Reg Park's 5x5
The Original 5x5
Before StrongLifts. Before Starting Strength. Before Bill Starr wrote The Strongest Shall Survive. There was a British bodybuilder from Leeds with a simple idea that would quietly reshape strength training for the next sixty years.
Reg Park published his 5x5 method around 1960 in his training booklet Strength & Bulk Training for Weight Lifters and Body Builders. The premise was almost offensively simple: take the biggest compound lifts, do five sets of five reps, train three days a week, and add weight when you can. That was it.
It worked then. It works now.
Who Was Reg Park?
Reg Park won his first Mr. Universe title in 1951 at age 23, then won it again in 1958 and 1965. He stood 6'1" (185 cm) and competed around 225 lbs (102 kg) -- massive for the era. Unlike many bodybuilders of his time, Park was genuinely, freakishly strong. He was one of the first bodybuilders to bench press 500 lbs (227 kg) and was known for heavy squats and deadlifts when most of his peers focused on isolation work.
A young Arnold Schwarzenegger saw Park in the 1961 Italian sword-and-sandal film Hercules in the Haunted World and decided on the spot that he wanted to look like that. Park became Arnold's idol, then his mentor, and eventually his friend. Arnold trained at Park's gym in South Africa and credited Park as one of the biggest influences on his early development.
How It Works
The program has three phases. Phase A is the most widely referenced and the one included in the .trn file here. It is designed for intermediates building a strength base.
Three days per week, alternating Workout A and Workout B:
| Workout A | Workout B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Squat | Squat |
| 2 | Bench Press | Overhead Press |
| 3 | Barbell Row | Deadlift |
The 5x5 structure: Two progressively heavier warmup sets, then three working sets at your target weight. All sets are five reps. Rest three minutes between sets on the big lifts.
Progression: When you complete all three working sets of five reps with good form, add weight next session. 2.5 kg / 5 lbs on upper body lifts, 5 kg / 10 lbs on squats and deadlifts. Simple linear progression.
The squat appears in both workouts -- you squat every session. This is deliberate. Park believed the squat was the foundation of all strength, and he was right.
Who Is This For?
This program is ideal for:
- Intermediate lifters who have exhausted beginner linear progression and want a structured strength base
- Lifters who prefer three training days per week and value recovery
- Anyone who wants to get stronger on the compound lifts without overthinking programming
- People coming from higher-volume bodybuilding splits who want to focus on raw strength for a training block
This is not a hypertrophy program. You will get bigger -- you cannot get significantly stronger without adding muscle -- but the primary goal is putting weight on the bar. If your main goal is aesthetics, look at something with more volume and isolation work.
The Legacy
The influence of Reg Park's 5x5 on modern strength training is hard to overstate. Bill Starr adapted the 5x5 concept in his 1976 book The Strongest Shall Survive, which became the strength training bible for American football. Starr's work influenced Glenn Pendlay and Madcow, whose 5x5 variants became internet staples in the 2000s. Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength (2005) uses a 3x5 structure with the same A/B alternating template and many of the same lifts -- the family resemblance is unmistakable. And Mehdi's StrongLifts 5x5, one of the most popular beginner programs on the internet, is essentially Reg Park's Phase A with a fresh coat of paint.
One man, one booklet, six decades of ripple effects. That is the power of a good idea, simply executed.
Download
Download the .trn file and import it into the TRN app to start training Reg Park's 5x5. Phase A, both workouts, every set and rep -- ready to go.