5x5 workout pdf download

StrongLifts 5x5 is a beginner strength program based on linear periodization. There is very little variation within the program in terms of exercise selection; the primary purpose is to gradually increase the weight lifted each workout for all lifts.

This allows the novice athlete to make rapid improvements in strength and muscle growth. The program utilizes compound movements to work multiple muscles at once. This allows a full body workout while only doing a few exercises per training session. StrongsLifts 5x5 consists of five exercises: squat, bench press, deadlift, barbell row, and overhead press.

The bench press is one of the best exercises to work the chest muscles, but it also works the triceps, front delts, and biceps. The deadlift is one of the best exercises for the posterior chain, which consists of your spinal erectors, hamstrings, and glutes.

The barbell row is a great exercise for the lats, traps, rear delts, and core. You will be rowing once or twice every week on the days you do not deadlift. This is explained more later. The overhead press is a highly effective exercise for building strong shoulders while also working the triceps and using the core for stabilization. You will be overhead pressing once or twice every week — on the days you are not bench pressing.

Yes, StrongLifts is an effective strength training program for novices. Because the novice lifter is able to both be stressed easily since they are assumed to have never engaged in a serious strength training program before as well as recovery rapidly, they have the ability to gain strength quickly.

Yes, StrongLifts will build muscle in novice lifters. Sets of 5 can build strength and induce hypertrophy in the novice lifter. When the lifter begins to fail reps in their 5x5 sets, they should keep the weight the same, switch to a 5 sets of 3 reps, and then continue to add weight from workout to workout. So if a lifter misses a squat rep at lbs, they should end their workout and do 5 sets of 3 reps at lbs in their next workout.

Assuming this is achieved and it should be, assuming the athlete was able to lift for 5 sets of 5 , they will do 5 sets of 3 reps at lbs in their next training session. Other lifts can stay on the 5x5 scheme. Afters plateauing on 5 sets of 3 reps, you can move to 5 sets of singles or start using different rep schemes for the first, second, and third training session each week.

This is a bit outside of the scope of this answer, but this is handled for you automatically by GZCLP , so switching to that program after plateauing on 5 sets of 3 reps would likely be a good switch to keep the gains rolling and introduce more periodization in your programming. Texas Method would also be a good program to graduate to after Strong Lifts. Greg Nuckols writes in much greater depth on this very subject.

But in the short-term they tire your body, muscles and mind. You need rest days to start your next workout fresh. Your legs will still be tired for Squats , shoulders still tired to press, back still tired to pull.

Worse, you could still be sore from your last workout if it was hard. This will make you struggle to lift more weight. Your schedule may force you to workout two days in a row. Once in a while is fine but every week will hurt your progress. This gives your body more recovery time. A walk or light jog is fine.

A marathon is not. Avoid high intensity activities where you go all out. Your body is already used to it. Your legs might actually recover faster because this flushes blood and nutrients in your legs.

If you never biked to work, probably a bad idea to start now. Increase the weight on every exercise where you did five reps on every set last workout. So add weight to it. Ask them to get a pair or buy your own set. Put it in your gym bag and take it with you every time. Small plates take no space and weigh little.

This shifts the center of gravity. This is asking for bad form, uneven loading of your body, and injury. Just get small plates. The weight is heavier as a result. The weight is lower which makes big jumps harder. This is too much, too soon. It makes you miss reps and plateau. Small plates delay plateaus. So get a pair of 1.

Then get fractional plates of 0. The lighter you are, the more you need this. The program progresses faster when using kg than lb. This is because the default increment of 2. This accelerates your progress when the empty bar feels too easy to start with.

But lower the increments before you struggle to get your reps. Remember avoiding plateaus is easier than needing to break them. But remember each workout makes you stronger.

So stick to the progression and increase the weight anyway. Focus on lifting with proper form meanwhile. This will prepare you for the heavy weights later. Starting too heavy will cause soreness.

One skipped workout often turns into two skipped workouts. Now you have to restart and lost a week. This ruins your motivation and usually ends the program. But this is irrelevant. Starting too heavy also causes plateaus. Your starting weight must be light so you have room to easily add weight for several workouts. Of course lifting heavy is better. But lighter weights trigger your body to gain strength and muscle too. The other issue with starting too heavy is that it encourages bad form.

Instead of practicing proper form with easy weight, you must lift it at all costs to get your reps. This builds bad technique habits which will cause plateaus and injuries later when the weight gets even heavier.

