5x5 Strength Training

[Kerpal]

Kerpal what's in Practical Programming?

It explains why we do things certain ways depending on our goals, and how to design a training routine. For example, after reading it you will understand why a novice can squat 3x a week and make progress, while an intermediate or advanced lifter wouldn't be able to.

Before I start lifting should I do a pre-program with bodyweight and flexibility exercises considering I've been sedetary for so long? And since I have broken my leg will I be safe doing the exercises one it fully heals? Any suggestion on what I should do to strengthen it before I start heavy lifting if anyone has experience with that kind of thing? Don't worry I'll seek medical advice on that too, it's just that my doctor doesn't lift weights.

I don't know about the leg but I wouldn't bother with a "pre-program". What's the point? Just jump into the Rippetoe program and start with the bar. Using lighter weights will "pre-program" you, and what better way to stretch for lifting than to actually DO the lifts?

Also most doctors are ridiculously conservative when it comes to weight training, so he will probably tell you to avoid heavy squats and deadlifts and just do curls and DB bench press for sets of 20 on a stability ball

 

[mrRuckus]

Let me just say that you don't need to understand it. You don't NEED to understand squatting three times a week for it to be very effective. I don't get what the hell a doctor or dentist does but they make my booboo stop hurting.

Rippetoe has been teaching rank beginners (like 12 year olds on up) for years with great success and as he defines "beginner" his method gets results the quickest for the vast majority. i.e. workout to workout increases of the same lifts throughout the week as compared to weekly increases. He considers weekly increases to be an intermediate trainer rate of progression. If you can increase multiple times a week why would you WANT to wait a week to go up again? As soon as you recover from a workout it's time to workout again otherwise you are just wasting time.

I have seen logs of guys literally going from squatting in the 100s to squatting 300 something for reps in a year before needing to switch to weekly progressions. I wish I had done Rippetoe's to start rather than doing weekly progressions like "option B" or whatever is posted here. My gains have exploded doing a texas method which is pretty much an intermediate evolution of rippetoe's beginner programs.

Someone mentioned power cleans being in instead of rows. Rippetoe also considers rows an intermediate accessory lift. Your back is not going to lack between doing deadlifts, chins, pullups and power cleans. Power cleans will increase both the power of your deadlift, your back, and your ability to call power on demand. He reluctantly accepts rows for those who refuse to learn to power clean. To me they don't really seem one of the core strength or power exercises and until recently i've barely done them or even chins/pullups much and i assure you my back is not lacking compared to the rest of me. Actually I hate doing rows. I remember actually seeing somewhere or other by like Glenn Pendlay or something of that ilk that most guys waste a ton of time doing things like shrugs when a power movement with less weight like a power shrug would get you 10x the strength/hypertrophy than a shrug would. I think the same principle is in play between rows and power cleans.


Seriously do get Practical Programming. It's like $20, maybe $30 and you'll learn a ton and i don't mean to imply it's some godly book or even the only way to do things or the best for everyone, but i really don't see the point in moving to advanced discussions, plans, or movements until you've exhausted the basics. You should always be gunning for the quickest gains possible and then when those stop, try newer or advanced techniques but still getting the fastest increases that YOU personally are capable of, which as a beginner is very very likely several times a week.


I'm actually still getting beginner progressions on several lifts. For example, I have been adding 1.5-2 lbs to my overhead press twice a week for weeks now. So i have a beginner progression on one lift while using an intermediate progression on my squats and deadlifts.

Also I wouldn't progress to any 5x5 stuff until 3x5 is exhausted. No point in doing more work if 3x5 is enough stimulus.

 

[mrRuckus]

I'm probably going to get flamed for this post, but I firmly believe that spending some time getting into shape is a good first step for everyone, especially before diving into strength training

You don't get flamed. You just get questioned because you give no justification. You just say "it's better" and imply that strength training in itself doesn't condition you, which is ludicrous if that's your real implication.

You are saying that you need to be conditioned to do something before you do it. But that would also mean that you need to be conditioned to run the treadmill before you run the treadmill. What the heck? You can't condition yourself for more without trying to do more.

I might even better accept this premise if you were to say something like to do higher reps for several weeks to prepare the joints and such, but you don't.

 

[EFFORT]

help prevent injury when you start to do some more intelligent strength training/muscle building.

Doing that seems to be a lot more risky for injury and over complicates something that doesn't need to be complicated imo

 

[wolf116]

I've never seen any problems with the fat slobs beginning powerlifting at my gym. They just do higher reps and lighter weights for a while. In the time it takes you to learn the lifts you will be ready anyway.

 

[Quiksilver]

They just do higher reps and lighter weights for a while.

This is what I was implying, that someone who is coming from a sedentary background should stick to GPP, volume work, and whatever else he/she can manage in the gym for 6-8 weeks prior to lifting heavy. ie. stick to the 8-10+ rep range.

Take two guys. Guy A coming off a sedentary lifestyle, Guy B a former recreational athlete(football).

Which one is gonna gain strength faster? Guy B of course...

I've had the privilege of starting a strength program from both positions, and I can tell you it's much much easier when you're already in good shape. And I'll say this too, that no one is going to get in great shape just doing a strength-based routine. And by strengh-based routine I mean a program where you limit cardio to muscle-sparing activities, and try to limit training the CNS only to when you're lifting heavy.

Not saying that this is what others do, but I witnessed a trainer talking to an out of shape dude a while ago, here's how the convo went pretty much:

Client: the past week has really worn me down and i've been sore for days. All this lifting heavy is taking it's toll.

Trainer: perhaps the workload is too great, lets cut out a cardio session here and here and reduce volume here.

--

The intensity of the heavy lifting and cardio schedule was clearly too much for the out of shape client, so the trainer decided to cut down the workload to fit the guys current capacity. The real solution would be to raise the guys work capacity, so the workload that'll achieve results faster doesn't result in overtraining.

--

What I could have said was to spend 6-8 weeks "overtraining" yourself to raise work capacity. Clearly not overtraining in a sense of injuring yourself, but in a sense that the type of training you'd be doing is not going to build much muscle at all.
The implication was there of using lighter weights for volume since you aren't going to overtrain yourself to injury doing that sensibly. It's easy to overtrain and royally fvck yourself when using heavy weights, so that would be avoided for the 2 months.