36Pounds.com 5×5 Workout for Beginner and Intermediate Guys (UPDATED!!!)
| Posted in Exercises, Training, Videos | Posted on 04-09-2009
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Now, today I want to give you THE BEST workout I have personally done (and it’s updated), I wish I had know about it early in my training. It’s a very simple, basic-first, easy-to-keep-track-of routine that will give you strength and size gains that you want ;)
This routine should be done 3 times a week, every other day (for example Monday-Wednesday-Friday).
Main goal with this routine is to progress as much as you can with adding weights each workout.
Now, you are gonna do 5 sets and 5 reps of each exercise (except the last one of the workout which is to be done for 3 sets and 8 reps). You need to do ALL 5 sets with the same weight. If you do 5×5 with it, next workout you must add 5lbs to the bar and seek to do 5×5 again. If you can’t, next workout you workout with the same weight. When you do 5×5 add 5lbs to the bar again!
The goal is to get you lifting big weights, which means you will gain size and strength at the same time. if a guy can deadlift 500lbs, squat 400lbs and bench press 300lbs you can bet that he is not skinny. But this doesn’t mean that you will get to these weights fast. No! It takes a lot of time to build that kind of strength but it’s possible and I think every guy should strive to reach those ;)
Here is the actual workout, it consist of two training days and must be rotated like this: A B A on the first week then B A B on the second week and etc.
Workout A
Squats 5×5
Bench Press 5×5
Overhead Press 5×5
Pull Ups 5×5
Assistance exercise 3×8 ONLY ONE EXERCISE ALLOWED! Not more! Choose muscle group you want to train here, I let you improvise a bit here ;)
Workout B
Deadlifts 3×5
Leg Press 5×5 (no squats on deadlift day)
Chin ups 5×5
Incline or Decline Dumbbell Press 5×5 ( you can rotate incline and decline presses each month for example, try to balance them out)
Assistance exercise 3×8 (Again, only one!)
Your week with this routine should look like this:
Monday: workout A
Tuesday: cardio and abs
Wednesday: workout B
Thursday: cardio and abs
Friday: workout A
Updated
1. Less sets of deadlifts (from 5×5 to 3×5). It’s a very taxing exercise and you will lift biggest weight on it so 3 sets are enough. Deadlifts are probably second best exercise and even though I love it, the amount of stress it puts on your central nervous system is great one and that might be overtraining for some folks. Going from 5 to 3 sets will help recover faster after workout. Which means you can progress better! ;)
2. Assistance exercise:
Now here, you must choose a muscle group you want to train and then choose one exercise for it. That’s it. You choose one muscle group for workout A and other group for Workout B. Let’s say you want to train your legs and chest additionally. Then in workout A you do Leg Press or Stiff-Legged deadlifts as the last exercise and on Workout B you do Dumbbell Flies.
Keep the selected muscle group there for a month and then do different muscle group. So if you did month with legs and chest training on assistance exercises, switch to back and shoulders for next month. I don’t recommend doing abs as assistance exercise though. You can train your abs on off days two times a week with cardio. (
3. Added Overhead Presses instead of Stiff-legged deadlifts. OVP is best exercise for shoulders and really great for your strength. Imagine you have to lift some heavy box onto a top shelf, well, overhead press will help you become stronger at that.
That’s it. Simple routine but very effective!!! If every skinny guy did it and ate enough, we wouldn’t have lots of them ;)
Enjoy it and if you start doing this workout, let me know! If you have any questions about it, don’t be afraid, shoot me an email at adrian@36pounds.com and ask whatever you need!
Best of luck with Your gains,
Adrian
Hi there. Great website. I’m a classic ectomorph on the lookout for a new bulking routine. I’m intermediate level.
Just wondering how much rest time you leave between sets for this routine?
I also heard that reps in the lower range aren’t so good for muscle gain. What do you make of this?
