Journal

[jproudj]

Hey, thought I would start a journal to go with my new 5x5 routine. It might make me a bit more disciplined as I tend to miss workouts and stick with the same weights for too long (I know I know) I've been doing a push/pull/legs routine for a few months so I figured I needed a change, and I was a little frustrated, not really happy with one body part a week which didn't seem to help with gains so I found a simple 5x5 program I'm gonna try. As far as goals, it's just to be able to lift more, with concomitant muscle growth. Not really bothered about fat, I'm usually about 12% body fat on a normal diet.

I'm 5'9" 155lbs, I'm not particularly strong. I've done useless workouts on and off for a year or so but I'm trying to knuckle down. I'm also at a major disadvantage as my gym has no proper bench rack or squat rack, so my bench and squat are on the smith machine. sniff. But I can't do anything about that so it has to do.

I stole this off another forum, you probably know it:

Monday (heavy)
Squats 5x5, same weight
Bench 5 sets pyramiding up, the last 1x5 with max weight
Rows 5 sets pyramiding up, the last 1x5 with max weight
tris/abs

Wednesday (light)
Squats 5x5, same weights, but weight is about 20-30% lighter than monday
Military Press 5x5, same weight
Deadlifts 5x5, same weight
Chins 5x5, same weight
bis/abs

Friday (medium)
Squats 5 sets pyramiding up, the last 1x5 with max weight
(other) Bench 5x5, same weight
(other) Rows 5x5, same weight
tris/abs

5x5 for 4 weeks, 1 week 3x3 with the last 5x5 weights, and then 3x3 for 4 weeks.

I'm starting a little under my full 5 rep maxes to get into the swing of things, so yesterday (Monday) I did -

squat - 176 lbs x 5
bench - 140lbs x 5
BB row - 100 lbs x 5
I didn't do any support work apart from 3 x 15 sit ups with 25lb dumbell.

So hopefully this won't be the only post in this journal, haha. If anyone has any criticisms feel free. Oh and I'm obviously looking to increase weight on each by 5-10 lbs each week.

[ktinspired]

best o' luck with your goals J .

[jproudj]

Thanks kt. Was my second workout today, I'm now sticking to kgs as I can't be assed to convert (I'm English)

Squats 60kg 5x5 (this was dead easy but the program said to lose 20-30% of the weight and its only the first week)

Military Press 32.5kg 5x5

Deads 80kg 5x5 (this was over 25kg down on my 5x5 max but I've never done them in the middle of a workout and definitely never after squats! So it wasn't easy but not overly tough, the squats didn't take that much out of me)

Chins bodyweight 5x5 (I hardly ever do these and even with no added weight the last set wasn't that easy!)

Crunches 3X15 with 10kg db (this was easy, next time I'll use the pulley)

So weights were pretty low but it was a good workout, I expect it to get a lot harder...

[jproudj]

Today:

Squats - 60/65/70/75/80kg - easy, up to 90kg next week
Bench - 62.5 kg 5x5
Rows - 40kg 5x5 - easy

Skull Crushers - 15kg 3x10
Cable crunches 30kg setting 3x15

I'm thinking that my pyramid sets should go up in 2.5kg rather than 5 as most of the sample workouts use pounds not kilograms.

[jlozan84]

Good luck bud. Glad to see the log.

[jproudj]

1st workout 2nd week.

Squat 1x90kg, 4x85 kg ( i wimped out after the first 90k set, form was poor)

Bench 5x5 45, 50, 55, 60, 65kg

BB Row 5x5 30, 35, 40, 45, 50kg

Dips (all the benches were in use and i didn't wanna wait so couldn't do skullcrushers) 1x10 bodyweight 2x10 w/10kg weight

Crunches 3x15 w/14kg weight.

[jproudj]

Ok 2nd workout 2nd week:

Squats 5x5 65kg (light day)

Deads 5x5 90kg

Military Press 5x5 35kg

Chins 5x5 w/5kg between legs (ooh la la)

DB Curls 16kg 1x9 1x5 (haha!)

So all weights were up, going well so far. Apart from the curls. Heh.

[musclesntx]

Hey man,

I'm glad I opened this journal, as it is the type of training I enjoy following. Those high volume workouts make my head hurt.

Feel free to reduce my thought-load by converting kg to lbs.

[wnxmaximus]

ya man, nice journal, it looks like mine that i just started....this is the way to go, no reason to spend hours doing set after set after set of 10 to 12 reps....nice routine, good luck.

[Cammo]

Nice journal mate - like the kg's too
You must be English or Aussie (or a kiwi) ?

[jproudj]

Hehe, yeah I'm English and thanks for the input guys. Muscle you can do the work with the maths (math?) And I like the low volume (although it's still a few sets) routine, not least because it's easy to see the improvements in weight when you stick to the main lifts and therefore it's a lot more focused than my old routines, I used to yo-yo the weights up and down without ever really making any progress.

