I’ve posted on the nutrition forum before, but 1st time here. I’ve been following another popular program where the last set is AMRAP after ramping up with 2 prior worksets. After watching a few of your guys vids on YouTube talking about inducing more stress once you’re an intermediate/advanced lifter it got me thinking about my program & was wondering if I’m correct; even if u cut back on the volume (say go from 8 sets of 5 reps down to 5x5), but the 5x5 is heavier (all sets are 75-85% 1rm let’s say) compared to the 8x5 where only maybe 2 of those sets of 5 were in that % range wouldn’t the 5x5 be better for strength/size gains even though it’s less volume? Another article that got me thinking was from Mark Rippetoe where he talked about “junk reps/sets” & I believe what he meant was going too light even though the volume could be high
It depends on what the lower limit of intensity is that you’re using with the 8 x 5 workout. Once it’s light enough that you’re really far away from failure, the sets probably become less useful for directly stimulating hypertrophy, and if they’re that light, they aren’t directly contributing as much to strength development either. We don’t recommend doing work sets of 5 reps at 50%, for example. The other factor to consider is total fatigue (and thus how much productive work you can accumulate over the course of week, for example). Performing 5 x 5 at a true 85% 1RM is going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for most people.
From a hypertrophy standpoint, it appears that even if it’s very light, you can get equivalent outcomes if you do enough reps in a given set.
Hopefully that helps. I also don’t know what your question had to do with “cutting back on training days”.
Yeah after I finished typing I realized the “cutting back on training days” didn’t make sense lol, volume would’ve been better then days in the topic line & I meant 5rm not 1rm, 2 goofs lol, but anyway a real life example I did last week was 315 for 5x5 in the squat (85% of my 5rm), previous program the last 2 sets for the week where all sets were 5 reps were 305 & 335 & the other 6 were 5 reps each at 265. Over time taking the 315 5x5 and adding weight every week would be a more productive way to train for strength & size correct even though the volume is 15 reps less in the example I gave?
85% of a 5RM is going to be somewhere around 72% 1RM for most people, which is an intensity range we like for volume work (i.e., about 70-80%)
In this scenario, 265 is about 60% 1RM. I suspect that doing sets of 5 at 60% is probably too light for pure strength outcomes, and/or too few reps at that intensity for hypertrophy outcomes.
Ok cool. I feel confident I’m on the correct path finally after spinning my wheels for a long time. Thank you for your time & for answering my question, much appreciated