Are you doing all of those exercises you listed everyday: bench press, rows, military press, lat pulldown, leg extension, leg curl, squat, dead lift, curls and french curls, with 30 sec. rest between sets?
It is way too much.
You're goal while cutting is to preserve lean mass and strength, so stick with 2-4 lifts per workout and make them big lifts.
Here is a split that Joel recommends:
Monday- Arms and Chest
A1) Incline Press
A2) Weighted Dips
B1) Seated Half Press in a Power Rack
B2) Barbell Curls
Wednesday- (Legs, Back Extensors, Shoulders)
A1) Sumo Squat
A2) Sumo Deadlift w/ scapular adduction at the top of the movement
B1) Dumbell Clean and Press
B2) Calve Press in the Leg Press Machine w/ a 5 sec. pause at the top of the movement
Friday- (Lats, Traps, Forearms)
A1) Wide-Grip pullups
A2) Alternating One-arm Dumbbell Shrugs w/ a 3 sec. pause at the top of the movement
B1) Seated Wrist Curls
B2) Seated Reverse Grip Wrist Curls
I tend to like a bit less volume in my 5x5 recommendations and I would lean more towards 2-3 big lifts and maybe split my workouts up over 4 days. Add ab work wherever you feel necessary.
Check out the fat loss stack at biotestedge.com. That could be the extra boost that you need. Also make sure you’ve perused the FAQ and Essential Berardi articles and have a solid diet to go with your training program.
Chins - any grip w/ added weight
Overhead Press
Barbell Curls
Side Bends, Saxon Side Bends or Bent Press
Thursday - Quad Dom Legs, Calves, Lower body flexion
Squats or Front Squats
Calf Raises (any type - with pause at top)
Leg Raises of some sort
Friday - Horizontal Push/Pull, Rotational Torso
Flat Bench Press
Cable or Bent-Over Row
Dips or Close Grip
Full-Contact Twist or Wood Chops
Let me know if you have any other questions. Either method will work. You can add or cut exercises as needed. The first exercises that would go in this routine are the arm work (curls and dips/close grip). Also note the inclusion of abdominal work in my suggestion, instead of leaving it for another time.
I’m a little confused over this. Do you perfrom the sets in that super-set alternating body part fashion? Or can you just simply do 5 sets of one exercise, and then another 5 sets of a different exercise for the same body-part?
I’ve been doing 5x5 squats, and 5x5 leg-presses on leg day. Would this be considered overtraining? Also, I’ve been doing the same for leg curls and straight-leg deadlifts on another day. I’m comfortable doing two big exercises per body part, but this doesn’t seem to conform to those workouts that were recomended. Then again it is a freakin’ killer.
I’d appreciate any advice, as I think I already tore an erctor spinae in my ignorance…-
Both Joel and I’s recommendations are to casually alternate between exercises. This is easier on the days where you do 4 exercises. Like my Tuesday example. Do a set of chins, rest 1-2 min, do a set of overhead press, rest 1-2 min, repeat until those exercises are done. Then move on to the next pair.
On the leg days, this is a bit harder. Usually, I'll do 2 sets of a leg exercise and then one set of an ab exercise. I still wait 1-2 min between most exercises.
If your gym is crowded, you can also do 5 set of exercise #1, then 5 sets of exercise #2 and so on. This is not ideal, but it can work. I still prefer to mix it up more, because the weights lifted are quite heavy and more rest is generally better.
Remember, this is a cutting cycle and the lifting is done to preserve lean body mass and strength, so you don't want to kill yourself by limiting rest periods.
Gotcha. The approach I took was rather hard given my glycogen level. I actually had trouble getting arms in as I just didn’t have enough in my tank to do a 3 body part type of workout. I’ll workout later, given the crowded nature of my gym, so I can bounce to and fro.
Just have to beat it in my head this is a muscle sparing routine primarily and not a growth one. It’s a balance between rest and activity.
Strength training while dieting is not always the best thing. Negative Energy balance, coupled with heavy weights doesn’t mean gains. Make sure your diet ratio is adequate when doing this.
You guys talked about only working out 3 or 4 times per week. How come only a few days? Would working out 5 days a week Monday-Friday be too much for a 5x5 fat loss plan?
Jason- How many days a week do you reccomend doing cardio? Also, do you reccomend doing it on off days, or right after training? As far nutrition goes, what general guiidlines do you follow as far as calories consumed and what macro percentages to use? Thanks.
I know that Joel recommends 3x per week of HIIT sessions. Although Berardi’s recommendations are a little higher, I definitely wouldn’t go above four. In other words, for example, lift 5x5 on MWF and do HIIT on TTHSa. You could add in an extra day of HIIT after a lifting session as well, but make sure that you don’t do HIIT on three consecutive days. In order to do so, you might have to play around with the split a little (I lifted two days straight -one upper, one lower) to make this possible. Make sure that you have at least one day of full rest. Also, as per Joel’s email to me a few weeks ago, the premise behind the lower frequency of HIIT is that 48 hours seems to be the most one can go without essentially “recharging” the metabolism to maximize fat burning once again. Hope this helps.
Joel’s in Maui right now, but I can answer your question. Yes, five days a week would be too much. That works out to at least 100 sets per week: much higher than is appropriate for this program. In reality, 60-80 sets in much better (i.e. 3-4 days). You should not be lifting on more than two consecutive days. Heavy weights train the CNS in addition to the individual muscle groups, so more recovery time is necessary, although you won’t always feel like it. Trust me, you’ll grow like a weed and get a lot stronger even with only 3-4 days a week:)
In a previous thread, the recommendations of the 5x5 program for anyone who has a fat %age less than 17 (females - concerns me). Now, I’ve been training for the last three years, and a few months ago, I got really out of shape (with life changes and the like). I lost some muscle, strength, and gained fat. I would like to do the 5x5, but from what I understand, to get some really good gains (of fat loss mainly), I have to have lower fat %age & not have much experience. I’m not big on low weights, and high reps, I much prefer doing 5x5 routine, but will I see results of fat loss with a 35-35-30 diet (c-p-f)? Thanks in advance.
I will answer all the questions in detail later, but I want to make sure that people understand, where we are coming from when we suggest using a strength based program (example - 5x5) to assist with fat loss.
Here are 3 things to manipulate when your primary goal is to lose fat.
1)Weightlifting - Your goal should be to preserve strength and lean body mass. Building muscle for most people is out of the question, so you should cut back on the volume, but preserve the intensity. Whether it is 5x5, 6x4, 3x3, 25x1; I don't really care. 5x5 is easy to talk about, but it is just an example and is easy to remember. Use what fits you best. If you need to cut the volume down further, drop it to 4x5 or 3x5. You get the point.
2) Diet - I don't want to talk much about it here because of the individualistic nature of the topic. Your diet has to be in order if you are going to lose fat.
3) Cardio - This is the final step in the process. Once your diet and lifting is in order, you need to use some form of cardio, whether it is interval training, fartlek trainig or just simple straightforward consistent pace cardio.
This whole discussion started when analyzing Meltdown training as a one step guide to fat loss. Many people (primarily the leaner folk) cannot combine their cardio and weightlifting (this is sort of what Meltdown/Fat to Fire/GBC do) and still make good results. They lose strength or are not able to make a significant negative energy balance to keep losing the fat.
