There are many variations on the ancient version of coach Bill Starr’s well-known 5×5 program. Perhaps the best known is Bill Starr 5×5, Linear version for Intermediate Lifters, an advanced program. For novices, we recommend the original Bill Starr 5×5 for Beginners or Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe, apprentice and heir to Starr’s intellectual legacy.
WALLPAPERS
Bill Starr is a former Olympic weightlifter and powerlifter, and wrote the book The Strongest Shall Survive, Defying Gravity (1976), one of the highlights of Anglo-Saxon strength sports literature. Both in content and writing style. He was also the strength and conditioning coach for several NFL and university American football teams.
THE PROGRAM
For whom?
Bill Starr 5×5 is a relatively simple program in which you make weekly (linear) progression. It has a limited shelf life due to the linear course, but strength athletes who have been training for a while can make enormous progress with it for a longer period of time. In short, it is suitable for anyone who has been training for a while and wants to invest some time in getting stronger.
Exercises
The core of the program is formed by three non-interchangeable main exercises: the squat, bench press and barbell row. You train three non-consecutive days, for example on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Monday and Friday you do the above three exercises. On Wednesday you exchange the bench press and barbell row for the overhead press or incline press respectively the deadlift.
Parameters
On Monday you do five sets of five reps (5×5) with an ascending weight. The last set is your current real/realistic 5RM.
On Wednesday, a relative rest day, do four sets of five reps — the first three sets are the same as Monday, the fourth set is a copy of the third set.
On Friday, do four sets of five reps — a copy of Monday’s first four sets. Then you do one set of three reps, with 2.5% more weight than your fifth set on Monday. Then do one last set of eight reps with the weight of the third set.
Or in a scheme:
The program does not prescribe specific parameters for intensity. A loss? No not really. Your last set on Monday is your 5RM and your top set of three reps on Friday is 2.5% more. From there, you can easily calculate back to your first set, assuming you increase the weight by 10-15% each set.
Rest for 2-5 minutes between sets, depending on the intensity of the set. Rest at least 5 minutes before your hardest set on Monday and triple on Friday.
Calculation example
Is your 5RM for the bench press 100 kg? Then start with 60 kg and add 10% of your 5RM (10 kg) each time until your last set of 100 kg. So 60/70/80/90/100% of your 5RM. Please: your percentages. On Friday you do a set of three repetitions with 102.5% – 102.5 kg in this example.
For the sake of completeness, on Wednesday your parameters are 4x5x60/70/80/80% and on Friday 4x5x60/70/80/90%; 1x3x102.5%; 1x8x80%.
Please do not take these percentages too closely. Just work your way up to your heaviest set gradually, in increments of minimum 10%, maximum 15%. Don’t shoot your gun too early. It’s your last set that counts. The previous ones are ‘just’ the prelude to this.
Progression
As you can see you make weekly progress on the three main exercises. This makes the program very motivating. Every Friday you improve your 3RM on each ‘lift’. And every Monday you simply try to make your 3RM your 5RM; you’re trying to do two more reps with Friday’s weight. That is the essence of getting stronger: more reps with more weight. Friday’s triple is always the set of five of the following Monday. Simple, right?
Notes and pitfalls
It is useful to know your real 5RM in advance and not to base yourself on a prediction based on, for example, your 10RM. Start relatively light. That is, if you have found with a lot of pain and effort that your 5RM on the squat is 160 kg, use 150 kg as the starting weight.
As conservative as you start, so conservative should be your progression. Don’t fall into the trap your ego has set for you by running faster than the program dictates. This advice has probably fallen on deaf ears. We should know, because we too were ‘donkeys’ who thought to add 5% on Friday instead of the prescribed 2.5%. Not one, but even two weeks, only to hit our heads hard in week three. So don’t. The key to the success of this program is its slow but consistent weekly progression. If you think you can accelerate that progression, you will inevitably shorten the time you progress disproportionately.
If you don’t make any progress after a few weeks, you have started too energetically or you have been messing around in the percentages. Bet? Exactly how long you make progress is difficult to say and depends on your experience level, how close you are to your absolute ceiling, et cetera. Our experience is that you progress weekly for about 3-5 months on this program.
Finally, it is important to note that you consume enough calories while following this program.
BILL STARR 5×5 ‘MILKING OUT’
All good things come to an end. Sooner or later, the moment will come when you no longer make progress on one or more of the exercises, that is, when you no longer manage to add more weight (Friday) or reps (Monday). Do not immediately stop the program, but keep the weights constant until you do reach the prescribed weight or number of repetitions. It often works after one or two weeks, after which you can often continue the upward trend for a while.
You can also go back one or two weeks in the program and continue from there. In this way you can often milk the now sputtering program for weeks.
Your last resort is to manipulate the parameters cleverly and exchange your last set of five on Friday for two extra sets of three – 4×5, 1×3 (1×8) then becomes 3×5, 3×3 (1 ×8).
AFTER BILL STARR 5×5
It’s only when you don’t make progress on any of the main exercises for weeks on end that it’s time for more drastic measures: switching to a program based on the principles of periodization rather than linear progression. For example Bill Starr 5×5, Periodized version for Advanced Lifters. But until then, it’s best to keep the linear progression, albeit in fits and starts, as far as possible and to milk the program to the last drop.