Hey Thomas,
glad you like it, hope you will stick around ;)
Rest should be between 2-3 minutes between sets.
And I had heard such stuff too. But it’s not true. I will post about a post about reps based on what I’ve read on a great book Practical Programming (ebook about creating routines and training, awesome read). While its true that 10 reps will be a bit better for size, but 5-8 reps are great for size AND strength. Plus they give you real muscle growth. Why I say Real growth? Well, you will learn it in the next post.
I don’t know if I will post it tomorrow, I had a crazy day today, hopefully, tomorrow will be easier. I will do my best to post it ;)
Cheers,
Adrian
Interesting. I was also considering doing a 4 day program similar to this that is recommended for ectomorphs (all compound movements, whole body, reps 4-8 and rest 2-3 mins).
Do you think there are greater benefits in doing just 3 days a week?
It’d be weird for me to JUST go 3 days a week! As well as that, I’m an ecto with a spare tire so I’d be nervous getting in all the extra cals and only doing three days of working out.
Hi,
not much difference between 3 or 4 days. Personally I prefer 3. You grow when you REST not when you train mate ;)
If you are skinny fat, the best option is to gain muscle and then only later go on a cut so don’t be afraid of it.
Cheers
The lack of a shoulder exercise on this routine also makes me think I’ll opt for the other routine I saw. I’m open to persuasion though!
There are Accessory Exercises for this mate. I just mentioned abs/biceps/calf as examples. You are free to choose what to train. Do shoulder exercise like lateral raises or reverse flies there if you want. You could also change Chin ups to Overhead Press and that will train your shoulders. ;)
Cheers
Finally, what kind of results did you see with this program and how long did you do it for?
Thanks for the advice and keep up the good work with the site!
[...] been better off training with 5×5 training from the start. So, my recommendation is to use the 5×5 Routine for Beginners and Intermediate guys [...]
Did you have any trouble Deadlifting 5×5? some people say it’s to taxing on the body and that 1×5 is better. They do include squats on those day & I see you dont advocate that on the same day.
Cheers
Hey John,
yes it is a taxing exercise and you can’t do it 5×5 the same you do squats 5×5, but on the other day it’s great. That’s why I keep them in two different days. Both are best exercises and I think they need to be done often.
I have no trouble with them, even tough they are very hard exercise. This workout is def. not for wimps!
Cheers
[...] 36Pounds.com 5×5 Workout for Beginners and Intermediate Guys (Phoenix Method) [...]
Hi again,
I’ve started the programme and it’s great. Just a couple of things.
As I’m caught for time during the week I use supersets (bench and pull ups, squat and shld press) but I’ve been told this is not good for strength training as it doesn’t let you work at max capacity for each set. What are your thoughts on this?
Also, I’ve been reading about strength training and a lot of people suggest “ramping up” to your max weight on the 5th set. So set 1 might be 35%, set 2 65%, set 3 75%, set 4 85% and set 5 100%. This seems to me to be a waste of 4 sets. What do you think of this?
Thanks again. Keep up the good work with the site
Hey mate,
glad you are doing the program the program.
To answer your questions, well, don’t use supersets with strength training. You should be taking more rest between sets when training with 5 reps than if you were doing 10 reps. You need more of it to recover and be able to lift heavy again. :)
And I prefer sets across to ramping things up too. I think you can use ramping up in the future when you become intermediate trainee and start lifting serious weights (let’s say more than 1,5x bodyweight squat etc). Still, I would keep first set not at 25 percent but at 50 and make all sets heavier then the numbers given in you gave :)
How are the gains mate? Thanx for kind words, appreciate them a lot ;)
Adrian
So do you go all out (100%) for the 4 sets after the warmup set at 50%???
I would class myself as an intermediate lifter and I can squat about 1,5 times my body weight. But I am new to strength training. Do you still think I should avoid the ramping up?
