Bill Starrs 5x5 with Power Cleans

Iv been doing this program for 9 weeks and seen pretty good results, but now iv finished university for the summer i dont have access to a squat rack. Iv got a power rack in the post which will arrive in 2-3 weeks and im definately going to carry on with the 5x5, but i was thinking about addind powercleans into there somewhere…? maybe replace barbell rows on one of the days. What do you guys think?

I mean you don’t have a rack so you obviously have a great substitute. You can also just use really light loads and do front squats for high reps. If it becomes too heavy, you just let it roll off of your arms. Or even better, do a clean to front squat! Use the clean to get the bar up to front squat level…best of both worlds!

[quote]acelement wrote:
I mean you don’t have a rack so you obviously have a great substitute. You can also just use really light loads and do front squats for high reps. If it becomes too heavy, you just let it roll off of your arms. Or even better, do a clean to front squat! Use the clean to get the bar up to front squat level…best of both worlds![/quote]

yeh iv been playing around with front squats but i seem to have really bad wrist flexibility and i find front squats reallu painful in my wrists so im going to work on wrist flexibility for a few weeks and try again. Iv also just started doing overhead squats but im still learning the technique. Anyway what i was trying to ask in my first post was would powercleans be a good addition to a 5x5 program? would i be better off adding it in as an extra exercise or would replacing another exercise (such as barbell rows) for one of the days be a better option?

Powercleans are a component of Riptoes 5X3. He has an intermediate program that is also a 5X5. It’s nearly interchangeable with Bill Starr, Madcow, et al.

[quote]MC sp3 wrote:
Powercleans are a component of Riptoes 5X3. He has an intermediate program that is also a 5X5. It’s nearly interchangeable with Bill Starr, Madcow, et al.[/quote]

Right!

Heavy day is SQUAT BENCH POWER CLEANS 5X5, light day is SQUAT MILITARY DEADLIFT 4x5 (or HIGH PULL) and medium day is same a heavy but 4x5,1x3 and 1x8.

I think the Madcow has rows subed for PC’s and Deads subed for HP’s for those that don’t have the olympic variants down pat. If you do have the lifts mastered (and I’d guess you do) I’d do those instead of rows and deads.

i sugguest doing power cleans on deadlift day (and not doing squats that day). do either barbell rows or chinups in between the dead and clean so you can save up some energy for the power clean since dead takes so much effort. i had the same wrist flexability problem when i started cleaning. try to do it with the bar or maybe 55lb to get the wrist in the right position (bar resting on shoulders and elbows pointing forward, not down). it takes some practice, very ackward position to begin with but it will feel natural later on. keep up the good work and stick to the basics!

[quote]MC sp3 wrote:
Powercleans are a component of Riptoes 5X3. He has an intermediate program that is also a 5X5. It’s nearly interchangeable with Bill Starr, Madcow, et al.[/quote]

Anyone got any links to these programs?? What i liked about the 5x5 program i was on is that i downloaded a template thing for excel where you type in your maxes for each lift and it works out what you should be lifting for each day and the incremements for each week, it really helped me although i only used it as a guide.

Try zercher squats. they’re great! work your lower body AND core musculature with all the safety included. i do them at home just using a bench press uprights.

[quote]PhilD wrote:

Anyone got any links to these programs?? What i liked about the 5x5 program i was on is that i downloaded a template thing for excel where you type in your maxes for each lift and it works out what you should be lifting for each day and the incremements for each week, it really helped me although i only used it as a guide.[/quote]

Is this what you already have? It’s got a link for the spreadsheet you mentioned.

[quote]forbes wrote:
Try zercher squats. they’re great! work your lower body AND core musculature with all the safety included. i do them at home just using a bench press uprights. [/quote]

Yeh i havnt got any kind of rack at the moment so i cant do zerchers, i think im going to stick to overheads and hacks until my power rack arrives.

[quote]derek wrote:
Is this what you already have? It’s got a link for the spreadsheet you mentioned.

Ah i only had the link to the intermediate 5x5, thanks dude il have a read through this in a bit :slight_smile: