This program, although very basic, is simple and appropriate for use by a novice up through advanced intermediate. Although Starr developed it specifically for football players, it’s a worthy program for anyone looking to put on size, get stronger, and become more explosive.
Make sure you don’t confuse “simple” with “easy”. Proper application of and adherence to this program can bring about impressive increases in strength and size.
Lifts are performed three days per week on non-consecutive days, such as a M/W/F. Each day you do five sets of five reps of each of Bill Starr’s Big Three exercises:
Weight is increased for each set. Intensity is varied by day in the order of heavy, light, medium. Here’s the example schedule set for a M/W/F execution:
Monday, Heavy
Your top set should be as much as you can handle with good form
- Power Clean 5 x 5
- Bench Press 5 x 5
- Squat 5 x 5
Wednesday, Light
Your top set should be around 80% of your day one top set.
- Power Clean 5 x 5
- Bench Press 5 x 5
- Squat 5 x 5
Friday, Medium
Your top set should be around 90% of your day one top set
- Power Clean 5 x 5
- Bench Press 5 x 5
- Squat 5 x 5
See? Pretty simple, right? But effective.
Increasing Weight
As a general rule, you want to increase weight anywhere from 5 – 15% between sets. If you aren’t yet moving much weight, it’s acceptable to repeat the first set weight once or even two times for sets two and three.
Say your top set on squats is 135. Rather than beginning with a lower and less challenging weight that really isn’t going to be beneficial, start instead with 115, then repeat that for the second and third sets before increasing. In this case your set/weight progression would look like:
- 115 x 5
- 115 x 5
- 115 x 5
- 125 x 5
- 135 x 5
Alternately, if you are moving a larger amount of weight in your top set, you might start lower and increase in larger increments between sets. A good guideline is to never use more than 135 pounds for the first set for bench and squats, no matter how heavy your go for your final set.
As long as you hit your sets and reps, keep adding weight to the bar every week. Try to increase 5-10 pounds each week on squats and 2.5 – 5 pounds on bench press and power cleans. If you fail to accomplish 5 x 5 on your heavy day, drop all poundage by 10% and reset.
Rest no longer than 2 minutes between sets. Start with shorter rest periods on the beginning sets and increase the amount of rest as you increase weight. As an example:
- set 1
- 30 seconds
- set 2
- 60 seconds
- set 3
- 90 seconds
- set 4
- 120 seconds
- Set 5
Changes for More Advanced Lifters
If you’re more advanced and your linear progression has stalled, even after a few rests, it might be time to change things up. Only consider that change after you have already been through a few resets using the basic 5 x 5.
Start with a new rep scheme of 5, 5, 5, 3, 3, 3, 6-10, replacing the last two heavy sets with 3 sets of 3 reps. This will allow heavier weight to be used in the top set. The 6-10 reps set is a back-off set that uses weight somewhere between the weight used for the third and fourth set. You want to use a weight that allows you to get least 6 reps, but no more than 10.
Here’s an example of squats done using this rep scheme:
- 135 x 5
- 165 x 5
- 195 x 5
- 225 x 3
- 255 x 3
- 285 x 3
- 210 x 6-10
You might reach the point where doing heavy weight for the exercises all on the same day is too taxing. At that point, instead of doing all heavy, all medium and all light on a single day, approach each exercise independently using the following scheme:
Monday
- Power Clean – heavy
- Bench Press – medium
- Squat – light
Wednesday
- Power Clean – light
- Bench Press – heavy
- Squat – medium
Friday
- Power Clean – medium
- Bench Press – light
- Squat – heavy
The Big Three Basic 5 x 5
Here is a full week example of sets and reps using the basic 5 x 5:
Monday
- Power Clean: 95 x 5, 115 x 5, 125 x 5, 135 x 5, 145 x 5
- Bench Press: 135 x 5, 155 x 5, 175 x 5, 195 x 5, 205 x 5
- Squat: 135 x 5, 165 x 5, 195 x 5, 225 x 5, 245 x 5
Wed
- Power Clean: 85 x 5, 95 x 5, 105 x 5, 115 x 5, 125 x 5
- Bench Press: 135 x 5, 145 x 5, 155 x 5, 165 x 5
- Squats: 135 x 5, 150 x 5, 165 x 5, 180 x 5, 200 x 5
Friday
- Power Clean: 95 x 5, 105 x 5, 115 x 5, 125 x 5, 135 x 5
- Bench Press: 135 x 5, 155 x 5, 165 x 5, 175x 5, 185 x 5
- Squats: 135 x 5, 165 x 5, 185 x 5, 205 x 5, 225 x 5
If you’re interested in learning more, check out Bill Starr’s book, The Strongest Shall Survive.
More Bill Starr on Nutribody:
Bill Starr’s Intermediate 5×5 Workout
Bill Starr’s Advanced 5×5 Workout
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