How long do your sessions last with the 2 mins between sets? Mine go on for a long time!!! I’d rather be in and out in 45 mins but seems unavoidable with this routine.
Also, I see guys saying that with strength sessions the first one of the week should be intense, the second low intensity and the third medium. Again, this is a new concept to me as I usually go all out for each session and exercise.
What are your thoughts on that?
I’ve just started the routine but will let you know how it goes.
I go all out on 5 sets. I actually do one warm up set before with either empty bar or very little weight.
Stick to 5 sets across now, then try out ramping up. In a few months. There is nothing better then experience mate. I can give you very strickt rules to follow and I’m sure you’d be doing good, but experimenting is good and learning how your body responds to different training is great! :)
Now, I do 5 exercises and 5×5 with 4 of them, then one 3×8 exercise. It usually takes me 50-65 minutes to finish workout. Just the right amount of time. So if you do this workout I’m sure you wont be taking too long in the gym ;)
And about intensity on workouts, if you still grow with this workout, then don’t do variations. When you stop progressing, then you can start doing periodization. I really recommend reading Practical Programming by Mark Rippetoes if you want to learn how to create workouts and learn a TON about training. It’s a must read!
Keep me updated!
Cheers,
Adrian
Cheers Adrian. I’ll put into practice what you’ve been saying
hey adrian, can u suggest a substitute for pull ups and chin ups, theyre pretty hard to do, and I can’t add weights coz we dont have those kind of belts to hang weights with in the gym. I would gladly appreciate a reply bro. thanks man
Well that’s the whole point of working out, to do what is hard and then gradually life heavier weights!! Do even 1 pull up for 5 sets and then slowly you will get stronger. Then when you can do 5×5 with your weight at them, take a dumbbell between your feet to make it heavier ;)
Cheers
Hey,
I can’t do 5×5 chinups or pullups so can I do Lat Pulldown instead of pullups? And can I do the chinup resistance machine (where you put your knees on the pad and it helps you get up) instead of chinups?
Can you do at least one or two pull ups? If yes, then you must keep doing them and slowly GROW! Slowly you will gain strength and reach 5×5! That’s the whole point, not just to do 5×5. As long as you add at least one rep per workout you are good. If you do 5 sets of 1 rep on Monday and then 1 set of 2 pull ups and 4 sets of 1 on the next workout – you are doing good!
Adrian
Hey man, can I add 2 exercises to the end of each workout instead of 1?
Hey Antwaan!
No buddy. Routine is perfect as it is. Be patient. More exercises is not better! Trust me on this! :)
Adrian
great website and article man!
nice job
Thanx Anthony! Your’s is nice too! Impressive team there..
Cheers
What an awesome routine for gaining an underdeveloped (in comparison to chest) shoulders, which would increase the chance of getting shoulder injury while bench pressing and leave you with a lagging body party.
And no, random dubbell flys do not solve that problem. You need press dubbell or barbell overhead to develop shoulders.
And in general I don’t like the website, because it relies on meaningless keywords, like “36pounds”. Also “skinny guys” sticks out in a bad way. I understand you’re trying to find a niche, but that comes off as cheesy.
There’s two things I like about the site though: it got solid design, second and more important: You keep everything simple and to the point, many bodybuilding sites overcomplicate and start writing articles about developing your inner pecs…it’s not the case right here.
Hi Boldnut,
thanx for comment. I don’t think about keywords… 36Pounds has a meaning to me, that’s why it’s the name of my blog. Please do expand on what you mean “Skinny guys” sticks out in a bad way? Is it insulting for you?
Thanx for compliment on site :)
And about the routine… it’s not ment to be really specialised for body parts. Still, you can easily do exercises for shoulders like overhead press, which are great definitely. That’s why there is an Accessory exercise there which YOU pick. Depends on you what you pick. And on a side note, lots of skinny guys tend to have bad posture.. their shoulders are already slouching in front and doing presses wont help this, whether doing some reverse flies will help with the posture.
