Are Five Work Sets Too Much?

Having fun hitting some old-school split style snatches in the outdoor training area here at Dino Headquarters.After more than 50 years of training, each workout is still fun, fresh and enjoyable.

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

Two quick notes, and then we'll talk iron.

1.The John Wood Report, No. 5

Issue no. 5 of The John Wood Report
was released on Friday, and I understand
that it's been selling like hotcakes.

That's no surprise, because it's a great
issue - with an update on John's Bone
Strenth Project - and a detailed look at
one of Bruce Lee's favorite forearm and
wrist training tools and how to use it for
"Dragon-level" results.

Go here to grab it:

The John Wood Report No. 5 (PDF)

https://www.oldtimestrongman.com/johnwoodreport05.html

2. The Sept-Oct Dinosaur Files

You'll also want to grab the Sept-Oct
issue of The Dinosaur Files newsletter.

It includes plenty of excellent articles,
including one that features a killer
training program using a. strongman
yoke for heavy singles, partials and
weighted carries - along with another
article on a unique and very effective
progression system for 20-rep breathing
squats.

Go here to grab it:

Sept-Oct Dino Files (PDF)

www.brookskubik.com/dinosaurfiles-sep-oct2018.html

3. "Are Five Work Sets Too Much?"

I just got an email from a reader who
does 5 x 5, using five work sets for
each exercise.

He wondered if that was too much.

Short answer:

Yes, it's probably too much work - but,
like anything else, it depends on
several different factors - and it will
probably change for you over time.

Many trainees get very good results from
ONE work set. They find that they overtrain
if they perform more than one work set -
especially in their squats and deadlifts.

These trainees do best on a 5 x 5 program
that includes four progressively heavier warm-
up sets followed by ONE work set with their
top weight for the day.

It's simple, effective, and it works great for
them.

Other trainees do well with TWO or even
THREE work sets. But three is the limit for
most trainees, unless they're doing very low
reps (singles, doubles or triples).

Your age is also an important factor.

As a general rule, older trainees do better
with fewer work sets. So what works best
for you may change over time.

If you do five work sets, you need to follow
an ultra-abbreviated training program. Limit
yourself to one or two exercises per workout.
You won't be able to do justice to more than
that.

And here's a thought: If one, two or three
work sets do the job for you, why do more
than that?

As always, thanks for reading and have a
great day. If you train today, make it a good
one!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. For more straight talk on sets, reps and
real, world, no-nonsense strength training,
grab Dinosaur Training Secrets, Vol. 1:

Hard-copy

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_secrets_01.html

Kindle

http://brookskubik.com/dinosaursecrets01_kindle.html

PDF

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaursecrets_vol1_digital.html

2.  My other books and courses are
right here at Dino Headquarters:

Hard-copy and PDF

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

Kindle

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: 

"Three words: less is more."

 -- Brooks Kubik

Before You Leave - Check These Out! 

Brooks Kubik's Kindle Books

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

We have over 25 books and courses in the Kindle store - including these little monsters:

 
For even more Kindle books by Brooks Kubik, visit:

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

Sets and Reps - What Works Best?

John Grimek used many different set/rep combinations over the course of his long and successful career - as did every great champion - because there's no one set/rep system that's best for everyone and every exercise - and because what works best for anyone will change over time!

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

Training questions are like bananas - they
come in bunches.

For some reason, I've been getting lots of
questions about "the best" sets and reps
for building strength and muscle. So let's
take a closer look at the question.

I'll start by giving you the bottom line - and
pay close attention, because this is important.

It will save you lots of headaches and heart-
aches.

There is no BEST system of sets and reps
that works for everyone at every stage of
his or her training career.

There are various systems that are very
good and work well for most people - but
no one system is THE BEST for everyone.

For example, some people do very well on
20 rep squats.

Or 2 x 15.

Or 20/15/12/10/8/6.

Others do better on 5 x 5, 5 x 6 or 6 x 6.

And some like 10/8/6.

Or 10/8/6/4/2.

Or 2 x 10, 2 x 8, 2 x 6 - and possibly 2 x 4
and 2 x 2.

Or 5 x 3, 5 x 2 or a system of heavy singles.

And heavy singles might mean one top single
in each workout - or three - or five - or ten.

Or maybe even 20.

