5x5 Is Outdated (Here’s Three Better Strategies)
As a powerlifting coach that has helped athletes make it to the national level; I can confidently say 5x5 is almost never the right set and rep scheme to use for any lifter beyond beginners trying to get strong. (And I think beginners could do better)
5x5 is dead. While 5 reps may be a good rep scheme for strength for many it is not the best for everyone. 5 sets for the majority of lifters is too many sets… smaller lifters excluded. The straight set model used in 5x5 is not as good as ascending sets or a top set with back down sets model.
For these reasons 5x5 programs are not great for the majority of lifters.
The 5x5 programs will utilize the 5x5 scheme on multiple days. In modern programming lifters will do a primary and secondary day. On the primary day lifters will be doing some type of top set back down approach using singes, double, triples but basically never a 5x5.
A secondary day is where a lifter may use a 5x5 but I would say that it would be rare due to the imbalanced set and rep scheme.
Lifters that tend to respond better to higher sets are smaller lifters that need more reps (a 5x7 or 5x8 would suit them much better).
Mid sized lifters that respond well to the five reps likely need less sets (a 3x5 would suit them better).
Finally larger lifters likely need less reps and less sets (3x3 or 2x3 or 2x2).
The 5x5 rep scheme suits no one well. It doesn't mean many people who have not really lifted before haven't gotten strong with this method, however when you are new you can do almost anything and get stronger. This tapers off eventually and smarter methods of programming are needed.
Programming examples
Here are three templates of how programming can be done better than 5x5:
These charts are all examples that can be used as templates for programming, adding in your own accessory work as needed.
While they do serve as usable programming templates they are more to demonstrate the key differences between programming for different sized lifters and why 5x5 is far from a one size fits all.
Instead of using % you can also use RPE instead Starting with RPE 6 for the singles and RPE 4 for everything else Increasing Single RPEs by 1 each week and 0.5 for everything else.
In the next sections I will cover in more depth these differences and programming styles.
Breaking Down the Rep Ranges
5 reps is the perfect rep range for strength…. Right? Well maybe… If you happen to be a mid-sized lifter. If you happen to be on the larger or smaller side it could be too much or too little stimulus for strength gain.
Five reps happens to be a pretty good middle point to provide an ideal stimulus for strength gain for many lifters. However smaller lifters may need more reps to stimulate strength progression and larger lifters may need less reps to stimulate strength progression.
Having coached a lot of females I have noticed that in general they tended to respond really well to higher rep ranges (6-10 reps) to make strength progression.
This tends to go away from what is believed to be the norm with these higher rep ranges believed to be the “hypertrophy rep range” but when they do it their 1rms end up blowing up.
I do not necessarily buy into the idea there's something vastly physiologically different from women to men (there may be small differences) however I think we see this is because on average women are smaller than men in body weight.
This is important because I think smaller (lower body weight) men tend to respond similarly.
For lifters 80kg (176lb) and less I think they will do much better utilizing high rep sets in conjunction with their low rep work to make strength gains.
This is outlined in the charts above but I believe the best way to get this done is by keeping back down sets and secondary days in the higher rep ranges.
I suggest doing back down sets in the 4-6 rep range and secondary days with 6-8 rep sets.
mid-sized lifters between 80-120kg (176-265lb) are good candidates for five repetitions. This is why with many of the lifters running 5x5 for many years fitting in this population they saw success.
However for these lifters we can still do better the ranges I would give are 2-5 reps for back down work and 4-7 reps for secondary days.
Larger lifters 120kg (265lb) and above need less reps than five in the majority of case.
Their back down sets should be between 2-4 reps and secondary days between 3-5reps.
It is also worth noting while these ranges tend to be true some larger lifters respond more like smaller lifters and vice versa. Do not be afraid to experiment around and find which rep ranges you personally respond best to.
You need to practice singles Bro…
If you want to increase your 1RM you likely need to practice singles or at least be doing doubles or triples.
The principle of specificity in powerlifting is that you get better at what you are practicing. While just max testing everytime you go to the gym is not the best way to train, applying specific intent to your training is.
This means to be better prepared to compete in powerlifting or perform a testing day the closer your training is to singles leading into it the better off you will be. (For the most part)
Five reps however is pretty far away in terms of specificity from singles and therefore doing sets of five reps into testing would not prepare you as much as doing a lower rep ranges.
This is why doing lower reps on your primary day and higher reps on your secondary day can provide you the best of both worlds.
You could keep doing singles on your primary day with backdowns year round or you could cycle triples, doubles and singles for your primary day block to block in training.
5 sets… What are we doing cardio?
Doing five hard sets of five reps is probably one of the most difficult time consuming things you can do unless you are a beginner lifter.
Most lifters will not need five hard sets of an exercise (outside maybe bench in some cases) and most lifters will not be able to recover from five hard sets. Inability to recover from this work will mean you make less gains.
For a lifter to be able to make progress they likely need to be doing a certain intensity or load (weight on the bar) to elicit strength progress. Unless the focus of the session is technique based, that load will be too high to do for anyone other than beginners without overtraining or high injury risk.
If someone is going to utilize straight sets often they should be doing 2-4 sets with smaller lifters being an exception to this.
Smaller lifters are not only able to handle more reps and recover than mid and larger sized lifters but on average they are able to handle more sets as well.
Top sets and ascending sets
If you are not going to use straight sets some better options are using top sets with backdowns to using ascending sets.
A top set allows you to do one or two hard sets before doing lighter and easier back down sets to get the strength benefits from the high intensity and load while being able to back down to lighter weights and work on technique after.
This strategy is great for being able to do more sets with effective intention behind them than straight sets.
Ascending sets also allows you to perform more volume while working up to your hardest set at the end with easier sets on the way up. Usually these sets will be grouped together than traditional warm up sets working up your first set.
This distinction is important because often people will think they’re doing ascending sets when they are really just warming up to do one hard set.
Top sets with back downs are a go to for your primary day but also could be used for secondary training days as well.
Straight sets and ascending sets are a much better fit for secondary days.
Closing thoughts
While 5x5 has been seen as the best beginner program for a long time I think we can do better as I have outlined here. While I am thankful for everything we learned from 5x5 I hope this model helps guide newer lifters onto a better path.
With sets reps and programming strategies we know now we can do much better than 5x5. I hope you see this and are inspired to program much smarter and more creatively for yourself or hire a coach that will.
If you would like help guiding you on what to do to be your strongest self please reach out with any questions or coaching inquiries you may have by DMing on instagram.
