The 5/2 Program: Unleash New Size and Strength Gains

 

     I read a lot.  And I re-read a lot of books that I like, especially in the fields that I’m particularly interested in, such as strength training, budo, and philosophy (of all types, Christian and pagan, western and eastern).  Today I was reading Pavel and Dan John’s book “Easy Strength.”  I’ve read this book a couple of times, but thought I’d return to it today, thinking it might give me some quotes I could include in my ongoing HFT series, when I came upon, well, this quote of Pavel’s: “There is nothing wrong with a split if you’re not using it as an excuse to have a bis and tris day.  Ben Johnson lifted six times a week: three for the upper body and three for the lower body.  He cut down to four days when felt the need to back off.  I like Charles Poliquin’s weekly strength plan for fighters: 5 days of lifting a week, only two exercises per workout.”

     First, I don’t think it’s necessarily wrong to have an “arms only” day; I’ve written a few of them in different magazines, and on this blog, over the years.  But I understand where Pavel’s coming from because most lifters really would get much better results if they stayed away from bodypart-specific workouts and so-called bro splits of all types.  Second, I actually like Ben Johnson’s idea of training 6-days-per-week, 3 for upper and 3 for lower.  If you reach the point, for instance, on a Bill Starr-style H-L-M program where your heavy days are lasting 3 hours—as this happened to me in my powerlifting career once upon a time—then it’s not a bad idea to train six days weekly: two heavy days, two light days, and two medium days, especially if you’re not doing any more work on your two heavy (or light or medium) days than what you were previously doing for one workout.  You’re simply splitting it in half, and giving your body more time to recuperate, not to mention grow larger and stronger.  But it was that last sentence about the late Charles Poliquin’s plan for fighters that piqued my interest, and ignited the spark that had me come up with this article.

     I’m not sure what exactly Poliquin had in mind with his 5 days of training but only 2 exercises at each session.  And I could have looked it up, sure, but I didn’t want it to influence the programs that were already churning in my barbell-addled mind for what you’re now staring at.  Knowing Poliquin’s methods, he probably did recommend something similar to what I’m going to recommend since what follows are some split programs, and the man almost unanimously recommended split training.  Knowing Pavel, he probably has in mind an easy strength method where you train the same 2 lifts at each one of your 5 weekly sessions.  Regardless of how those two great strength coaches would program it, what follows are two different program templates that I believe work really well, and this is how I would program it.

Program Template #1

     For the first program, select 6 exercises that you want to get strong on.  You know the drill: these should all be big, “bang-for-your-buck” exercises.  For the example program below, I’ve selected squats, barbell overhead presses, power cleans, barbell curls, thick-bar deadlifts and bench presses, but any 6 similar movements would work well.  Each week, you will train 4 of the movements twice, and 2 of the movements once.  And each subsequent week, this will change as far as which movements get only 1 workout and which movements will get 2 sessions.  Train 3 days in a row, take a day off, train 2 days in a row, take a day off, and repeat.  The set-up should something such as this:

Monday: squats, barbell overhead presses

Tuesday: thick-bar deadlifts, bench presses

Wednesday: power cleans, barbell curls 

Thursday: off

Friday: squats, barbell overhead presses

Saturday: thick-bar deadlifts, bench presses

Sunday: off

     On the following Monday, you will start with power cleans and barbell curls.

     As far as sets/reps are concerned, try to get 15 to 25 good reps with a heavy weight.  Here are some possible set/rep combos to use:

5 sets of 5 reps

     5 sets of 5 reps seems as if it’s fairly straightforward, but I think there are a few ways that you can do these effectively.  This is also the reason that there’s sometimes confusion over how to do 5 sets of 5 reps.  The Starr method—this is how it’s used in most heavy/light/medium programs—calls for 5 progressively heavier sets of 5 reps.  The last set should be really tough, and, in fact, you may not even get 5 reps on this set.  That’s the point.  This method is good for anyone just starting out on this sort of program.  It’s what I would begin with here if you’re relatively new to strength and power training.  It’s also good for your more intermediate to advanced lifters who need to get back-to-the-basics after weeks, or even months, of much more voluminous workouts.

     The most popular way that this is used among bodybuilders—the great Reg Park springs to mind—is to do 5 straight sets of 5 reps with the same weight.  Of course, you will want to warm-up sufficiently, which means most lifters will really do between 7 and 10 sets of 5 reps, depending on your strength level, and thus how many warm-ups you need.  If you go with this method, select a weight for your work sets where you would probably fail around the 7th to 8th rep.  Now, attempt 5 sets of 5 reps.  At first, you will probably get 2 or 3 sets of 5, then a set or two with 4 or even just 3 reps.  Stick with that weight at each workout until you can get 5 sets of 5 reps.

5/4/3/2/1

     For this method, work up to a heavy set of 5 reps.  This will be your first “working” set of 5 reps.  Make sure it’s tough, but make sure, also, that you can get it.  In other words, you ought to still have a little strength left “in the tank” when the set is complete.  Add 5 to 10 pounds (depending on both your strength and the sort of movement; with barbell curls, for instance, you may just add 2 and ½ pounds), and do a set of 4 reps.  Rest, add weight, and do a set of 3.  Rest a little more, add weight, and do a set of 2 reps.  Then rest, add more weight, and do your last set for a single.  If you select the appropriate weight to begin your 5-rep set, you shouldn’t miss any of the reps.

     You may want to stick with the same weights for 2, or even 3, of the sessions for that lift.  Once the workout seems relatively easy, add weight to your starting set of 5 reps, and repeat.

