Soviet weightlifting coaches were strongly opposed to accelerating muscle mass gain in lifters of all levels. They insisted that muscle was grown, to paraphrase in today’s buzzwords, “organically” and “sustainably.” Hence triples prevailed and meat grew slowly.
When a coach decided that the process had to be sped up, he simply increased the volume with sets of 5-6 reps because research by Prof. Arkady Vorobyev and others had demonstrated that this rep range straddles the fence between neurological adaptations and muscle hypertrophy.
What differentiated the “Soviet Fives” from the classic Western 5x5 and 3x6 loads were lighter weights. Whereas in the latter the intensity usually hovered around 80-82% 1RM, Soviets typically did their fives with 70-75% 1RM.
Thus, your prescription for mass is simple: just do more fives or sixes with 70% 1RM—about half the max reps you could do with this weight. Do not rush the rest periods, do not seek pump and burn; let the volume do the work.
