Scott suggested this to me recently in another thread. I have been doing it.

 

It is kicking my butt! Loving it!

Thats what Ive been doing lately as well. Ive been following Mike O'hearn's power body building routines which is very similar to what your talking about. I love it, especially for chest. After doing those 5-6 heavy sets your muscles are so fatigued it gets hard to get out the usual 10 reps of the rest of your routine.

Nice man. Yeah its all about muscle fatigue and you will definitely feel it. To be honest your muscle endurance will go up too. How big have your strength gains been on chest? Pushing those 125s yet on flat bench?

So, Scott, if bench were to be a part of your normal chest routine would you do your 5x5 bench then later in your workout hit the bench again for different rep range? Or would the 5x5 be all the bench you use during that workout?

125s?! I wish!! I think I need to put more weight on to ever handle those lol. I'm working with 75s n 80s on incline. Id be happy to just be able use those 100s at this point. I started w 70s... Its been a month. Hitting chest once week.

See if you can get a partner to help you with those FORCED REPS. That will help you get stronger and used to the weight!

It's a "give & take" kind of relationship when trying to put on lean mass.

 

Training for strength and muscle mass are two different types of routines.

Strength requires heavy loads for low reps and building muscle requires things like VOLUME (higher reps) and a slower TEMPO.

 

But like you, I don't want to lose strength while building muscle so I have been incorporating 5x5 training into my current workout split to help even things out.

 

Think about it this way... when trying to build muscle the "weight" doesn't really matter up to a point. Whatever you are lifting just needs to be heavy enough to fatigue the muscles by the time you hit around 12-15 reps. So what I have been doing is including at least ONE 5x5 lift in each routine to focus on building strength. Then while fatigued, I finish off the muscles I am training for the day.

 

Here is an example for each bodypart:

 

Back: Weighted Pull-Ups (5x5)

Chest: Barbell Bench Press (5x5)

Biceps: Straight-bar bicep curls (5x5)

Triceps: Close-Grip Bench or Weighted Dips (5x5)

Legs: Squats (5x5)

Traps: Shrugs (5x5)

Shoulders: Barbell Overhead Press (5x5)

 

What also works great about this type of training is that the muscles are now pre-exausted which means more muscle fiber activation during your workout.

 

After completing the (5x5) for the bodypart(s) I am training or the day, I go into my normal workout split and hit it as hard as I can.

Try it out and let me know what you think Nation! #HTH

 

100% spot on!. I need to remember at my age it is better to train for hypertrophy than strength {you already know what happened to me :-) }

It's a "give & take" kind of relationship when trying to put on lean mass.

 

Training for strength and muscle mass are two different types of routines.

Strength requires heavy loads for low reps and building muscle requires things like VOLUME (higher reps) and a slower TEMPO.

 

But like you, I don't want to lose strength while building muscle so I have been incorporating 5x5 training into my current workout split to help even things out.

 

Think about it this way... when trying to build muscle the "weight" doesn't really matter up to a point. Whatever you are lifting just needs to be heavy enough to fatigue the muscles by the time you hit around 12-15 reps. So what I have been doing is including at least ONE 5x5 lift in each routine to focus on building strength. Then while fatigued, I finish off the muscles I am training for the day.

 

Here is an example for each bodypart:

 

Back: Weighted Pull-Ups (5x5)

Chest: Barbell Bench Press (5x5)

Biceps: Straight-bar bicep curls (5x5)

Triceps: Close-Grip Bench or Weighted Dips (5x5)

Legs: Squats (5x5)

Traps: Shrugs (5x5)

Shoulders: Barbell Overhead Press (5x5)

 

What also works great about this type of training is that the muscles are now pre-exausted which means more muscle fiber activation during your workout.

 

After completing the (5x5) for the bodypart(s) I am training or the day, I go into my normal workout split and hit it as hard as I can.

Try it out and let me know what you think Nation! #HTH

 

It's a "give & take" kind of relationship when trying to put on lean mass.

 

Training for strength and muscle mass are two different types of routines.

Strength requires heavy loads for low reps and building muscle requires things like VOLUME (higher reps) and a slower TEMPO.

 

But like you, I don't want to lose strength while building muscle so I have been incorporating 5x5 training into my current workout split to help even things out.

 

Think about it this way... when trying to build muscle the "weight" doesn't really matter up to a point. Whatever you are lifting just needs to be heavy enough to fatigue the muscles by the time you hit around 12-15 reps. So what I have been doing is including at least ONE 5x5 lift in each routine to focus on building strength. Then while fatigued, I finish off the muscles I am training for the day.

 

Here is an example for each bodypart:

 

Back: Weighted Pull-Ups (5x5)

Chest: Barbell Bench Press (5x5)

Biceps: Straight-bar bicep curls (5x5)

Triceps: Close-Grip Bench or Weighted Dips (5x5)

Legs: Squats (5x5)

Traps: Shrugs (5x5)

Shoulders: Barbell Overhead Press (5x5)

 

What also works great about this type of training is that the muscles are now pre-exausted which means more muscle fiber activation during your workout.

 

After completing the (5x5) for the bodypart(s) I am training or the day, I go into my normal workout split and hit it as hard as I can.

Try it out and let me know what you think Nation! #HTH