The 5x5 Stronglifts routine comes from Mehdi at the Stronglifts.com web site. It's a deceptively simple yet effective strength workout that takes only 45 minutes, three times a week. Yet it guarantees total body strength improvement if you follow it precisely and use good form. In this post, I'll summarize the workout and my experience with it, and point you in the right direction to look into it yourself.
Background
After a couple of years getting comfortable in the gym, there were still a couple of exercises that I heard were beneficial that I felt uncomfortable performing - specifically the barbell squat and the deadlift. I've had slight pain in my left knee for a long time, and the concept of putting more stress on it through free weight lifting sounded illogical. I had heard of the Stronglifts 5x5 workout on a couple of different podcasts and since I was looking for a new routine, I decided to check it out. Here's the claim on the web site: Stronglifts 5×5 is the simplest, most effective workout to get stronger, build muscle and burn fat. Thousands of people have used the StrongLifts 5×5 workout to change their bodies and lives. The program is easy to follow and only takes three workouts a week of about 45 minutes.
This sounds entirely too good to be true. So what are they selling, how much does this cost? It's free, no strings attached. So I figured that it wouldn't hurt to adopt the routine for 12 weeks to see what happened.
Stronglifts 5x5 Summary
The "5x5" refers to the fact that you do five sets of five reps of each of three exercises, three times a week. The exercises you perform are what are called compound exercises - they work more than one muscle group at a time. That's how you're able to get a total body workout with only 5 exercises:
Three times a week you do just three of these exercises, 5 sets and 5 reps. Except for deadlifts, which only have one set of 5. I do my weight training Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. So for each day, there is a prescribed set of three exercises for me to do - I have them already set up on my Fitocracy app on my phone, so I use that to track my progress. There are actually two different weekly routines that you alternate between:
The other key point to the routine is that each time you perform an exercise you add 5 pounds. 5 pounds really isn't much, but over 12 weeks it basically means you're adding 180 pounds to your squat, 90 pounds to your bench and overhead presses, etc. That's a lot! Beginning weightlifters start at a lower weight than more experienced weightlifters.
My little summary here isn't anywhere as good as the full explanation you can get on the Stronglifts 5x5 web site, but you get the idea.
More on form
Just a couple of years ago I was a novice to weightlifting. The personal trainer I worked with would demonstrate the proper form once for each exercise, but after that I was on my own. And the 3-4 months I worked with the trainer we really didn't progress much into barbell exercises. So I was a bit casual with my form. That actually lead to a slight lower back injury about a year ago because I wasn't using proper form, and because I wasn't strengthening opposing sets of muscles (front and back). The emphasis on proper form with this routine has really helped me. I especially like Mark Rippetoe's series of YouTube videos done in conjunction with the Art of Manliness web site.
Results
Here are some things that I really like about this workout:
But what YOU really want to know is, what were MY results? Good question. I'm only about 8 weeks into the program, but I've definitely improved my strength in squats and deadlifts, two exercises I tended to avoid before. My "muscle quality", as measured by the AIM Skulpt device, has also improved a few points overall. My body fat percentage has also dropped about 1%, so I would say - so far so good. I'm planning on continuing the program for about another month. Overall, I highly recommend this routine for beginning to advanced weightlifters. Mehdi has included a ton of great information, videos and downloads on his web site. He also has a free daily newsletter that you can sign up to receive each day. Check it out!
12 Comments
Stalin
7/15/2016 04:16:14 pm
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Don Pillay
6/13/2017 12:03:00 pm
Can't wait to try this out, excuse my ignorance though ...does one complete 5 sets of an exercise before moving to the next one?
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6/13/2017 08:47:11 pm
Hi Don,
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Joel
6/29/2017 01:52:20 am
Looks great only problems I have is adding 5lbs each excercise, here in the UK the gyms use KG and the smallest plates are 1.5kg so for balance it's 3kg but also to move up the next plates are 2.5kg so I'll be jumping 3-5kg per excercise around 8-10lbs is this suitable? Also I see from the compound movements that there isn't much for Biceps except for barbell row if you do it underhand do you recommend adding in ISO excercise to hit these muscles or leave them till the programs complete?
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Andrew
6/29/2017 02:05:51 am
If your gym doesn't have olympic plates that are 1.25kg you should either go to a new gym or buy some. They cost about £2 each. As for isolation exercises you can buy the Stronglifts app and add them in although Mehdi suggests you don't really need them.
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8/21/2017 04:07:40 am
With such a large rate of adding weight in training, the result will not wait for you and you will see that you are working for good reason.
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Carr,71
11/29/2017 07:34:28 am
I am seriously thinking of starting this program, and I understand how to follow and carry out the exercises(reps &sets) just once question does it also develop muscle definition?
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11/30/2017 11:57:18 am
Absolutely, this is an excellent workout to develop both strength and definition. Of course by definition you might be talking about being able to see muscles better. So you'd need to consider lowering your body fat in order to see the muscle underneath.
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andreas
1/22/2018 02:41:34 am
how about resting time between sets?for 15 sets in a workout of 45min ,i can figure about 2-2,5min between sets,is it correct?,thanks
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Adam
2/3/2018 08:12:58 pm
The app recommends 90 seconds rest if pprevious set was easy, 3 minutes if set was hard, no rest (besides setup time) between excersizes. The app also offers a warm-up feature which helps me a ton.
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Crapworkout
6/28/2018 05:21:47 am
I tried the 5x5 workout for one year. That`s every 48. hour for 365 days straight. I learned a couple of things: No one should ever use the 5x5 workout. It`s shit. Sure I lift alot more now than when I started, but what does that help when I have more fat on my body than I have ever had before. It packs on fat and it does not work out your arms enough. So you get a developed chest and tyranosaurus rex arms. It`s riddicolous, I poured everything I had into this work-out for one full year and all I got was fat, fat, fat. Before I started I was slender. Now I hate my body more than anyhting else. Stay away from the 5x5, it`s complete bullshit.
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6/28/2018 08:19:18 am
Hi...this is an interesting comment. You seem experienced enough with fitness. But if you understand the principles of fat loss, it has nothing to do with your workout routine. It's about how you're eating, specifically whether you're at a calorie deficit. So doing this or any other workout will not make you fat.
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