Starting heavy is trying to accelerate your progress. You think it will make you stronger faster. Remember the fable of the rabbit losing the race to a turtle. You want to be like the turtle — starting light, adding weight steadily, and getting there faster by avoiding soreness and plateaus on the way.

Your starting weights depend on your strength and experience. Each rep must start from the floor. Use full diameter plates so the bar starts at your mid-shin on each rep.

If the empty bar is too heavy to start with, then use a lighter bar. This is a common issue with females who have less upper-body strength. Add weight each workout. The program will get you stronger. If the starting weight is too light, you can fix that by using bigger increments for a couple of workouts. Instead of adding only 2. Switch back to the recommended increments once the weights becomes more challenging.

Understand you gain little by starting heavy since the weights increase fast anyway. What you lose is time spent working on proper form with lighter weights. This turns into a huge advantage when the weights get heavy. So be conservative with your starting weights. If you make the mistake of starting too heavy, you should go to the gym anyway for your next workout, but lower the weights.

Do several lighter warmup sets before your heavy work sets. Warmup with the empty bar. Repeat until you reach your work weight. Warming up increases how much you can lift while decreasing the risk of injury. The warmup sets raise the temperature of your muscles and lubricate your joints. They also give you form practice before lifting heavy. And they prepare you mentally for the heavy weights to come. Never jump into your heavy work sets without warming up first.

Always warmup by doing several lighter sets first. You must still do lighter warmup-sets. Also, too much cardio pre-workout will pre-exhaust your legs for Squats. Skip the cardio and do lighter warmup sets — it will save you time. The proper way to warmup is to start with two sets of five with the empty bar. Keep adding weight until you reach your work weight. Only rest after the last one. The weight is too light to get injured plus doing extra sets could tire you out. The StrongLifts app has a built-in warmup calculator that gives you the exact sets, reps and weights to warmup with.

It gives you this for every exercise and weight. Or you can use one of those free warmup calculators online. But they all suck. The mistake they make is to make you do five warmup sets regardless of how heavy your work weight is. This means the warmup calculator in my app is different. This is more effective. Warming up makes your workout longer.

The stronger you are, the heavier your work weight, and the more warmup sets. Keep your workouts short by not resting between warmup sets. This will give you a good sweat without getting you too tired since the warmup weights are light.

The only exception is your last warmup set. Rest before doing your first work set. This way you have full ATP available before doing that heavy set.

On your other warmup sets, just add weight and go. Use the warmup rest timer in our app — it tells you how long to wait so you can focus on lifting. Respect your warmup sets by lifting them like your heavy sets. Your workout starts with your warmup. Put the same focus and effort into them.

If you do it right. This gives you more reps to practice proper form. It also increases how much Deadlifts you do. You also get breaks from lifting heavy when you deload after hitting a plateau. All of this takes care of your recovery. So keep lifting and adding weight. I usually take a week off training when going on holiday with family or friends.

You can actually come back stronger from the extra rest. You should be able to continue where you left off. Different case if you spent a week partying, drinking alcohol, eating crap and barely sleeping. It will suck when you come back — talking from experience. Lower the weight more to make it easier on yourself. Or maybe not… to teach yourself a lesson and not do it again next time…. If you come back from holidays on Sunday, you should be back in the gym on Monday.

You already had a week off. I usually train between Christmas and New Year. But if your gym changes its opening hours, you can either do your workout in advance or skip it for once. Travelling a lot for work is tougher. I usually go to the local Crossfit gym. Every city has one and they have all the equipment you need. Just pay the open gym drop-in fee. By the way — skipping a workout is not a break.

Regular breaks are fine. Note that the StrongLifts app will tell you how much weight to start with after your break. This prevents missed reps and soreness after your break.

Download it here. Goals give you direction. They remind you of what you need to do to get where you want to be. They eliminate distractions by keeping you focused on what matters. These goals are all one rep maxes aka 1RMs. Powerlifting and weightlifting competition use 1RMs to compare strength between lifters and determine winners. All it takes is going to the gym three times a week and doing the work.

You also need more dedication — eating right, eating plenty, sleeping enough, perfecting technique, being consistent, etc. Not everyone is willing to put in the time and effort, so not everyone gets there. You switch program when your current one stops working. Age and body-weight impact time-frames.

Young guys progress faster — more testosterone. Big guys progress faster too — they have bigger muscles. Old guys progress slower because of their slower recovery. Females progress slower due to less testosterone and smaller body-weights.

