Frankie NY's Mass Building Program

FJ: It's a quality routine, one that I think you'll be pleasently suprised with.

Not as easy as it sounds mind you. Balls to the wall,

and if you don't puke after at least a couple of the workouts in the 12 week cycle,

then you're not training hard enough.

It'll get your strength up nicely too.

In reality you're not doing 5x5....... Say you can bench 80kg for 12 reps at the moment.

Well while doing this routine you'd pick say 100kg for your bench sets this week.

First set 5. Second set 5. Third set 5 (but really hard). Fourth set 4 (You nearly **** yourself). Fifth set 3 (You are ****ED).

ORIGINAL: Jake

FJ: It's a quality routine, one that I think you'll be pleasently suprised with.

Not as easy as it sounds mind you. Balls to the wall,

and if you don't puke after at least a couple of the workouts in the 12 week cycle,

then you're not training hard enough.

It'll get your strength up nicely too.

In reality you're not doing 5x5....... Say you can bench 80kg for 12 reps at the moment.

Well while doing this routine you'd pick say 100kg for your bench sets this week.

First set 5. Second set 5. Third set 5 (but really hard). Fourth set 4 (You nearly **** yourself). Fifth set 3 (You are ****ED).

I think i will try this starting next week, Purely for the 3 day split, I will also do it 4 x 6 :)

Cheers

ORIGINAL: FrankenJim





DAY 2 � PUSH

Incline Barbell Bench Press
Flat Dumbell Bench Press
Dumbbell Shoulder Presses
Tricep Dips

Choose either Incline barbell bench press or flat dumbell press. Not both. The coma's mean OR, not AND.

Any one comment on how they got on with this?

When I first did it, I made the best mass and strength gains I ever had. Honestly I haven't improved much since I did that routine, so I might just go back to it again this winter.

great routine....mayor gains if its done the right way.

Cheers guys will give this a bash but fancy just a slight tweek on it.

A good routine that you can make good gains on. Can be quite hard on the lower back though and is quite taxing on recovery if you don't eat or rest enough. I would cut work sets on lower body compounds to 3x5 or just on deadlifts.

Though it must be said that to add weight to the bar each week is tough and eventually you'll stall. So if done long-term you need some kind of back-off, deload / periodisation....

ORIGINAL: Jazz

A good routine that you can make good gains on. Can be quite hard on the lower back though and is quite taxing on recovery if you don't eat or rest enough. I would cut work sets on lower body compounds to 3x5 or just on deadlifts.

Though it must be said that to add weight to the bar each week is tough and eventually you'll stall. So if done long-term you need some kind of back-off, deload / periodisation....

Bit in bold meaning ?

I was thinkign of doign it for 12 weeks as stated im not so sure about the week off bit. Then Switching from 4x6 to 5x5 or 3x6. Mix it up each week

Currently doing 5x6 but 1st 2 sets are warm up and 3sets being working sets.

Deload is where you have a week where you decrease the volume to give your body a bit of a rest. An example would be after stalling (or after a number of workouts) you reduce sets to 3x3 (same weight) you can then carry on adding weight to the bar each week but keep this new volume (Intensity phase). Periodisation just means some form of organisation in your workout plan where you vary the intensity, volume, frequency, etc in stages. Rather than training the same all the time. For example you might train for strength for 4 weeks, hypertrophy 4 weeks, then maybe endurance for 4 weeks. Or you could train different 'qualities' within a workout or throughout the week.

Cool Ta mate. Im shocked there's no Side lateral raise or shrugs etc

Would hammer grip weighted chins be good on pull day instead of wide grip? Either that or if i rotated them from cycle to cycle?

Also on pull day I was thinking of doing Rack Pulls in place of Deadlifts.. I have lower back issues when I deadlift but not when I do it from just below knee level. Plus i feel this still kicks my backs ass. Just curious as to what you guys thought?

ORIGINAL: Jazz

A good routine that you can make good gains on. Can be quite hard on the lower back though and is quite taxing on recovery if you don't eat or rest enough. I would cut work sets on lower body compounds to 3x5 or just on deadlifts.

