Upper/Lower Split. Please help me swans.

[kashtasitc]

a little extra piece of info.

a program such as a 5x5 will give you big size and big strength depending on how much break you take between each set. 30-60 seconds=size 120-180 second=strength. but the muscle you put on wont necessarily have good shape. so be careful. if you are looking for size AND shape then 5x5 isnt the best to go with right now.

the reason is because when the weights are too heavy the weaker parts of your muscle will sort of 'sit out'. in order to hit all the fibres and make sure you get the shape you want, you should lower the weight and up the reps.

[swanso5]

yes and no.

yes 5 x 5 will provide both but cutting the rest means using lighter wt so size won't neccasarily come because of that..it's more so time under tension for size providing your still using as much wt as you can handle for that particular rep range

if you want to isolate muscles then do strength stuff first then isloate what you think you need to

[kashtasitc]

have a look at this http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/mahler73.htm

it states that a shorter break between sets will focus more on size and a longer break will focus on strength.

weight lifters and power lifters take longer breaks than body builders because they are focusing on strength (one quick twitch and one slow twitch but still strength) while body builders focus on size.

[swanso5]

the wt youm use will increase muscle far better then simply decreasing rest a lot...i can do 10pd curls over and over with short rest but will that make me bigger then the 130kg deadlifts i did yesturday with 3min rest btw sets?

i don't think so

[kashtasitc]

only 5 reps. so a 5x5 work out with 90 second rest, and the same 5x5 work out with 180 seconds rest.

[swanso5]

depends on the wt used...like i said the less rest you have the lighter the wt you'll be able to use for all sets...we can work it out like this:

5 x 5 = 25 total reps

if using 75kgs with 30secs rest then it's 75 x 25 = 1875 which the total wt moved

with 5 x 5 @ 100kgs with 1min rest it's 25 x 1000 = 2500 total kgs moved

from a wt moved standpoint the extra rest has provided a more effective workout

to break down even futher you can insert time so...

5 x 5 @ 75kgs with 30secs rest will equal 1875 kgs lifted in about 210secs (160secs rest and about 10secs per set for 50secs total work time) and you can divide the wt lifted by the time it takes which is 1875 / 210secs = 8.93kgs lifted per second

5 x 5 @ 100kgs with 1min rest will equal 2500 kgs lifted in 370 total secs (320 + 50 again)...2500 / 370 = 8.1 kgs lifted per second

this gives the opposite reading

it all depends how far you want to take it

i'm not the greatest fan of having 5 x 5 as main strength parameter as it's in the middle of the strength/hypertrophy continuum...i do use it as secondary parameter after max effort exercise at times though