Starting Cycle 3 of 5×5 Training
Started cycle 3 of my 5×5 training program yesterday with squats. I worked with 250 and had good sets, getting to parallel on every lift. First cycle I used 275 and it was really hard. Second cycle I tried 280 and although I could have pushed through the sets I wasn’t able to go very deep and I wasn’t happy with it. I would rather have good form at this point in my training and make every rep a good rep, so I went back to 245 and finished that workout. Lifting 250 yesterday and having it go so well gives me confidence that I can keep increasing by 5 pounds each cycle and keep good form, which will serve me better in the long run. After squats I did some leg presses and extensions, really worked the quads hard. After that I did abs, and I pushed almost every set to failure. I must say that since I changed the way I work out abs I’m getting a much better burn and hopefully, in the long run, better results. I finished up my workout with some jumping rope and HIIT on the bike. It was a Saturday afternoon, not another soul at the gym, and it was 2 hours of pure bliss! I left it feeling like a million dollars.
Overall, cycle 2 was good, I increased every exercise by 5 or 10 pounds. I am very happy with deadlift, I did 5×5 @280 which is the most weight I’ve done for so many reps, and they were all good reps, I had to focus but I didn’t struggle. I did bench press 5×5 @200, and actually found it better than the cycle before @195, I took an extra minute rest between sets and that helped a lot. I had a spotter watch me for the last set but I didn’t need him at all. Tonight it’s 5×5 bench press with 205 pounds. I’ve done one set of 205×5 before, but this is a new challenge and based on my progress so far I know I will do it!
October 19, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Sounds great Tony. Stay strong.