Though it must be said that to add weight to the bar each week is tough and eventually you'll stall. So if done long-term you need some kind of back-off, deload / periodisation....

Have to disagree with reducing deads to 3x5. The whole point of it is you manage to complete 3x5 and at least 5 or 6 reps of the remaining two sets to stay at that weight. When you completely manage 5x5, go up a weight. Every routine will lead a person to a plateu, your growth will tail off the longer you train. So micro load your weight increases.

I did this routine for a fair few months.

I personally found that doing 5x5 on squats and two types of deadlifts hard on the lower back and eventually hard on recovery. Lower body is less of a priority as well for me. I often found that I would be stuck on 5x5 at a certain weight for weeks taking me close to injury on squats and deadlifts. So rather than hammering at the same weight and risking overtraining some form of 'change' is needed. Dropping the sets to 8x3 or 3x5, 5x3 and maybe even 3x3 allows you to increase the weights once you plateau and it gives your body a rest especially if volume reduction is significant. A similiar effect could be achieved by reducing the weight and working back up.

Microloading is fine if you have 'micro weights' but you'll still plateau eventually. Though a little tricky for dumbells. Another idea I like is having a different weight for different sets e.g. 3x5 (30kg), 2x5 (27.5 kg) leading to completion of 5x5 (30 kg). This I like with dumbells since the weight jump is often more than 2.5 kg.

The point is that you can only progress so far with these type of routines. There needs to be some kind of 'backoff', 'deload' or periodisation if done long term.....

The basic idea

ORIGINAL: Jazz
There needs to be some kind of 'backoff', 'deload' or periodisation if done long term.....

Something like this might help once things get difficult....bent over rows for an example

wk1 240lbs
wk2 245lbs
wk3 250lbs
wk4 deload (drop weight by 30-50%)
wk5 245lbs
wk6 250lbs
wk7 deload (drop weight by 30-50%)

and so on

ORIGINAL: Jazz

I personally found that doing 5x5 on squats and two types of deadlifts hard on the lower back and eventually hard on recovery. Lower body is less of a priority as well for me. I often found that I would be stuck on 5x5 at a certain weight for weeks taking me close to injury on squats and deadlifts. So rather than hammering at the same weight and risking overtraining some form of 'change' is needed. Dropping the sets to 8x3 or 3x5, 5x3 and maybe even 3x3 allows you to increase the weights once you plateau and it gives your body a rest especially if volume reduction is significant. A similiar effect could be achieved by reducing the weight and working back up.

Microloading is fine if you have 'micro weights' but you'll still plateau eventually. Though a little tricky for dumbells. Another idea I like is having a different weight for different sets e.g. 3x5 (30kg), 2x5 (27.5 kg) leading to completion of 5x5 (30 kg). This I like with dumbells since the weight jump is often more than 2.5 kg.

The point is that you can only progress so far with these type of routines. There needs to be some kind of 'backoff', 'deload' or periodisation if done long term.....

The basic idea

IIRC Frankie recommends resting when you plataeu, though plataeu-ing on one exercise doesn't count!!

Good points and some good ideas

bump

Still using this cracking routine to this day.  Just thought you should know Frankie :)

Hi Frankie,

ive been training for 10 years and gone thro many diff programs as i guess you have.  i know your routine or similar works because ive used it before with great success.

few questions (sorry if they already been asked but too many pages to read thro)

1)  what speed should i do the concentric and eccentric reps at?

2)  ive gone thro an illness recently and lost alot of weight.  i know i can get alot of weight back in few months hopefully.   Once ive reached my desired weight/size shall i continue with the same 5 x 5 routine when trying to get cut.  just adding cardio/reducing calories?  or do you think more exercises isolations and higher reps are required?

3)  im going to try each phase of execises for 10 weeks,  is is ok to move my grip on some exercises.  or do i wait for the next phase.  for example shoulder width chins or wide grip chins.

thanks for reading appreciate your efforts!!!

I used this routine for cutting odog when i started boxing.  My plan was to keep strength up as much as possible while dropping BF and it worked.

Theres not much variety in it obviously so I found myself going through the motions a bit towards the end of my time doing it but its definately good for strength/mass.