming it, I would actually recommend going straight to the TM for that.