Mass on Demand - The 5x10 Workout

The 5x10 Workout Program

     The longer that I have been training and working with other lifters, the more that I believe that simple, though not necessarily easy, programs are the best methods to use.  I think this is the case for the majority of lifters.  There are times when this is not so, but that’s usually for either elite athletes or programs for strength athletes at the top of powerlifting or Olympic weightlifting.

     In my last article on different ways that you can incorporate heavy, light, and medium workouts into your training, I mentioned a few ways that this can be done.  One of them is to keep your weights the same at each workout session but rotate the sets and/or reps.  This is in direct contradiction to the most popular method of H-L-M, Bill Starr’s 5x5 training, where you keep the sets and reps the same (5x5) but rotate the amount of weight used on the lifts.  The program here uses the first approach, but the weights and the sets will stay the same and the reps will be the one component that changes.

     This is a program geared strictly for those after muscle growth above all else.  It’s a 3 days a week routine.  I have listed the days as Monday, Wednesday, and Friday but use whatever 3 non-consecutive days that you wish.  As I explain the workout, you will understand the methodology.

Monday - Heavy Day

     Select between 3 and 5 movements for each training day.  If you only select 3, then make one a squatting movement (front or back squats), one a pressing exercise (overhead presses or bench presses), and one a pulling movement (thick-bar deadlifts, chins).  If you select 4 movements, then do a squat, a press, a pull, and a curl.  If you select 5 lifts, then do a squat, a pull, a curl, a vertical pressing movement, and a horizontal pressing movement or a squat, a lower-body pull, an upper-body pull, a pressing movement, and a curl.

     With this kind of training, you want to use the same movements throughout the program.  Unlike other methods that I write about, this one won’t really work if you change exercises on a regular basis.  This will be understood as I explain the programming.

     On each exercise, do the following: After warm-ups, load the bar with approximately 90% of your 10-rep max.  Let’s say you choose front squats for your squatting movement.  So, if you have a 10-rep max front squat of 250, you would use 225 for all of your work sets.  You will do 5 sets with this weight.  Stop each set once the reps begin to get hard.  So, your first set you might do 10 reps.  On your 2nd set, you might stop at 9 reps.  On your 3rd set, it might be 8.  Your 4th and 5th set might be 7 reps each.  The key to make this program work is to not make each set all-out.  You want to finish the movement, knowing that you could have done more if you wanted.

Wednesday - Light Day

     On your light day, use the same weight that you used on the heavy day for all of your lifts.  For the 1st week, however, you may not want to do this.  If you are incredibly sore after your first heavy day, use a weight that’s only 75-80% of what you used on Monday for your 1st light day session.  However, for the remainder of the program after the 1st week, make sure that you are using the same weight.

     So, on front squats again, as an example, you once more train with 225 pounds.  However, stop each set 4 reps shy of what you used on Monday.  So, if, on Monday, you did sets of 10, 9, 8, 7, and 7 reps, you would do 6, 5, 4, 3, and 3 reps on Wednesday.

Friday - Medium Day

     On the medium day, once again use the same weights from Monday and Wednesday.  On this day, however, stop your sets 2 reps shy of what you used on Monday.  So, if, on Monday you did sets of 10, 9, 8, 7, and 7 reps, on this day you would do 8, 7, 6, 5, and 5 reps.

     When you return to the gym the next week, follow the exact same methodology.  Stick with the same weights on a movement until you are doing 5 sets of 10 reps at the Monday workout.  At that point, add weight the next week and repeat the process.  I have attempted this before where I stuck with the same weight until I was doing 5x10 on each training day but I don’t think that is necessary.

     Make sure that you keep a training journal so that you ensure you are doing the correct number of reps on each training day.  If you try to remember what you did at a previous workout, I can assure you that you will forget, especially when you have to keep up with multiple movements.  A training journal is a must with this program.

     Why 5 sets of 10 reps?  This is a great set/rep range (even when most of the workouts are below 10 reps) when hypertrophy is your primary goal.  As I have written about elsewhere, when you are after muscle growth, and only muscle growth, a good total rep range for a muscle, when it’s trained 3 days a week, is 30-50 reps.  Although early in the program, your light day will fall below that number, your heavy and medium days will be at that range from the beginning, and your light days will eventually reach it as the weeks progress.

     Can you use other set/rep combinations?  Sure.  You can, eventually, try 5x8 or 5x6.  You could also use it for more sets with lower reps.  A 7 or 8 sets of 3-5 reps program would work for that.  For just strength, you could use 5x5.  If you do that, you would want your light day to be just 2 reps below your heavy day and your medium day 1 rep below it.  But keep in mind that would work best for strength, since the reps would probably be too low to induce hypertrophy.  You could also utilize the system for less sets but more reps.  3x15 would be good, for instance, if you’re after hypertrophy/endurance.

     If you know you respond best to less overall volume on programs—I often refer to this person as a low-volume lifter—then you could only do 3 sets for each movement on your light day and 4 sets on your medium day.

     Since this is a hypertrophy program, make sure that your nutrition is “on point.”  As with any muscle-building regimen, you need to consume enough calories and enough protein each and every day.  If you’re skinny and really need some hypertrophy, eat at least 20 times your bodyweight in calories on a daily basis.  Even if you’re not skinny, you still need between 10 and 15 times your bodyweight calorically every day.  No matter your total caloric intake, make sure you consume at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight every day.

     If any program can promise mass on demand, this is the routine that can do it.  Stick with it for a minimum of 6-8 weeks and see how much muscle you can gain.