whilst at uni i've been following the HSS-100 program by Christian Thibaudeau training 1 muscle group per day, 5 days a week, staying in the 10-12 rep range and with moderate rest between each set.
Now that I'm home I don't have access to gym equipment apart from my own bench, bar, dumbells and pullup bar.
My goals right now are to bulk up, but I'm looking to try and do things a little differently to see if it makes a difference.
I was thinking of trying Bill Star's 5x5 split. I'm used to finishing near failure on every set and I understood that this fatiguing is what's needed for building mass, but the 5x5 routine seems to be geared towards strength gains and has you hitting 50% of your 5RM, then 65% next set, etc etc and only actually doing your 5RM on the last set.
Will this kind of thing be intense enough to stimulate growth providing my diet is clean and big? Or should I aim for near-failure each set?
I wouldn't want to just get fat due to the amount I'm eating!
I saw another option which was a split of:
Monday - bench press
Tuesday - deadlift
Wednesday - shoulder press
Thursday - bent-over row
Friday - squats
(or something similar to this)
The idea behind this (I think) is to stick with the 1 exercise for each workout, 5 reps each set, and work up to your 5RM over the course of 10-20 sets.
Would this be a good routine? Or would it be better to do all of them as heavy fatiguing sets and decrease the weight each time?
any advice is appreciated
Now that I'm home I don't have access to gym equipment apart from my own bench, bar, dumbells and pullup bar.
My goals right now are to bulk up, but I'm looking to try and do things a little differently to see if it makes a difference.
I was thinking of trying Bill Star's 5x5 split. I'm used to finishing near failure on every set and I understood that this fatiguing is what's needed for building mass, but the 5x5 routine seems to be geared towards strength gains and has you hitting 50% of your 5RM, then 65% next set, etc etc and only actually doing your 5RM on the last set.
Will this kind of thing be intense enough to stimulate growth providing my diet is clean and big? Or should I aim for near-failure each set?
I wouldn't want to just get fat due to the amount I'm eating!
I saw another option which was a split of:
Monday - bench press
Tuesday - deadlift
Wednesday - shoulder press
Thursday - bent-over row
Friday - squats
(or something similar to this)
The idea behind this (I think) is to stick with the 1 exercise for each workout, 5 reps each set, and work up to your 5RM over the course of 10-20 sets.
Would this be a good routine? Or would it be better to do all of them as heavy fatiguing sets and decrease the weight each time?
any advice is appreciated