Written by Jamie Bantleman / Personal Trainer
Often, we look at keeping repetitions low for strength to enable our bodies to reduce levels of fatigue. Using compound exercises such as a deadlift, squat, bench press or chin up, the low reps will ensure you can maintain a heavy weight while keeping safe form and tension on the muscle.
Strength training done efficiently will most definitely increase muscle mass as well as improve the body’s day to day function.
The way in which we create progression when strength training with a 5x5 program is not by getting the ‘most pumped’, or by leaving the gym with muscles so fatigued you can hardly move, it is in fact about being able to add weight to each lift over a 6 week period of training.
Each workout starts with the major lift, and following on from here should be exercises that compliments that particular movement. Such as, Back Squat can be followed by Barbell Front Front Elevated Split Squat, followed by High Foot Positioned Leg Press.
Training frequency should be 2 days on 1 day off, 2 days on 2 days off. Therefore, focusing on improving the following lifts:
Day 1: Back Squat
Day 2: Bench Press
Day 3: Rest
Day 4: Deadlift
Day 5: Chin Up
Day 6: Rest
Day 7: Rest
On your rest days, I would advise increasing calorie intake from carbohydrate sources while maintaining a high protein diet. This will be ideal for allowing for replenishment and muscle fibre recovery.
| Back Squat | |||||
| Order | Exercise | Sets | Reps | Tempo | Rest |
| A1 | Heavy Back Squat | 5 | 5 | 3010 | 120s |
| B1 | Barbell Front Foot Elevated Split Squat | 5 | 8 | 3110 | 10s |
| B2 | Dumbbell Walking Lunges | 5 | 8 | 3110 | 90s |
| C1 | Low Foot Leg Press | 5 | 8 | 3110 | 10s |
| C2 | Lying Leg Curl | 5 | 8 | 3110 | 90s |
| Bench Press | |||||
| Order | Exercise | Sets | Reps | Tempo | Rest |
| A1 | Bench Press | 5 | 5 | 3010 | 120s |
| B1 | High Incline Dumbbell Press | 5 | 8 | 3110 | 10s |
| B2 | Reverse Shoulder Press | 5 | 8 | 3110 | 90s |
| C1 | Incline Cable Flies | 5 | 8 | 3110 | 10s |
| C2 | Wide Grip Press Ups | 5 | 8 | 3110 | 90s |
| Deadlift | |||||
| Order | Exercise | Sets | Reps | Tempo | Rest |
| A1 | Deadlift | 5 | 5 | 3010 | 120s |
| B1 | Block Deadlift | 5 | 8 | 3110 | 10s |
| B2 | RDL | 5 | 8 | 3110 | 90s |
| C1 | Rack Deadlift | 5 | 8 | 3110 | 10s |
| C2 | Standing Single Leg Curl | 5 | 8 | 3110 | 90s |
| Chin Up | |||||
| Order | Exercise | Sets | Reps | Tempo | Rest |
| A1 | Wide Grip Chin Up | 5 | 5 | 3010 | 120s |
| B1 | Single Arm Lateral Pull Down | 5 | 8 | 3110 | 10s |
| B2 | Semi Supinated Seated Row | 5 | 8 | 3110 | 90s |
| C1 | Prone Pull Down From Bench | 5 | 8 | 3110 | 10s |
| C2 | High Face Pull w/external rotations | 5 | 8 | 3110 | 90s |
For more tips on training, nutrition and supplements contact Jamie Bantleman at and visit Facebook - Jamie Bantleman - Body Transformation Specialist
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