need help with 3x5 vs 5 x 5

[Glutenbob]

Ok so my main goal is fat loss, but I also want my squats weight to increase. I dont really care about my lifts on the other exercises.

I was reading mehdis article about 3 x 5 vs 5 x 5 (or was it the other way around?) and I am inconclusive as to what to do.

He said that 5 x 5 is better at losing fat, but that you can lose fat on rippetoes workout too. So does he mean that you lose less fat on rippetoes, or does he mean that stronglifts is more conducive to losing fat than rippetoes?

i am doing 195lbs squats for 5 x 5 with moderate ease, but I did it for 3 x 5 today and it was easy as cake. I do box jumps to improve my vertical so thats why i cut down on squats. However, should I also cut down to 3 x 5 on the other exercises? I did that today and did not feel tired at all despite doing some semi tabata on the elliptical. I was slightly tired after that, but not as tired as I was the first time i did it last week. It could be cos I was doing less weight, right?

Also, i got caught doing powercleans in my college gym, so I cannot do them anymore. The guy who was supervising me today actually knew what powercleans were, and he stopped me. So no type of powerlifts are allowed. I guess I am going back to barbell rows.

So basically based on all this, which should I do? 3x5 or 5x 5 or a mixture of both like I did today?

Today I did
3x 5 squats
3x5 bench
3x5 rows
3 x F dips
5 x 8 box jumps
Tabata on elliptical

[holvoetn]

5x5 is less volume then 3x5 which means it is less taxing hence you will not stall that soon allowing weight to increase more then with 5x5.
Because 5x5 has more volume it will be better for fat loss (but not that much). More volume will build more strength though and it looks like that is what you are trying to achieve as well.
Adding Tabata will help towards the fat loss goal as well as increase overal conditioning.

How far are you from 1.5xBW squat ? How many times did you already have to deload ?
I suggest to keep with 5x5 until you had to deload 3 times on squat. Then scale down to 3x5 for squat only and see how far you can get with that.

Increasing your vertical can only be done by increasing your strength so you need to squat more, not less.
You could add box jumps to assist the explosive strength of the movement.
When I was playing volleyball I used to do massive sessions of rope jumping prior to the season start. 1 set of 1000 reps sometimes … no joke. My vertical was approaching 1 meter at that time.

[Glutenbob]

one question, if I was doing heavier weights on 3 x 5, would it have the same effect in fat loss and increasing the persons strength as on 5 x 5?

[holvoetn]

one question, if I was doing heavier weights on 3 x 5, would it have the same effect in fat loss and increasing the persons strength as on 5 x 5?

If focus is fat loss, it depends.
Suppose you were doing 100lbs squat on 5x5.
With 3x5 you are maybe able to do 120lbs (still theoretical).

Total weight moved:
5x5x100 = 2500lbs
3x5x120= 1800lbs

The former is better for fat loss since you will have consumed more calories.

#1 focus should be your diet, don't forget !

[dylanamus]

The 5x5 to 3x5 switch is usually made once the weight has become extremely challenging for the individual and rests of 5 minutes between sets are becoming necessary and the ability to perform consistently from one workout to the next is being interferred with by recovery.

That said, each set is still a max of 5 reps, so even though you might see a little more rep deterioration over 5 sets than you might over 3, unless you are literally pushing 5 sets of a 5RM the difference will be minute - as in maybe 2.5 to 5kg difference for every rep.

5x5 x 100kg = 2500kg
3x5 x 166.66kg = 2500kg

Even a 20lb deviance between 3 and 5 sets is generous, but if you take a look at the above example showing you how much difference is actually required to achieve the same volume, you can clearly see the reality of things. 5x5 burns more calories.