And then you have John Wood, making great
gains in bone mass and bone density with his
Bone Strength Project - which doesn't even
utilize sets and reps in the traditional sense.

And, of course, you have many Dinos who do
best with one set/rep system for ONE exercise -
and a DIFFERENT set/rep system for another
exercise - and so on. That's very common.

I made the best gains of my life doing heavy
singles in some exercises - and doing 5 x 5
in other exercises. So it's hard to say that
one was better than the other.

The key to making great gains is to learn
what sets and reps work best for YOU at
your current level of development - and
you need to make this determination in
every exercise you do.

In other words, it's going to require some
systematic, sensible experimentation - and
good record keeping - to answer the question.

Of course, that's part of the fun of strength
training.

There's always a lot to learn - and the way
to learn it is to think, train, review your
results, and then think a bit more - and
train some more.

As always, thanks for reading and have a
great day. If you train today, make it a
good one.

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. Chalk and Sweat is a great training
resource for Dinos - and it covers a wide
variety of effective training methods, sets,
reps and workouts. Go here to grab a copy:

http://www.brookskubik.com/chalk_and_sweat.html

P.S. 2. My other books and courses are
right here at Dino Headquarters - and the
list includes these great books and courses:

Brooks Kubik's Hard-Copy and PDF Books and Courses

Brooks Kubik's Hard-Copy and PDF books and courses

 

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

Brooks Kubik's Kindle Books

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

The Fortune Cookie Workout

Reg Park followed many different training programs, but I don't think he ever did the Fortune Cookie Workout!

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

Son. no. 1 came over last night to
join us for dinner, and he and Trudi
shared a special treat of Chinese
carry-out.

So this morning I spotted a fortune
from a fortune cookie sitting on the
dinner table.

It made me think that most people
today train in such a random, hap-
hazard fashion that you could just
grab a fortune cookie, break it open,
and use the lucky numbers to devise
your workout.

So here goes.

The lucky numbers on this fortune
were:

9, 28, 32, 10, 13 and 17

This one's easy.

You do 9 different exercises.

You total the remaining numbers:

28 plus 32 plus 10 plus 13 plus
17 = 100

So you do 100 reps of each exercise.

Or - you do 9 different exercises for
whatever sets and reps you want,
and get a total of 100 reps.

That's totally random, of course,
and it makes no sense whatsoever,
but it's pretty much the way most
people train.

Of course, you also could do ONE
exercise for a series of descending
reps to match the lucky numbers:

1 x 32 reps

1 x 28 reps

1 x 17 reps

1 x 13 reps

1 x 10 reps

1 x 9 reps

Or - you could do one exercise where
you do as many sets as you want to
get a total of 32 reps.

Followed by another exercise where
you do the same thing to get a total
of 28 reps.

And so on.

There are lots of different ways to do
it.

Me, I'm going to do things the old-
fashioned way:

1. I have my program.

2. I know what exercises to do.

3. I know what sets and reps - and
what weights - to use.

So I'm going to go ahead and do the
job - and stick to the program - and
make things slow, steady and
progressive.

It's not the Fortune Cookie Workout,
but it's pretty darn effective.

As always, thanks for reading and
have a great day. If you train today,
make it a good one!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. There are 50 great workouts in
Chalk and Sweat - and you'll have no
trouble finding one that is perfect for
you:

http://www.brookskubik.com/chalk_and_sweat.html

2.  My other books and courses are
right here at Dino Headquarters:

Hard-copy and PDF

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

Kindle

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day

"Tried and true is very effective -
and if very effective is boring, you
might as well throw in the towel."

- Brooks Kubik

BEFORE YOU LEAVE . . .

We have more than 25 Dinosaur Training books and courses in the Kindle bookstore - here are several of them - head on over and take a look at the others:

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

The Never Ending 5 x 5 Question

Three-time Mr. Universe Reg Park got great results with one variation of the 5 x 5 system - but there are many other ways to use the 5 x 5 system - and some of them work better than others. 

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

Two quick notes and then we'll talk
iron.

1.The July-August Dino Files


The July-August issue of The Dinosaur
Files strength training newsletter has
landed - and it's a good one!


This is a combined issue for July
and August - so it's a little bit
bigger than usual - and it's jam-
packed with great articles and
information.