[narcsarge]

Great journal! Keep up the work.

[jproudj]

3rd workout 2nd week:

Squats - 5 x 5 working up to 85kg at 5kg intervals.
Bench - 5 x 5 65kg
Rows - 5 x 5 50kg
Skullcrushers - 3 x 10 15kg
Cable Crunches 3 x 15 30kg setting

1st workout 3rd week:

Squats - 5 x 5 90kg
Bench - 5 x 5 5kg intervals up to 70kg
Rows - 5 x 5 5kg intervals up to 55kg
Skullcrushers 3 x 10 17.5 kg
Crunches 3 x 15 16kg

[jproudj]

Okies...

2nd workout 3rd week:

Squats 5x5 70kg
Deads 5x5 100kg
Military 5x5 37.5kg
BB Curls w/ez bar (the chin up bar was being used) 2x10 1x6 22.2 kg weird tiny weights!)
Chins 4x5 w/6kg db. (I'm ignoring these because they're supposed to go before curls and I couldn't be assed to wait)
Full crunches (w/legs) 3x15

Oh and after reading surfer's journal, my weights don't include the bar, easier that way.

[jproudj]

3rd workout 3rd week:

Squats 5x5 5kg pyramid up to 90kg

Bench 3x5 70kg 1x4 70kg 1x5 65kg ( I'll get the full 70kg next week )

Rows 5x5 55kg

Skulls 1x8 30kg (haha I got my sums mixed up here!) 2x10 20kg

Cable crunches 3x15 32.5 setting

So as usual bench is the problem, but I didn't miss it by much.

[jproudj]

1st workout 4th week (last week 5x5!) Didn't go particularly well today but there you go.

Squats 4x5 (yes 4x5) 95kg (probably should've done 92.5kg but nevermind) so that was a bit lame, I've never done above 90 though and I got 20 pretty good reps out.

Bench 5x5 5kg intervals up to 75kg. This was almost v.awkward as on the very last rep I got stuck and had to rack it up at the bottom, leaving me about half an inch to squeeze out of, haha. Lucky I'm small! Anyway that was the heaviest I've done before so 4 reps wasn't bad especially considering I failed on 70kg last week. I'll probably go for 72.5kg or 70kg on friday (5x5 max) day and see how many sets I can do before lowering it.

BB Rows 5x5 5kg intervals up to 60kg no problems there

For skulls there were no mini-weights around so had to stick with 20kg, but upped it to 3 x 12 reps.

Full crunches 3 x 15

So next time is deads, which is fast becoming my strongest exercise by a long way (mainly because the others suck ) and militaries which I like also. Then 5x5 bench on at least 70kg (hopefully) and maybe a 62.5/65kg row to take into the 3x3 week next week. I'm not sure I read '3x3' right originally but I like the sound of it

[jproudj]

Okayyyyyyyy

2nd workout 4th week

Squats 72.5 kg 5x5

Deads 105 kg 5x5 (bit weird today, couldn't get my legs into it properly but didn't have problems getting the weight up)

Military Press 40 kg 5x5 (pleased with this, new pr)

Chin Ups 5x5 bodyweight +7kg DB

EZ Curls 20kg 3x10

Crunches w/16kg DB 3x15

This took an hour and a half so I was pretty bored to be honest by the time I got to the chin ups, which I probably don't do properly because I hate them and I'm tired after the squats deads and presses but whatever, my form is fine I just don't feel I'm getting much out of them.

So next time I'll be doing pyramid squats up to 95kg, 5x5 bench starting at 72.5kg but most probably going down to 70kg, and 5x5 60kg BB row.

[jproudj]

K so this was my last 5x5 workout of this 'cycle'.

Squats 5x5 5kg intervals up to 95kg

Bench 2x5 72.5kg
1x4 72.5kg (the last rep I knew wasn't coming back up)
1x5 70kg
1x5 67.5kg
(Probably should have tried 5x5 70kg but this is still an improvement)

Rows 5x5 60kg

SKulls 1x10 15kg
2x10 17.5kg
(Here I moved to the heavier oly-style EZ bar, the previous one hardly weighted anything so it is still an improvement I think)

Cable Crunches 3x12 35kg setting.

So next week it's 3x3 and I'll be doing: 72.5 bench (maybe dropping to 70)
95 squat
105 dead (I know this will be v.easy so might stick the weight up a bit, I pulled 110 5x5 before I started this routine)
60 row
40 military

Apparently strength gains usually kick in weeks 4-6 so watch this space. Haha.

[jproudj]

Here we go with the 3x3 'maintaining' week

Squats 3x3 92.5 (my depth was questionable so I'll stick with this weight next week)

Bench 3x3 72.5

BB Row 3x3 60

Skulls 2x10 17.5

16kg crunches 2x15

[jproudj]

Not sure if it's worth posting this week but I'm doing 3x3 all the same lifts with last week's 5x5 weights. Ta da! That's it. See you next week.