Body building program better than stronglifts 5x5

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flashy0070
flashy0070 Posts: 14 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi, I am doing the stronglifts 5x5 program at the moment but I have just read an article saying that it is not a very good program for building muscle and that a lot of the stronglifts hype is down to good marketing?
Does anyone know a program that is a 3 times a week program that is good for building muscle rather than strength? Thanks.

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  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
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    Not having read that article, I'm just guessing, but...that sounds very nit-picky to me. SL5x5 is a solid beginner program. For beginner lifters, it will help you build a good base of strength and can help you gain muscle. If you are literally talking about bodybuilding and are more of an advanced lifter, it's true that SL5x5 wouldn't be an optimal program. Depending on what your goals are, it may or may not be a useful program, but it's not bad for what it's intended to do.

    If you don't like it, that's a different story.
  • Sam_I_Am77
    Sam_I_Am77 Posts: 2,093 Member
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    flashy0070 wrote: »
    Hi, I am doing the stronglifts 5x5 program at the moment but I have just read an article saying that it is not a very good program for building muscle and that a lot of the stronglifts hype is down to good marketing?
    Does anyone know a program that is a 3 times a week program that is good for building muscle rather than strength? Thanks.

    Here's the thing, I will absolutely agree that Mendhi is an excellent marketer and stealer of other's ideas. However, SL5x5 is a good plan for people just venturing into strength training. If your diet is right, you absolutely can increase muscle size using this program as many many have. I think the critics get on the extreme side of things and compare pure hypertrophy programming to pure strength programming and you can't look at it that way; that's like looking at training via both tails of a bell curve, that 2% of training programs. Most people are not in either of extreme unless you compete in something more appropriate to either of those goals. If you eat right, train hard, train smart, you will achieve some size and strength.
  • flashy0070
    flashy0070 Posts: 14 Member
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    I have been enjoying the stronglifts program and my strength is getting a lot better but I am not seeing much change in muscle size so I thought that maybe a body building program would be better as I would rather see size gains.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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    how long have you been doing it?
  • flashy0070
    flashy0070 Posts: 14 Member
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    About 8 weeks, my lifts are, squats 85kg, bench 65kg, rows 50kg, deadlift 90kg and shoulder press 42.5kg
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,978 Member
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    Are you eating to support muscle building?
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
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    I'm not sure any program will give you visible size increases in eight weeks (not naturally, anyway).
  • flashy0070
    flashy0070 Posts: 14 Member
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    I am gaining 1lb a week and I am eating about 200g of protein a day.
  • flashy0070
    flashy0070 Posts: 14 Member
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    I did wonder if I am being a bit inpatient, how long before I might see some gains?
  • Karen_can_do_this
    Karen_can_do_this Posts: 1,150 Member
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    Wowee. That's an awesome amount of protein!! Well done :)
    I'm no expert but I think expecting muscle bulging out after only 8 weeks is a teeny bit impatient.
    Short of chemical enhancement you'll just have to keep busting those awesome weights! Keep up the great work op and be patient. Great things come to those who work hard and are patient
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited November 2015
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    8 weeks and and you do this 3 times a week? That is approx 24 lifting days... and if you started from the very bottom meaning straight from weight loss where you may have lost some muscle mass along the way, I would say you need more time.. If you have never lifted before this program it will take longer than if you had experienced lifting and built muscle in the past. If you had built muscle in the past you gain it back quicker as there is a step your muscles not have to go through to rebuild.

    This is an excellent program and you will know when you need to progress to another program.. But really, you need to give it months, many many months.. and you will need a different lifting program to build true mass.
  • Sam_I_Am77
    Sam_I_Am77 Posts: 2,093 Member
    edited November 2015
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    flashy0070 wrote: »
    About 8 weeks, my lifts are, squats 85kg, bench 65kg, rows 50kg, deadlift 90kg and shoulder press 42.5kg

    Dude, 8-weeks is a blip in training-time. This is not meant to be *kitten* in anyways, but post back in 12-months of dedicated eating and training. It takes time bro and that's all I can say, patience, dedication, perseverance, and willpower to really continuously make gains over time. I've been back at it for about six years now and you're going to have stretches in-time that are awesome and you'll be making PR's and ripping dress shirts because you're growing, and you'll have rough stretches where the weight that you normally move feels like an elephant on your back.

    With that being said, I do think SL5x5 could benefit from Pull-Ups, Back Raises, and Ab-wheel once per week for sure. Doing 3-sets of EZ Bar curls or something like that once per weeks isn't going to de-rail anything either. Train smart, train hard, eat smart, sleep and you'll get to where you want to go.
  • hill8570
    hill8570 Posts: 1,466 Member
    edited November 2015
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    Sam_I_Am77 wrote: »
    With that being said, I do think SL5x5 could benefit from Pull-Ups, Back Raises, and Ab-wheel once per week for sure. Doing 3-sets of EZ Bar curls or something like that once per weeks isn't going to de-rail anything either. Train smart, train hard, eat smart, sleep and you'll get to where you want to go.

