Unless you’ve had your head in the sand in recent years, you’ve probably heard about the 5×5 workout featured on Stronglifts 5×5, Starting Strength and so on.
The 5×5 workout is was developed predominantly for attaining strength.
It’s true that size and strength are connected. Nevertheless there are actually multiple ways in which you can gain strength with no equivalent development of muscular size. Stronger doesn’t mean bigger, and bigger does not always mean stronger.
If building muscle is your primary goal, there’s a very simple technique to make the 5×5 workout work even better. And that’s with the addition of a little more volume.
For those whose main goal is increased muscular mass and size, retaining a higher volume day in the majority of cycles is important.
A particular instance might be the athlete who is principally keen on attaining muscular mass. He has completed the newbie phase, and has ended a training cycle with five sets of five for one workout and speed sets for the other.
He wants to put on mass, so he’ll continue the five sets of five part of the exercise session and incorporate a higher volume exercise session for the 2nd session. The choices could be five sets of 10 across, 5 sets of twelve, or maybe 3 to 4 sets of 15.
There are various ways to boost your training volume. The one I would like to focus on today is something known as a back-off set.
Let’s say you’re utilizing a 5×5 workout, and you’ve just finished your last set of squats. To perform a back-off set, all you do is decrease the weight and crank out an additional set of ten to thirty reps.
You may be interested to know that there was a study done several years back where researchers learned that the addition of a back-off set led to faster gains in muscular size and muscular strength.
Essentially, one particular number of subjects carried out two leg exercises for 5 sets of 3-5 reps, while another group performed exactly the same thing, but included a back-off set (25-35 reps using a lighter load) half a minute later.
Over the course of four weeks, the people utilizing the back-off set gained more muscle mass and got stronger faster as compared with guys doing only 5 sets of 3-5 repetitions.
This type of “combination training” is definitely not unique. In truth, it was very well liked with a few of the top bodybuilders in the fifties.
The human body hasn’t changed since then and the basics continue to do the job. The same thing that got men and women in shape fifty years ago is still effective today.
You will always have to bust your tail utilizing the basic compound movements.
These guys used to mix up their training, using both heavy and light resistance.
For instance, they would perform three to four sets with a heavy weight and low reps, and then finish off with 2-3 sets of higher repetitions using a lighter weight.
Doing five sets of 5 reps will make your physique seem thick. But when you mix up your workouts, your appearance will achieve its ultimate potential.
In conclusion, the 5×5 workout is a successful way of getting stronger. Squeeze in a little extra volume and you’ll realize that it’s a fantastic way to increase size simultaneously.