Stronglifts brought on the whole 5×5 style training and until less than a month ago, I had little clue on how to go about it or what it consisted of. Then I did the legwork on it. Strangely enough, 5 exercises for 5 sets of 5 reps. You do 3 out of those 5, variations included, in 3 days worth of training. As for weight, you do a weight of which is good enough to do 5 reps on each of the 5 sets. As for the exercises themselves? Bench Press (Chest, Triceps, Shoulders), Overhead Press (Shoulders, Triceps, Lats to some degree), Barbell Row (Back, Biceps), Squats (Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes) and Deadlifts (Back, Glutes, Hamstrings). If you’re looking to save time but get a killer workout in, this is probably one of the coolest routines and one I enjoy as well.
Guys like me, though, can’t leave a good thing be. I would decide to take the principle of the 5×5 (5 sets, 5 reps for an exercise with a good weight to lift with to just get through it) and expand it towards my training sessions. For a good example, let me breakdown a Back/Bicep day —
Deadlift 5×5
Chin-up 5×5
Barbell Row 5×5
Lat Pulldown 5×5
Seated Row 5×5
Hammer Curl 5×5
After 2 weeks of giving the routine a chance, I can say I definitely saw my strength increase. My Overhead Press went from 95 pounds to 120, my Deadlift from 135 to 245, Hammer Curls from 25 to 45, Lat Pulldown from 135 to 185, Squats from 135 to 210, Barbell Row from 95 to 115, just for starters. This is only 2 weeks in and this is considering that these aren’t my all-time max either. I’m merely catching up with lost time and glad to see that I’m recovering from 6-8 months of minimal training.
Until next time,
Ron Gunz
