Poll

Should I continue with 3x8 or should I switch to 3x5?

Continue with 3x8 then later on switch to 3x5
5 (62.5%)
Switch now to 3x5 since that's enough volume for proper hypertrophy
3 (37.5%)

Total Members Voted: 8

Author Topic: 3x8 or 3x5?  (Read 38792 times)

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Raptor

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3x8 or 3x5?
« on: October 30, 2010, 03:47:15 am »
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That's the question. Is 3x8 good for my current goals which are hypetrophy and some strength or is 3x5 a high enough of a volume to generate hypertrophy with proper food while also creating more strength since heavier weights are used?

I tend to focus better on 3x5 because the sets are shorter so I don't lose my focus in the sets, but I don't know about the total amount of volume. 15 reps seems so little.

What do you think?
Current PR status:

All time squat: 165 kg/Old age squat: 130 kg
All time deadlift: 184 kg/Old age deadlift: 140 kg
All time bench: 85 kg/Old age bench: 70kgx5reps
All time hip thrust (same as old age hip thrust): 160kgx5reps

adarqui

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Re: 3x8 or 3x5?
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2010, 04:19:39 am »
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That's the question. Is 3x8 good for my current goals which are hypetrophy and some strength or is 3x5 a high enough of a volume to generate hypertrophy with proper food while also creating more strength since heavier weights are used?

I tend to focus better on 3x5 because the sets are shorter so I don't lose my focus in the sets, but I don't know about the total amount of volume. 15 reps seems so little.

What do you think?

you should have added another option, "do both", I would have clicked that one :) Day 1 = 3x8, Day 2 = 3x5, avoid mental/physiological burnout by rotating through 2-3 different volumes..

if you HAD to choose one, i'd go 3x5 as it is still a potent hypertrophy stimulus, but 3x8 is going to benefit hypertrophy more, 3x5 will benefit strength more, but they both feed off each other pretty well.

peace

Raptor

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Re: 3x8 or 3x5?
« Reply #2 on: October 30, 2010, 05:43:47 am »
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Yes but 3x8 and 3x5 with the same weight?

So if I do 3x8 on Sunday with 90 kg, then I should do 3x5 on Thursday with the same 90?
Current PR status:

All time squat: 165 kg/Old age squat: 130 kg
All time deadlift: 184 kg/Old age deadlift: 140 kg
All time bench: 85 kg/Old age bench: 70kgx5reps
All time hip thrust (same as old age hip thrust): 160kgx5reps

Ice-O

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Re: 3x8 or 3x5?
« Reply #3 on: October 30, 2010, 01:07:17 pm »
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it depends how many exercises your doing for the same muscles and how much rest your planning to get.

Raptor

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Re: 3x8 or 3x5?
« Reply #4 on: October 30, 2010, 01:16:16 pm »
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Well it's squat + assistance (usually 2 supersets of 2x5) two times per week
and
Bench + assistance two times per week

The third day is an explosive and whatever day.

So it's:

lowerbody1
upperbody1
explosive (clean/jumpsquat and some back work)
rest
lowerbody2
upperbody2
rest
Current PR status:

All time squat: 165 kg/Old age squat: 130 kg
All time deadlift: 184 kg/Old age deadlift: 140 kg
All time bench: 85 kg/Old age bench: 70kgx5reps
All time hip thrust (same as old age hip thrust): 160kgx5reps

n00bEM

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Re: 3x8 or 3x5?
« Reply #5 on: October 30, 2010, 08:10:36 pm »
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Have you ever done MUCH higher volume training? Honestly, I got amazing size and strength gains in my hamstrings and back doing 6x6 and 8x6 for straight sets on RDL's. The only issue is: It's boring, and you need balls to do this once the work weights get pretty heavy. It also made me sore for very long.
23 Years
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91kg / 200lb
SVJ-27/28 inches
RVJ- 31 inches
SLVJ-34 inches

adarqui

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Re: 3x8 or 3x5?
« Reply #6 on: October 30, 2010, 11:26:52 pm »
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Yes but 3x8 and 3x5 with the same weight?

So if I do 3x8 on Sunday with 90 kg, then I should do 3x5 on Thursday with the same 90?

nah, go 3x5 heavier than the 3x8, bump each one up 5 lb a week or every 2 weeks.. if you feel the need to really push it, make the 3x5 day a 1x5..

day 1 = 3x8 @ ~75-78%
day 2 = 3x5 @ ~82-83% (just shy of true 5RM)

alternating volumes/intensities is pretty important imo..

peace man

Ice-O

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Re: 3x8 or 3x5?
« Reply #7 on: October 31, 2010, 02:27:02 am »
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ditto

ARowe

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Re: 3x8 or 3x5?
« Reply #8 on: October 31, 2010, 03:29:39 am »
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Raptor, I would say do both. I made insane progress doing both, 2x5 one day and 3x8 a few days later. If you look at the my journal, right at the beginning is pretty much where I started doing that... I had been stuck at about a ~280lb squat max for a while.