Just try to improve. Most guys can easily reach the intermediate I level in 12 months. So that is an extra 24lb of lean muscle in a year. In the beginning you will. Everyone does or we would all Squat kg. But some people hit plateaus sooner than others.

This explains the range for the time-frames. Break your goals into mini-goals. Before you can Squat lb, you first have to Squat lb, lb, lb and lb. Focus on your next step instead of looking at the top of the mountain. Your main goal will look easier to achieve and you can check your progress on your way. Some ideas….

I recommend you set the Intermediate I goal by this day next year. Set the Beginner goals for within the next six months. Set the consistency goals too. Then do the work. Failure is part of the game.

Everyone plateaus eventually or this would be too easy. You had a long day at work. You feel sick. It happens. What matters is that you show up anyway. You got away with it when the weights were light. The usual mistakes are rushing through your workouts, trying to accelerate progress, and not recovering properly…. Some people start looking for a new program when they fail reps. They think this one must be broken. They also take their technique, nutrition, and sleep more seriously.

They consider it part of their training — because it is. This is a lot of work. In fact, the stronger and more muscular you want to be, the more time and effort you have to put into this. Fix all of that instead of switching program. Anyway, the first thing you do when you fail a set is to rest longer.

Rack the bar and wait at least five minutes before doing your next set. This is not cardio but strength training. Rest longer so you can lift heavy. Use the built-in rest timer in my app. Mark it as two reps done by tapping on the set circle several times in a row the reps will decrease. The app will recommend you to rest longer before doing your next set so you get fives this time.

Double-check your equipment is set to catch the bar if you fail on the Squat or Bench Press. Squat and Bench in the Power Rack. Set the safety pins at the proper height so they can catch the bar if you fail. Rock climbers make beginners drop off the wall so they feel the safety of the rope. You want to feel the safety of the Power Rack. Squat down, come back up, then fail mid-way. Let the pins catch the bar. This builds your confidence.

Failing reps ends the set. Rack the weight, rest five minutes and then do your fourth set. Then rack the weight again, rest, and do your fifth set.

The only exception is if you failed because you lost focus or balance. But then on your fourth and fifth set you get 5 reps. Here you can do a sixth set of five reps to replace your failed set where you only got two reps. Never lower the weight mid-workout to get five reps more easily. You can already do it.

You now want your body to lift heavier weight. You need to lift that weight for that. So stick with it and try again. Keep the range of motion the same on every rep and set. The weight can only increase because you got stronger. Not because you moved the bar over a smaller distance than before. Same idea on the other exercises. Maybe you can get the rep if you let your back round, your elbows flare or your knees cave in. Get small plates so you can microload and avoid plateaus. Repeat the weight next workout for every exercise where you failed reps on.

You do increase the weight on every exercise where you did get five reps on every set. It tells you how much weight to lift next workout when you fail. It repeats the weight on the exercises you fail only while increasing it on the exercises you succeed. If you fail in a different order, your form is off. Deload if you fail to get five reps on every set for three workouts in a row. Then add weight every workout again.

It will take several workouts to get back to the weight you got stuck on. You missed reps on one or several sets for three workouts. Deload instead. Only deload on the exercise you failed. And if you fail three workouts in a row on Squat, but only failed one workout on Bench, then deload on Squat but repeat the weight on the Bench Press. You can also deload if you have bad form. Add weight every workout after the deload.

During those two weeks the weight will feel easy. It automatically deloads the weight for you when you fail three workouts on an exercise. This saves you having to figure this out and maybe do it wrong. Let the app do the thinking and focus on lifting the weights instead. Deloads work by giving your body extra rest to get stronger for the next weight. Deloads fix that. Deloads also prevent mental plateaus. Instead of keep hitting against that brick wall, you stop trying after three failed workouts.

Lower the weight instead and work your way up again. The weights will be easy for several workouts. This will build momentum and bring your motivation back. There are two reasons why this could happen….

Do your workouts and exercises consistently to trigger your body to get stronger. Take small weight jumps so your body can handle the stress. And get enough food and sleep so your body can recover from that stress. Nothing does. That stress eventually becomes too big for your body to recover from by the next workout. Deloads give you extra rest to break plateaus.

The heavier the weights you can lift, the more stress on your body, the more recovery needed. Your training must change to handle this. Your body recovers better with those two grueling sets gone. And your workout takes less time again. It will feel like a long deload. But the weights will increase every workout. It will be easier since you stopped failing. Plus the exercise stress is lower so your body recovers better between workouts.

