I’m a Chad Waterbury fan and quite thoroughly enjoy his writings and workouts. i’ve even picked out my favourites. however, im faced with a dilemma.
im entering a muscle building phase and was wondering should i:
1)do a simple 5x5 wrokout plan for a few months, increasing the weight when possible, deload for a week, then switch exercises and continue this switching process back and forth till i get to where i want to be?
2)stick to the CW workouts that i picked out and alternate b/w them?
the reason why i hesitate in making a decision is b/c a 5x5 plan has lack of variety, but b/c of it, i can get better at certain exercises.
by doing some of CW’s workouts, he has lots of variety, but b/c of it, its hard to get better at certain exercises.
Pick one routine and keep using it until your progress completely stalls. Make sure your nutrition is in line and all other variables in check. Then after knowing your doing everything else right, switch it up. Simple.
now, for your 5x5, did you just pick a select few of exercises and try to get better at them? also, was any high rep work included? see, i was thinking of doing 3x5 for a given exercise, and then do 2x12 after the 3x5. that way, i get the best of both worlds.
now that i think of it, i am gonna go ahead and do a 5x5 plan, with an A-B split, just so that there is some variety. but i will keep doing it till my progress stalls. then, switch things up.
i’ll go along the lines of CW’s HH workout and include one high rep set, just so that i have some high rep work done.
and thats it! i’ll keep going till i gain about 30 more pounds.
[quote]forbes wrote:
now that i think of it, i am gonna go ahead and do a 5x5 plan, with an A-B split, just so that there is some variety. but i will keep doing it till my progress stalls. then, switch things up.
i’ll go along the lines of CW’s HH workout and include one high rep set, just so that i have some high rep work done.
and thats it! i’ll keep going till i gain about 30 more pounds.
I read the article, and it was great! just a few questions:
1)do you only do 4 warm up sets and one work set?
2)should you flex the target muscles while doing the exercises?
3)i used to have shoulder problems (from too much pushing based exercises) and i found that there are more pushing than pulling exercises. could i just add one more pulling exercise to the wednesday workout?
also, i found that there’s more squatting than deadlifting. if im up for it, could i add some deadlifts to each session?
[quote]forbes wrote:
now that i think of it, i am gonna go ahead and do a 5x5 plan, with an A-B split, just so that there is some variety. but i will keep doing it till my progress stalls. then, switch things up.
i’ll go along the lines of CW’s HH workout and include one high rep set, just so that i have some high rep work done.
and thats it! i’ll keep going till i gain about 30 more pounds.
obviously, opinions are always accepted[/quote]
Do you mean until you gain 30 lbs of muscle? Thats a little steap i think.
I dunno, why are you tying yourself to only choosing one plan. Just because CW created a plan, or 5x5 was developed a long time before him, doesn’t mean they cant coexist. There is no magic to either one. They both simply get you to do more work while eating a calorie surplus.
I myself have found that my results have been a bit limited because I stick with one method instead of using a variety. 5x5 is a good routine though, because its moderate intensity and moderate volume. It certainly works better for begginners and intermediates, while more advanced trainees can benefit from either higher intensity or higher volume.
Just keep the exercises relatively constant and make sure that your continuing to progress in workload.
If you go from front squatting 225 for 5x5 to front squatting 235 10x3, thats a good increase in stimulus and likely will result in increased muscle.