When I started the 2x5 and 3x8 phase I could do 225x8, at the end of the phase a few months later I could do 270x7. I also started taking creatine during that phase but I was upping the weight pretty much every session, and like I said, before that I had been at a plateau for a while.

Check out from the end of my journal on tvs to about the middle of my journal on here.
Stats as of October 15, 2010
age: 20
weight: ~153 lbs
height: 5'7", 5'8" with shoes
reach: 7'5.5" in shoes
svj: 30 (vertec)
rvj: 35 (vertec) ~36 (dunk)
full squat 1rm: 315 (msem) ~325 (estimate)

adarqui

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Re: 3x8 or 3x5?
« Reply #9 on: October 31, 2010, 04:20:28 am »
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Raptor, I would say do both. I made insane progress doing both, 2x5 one day and 3x8 a few days later. If you look at the my journal, right at the beginning is pretty much where I started doing that... I had been stuck at about a ~280lb squat max for a while.

When I started the 2x5 and 3x8 phase I could do 225x8, at the end of the phase a few months later I could do 270x7. I also started taking creatine during that phase but I was upping the weight pretty much every session, and like I said, before that I had been at a plateau for a while.

Check out from the end of my journal on tvs to about the middle of my journal on here.

yup good point here, arowe definitely demonstrated this perfectly, same with vag etc. that's why "the intro block" rotates volume/intensity too, it's very effective.

peace

Raptor

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Re: 3x8 or 3x5?
« Reply #10 on: October 31, 2010, 05:27:13 am »
0
Yeah it sounds cool. I guess I'll do today 90x8x3 and go with 100x5x3 on Thursday. I might throw in a MSEM workout every now and then for potentiation/rest purposes.
Current PR status:

All time squat: 165 kg/Old age squat: 130 kg
All time deadlift: 184 kg/Old age deadlift: 140 kg
All time bench: 85 kg/Old age bench: 70kgx5reps
All time hip thrust (same as old age hip thrust): 160kgx5reps

adarqui

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Re: 3x8 or 3x5?
« Reply #11 on: October 31, 2010, 05:31:44 am »
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Yeah it sounds cool. I guess I'll do today 90x8x3 and go with 100x5x3 on Thursday. I might throw in a MSEM workout every now and then for potentiation/rest purposes.

now you're talking :D

sounds good man..

you could throw in an MSEM session ever time you rotate through the 3x8/3x5 split twice.. so

3x8
3x5
3x8
3x5
2 x 2-4 MSEM (short session)

peace man

Raptor

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Re: 3x8 or 3x5?
« Reply #12 on: October 31, 2010, 05:57:12 am »
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Yeah I guess that's good.

My original plan was this:

WEEK 1:
3x8
3x8
WEEK 2:
3x8
3x8
WEEK 3:
3x5
2x3 MSEM

REPEAT
Current PR status:

All time squat: 165 kg/Old age squat: 130 kg
All time deadlift: 184 kg/Old age deadlift: 140 kg
All time bench: 85 kg/Old age bench: 70kgx5reps
All time hip thrust (same as old age hip thrust): 160kgx5reps

adarqui

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Re: 3x8 or 3x5?
« Reply #13 on: October 31, 2010, 06:07:48 am »
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Yeah I guess that's good.

My original plan was this:

WEEK 1:
3x8
3x8
WEEK 2:
3x8
3x8
WEEK 3:
3x5
2x3 MSEM

REPEAT

why man@!?#!@$?!@

rotate !@$!@

you are so locked into a linear periodization mindset, break out of it, rotate, it's so much better.

just know my opinion is to rotate the way i listed in the previous post, this works very well for everyone.. what you listed is basically a short linear block, 3x5 will suffer more so than the 3x8's in your template.


a compromise could be, but I still prefer rotating 2-3 different types of volumes/intensities back2back:
3x8
3x8
3x5
3x8
3x8
3x5
MSEM


peace man

Raptor

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Re: 3x8 or 3x5?
« Reply #14 on: October 31, 2010, 06:10:45 am »
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Nah, I'm going to stick with what you outlined. It makes more sense to wave a bit the volume and intensity of the workouts.
Current PR status:

All time squat: 165 kg/Old age squat: 130 kg
All time deadlift: 184 kg/Old age deadlift: 140 kg
All time bench: 85 kg/Old age bench: 70kgx5reps
All time hip thrust (same as old age hip thrust): 160kgx5reps