rms13

I prefer 531 and Starting Strength. Starting Strength is better for a novice/beginner and move up to 531 once you have plateaued

qualia8

I've done the program with exactly these substitutions. It's terrific, but you have to start with very low weight. Dips / Chins might be hard that way. If you have an assist machine, use it. Otherwise, you could start with bench / rows and switch over at some point when the weight gets high.

qualia8

You're doing it wrong! Start *very* light. This is the key to avoiding injury. It's also compatible with lots of hard cycling towards the beginning of the program. 5x5 recommends starting with the bar (45lbs). For overhead, I'd start even lighter with dumbbells and move up to 45, because the shoulder is very delicate and it pays to strengthen everything involved with lighter weights.

Carbonfiberboy 

I haven't done conventional weight training in maybe 20 years, but I'm having a go at it for a few months this winter. I'm doing 3 X 10 to keep the weight down and more exercises that I've ever done at once before, many that I've never done before. Today was upper body "pushing" day. I did 23 sets and failed almost every 3rd set. I do almost the same weight for all three sets, 5-10 lb. variation for the upper body work. I'm getting stronger much faster than I ever have before. Maybe the difference is that my nutrition is better now, and/or I've learned that I have to fail that 3rd set every time to make progress.

My goal is body recomposition, which is happening with very little weight change. I'm about 6 weeks into it. I'll do this routine for 2 more weeks, then change to a more standard, periodized bodybuilding type workout (Gethin) for 12 weeks. Then I'll do 10 weeks of higher rep work and by then the season will be starting and I'll switch to strength maintenance. Winter is pretty short. So little time, so much to do. It'd go a lot faster if I weren't starting from almost scratch.

rumrunn6

working on getting my dips & chins back where they were 4yrs ago ... fun fun ... for dips I do 10, for chins I try for reps of 5 at a time, but after the first two I'm working with 3, then rest then 2, and by the last I do one at a time with a ten count in between each, so I get my 25 done but they ain't so pretty and the young guns in my gym. my dips can bee deeper too, especially the last couple sets! I should probably do just 5 really good ones each rep instead of 10

wolfchild

Yeah for sure, it's much better to do less reps with proper form then a lot of reps with a bad form...For dips go until your arm at an elbow is parallel or slightly below parallel, for pull ups/chin ups , hang down all the way ( dead hang), no swinging and pull yourself up until your chin is over the bar or even better yet pull yourself high enough until the bar touches your upper chest. The slower you do you reps for dips and pull ups the more difficult they are.