I agree with the Bill Starr approach, or rather, the one top set for 5RM with 4 warming up sets, increasing the weight each time. 5 "hard" sets sounds too much, though Reg Park recommended out of the 5 sets, the 3 to be hard.
A solid program should include some sort of cycling. For example, you set out 12 weeks to improve your squat, bench and deadlift.
Full body workouts to be done 2-3 times a week. Each week there should be a max of one "heavy" day, the others being "light" or "medium". The goal is to increase your 5RM.
For his example:
Current PBs
Squat:5x100
Bench:5x70
Deadlift:5x130
I hope the spreadsheet makes sense. You should be able to add 5kgs to each of these basic lifts within 12 weeks, each lift having it's own 4 week microcycle. The "heavy" day figures correspond to your 5RM, whilst "medium" is roughly 10RM and "light" 15RM. So you could tailor this program to suit higher repetitions if you wanted too.
The most important factor for any weight-training regime to work is progress in the weight that you can lift. Sounds simple, but most bodybuilding programs completely ommit this part, concentrating instead on more sets, more exercises, greater pump etc. It takes time to build muscle and don't overload yourself with hitting the muscle from different angles. Concentrate on a few or even a single exercise for a period of time, beat your PB, then move onto the next. You will have lagging points, which are mostly genetic based anyway, but until you reach a certain size (16" lean, unpumped arms should be about right and that would require 5RMs in the region of 150kg/190kg/120kg for squat/deadlift/bench respectively), it would be foolish to work on these with loads of isolation exercises.
And I assume you are in the know of the drugs in this sport? If not, highly recommend watching "Bigger, stronger, faster" and have a look around this forum. |