Coming off a deload from 5 weeks of heavy singles, I'm considering going back to a program built around 5x5 ramping sets on the main lifts. Here's approximately how it will look:
Monday
Squats 5x5 ramping to previous Friday's triple (I may make this 6x5 with a second set at the top weight)
Bench Press 5x5 ramping to previous Friday's triple
Power Clean 5x3 ramping to previous Friday's singles
Goodmornings either 2x10 sets across or 5x5 ramping
Pull Ups between warm up sets of squats and bench press
Wednesday
Front Squats 5x3, first 2 sets ramping, last 3 sets as sets across
High Pulls 5x5 ramping
Incline DBBP 3x5-10 sets across superset with Bent Over Row 3x8-10 sets across
Friday
Squats 4x3 ramping, 1x3 at 2.5kg heavier than Monday's top set, 1x8+ at 75% top weight
Bench Press 4x3 ramping, 1x3 at 2.5kg heavier than Monday's top set, 1x8+ at 75% top weight
Power Clean 4x3 ramping, 10x1 at 2.5kg heavier than Monday's top set
Power Shrug 5x5 ramping
Pull Ups between warm up sets of squats and bench press
The main points of difference here from the classic Madcow Intermediate 5x5 program are:
- Possibly an extra heavy set of squats on Monday, as I've found that my strength gains come more reliably with multiple sets at the working weight.
- Power cleans based around triples and singles rather than sets of 5 and 3.
- The expectance of more than 8 reps on the back off sets on Friday. Using my current lifts, I'd expect to get 10-12 reps of squats early on and 12-15 reps of bench press. Really pushing these lighter sets should help my strength gains more than I would expect an arbitrary 8 reps to do.
- Assistance work based on what I feel is most appropriate to my needs, rather than just following Madcow's assistance program.
I may be starting this program on this coming Monday (unless I just jump straight back into heavy singles until I need another deload), except for the bench press portion (for that I'll keep doing what I've been doing, until I start stalling, then when I deload my bench press I'd switch over to this protocol).
I'm not really looking for critiques or anything (although I won't object to receiving them, or any thoughts you might have on this program), just wanted a place to have this in writing and get all contemplative about how I'll be training for the time being.
Over time, I expect 6x5 squats to become too much, and drop back to 5x5, then 1x5 after warming up to it, then 5x3, then 1x3 after warming up to it, then just heavy singles until I need to deload again. So eventually this would scale back to being something similar to what I was doing prior to my recent deload.
Monday
Squats 5x5 ramping to previous Friday's triple (I may make this 6x5 with a second set at the top weight)
Bench Press 5x5 ramping to previous Friday's triple
Power Clean 5x3 ramping to previous Friday's singles
Goodmornings either 2x10 sets across or 5x5 ramping
Pull Ups between warm up sets of squats and bench press
Wednesday
Front Squats 5x3, first 2 sets ramping, last 3 sets as sets across
High Pulls 5x5 ramping
Incline DBBP 3x5-10 sets across superset with Bent Over Row 3x8-10 sets across
Friday
Squats 4x3 ramping, 1x3 at 2.5kg heavier than Monday's top set, 1x8+ at 75% top weight
Bench Press 4x3 ramping, 1x3 at 2.5kg heavier than Monday's top set, 1x8+ at 75% top weight
Power Clean 4x3 ramping, 10x1 at 2.5kg heavier than Monday's top set
Power Shrug 5x5 ramping
Pull Ups between warm up sets of squats and bench press
The main points of difference here from the classic Madcow Intermediate 5x5 program are:
- Possibly an extra heavy set of squats on Monday, as I've found that my strength gains come more reliably with multiple sets at the working weight.
- Power cleans based around triples and singles rather than sets of 5 and 3.
- The expectance of more than 8 reps on the back off sets on Friday. Using my current lifts, I'd expect to get 10-12 reps of squats early on and 12-15 reps of bench press. Really pushing these lighter sets should help my strength gains more than I would expect an arbitrary 8 reps to do.
- Assistance work based on what I feel is most appropriate to my needs, rather than just following Madcow's assistance program.
I may be starting this program on this coming Monday (unless I just jump straight back into heavy singles until I need another deload), except for the bench press portion (for that I'll keep doing what I've been doing, until I start stalling, then when I deload my bench press I'd switch over to this protocol).
I'm not really looking for critiques or anything (although I won't object to receiving them, or any thoughts you might have on this program), just wanted a place to have this in writing and get all contemplative about how I'll be training for the time being.
Over time, I expect 6x5 squats to become too much, and drop back to 5x5, then 1x5 after warming up to it, then 5x3, then 1x3 after warming up to it, then just heavy singles until I need to deload again. So eventually this would scale back to being something similar to what I was doing prior to my recent deload.