So Madcow explicitly says not to fuck with the exercises. I’m going to fuck with one. I seem to benefit from training the deadlift very infrequently, so I want to put good mornings in place of them. Last time I did good mornings I worked up to 2x8x275, so they are heavy enough to make my lower body sufficiently sore, at least in the rep range I was doing. So the advanced 5x5 program calls for the deadlift on Wednesdays (the deload squat day), 2 days before 5rm testing of the squat. So I’m wondering if I’d be better off moving good mornings to Friday and just doing them 3x5 for the loading phase and 2x3 for the intensification phase. Also my squat 1 rep max is 375 if that is helpful at all.
Honestly, I had a bit of an issue with the deadlifting volume on that program. I dropped it to 1 set of 5 for the volume phase, and 1 set of 3 for the intensification, and I still thought it was a bit much!
Doing the GM’s on wednesday would be ok, but be aware of your recovery. Keep volume low. If you’re doing those 5x5 straight sets right on monday, they’ll kick your ass real bad.
You could try deadlifting 1 set of 5 every other week, maybe, and just let wednesday be even more of a recovery day.
I definitely would NOT replace the squats on friday with GMs. The whole point is to squat with a high frequency.
Thanks a lot fo the advice gochadamg. When it comes to the deadlift I have done exclusively singles for awhile now and it has seemed to help, doing high volume on deadlifts takes my back about 2 to 3 days to recover from so 1x5 could be a viable option. I think I will do 5x5 squats Monday, squat recovery Wednesday and 2x5 GMs, then 1x5 squats on Friday. On the intensification phase I may just drop GMs and really try to smash the squat.
I highly suggest you don’t do the 2x5 GMs on friday with the squat. If you do them before the squat, you’ll be fried to give the squats an honest effort, and if you do them after you’ll be too fried to give the GMs an honest effort. You’ll also impede your recovery to tackle monday’s brutal 5x5 workout. You’ll also sap your energy for the volume work on upper body.
I’m not kidding about the mondays workout. This workout is going to be very tough on the 3rd and 4th week if you’re following the spreadsheet. You should really let this day be your high volume day for the lower body. The reason this program works is due to the periodization over the week (volume, light, intensification) and over the 8 or so weeks.
I have re-read my post and realize it is pretty vague. I meant to say I was considering putting GMs on Wednesday with the squat recovery where deadlifts were supposed to be. Sound reasonable? Then skip GMs during intensification?
Oh, yeah, that sounds like a fine idea. I guess I did misinterpret. I may actually try something similar if I run it again. The deadlifts were taxing as hell.
