Continually doing 5x5 and adding 5 pounds per workout won't work for gentlefolk who are already able to rock a barbell. This could mean exercise variations, or it could mean how the exercises are loaded. Intermediate and advanced lifters typically need greater training complexity to make continued gains. The simplicity we championed in the above section can also be viewed as a negative, albeit from a different perspective. Overhead Press Disadvantages Of The Program Keeping meticulous records of your weights and reps is important for tracking your progress. You'll then dust yourself off and try again. This deload, however, is only employed for a single workout, not an entire training week. The strategy is then to use the same weight for your next workout instead of increasing bar weight.įailure to achieve 5x5 with a given weight for three consecutive workouts calls for a deload, which means you decrease the weight by 10 percent for your next workout.

That's about it! The program continues with this simple progressive-overload scheme until you fail before knocking out 5 reps with a given weight. Add weight, however, only if you reach 5 reps for all of your sets (again, just 1 set for deadlifts). The deadlift is the only exception-here you add 10 pounds, or 5 per side. In fact, during each workout, you add 5 pounds to the bar for each lift-or 2-1/2 pounds per side. That might seem awfully light early in the program, but you're going to add weight each week. The program's loading begins with 50 percent of your 5-rep max for each lift, which means that you have to know (or discover) what weight you can do for 5 and only 5 reps, then use half of that.

Stronglifts 5x5 calculator