Heavy/Light training

[jc95605]

This was suggested to me in another thread. Just to recap, i recently started 5x5 training. I was doing 5x5 for flat, incline, and decline bench. Needless to say it burned me out in about 2.5wks. It was then suggested to me that i should just do one 5x5 movement per workout, (i.e. only do flat). I just started this new training yesterday so i don't really know how well it works yet. You guys told me that a heavy day and a light day would probably be better. I'd like to do my heavy day on monday and light day on thursday. What i'm looking for today is example heavy/light workouts. I don't know what different excercises i can do if any, or should i do the same excercises with just lighter weight with more reps. I haven't trained like this, hence the questions. I was thinking maybe pec-dec flys and lower cable crossovers since these 2 excercises are moreso for shaping, but again i wanted to get some input from ppl who actually use this method.

Secondly my arms i train on the same day. My next question is should my arm "heavy" day be on the same day as my chest "heavy" day? Should i do the heavy days vice versa. It would look something like this:

Chest/arms-heavy (mon)
Chest/arms-light (thurs)
or
Chest-heavy, arms-light (mon)
Chest-light, arms-heavy (thurs)

Thanks for the help guys......i'm finally done.

[AcePowerZ]

5x5 is mostly for strength training and imo you should only be concentrating on one muscle group at a time here. By the time you are done hitting one group with such heavy weight you are not going to be at top shape for your next muscle groups lift.

[quarry206]

what are your goals?

[jc95605]

what are your goals?

Mainly strength/power. A lil more size would be nice but if i had to pick one, strength.

[quarry206]

westside barbell has a really good work out for heavy and light days, doc sus has put their work outs in the power lifting section.

i would work more on a one muscle a day plan with the arms just having a good mix of power and hypertrophy exercises.

I do powerlifting but wanted to have a good quality body also. and though i would often play with my routine. my orignal one was.

3wk heavy, 1 wk light.. and then repeat.
monday- chest- heavy flat bench sets of 4, light incline sets of 12-15, DB bench in a weight i could do 8's of

tuesday- back- heavy deads sets of 4, but the rest of the day would be sets of 8-10

wednesday-legs- squat and leg press both 8-6-4 sets, leg curls, lunges, calfs

thursday- board press 5-3-1, tricep push downs sets of 8, kick backs sets of 10, weighted dips sets of 6 to 10

bi's strait bar curls, cable curls, preacher curls. all sets of 8 to 10

friday- usually would do shoulder rehab type work, and maybe a light light set of different things just to loosen up and stretch.

saturday and sunday off

[jc95605]

Thanks for tip, i really appreciate it. I'll see if i can find their posts, although yours has some good infomation. Like i said in my first post i'm looking for idea on workouts. I dunno if i could do chest once a week, i love chest, its my favorite muscle group. Anyway what kinda of results did you get with that routine? How much did your bench go up? Do you have before and after pics?

[terraj]

westside barbell has a really good work out for heavy and light days, doc sus has put their work outs in the power lifting section.

i would work more on a one muscle a day plan with the arms just having a good mix of power and hypertrophy exercises.

I do powerlifting but wanted to have a good quality body also. and though i would often play with my routine. my orignal one was.

3wk heavy, 1 wk light.. and then repeat.
monday- chest- heavy flat bench sets of 4, light incline sets of 12-15, DB bench in a weight i could do 8's of

tuesday- back- heavy deads sets of 4, but the rest of the day would be sets of 8-10

wednesday-legs- squat and leg press both 8-6-4 sets, leg curls, lunges, calfs

thursday- board press 5-3-1, tricep push downs sets of 8, kick backs sets of 10, weighted dips sets of 6 to 10

bi's strait bar curls, cable curls, preacher curls. all sets of 8 to 10

friday- usually would do shoulder rehab type work, and maybe a light light set of different things just to loosen up and stretch.

saturday and sunday off

^^ is good.

I do a 5x5 sometimes...love it, run it for 4-8 weeks. Doing it ATM actually....just came back from Chest/bis-

Declines bench 5x5....I want to be hitting failure on end of my last set...if I don't get it thats where I stay, if I do get it I move up next workout.
Flat Db 2x10, want to hit failure here
Dips 1x bodyweight to failure ( my shoulders don't handle weighted)
BB curls 5x5
Con curls 2x10 hitting failure
Hammer curls 2x10
1x chins to failure

My split is

Chest/bis
off
Legs
off
Shoulder/tri
off
back
off

Keep a log book with you, write everything down.


