It must be little a bit befor the golden age of bodybuildng in the late 60s. At age 21 Arnold arrive in US and change everething.
Young man form Austria arrive in US to become the best bodybuilder of all times . The name of the man is Arnold. When this young man still live i Austria he is inspired form the poster on the wall. The man from the poster is his mentor and later trainer. The modern Hercules in theaters and the best developed man in the world, Reg Park. When they first met in US Arnold ask his mentor to advice for his training regiment. Reg Park gives him the simplest and most productive program of all times.
The name of the program is 5 by 5 . Which simple means 5 sets by 5 reps. Or for those who know little a bit more working program at the border between muscle strenght and sarcoplasm hypertrophy . Engaging fast twitch muscle fibers to produce maximum rate of force production. All this program is all about is to find your 1 MRP and calculate 85% of it. This is your starting point.
The movement to be trained are Squat,Bench Press,Dead lift. For variables he gives puss press, barbell row, chin ups .
Here is my experience and result form this program.
I gain 10 pound of bodyweight in three mounts. Sure it wasn’t all lean but my diet was pretty much all i can eat. In the same time all my food was from good sources like : red meat, salmon, turkey breast and eggs for proteins. Red potatoes, oatmeal and rice for carbs. And fro fats i was taking omega 3 of form of supplement and a lot of avocados.
Interesting here will be the fact that i did not take and additional supplements, even protein powders. Zero !
The program takes only three days of the week.
5 by 5 The program
———————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Monday: Squat 5 sets/ 5 reps Rest: 90 -180 sec.
Bench press 5 sets /5 reps
Dead lift 5 sets /5 reps ( four warm sets 1 work set)
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Tuesday: Off. full rest of working out.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Wednesday: Squat 5 sets/ 5 reps Rest: 90 -180 sec.
Barbell row( weightlifting style ) 5 sets/ 5 reps
Puss pres 5 sets/ 5 reps
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Thursdays : Rest
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Friday: Squat 5 sets/ 5 reps
Bench press 5 sets/ 5 reps
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off
———————————————————————————————————————————————————–
So this pretty much it. For your intensity setting or loads i recommend start light and the increase the weight with 2,5 – 4% a week.
Stay with this numbers where you reach all 5sets by 5reps before moving to the next loading.
If you start very high with the numbers soon you’ll be injured or discouraged. When the barbell is heavy there is no place for negotiations!
Other advice will be at every tree or four weeks loading to have one for deloading or week where to train with 60 % form your 1MRP. Example :
If you want to gain some lean muscle and to increase your strength this will be the ideal program for the coming winter .
Eat well and train smart,
Stan Sabev