Looking forward to your reply!
Adrian
It sticks out in a way, that there’s a normal sentence and then there’s artificially added “Skinny guy” to each sentence, it does not offend me in any way it just sound funny and makes articles look less serious.
I looked up the article where you wrote about your progress and I realised that you are very inexperienced and you probably shouldn’t be giving advice at all, unless you have a much more experienced consultant who could kind of filter out the crap out of your articles.
I did not say you need to specialise this workout for shoulders, I suggested to not allow your shoulder to lag behind every other part of your body. This is why some kind of presses must be included in the program and not to be left to decided for inexperienced guy, which will choose an exercise for abs instead.
And that comment about what helps and that do not helps posture is utter nonsense, please…
I use those words to clearly show for whom this advice is. But this can look bad so I will look into it. Thnx!
As far as me being inexperienced… well, I’m not THE most experienced guy around, but real life success stories of my visitors show that I have enough experience to help new to training people to start and gain muscle. You cant deny that bro!
And as far as posture.. have you tried it? Don’t usually feel difference in your posture after doing back exercises? I dare you to do reverse flies and see how different you will feel after them. Your shoulders will go back, esp. if you have slouching forward shoulders. In my experience, they help, I feel it when I walk after a workout etc. Saying that it is utter nonsense is ….utter nonsense…
Cheers,
Adrian
I’m sorry, I’ve done flys long time ago, since then I dropped all non compound exercises, you certainly got a point here.
Be that as it may it also means you put fixing posture in front of building muscle and protecting shoulders from injuries.
hey adrian, in the last part of your program you said to Choose only one muscle group we want to train. Im kinda confused by your statement, did you mean I must do one exercise for each? one for Abs, for arms for calf, for shoulder/trapezius for that day? or pick only one?like today, i’d do only my arms.. then next day shoulders. I would gladly appreciate your replyy :-)
Hey buddy,
It means only doing ONE exercise for one muscle group that day. Only one exercise. Total of 5 exercises per workout ;) Sorry, if my writing is unclear :(
Cheers,
Adrian
I haven’t read every single comment, but do you recommend any type/time of cardio on these days or on a 4th day? I have been doing 5×5 and love it, but I also have some belly fat that I want to reduce/eliminate. I eat healthy and try and include some protein in every meal. Thank you.
Sean
Sean,
I suggest then going to the gym for two OFF days and doing some short cardio sessions. Do 30 mins or 40 mins of cardio on of days. But seriously, cardio isn’t main thing to lose fat. It’s nutrition. So I suggest you first, focus on gaining enough muscles, then only getting rid of fat. :)
Cheers
hey adrian, you said the routine should be done , 3 times a week, every other day. Is one day rest enough for the muscles to rest and grow?would appreciate your reply man
Well, I have gained with this routine, Jair has posted his success story too… it is enough ;) Just eat enough, get 8 hours of sleep a day. If you have physical job though, then we might need to do some changes in the routine to give you more rest.
Cheers
Yeah I’m a nurse in a busy and huge hospital , so i do a lot of walking, very stressfull, I also have 2 graveyard shifts every week
Then food is def. most important. Try sneaking in a shake when you work when no one sees ya in the hospital! ;) You really need that second job btw? :)
great article man! 5×5 workouts are the best. riptoe’s program did wonders for me!
hi
my body is endomorph type …i have a belly stomach ,i want to loose fat…can i go for cardio and ab workouts on non workout days??
Hey buddy,
yep, you can ;)
Cheers,
Adrian
Hey, im new at going to the gym(used to not be). This article is for beginners and intermediate people. Im going to try it but i hit a plateau pretty quickly with any workout that isn’t constantly changing up(you know, the whole “muscle confusion” thing. Im going to do this for at least the first month or so, but do you have a workout for more advanced people? One that switches it up a little more. You might want to say that this is all I need for at least 6 months or so, but trust me man, I need a lot of confusion goin’ on after the first month or so. Any way you could help me out? It would be much appreciated. Thanks a lot.