And, as always, we have some
terrific training articles and work-
outs in this issue, including:

The "Hit By a Mack Truck"
Workout

A Hard and Heavy 35-Minute
Workout

Hill Sprints

Speaking of Leg Training

Your Best Weight

Stabilization and the Amazing
Shoulder Rehab

Two Real-Life Barbell Robinson
Crusoes (Note - you won't be-
lieve this one - it brings the
idea of desert island training
to a whole new level.)

Remembering Capt. Jack
Erickson

and

A Super Effective 30-Minute
Workout

Here's the link to grab the little
monster:

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaurfiles-julyaugust2018.html

As always, be sure to shoot me
an email and let me know how
you like this issue!

2. John Wood's Strength Training
Shorts

John Wood is doing some great short
videos on his YouTube Channel. He
also posts them at his Oldtime
Strongman site.

They're 60 seconds long - and
each of them covers a fascinating
piece of Iron Game history.

For example, check this out:

Episode 1

https://www.oldtimestrongman.com/60-second-strength-history/

John's YouTube channel is right
here - you can sign up if you like
what you see there:

https://www.youtube.com/OldtimeStrongman

3. The Never-Ending 5 x 5 Question

I wrote an email about 5 x 5 and sent
it out to the Dino Nation a few days
ago - and of course, I got a ton of
emails asking "What's the RIGHT
way to do 5 x 5?"

Do you do four progressively heavier
warm-up sets and ONE work set?

Three progressively heavier warm-up
sets and TWO work sets?

Two progressively heavier warm-up
sets and THREE work sets?

Or does 5 x 5 refer to your work sets -
meaning, you do FIVE work sets?

And which method is BEST?

The answer is - there is no "right"
way to do 5 x 5.

And no one way of doing it works
best.

Different ways work better for different
people - and different ways work best
for different exercises - and what works
best for you usually changes over time.

So let me offer some general guide-
lines:

1. If you handle really heavy weights in
your work sets, you need more warm-up
sets. (It takes more jumps to go from 135
x 5 to 405 x 5 than to go from 60 x 5 to
100 x 5.)

So four warm-up sets and one work set
might be best for the really strong Dinos.

2. Older trainees have trouble recovering
from their workouts.

So, for them, four warm-up sets and one
work set might be best.

3. Squats and deadlifts are much more
demanding and more tiring than curls or
presses.

So you might do two warm-up sets and
three work sets on curls and presses -
but do four warm-up sets and one work
set on squats and deadlifts.

4. If you do an assistance exercise after
a primary exercise for a given muscle
group, you may not need as many
warm-up sets.

For example, you might do four warm-
up sets of bench presses and one work
set - followed by two warm-up sets and
three work sets on close grip benches.

5. You might follow a progression system
where you add work sets - and then add
weight and drop the number of sets and
work back up. (I cover this in Dinosaur
Training Secrets, Vol. 3, my course on
old-school progression methods.)

If you add work sets, you're going to
progress from 5 x 5 to 6 x 5 - or even
7 x 5.

That's okay - there's no magic to 5 x 5.

6 x 5 and 7 x 5 work just as well.

6. I know that many people advocate
doing five work sets of five reps. This
training method has been around since
at least the 1930's. Bob Hoffman even
wrote about it back in the 30's.

Bit I'm not a fan.

I think most trainees would burn out if
they tried to do five work sets - especially
on squats and deadlifts.

However, there are always exceptions.

For example . . .

If you follow an ultra-abbreviated
or one-exercise specialization pro-
gram you might be able to do five
work sets just fine.

Or it might work for you for awhile -
and then you might need to scale back.

And in that regard . . .

7. Nothing works forever - so whatever
type of 5 x 5 workout you do probably
needs to change over time.

The bottom line is this:

There's no one way to do 5 x 5.

There are multiple ways to do it.

They all have their uses - and they all
build some serious muscle.

I hope that helps clear things up.

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. I mentioned Dinosaur Training
Secrets, Vol. 3, my course on old-
school, drug-free progression methods.

It's a great course, with a number of
very effective progression systems -
and you can grab the little monster
right here:

Hard-copy and Kindle

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_secrets_03.html

PDF

See the special section for our PDF
courses at our Products page:

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

BEFORE YOU LEAVE . . .

We have more than 25 Dinosaur Training books and courses in the Kindle bookstore - here are several of them - head on over and take a look at the others:

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html