I am looking at p 178 right now, and that's not what it says. What edition of the book?
I am struggling to interpret this paragraph from practical programming. (pg 178)
"A specific example might be the trainee who is mostly interested in gaining muscular weight. He has completed the novice stage, and has finished a training cycle with 5 sets of 5 for one workout and speed sets for the other. He wants to gain weight, so he will keep the 5 sets of 5 portion of the workout and add in a higher volume workout for the second session. The choices might be 5 sets of 10 across, 5 sets of 12, or even 3 to 4 sets of 15. The first set of the 5 might be a 10RM effort, with the last 4 sets done to failure and the rest between sets controlled so that full recovery does not occur. Or each set might be done for all 10 reps, with enough rest between to ensure this. Rep schemes for the volume workout could change for each of the next few cycles, while the 5 sets of 5 keeps pace with and drives improvement on the volume training days. "
Monday:
5x5
Wednesday:
2x5 80% of 5RM
Friday:
5 x 10-12
My objective is to gain muscle mass.
Questions:
1. is the layout above representative of what is described?
2. Is the second session referring to Friday?
3. is volume day training referring to Monday?
-Michael
I am looking at p 178 right now, and that's not what it says. What edition of the book?
That particular paragraph is still in the 3rd edition, in the Intermediate Section, chapter "General Considerations", sup-chapter "Variation", maybe 3/4-way through before the "Texas Method" chapter.
At least that's what my Kindle app shows me.
Is it explained in context?
Yeah, intermediates need to program according to their goals, which calls for careful application of variation in rep and set schemes. If muscular size is the goal, keep the 5x5 for strength improvement and do a high volume workout, say 5x10 for hypertrophy. The latter, obviously, should be done after the light day, which in turn is done after the 5x5 day.
So, the OP had the right idea. He just needs to be told he's correct. Though, if the OP hasn't done intensity sets of 5, calculating 80% of whatever value represents 5RM is pointless. So just do 90% of Monday's workout.