    If one has the time for the extra training, then the Ice Cream Fitness 5x5 program might be something to look at. It's basically StrongLifts with additional assistance exercises. Takes about 90 minutes for a workout vs the 60 minutes SL generally takes. The developer (Blaha) specifically added the assistance exercises to provide additional hypertrophy.
  • Sam_I_Am77
    Sam_I_Am77 Posts: 2,093 Member
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    hill8570 wrote: »
    Sam_I_Am77 wrote: »
    With that being said, I do think SL5x5 could benefit from Pull-Ups, Back Raises, and Ab-wheel once per week for sure. Doing 3-sets of EZ Bar curls or something like that once per weeks isn't going to de-rail anything either. Train smart, train hard, eat smart, sleep and you'll get to where you want to go.

    If one has the time for the extra training, then the Ice Cream Fitness 5x5 program might be something to look at. It's basically StrongLifts / Starting Strength with additional assistance exercises. Takes about 90 minutes for a workout vs the 60 minutes SL generally takes. Still geared primarily toward strength rather than hypertrophy, 'tho.

    Yeah there you go. Honestly, I days you're not doing barbell rows; after each pressing set (OHP or BP), go do some pull-ups it's not going to hurt anything.
  • maybabier
    maybabier Posts: 32 Member
    edited November 2015
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    It normally is a 4day a week program that can be modified to 3. Look up smolov Jr. I gained 35# on my 1RM BS and improved on DL (30#) in 3 weeks. Gained 1" on each thigh and glutes with only 1# weight gain.

    Make sure you eat a lot of protein and carbs! Muscle size will come when you build strength properly.
  • flashy0070
    flashy0070 Posts: 14 Member
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    Thanks a lot everyone, it is just what I wanted to hear, I will stick with the stronglifts and hopefully I will get to where I want to be eventually. I knew that it would take time and I did not want to waiste it doing the wrong program.
    How will I know when I need to switch programs?
  • ovidnine
    ovidnine Posts: 314 Member
    edited November 2015
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    8 weeks isn't really enough time to see many muscle size changes, especially on a program like SL5x5. It is a great program for getting started and getting your base strength which it looks like you've done and a lot of the knocks against it are...overblown.

    It isn't a program you need to stick with for a long time though (but you can, lots of people do which is fine.)

    It also looks like you have your eating down pretty good.

    As for when you should switch programs, at this point its kinda up to you. If you stick with 5x5 I'd add some of the things others have mentioned.

    If you feel like you are ready to make a change, do it. Lots of good programs out there. I'd personally suggest Greg Nuckols Complete Strength Training Guide as I've had a great experience on it so far. Its a nice mix of hypertrophy and strength gaining and mixes stuff up enough to stay interesting while still simple and easy enough to fit into a 60-90 minute session.

    That said, there are lots of good programs out there and if you want to try something different than 5x5 you're ready as long as you aren't trying to jump to some ultra-advanced competitive body-builder program right out of it. lol
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    If you're in a surplus, adding some accessory hypertrophy work will be great. Like others have said, the Ice Cream Fitness program will take care of that and you won't need to change how you train your compound lifts.
  • CaffeinatedConfectionist
    CaffeinatedConfectionist Posts: 1,046 Member
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    ovidnine wrote: »
    If you feel like you are ready to make a change, do it. Lots of good programs out there. I'd personally suggest Greg Nuckols Complete Strength Training Guide as I've had a great experience on it so far. Its a nice mix of hypertrophy and strength gaining and mixes stuff up enough to stay interesting while still simple and easy enough to fit into a 60-90 minute session.

    I love Greg Nuckols, but somehow missed this guide. I haven't had a chance to read it in depth, obviously, but it looks fantastic - thanks for sharing! This may be the incentive I needed to change up my own lifting routine.

  • ovidnine
    ovidnine Posts: 314 Member
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    CaffeinatedConfectionist wrote: »
    ovidnine wrote: »
    If you feel like you are ready to make a change, do it. Lots of good programs out there. I'd personally suggest Greg Nuckols Complete Strength Training Guide as I've had a great experience on it so far. Its a nice mix of hypertrophy and strength gaining and mixes stuff up enough to stay interesting while still simple and easy enough to fit into a 60-90 minute session.

    I love Greg Nuckols, but somehow missed this guide. I haven't had a chance to read it in depth, obviously, but it looks fantastic - thanks for sharing! This may be the incentive I needed to change up my own lifting routine.

    No problem! I happened to run across is after hearing about Greg from Omar Isuf. Not too long after I was checking out Greg's site he put this out. I was looking for a program and this seemed like a perfect fit for me. I've been working the intermediate progression for about 4 months now and its been going really well. I've been on a slight deficit during that time too losing 11lbs (with 9-15 more to go) so I've been pretty happy.

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