3x5 or 5x5

3x5 or 5x5? Which will help me see the most gains? I'm currently doing 5x5 but I hear a lot of people saying I'm better off doing 3x5.

Do 5x5 if you never want to progress

So should I just switch my lifts down to 3x5 and call it a day? What's the difference? I just want someone to explain it to me in a way I'll understand it.

Pls respond

You get more tired doing 5x5. Just do 5x5 but have the first 2 sets be lighter warmup sets.

Does anyone even know? Tell me I'm a piece of shit I won't care. I just don't know what's best and no one seems to know

The last 2 sets hurt you more than they help you because of diminishing returns. 3 sets is more than enough. 5 sets just hurts your recovery.

They're almost identical.

Do whatever you enjoy more.

I feel like after doing 5x5, that 3x5 will be really fuckin easy.

Okay dad

Okay so why did you ask? Did you think about using heavier weights?

they're about the same, but whatever you do,just never do 4x5

Reps and sets don't actually matter for muscle gains as long as you get frequency and volume (and are pushing your limits).

3x5 is best for strength gains

I never saw any improvement at all with such low sets.

I needed to go for sets of 8 - 12, and do as many as possible, in order to get anywhere.

I really, really doubt this general advice like, "you don't need to burn out every day", "don't work out for more than 45 minutes", or "high reps don't build strength/mass". I think this low-rep nonsense only makes sense if you're on roids.

5x5 is for strength and hypertrophy, 3x5 is more just strength if you want "gains" then 5x5 is for you until you can no longer progress after a couple deloads then you switch to 3x5
by that time you should be over 100 kg squat

If you go as heavy as you can at 3x5, you'll probably fail a rep or two on the last two sets. Which isn't inherently bad, but 5x5 programs will then tell you not to progress because you failed reps. That is a bad thing, if you hit your 3x5, then you should add weight.

5x5 gives more volume, but it's better to get your volume from accessories.

you are retarded and weak

Yeah, I am after a year of 3x5. I was pretty strong after a year of lifting for about 1.5 hours, three days a week, going to failure on every set.

>Yeah, I am after a year of 3x5
what were your stats after the year and now

I don't remember. And I'm not lifting now. Won't be doing it again until I have room for my own equipment, at which point I'll be going to failure every time.

Semi Beginner lifter here. Been on a 5x5 for a while, stalled recently. My friend/coach/fitter than you put me on this as many reps as possible circut. Every day for 5 days, amrap on 3 different exercises, without repeating. I'm finally on a rest day, high as fuck, and know I wanna drop this 5x5 and try a 3x10. Slightly less weight, better form and control. Thoughts about any of that? I could use some changes to my routuine. Anyways guess with my limited experience OP, I'd say go for 3x5+

You actually have to try. You must have had some kind of mental issue if you couldn't make strength gains on a 5x5.

General advice
>don't burn out every workout
Sure, but don't slack either

>don't work out for more than 45 mins
Yeah that's bullshit.

>high reps don't build strength/mass
Also bullshit, but you have to progressive overload

>only makes sense on roids
Then why are beginner programs 5x5s?

Why not 3x10? All the beginner shit I've seen says to do 3x10s on basically everything.

>You actually have to try. You must have had some kind of mental issue if you couldn't make strength gains on a 5x5.

Ah, yes, the usual regurgitated response. "Hurr, yer just not doing it rite!"

Nope. I busted my ass. Didn't work for me. Higher reps did work for me.

I mean, stop and think about it for a minute. If "trying" was my problem, then how is it that higher-rep programs WORKED for me, while 5x5 was just a slow, downward spiral? Hell, let's pretend my problem IS that I didn't "try". Well, then, I have the magical fucking formula: high reps and going to burnout (somehow not trying) gets you strength and mass without trying! Wooo!

>Then why are beginner programs 5x5s?

Gee, maybe because if you're going from sedentary, literally ANYTHING is an improvement.

Incidentally, only SOME beginner programs are 5x5. In fact, I'd never even heard of such a thing before Veeky Forums. Everyone here is just obsessed with low reps, for some reason.

Well I hit 185 on my squats the other day 5x5, and I've been having consistent gains only having to deload once. But I just see people here shit on 5x5 a lot.

In your opinion, should I switch over?

How do you do 12 sets? Do you do 2 reps per set or something? Lol. What are your stats?

Interesting. Thanks. I'm not near that much, but just to pick your brain a little, why should I not just drop to 3x5 right now?

This is great bait. Unseen at this level of pathetic bantz.

Here's the lowdown:

As a novice your body is effectively 'adapted' to doing nothing. It therefore isn't very efficienct at producing sustained bouts of effort, and is even less good at recovering from it.

As a result, you don't need to apply too much stress to provoke your body to adapt to it. 3x5 is enough, any less is too little, any more will cause cumulative fatigue that impedes progress later on.

You'll have plenty of time to do 5x5 routines later on once you've adapted to the point that you can't make any further progress on 3x5. At that point, you'll also have adapted to recover more efficiently from intense physical activity, so the extra 2 sets won't pose as much of a challenge to you.

For the moment, enjoy being able to make progress on an easier and simpler routine.

I started off 5x5, then 3x8, now 5x8. I have almost tripled the weight since I started.

Am I doing this properly?

listen to this guy

>How do you do 12 sets?

WTF are you talking about? Learn to read.

Okay. Don't care. 3x5 and 5x5 aren't for everyone. You can accept it or not. Given that Veeky Forums is 90% composed of fatass beginners and "permabulk" weaklings, the way 5x5 gets pushed is pretty funny.

I'd say you already got to failure

once weight gets weightier you wont be able to make it to 5 sets every time
switch to 3x5 and when you cant up weighs anymore change routine

is 1pl8 squat that weight?

5x5 might theoretically give you better size gains, but the difference isn't that significant, maybe 10% at the max. And that's assuming that you're actually able to handle that type of volume, which most novices are not. For most people 5x5 will just result in a fuckton of fatique and stalling, which will actually result in worse gains. My advice is to do 5x5 if you have the motivation, time and energy to do it, but once you stall, switch to 3x5.

if you have deloaded like 3 times already and cant progress, yes

>1
Mental block. Your 5 Rep Max is going to be harder than your 12rep Max because it's heavier. You need to break in your body, not your soul

>2
I've seen 5x5 beginner programs on reddit, tnation, here, and something awful. I'm sure there are more places. Keep in mind some programs that aren't 5x5 are men's health tier fitness memes

If you're achieving your goals then yes

You know your shit. Thanks bud.

3x5 is absolutely better for beginners, when your goal is to gain as much strength as possible. SL is basically a ripoff of SS, but he needed to change something so it wasn't a complete copy, so he chose that. 5x5 is bad for linear progression. If you're capable of doing that much volume at a given weight, then you aren't pushing yourself hard enough.

This

Also avoid doing 7 reps on anything