I am not a powerlifter, I just like lifting heavy shit.

[jc95605]

I like that spilt terraj, thanks.

[quarry206]

Thanks for tip, i really appreciate it. I'll see if i can find their posts, although yours has some good infomation. Like i said in my first post i'm looking for idea on workouts. I dunno if i could do chest once a week, i love chest, its my favorite muscle group. Anyway what kinda of results did you get with that routine? How much did your bench go up? Do you have before and after pics?

my best bench during that routine was bench 495lb at 227lb body weight. squat and deadlift just over the 500 mark.. that work out wasn't great for my deadlift, that was the only major changes i have made since then is helping my back and pull strength.

[jc95605]

So doing that spilt for however long, helped your bench increase about 40lbs? I'm just trying to get a rough idea of how effective it is.

[sarasotafloridabrian]

In everything I read it's rare anyone is hitting any one muscle group more then once a week. Is this really enough?
As I have it I'm doing more muscle groups per day, but hitting them twice a week.
For example, I'll do chest, shoulders, and triceps one day, and back, biceps, and legs the next. Usually a cardio day, then a day off, and then repeat.
Sometimes it's problematic in that my woekout days aren't consistent, but I never feel a muscle group once a week is enough.
I will admit I am lagging on the legs as this is too big a day and I need to make a change here.

[jc95605]

I completely agree with that sara. If i were to do one muscle group once a week it just doesn't feel enough. That and the excitment kills me until the next workout/next week, and i usually can't hold it.

[quarry206]

well i agree it takes some getting use to, but the amount of growth you will have in both size and strength will let you know that once a week is the better choice.

and for example you say chest is your favorite. well there are alot of connecting muscle groups to chest and by working them equally hard over the course of only say about 8 weeks, your chest will grow and get alot stronger.

[quarry206]

In everything I read it's rare anyone is hitting any one muscle group more then once a week. Is this really enough?
As I have it I'm doing more muscle groups per day, but hitting them twice a week.
For example, I'll do chest, shoulders, and triceps one day, and back, biceps, and legs the next. Usually a cardio day, then a day off, and then repeat.
Sometimes it's problematic in that my woekout days aren't consistent, but I never feel a muscle group once a week is enough.
I will admit I am lagging on the legs as this is too big a day and I need to make a change here.

either you are in the gym way too long and over training.. or there can't be any way that you can get good quality full work outs. keeping the idea of 9-12 working sets (meaning not counting warm ups) per muscle group. and legs and back and legs having sections that get worked by totally different workouts. . . i duno how working that much in one day will ever cause growth

[sarasotafloridabrian]

it's all relative I suppose.
My routine is only about 90 min including warm-ups.
I'll admit I'm stagnate right now, but it's hard to get my mind wrapped around the once a week thing.
I need to do more research on it. Any other threads to suggest?

[terraj]

it's all relative I suppose.
My routine is only about 90 min including warm-ups.
I'll admit I'm stagnate right now, but it's hard to get my mind wrapped around the once a week thing.
I need to do more research on it. Any other threads to suggest?

Different strokes for different folks.

However....as your poundage and intensity increases, once a week is enough for a lot of people.

I get sick just thinking of trying to add another body part of legs day...Lol.

The lower back which gets hammered by deads, well those muscles are the slowest in the body to recover, at around 7 days.

[jc95605]

Just out of curiousity, on your guys' arm day, do you workout your biceps and triceps together or does each one go to a different day/muscle group? This is assuming that you only hit them once a week.

[jbran23]

Just out of curiousity, on your guys' arm day, do you workout your biceps and triceps together or does each one go to a different day/muscle group? This is assuming that you only hit them once a week.

I work bi's and tri's together. With so many back exercises using the biceps and so many chest and shoulder work incorporating the triceps, doing it this way basically hits them twice a week.

[jc95605]

Do you guys have any suggestions for "light" chest day excercises? Today is supposed to be my "light" chest day and i kinda wanna try this method out before i get to the once a month method. Any suggestions on excercises? Thanks for all the help guys.

[jbran23]

Like Terraj touched on above, I think if you keep the intensity high and fully work the individual muscles, you wont want to work them out more than once a week.