Hey Bob,
I don’t believe in muscle confusion, a bicep curl is a bicep curl since body knows movements, not exercises.
Now advanced stuff would be periodization, do 5×5 workout for 2 months and then shoot me an email and we will get you a new routine ;)
Cheers,
Adrian
hey adrian, I had asked you about a more advanced routine I could do a while back. You told me to do this 5 x 5 beginner/intermediate one for a couple of months. It seemed to have helped, but I think I’ve hit a plateau. Any help? Thanks.
Hey Bob,
plateus are normal. You could do a few things, you could take a week off and then start lifting a lil bit smaller weight when you go back and work your way back up (say lift 10 percent less than you do now and work yourself back up). Or you could switch to 3×8 rep&set scheme instead of 5×5 while keeping all the same routine.
So how did your weight changed? How did you like working out? :)
Cheers
5×5 is a great program to do, however I would change a few things in the one you posted.
I would put overhead presses instead of bench press on workout B
Deadlifts will be better at 1 x 5 not 5 sets across – 5 sets across is tiring and will cause your form to deteriorate, which you don’t want to happen with deadlifts. Also, some people thing that deadlifts will produce better results at higher weights sue to the isometric contractions involved.
And with workout B – I’d suggest doing a set of light squats before doing deadlifts as they are a great warm up for deads, and I would also take leg presses out.
Hey Phil,
appreciate your opinion! ;) I wouldn’t exclude bench presses but do overhead press as an accessory exercise definitely. Chest exercise must be kept in this day since I want big muscle groups to be trained every workout.
As with deads, I partly agree. I did have great progress with my deads but this might be too much volume for some so I think I will do some changes with it in coming update for the routine.
Leg press is good exercise and even though I’m a huge squats fan, I have to say that leg press may be more effective than squats for quadricep muscle and that’s why I keep it in the workout. And there must be one exercise for legs in the routine, again, big muscle groups are trained each workout. Doing light squats wouldn’t really stimulate legs to grow most.
I promise though, to update routine in coming week. ;)
Cheers
[...] 36Pounds.com 5×5 Workout for Beginner and Intermediate Guys (UPDATED!!!) [...]
Hey, can you please adjust this workout for me, i only have dumbells
Hi Ben,
here it is:
http://www.36pounds.com/2009/04/30/36poundscom-home-workout-for-beginners/
Any way you could get into gym?
Cheers
Thanks alot im very excited and you have a great site here. Keep it up.
Great to hear that! Hope to hear your success story one day buddy! ;)
Well, here is a blog post about my progress with it:
http://www.36pounds.com/2009/07/24/personal-progress-results-and-blog-updates/
I love this routine because it’s so simple and effective and it’s easy to keep track of results with it.
Thanx and keep me updated on how you are doing ;)
Wonderful! Looking forward to hearing from you bro! ;)
I love compounds and am all for them but dropping other exercises completely is not good. That’s why I incorporated ability to have one of them in the routine.
I don’t put fixing posture as a priority to gaining muscle. I just offered how to fix it.. and btw.. you can do both things at the same time actually. Since strengthening your muscles means they will get bigger.
Cheers,
Adrian
how can posture not be important in bodybuilding? correcting it must be a top priority to make lifts like squats and deadlifts more about moving the weight and training the muscles than maintaining form.
the form should come naturally and the only way to do that is to have proper posture at all times.
Hey man,
yeah, posture is definitely important in life and lifting. Squat with your chest up, back squeezed, arched lower back etc. Exercises like deadlift, barbell row, squats will help your posture if you tend to slouch forward a bit. Unfortunately, proper squatting or lifting form doesn’t come naturally, either because people don’t have good posture already or because they lift too much or don’t really get how to do exercise.
Thanx for comment ;)
Adrian