Stop Wasting Time at the Gym.

It’s twenty five days into the new year and many of you have decided to get back to the gym. We hope your workouts are going well and you are staying consistent and injury free. If you are, great! If not, this blog post is for you. 

Time commitment is a common reason that people give up their new year resolution to get in shape. If you come into the gym without a plan and get overwhelmed read on. We’re going to introduce one of our favorite workouts. Its very simple to do, and most of our clients do it without getting hurt. Most likely your personal trainer does this workout to stay in shape and gain mass.

The 5 x 5 training program was made popular by Reg Park, a body builder, in the 1960s. It consists of doing 5 exercises for 5 sets of 5 reps and usually only takes 45-60 minutes to complete including rest and prep time.

The 5 x 5 training program consisted of 5 compound lifts. Our favorites are the squat, deadlift, bent over row, overhead press, and bench press. You do 3 exercises/ day, every other day. The weekly program looks like this. I added the Yoga on Sunday… its nice to start the week refreshed :)

I know this seems too good to be true but we have seen alot of progress with our clients. (Our clients are usually recovering from an injury.)

Lets see what a typical workout looks like. Lets take Monday for example and break it down in the table below.

On a Monday you start with your regular warm up, or a warm up that your Physiotherapist gave you :) , then you will be performing a back squat for 5 sets of 5 reps at 85 lbs, bench press of 85 lb for 5 sets of 5 reps, and a barbell row of 65 lbs for 5 sets of 5 reps. Your rest time is important, 60-120 seconds between sets. Thats it. Go home! Get something to eat, hang out with your buds! No need to spend any more time at the gym. Come back on Wednesday and do the workout for that day, etc.

Benefits of the 5 x 5 Workout

Time Saving

Since we are using compound movements, and not using machines, you only need to do 3 exercises that target a majority of muscle groups. The workout takes about 60 min and you have to rest the next day. It makes sticking to a program much much easier than going to the gym 4-6 days a week. The other great thing about a 5 x 5 is that you start with light weight. We recommend our clients start with 50% of their repetition max (RM). That allows them to work on form and build muscle over time. So, for example if the maximum amount of weight you can squat is 100 lbs for 1 repetition ( that is your 1 RM). When you start your 5 x 5 you squat with 50lbs ( 100 x .5= 50). As you get stronger you add more weight, around 5 lbs/ week for every 5 x 5 set you were able to complete. You’ll end up lifting a lot of weigh pretty quickly, but since you started with light weights and focused on form you decrease the likelihood of injuries.

Recovery

With the 5 x 5 workout you get 4 rest days / week which is pretty incredible. After working out our body needs time to recover. Most people are in the gym everyday and don't get results because they are overtraining. They never give their body the adequate time to rest. If you like to spend every day at the gym this training plan is not for you.

Monthly Work Out

To keep things from getting boring we like to switch between two different workouts for the month. Alternating them weekly.

Your monthly training program will look like this:

Week one

We flipped around some of the exercises to keep you from getting bored, but the premise is still the same. Basic compound exercises with 50-80 % of your 1 RM max. 

Week two

Exercises

The Deadlift

This is a Movement Minded favorite. Its is our second favorite exercise out of all the exercises on the planet :) This movement forces you to shift into your hips and utilizes some of the most powerful muscles in your body, along with your hip joints to pick up massive amount of weight. 

The Squat

Movement Minded’s third favorite exercise. This movement tests your ability to go from “standing” to “sitting”, managing your intra-abdominal pressure, ankle, knee and hip flexibility while managing a load. Very important for any one who stands or sits :)

The Barbell Row

A powerhouse of an exercise. You need to be able to stabilize your back, shift into your hips and activate the core just to get into the starting position. Then manage that position while handling weight with your arms.  Looks simple but there is alot of stuff going on under the hood.

Over Head Press

A mighty exercise that forces you to push through the floor and transfer force from your feet, into your hands as you press it away from you towards the sky. You need excellent joint mobility and stability to achieve this movement correctly especially with weight.

Bench Press

This whole body exercise forces you push weight away from you while you are laying down on a bench. It's great for developing pecs, mid back, and upper arm strength.

The 5 x 5 training program is a simple way to get strong fast. It uses compound exercises to make sure you’re using many muscles during an exercise. It starts off with very light weight so you can focus on form, and most importantly only takes around 40-60 minutes to complete. If you stick with it for 8 weeks your bound to meet your new year fitness goals.

If you have any questions or want more information fill out the form below.