3 sets of 6-8 reps

     This is a good set/rep combo for you if you’re looking for more muscle mass than strength.  After warm-ups, select a weight where 6 to 8 reps will be really tough.  Now, attempt 3 sets of 8 reps.  Once you’re capable of getting 8 reps on all 3 sets, add weight at the next session.

8 sets of 2-3 reps “Hepburn” style

     Hepburn’s technique works like this: Use a weight where you can manage 8 reps before reaching failure.  Now, do 8 sets of 2 reps with that weight.  Hepburn said that if you selected an accurate weight, this would feel easy.  And that’s the point.  It’s sort of an old-school grease-the-groove method.  At the 2nd workout for the lift, do 1 set of 3 reps and 7 sets of 2 reps.  At the next session, do 2 sets of 3 reps followed by 6 sets of 2 reps.  And at the next session it will be 3 sets of 3 reps, and 5 sets of 2 reps.  You can probably see where this is going.  Use this method of adding a set of 3 reps at each workout until you get 8 sets of 3 reps with a weight.  At this point, add 10 to 15 pounds for big lifts (such as squats or bench presses) or 5 pounds for smaller lifts (barbell curls, for example), and start back over at 8 sets of 2 reps.

Program Template #2

     The 2nd program presented here is good for anyone who wants to do more volume, train with more exercises, but train each lift infrequently.  Here you will utilize 10 exercises, trained only once-per-week.  Using the same lifts from our first program, but with two new exercises thrown in, the program should look something like this:

Monday: squats, barbell overhead presses

Tuesday: thick-bar deadlifts, bench presses

Wednesday: power snatches, barbell curls

Thursday: off

Friday: front squats, one-arm dumbbell overhead presses

Saturday: power cleans, weighted chins

Sunday: off

     With some exceptions, I would keep the rep range here between 30 and 50 for each exercise.  In fact, some days, you may want to do workouts that are more similar to those in our first program, especially if you feel as if you need the extra rest.  In fact, if you’re the sort of lifter that responds better to lower volume, you could probably follow the template here, but use the set/rep combos from our first program almost exclusively.  Having said that, I do think most lifters, assuming they have enough lifting time under their belts, should do a bit more work.  Here are some set/rep combos I recommend:

Ramps of 5s, 3s, and singles

     For this method, do progressively heavier sets of 5 until you reach a near max of 5 reps.  At that point, add weight and start doing triples until, once again, you reach a near max for 3 reps.  And, at this point, start doing singles.  I wouldn’t advise going for an absolute max single at each session, but rather, as with the 5s and 3s, a near max single.  Occasionally, of course, you may want to test your strength and go for a true max, but I wouldn’t attempt this more than once a month.

     If you are an advanced strength athlete, then feel free to add some back-off sets if you like.  2 to 3 sets of 6-8 would be ideal, as would 3 to 4 sets of 5 reps, or even 2 sets of 10.

Double Ramps of 5s, 3s, and singles

     For the more adventurous lifter, you can get a lot more workload in by doing two sets at each ramp in weight.  The beauty of this method is that you get all the extra work without it seeming as if it’s a lot extra.  Two sets at each weight jump won’t feel all that hard until you get to your last weight with each rep scheme.  In fact, some lifters will actually be stronger using this because doing two sets at each ramp sort of “primes” your nervous system to handle the upcoming heavier sets.

     At first, if you want, you could even do a kind of “hybrid” version where you do double ramps on your 5s until they start to feel heavy, then you can go to single ramps.  When you hit a near-max of 5s, then start doing double ramps again on the triples until those get hard, as well, at which point you would just do single ramps for the remainder of the exercise.

     Another variation would be to do your regular workout of ramps, and, when you get to your near-max single, start back at 5s and repeat the ramps.  And, if you’re advanced, once again you can add in some back-off sets if you wish.

10 sets of 3 reps/ 10 sets of 5 reps

     With this method, after warm-ups, do 10 straight sets of 3 reps or 10 straight sets of 5 reps.  If you select 3 reps, then pick a weight where you would fail on the 6th repetition if you were to just do 1 set.  Conversely, if you select 5 reps, pick a weight where you would fail on the 10th repetition.  If you manage to get all 10 sets for your selected rep number, add weight at the next session.

The Hepburn Method - 5 to 8 singles, followed by 5 sets of 5 reps

     I’ve written about this method before, but if you’ve yet to utilize it, this program would be a perfect fit for it.  Named after famed Canadian strongman, the legendary Doug Hepburn, it works like this: Work up to around 95% of your max for your lift over the course of several progressively heavier sets of 5s and then triples (ramps same as the first two workout suggestions).  If, on the bench press, for instance, you can bench 315 pounds, then you would work up to around 300 pounds for your singles.  Perform 5 to 8 singles with this weight.  If you manage to get 8 singles with this weight, you would add around 5 pounds at the next session and repeat.  Once you’re finished with all of your singles, drop down to around 80% to 85% of that weight (in this case, 250 pounds for bench) and perform 5 sets of 5 reps.  Slowly increase the amount you’re doing for 5 sets of 5 reps, as well.

Final Thoughts

     The one thing that’s missing from this workout are loaded carries.  If you want, feel free to add one set of some sort of loaded carry at the end of each session.  Don’t overdo it.  One set would be plenty.

     If you’re after more size and strength give one, or all, of these 5/2 programs a go.  You may find it to be one of the more enjoyable—not to mention result-producing—programs you’ve ever done.

For more strength and mass-building programs, check out my latest e-book Ultimate Mass and Power.