It uses the same exercises and principles like progressive overload. The difference is the weight increases every week not every workout.

My lifts are too heavy for it. This is almost twice my body-weight. I wish I could still add weight every workout. But I need a slower progression to get stronger. I need to add weight every week. This gives my body more time to recover from the heavier weights stressing it. It gives it a week to get stronger and build muscle to lift heavier next time. This the principle of diminishing returns.

But taking it to lb usually takes one to two years. At first you have newbie gains. But the stronger you become, the slower gaining additional strength is. Be consistent, use proper form, warm up properly and rest enough between sets.

Get plenty of sleep and food. Some want to know the exact weight to reach first. It depends on your weight, age, form, nutrition, sleep, etc. Adding weight every week is easier than every workout. But it becomes hard too. Besides, this is meant to be hard. You need to stress your body for it to get stronger. But if you stick with it you get used to it. Working hard gets easier. Some people get bored doing the same five exercises.

The fun should be in the journey of improving yourself. But if you need variety — do one or two assistance exercises at the end your workouts here and there. Get your variety that way instead of changing programs. Add weight on the bar every workout as long as you have the ability to do so. Then they quit for the winter.

Soreness aka DOMS may happen. Pump may happen too. The only thing that matters is that the weight on the bar increases over time. Squats can cause leg soreness that lasts up to a week. Muscles must get used to new exercises. The best way is to ease them in by starting light and slowly adding weight. This will only make the soreness last longer. It will be worst two days after your workout, and can last up to seven days.

Bad start. Plus it hurts every time you move meanwhile. Instead, stick to your training schedule and do your workouts. The warmup sets will hurt. And your muscles will feel better after your workout. The reason this works is because lifting again moves blood into your sore muscles.

Blood contains nutrients that accelerate recovery. This gets rid of the soreness faster. So if your legs are sore, try to do light Squats with the empty bar the next day.

Any other activity that moves blood into your sore muscles will also help — a good massage, a hot bath, sauna, hammam, etc. Make sure you also eat properly and drink plenty of water so you get all the nutrients to help with muscle recovery.

And get your eight hours of sleep in. If your legs continue to be sore, lower the weight and work your way back up. This will give them a break so they can adapt to the frequency. And quit doing anything else that stresses your legs until the soreness is gone — temporarily drop the cardio, running, sports, etc. Do less. I rarely get sore from lifting. Your body converts food to energy — calories.

It burns these calories to lift the weights, and recover from your workouts. Skinny guys with fast metabolisms may need to eat even more. Eating maintenance calories is better but not ideal.

And adding weight every workout is hard work. It therefore makes sense to eat more. If that number scares you, remember forms follows function.

Your body changes in response to the work you do. It gets skinny, fat, and weak from a sedentary lifestyle. You have to eat more to build muscle. But you need to eat less to lose fat. These goals contradict. This is why bodybuilders traditionally alternate muscle gaining and fat loss phases.

They eat more food during the bulk, but less food during the cut. Obese guys can indeed build muscle while losing fat when they start lifting. Their bodies use their fat reserves to build muscle. They build strength and muscle faster without needing as much food. And since muscle is denser than fat, they end up looking slimmer at the same body-weight. People who have lifted before can also build muscle while losing fat. Thanks to muscle memory you can regain lost muscle and strength faster after a long break.

But most people who try to build muscle while losing fat end up spinning their wheels. But the heavier the weights get, the bigger the stress, and the bigger the recover need.

You have to choose. Choose muscle. You can easily lose 1lb of fat a week later. And you need to lift heavy to gain that much muscle. This requires eating a lot food. Dedicate the next year to building strength and muscle. Your body-fat will decrease if you started out obese. If you started skinny with single digit body-fat, it will increase to lower double digits. You might actually not even need to decrease your body-fat later.

Neither do most athletes. Yet my abs are visible. Bigger muscles stick out further. They can push through the fat under your skin.

So they can show despite a higher body-fat percentage. Eat quality, nutrient-dense food. You need the vitamins and minerals to help recovery. The occasional junk meal is fine. But you should eat mostly quality food. For most people working 9 to 5 and training around 6, that will be breakfast, lunch, dinner and an extra pre-workout meal. Dinner is your post-workout meal. If you train in the morning, eat first so you can train harder. Every meal should have vegetables. A lot of vegetables. Think half a plate.

The rest should be a good source of protein with carbs and good fats. Example is chicken with broccoli, tomato, avocado and a big potato. Protein is the main muscle building nutrient. Your body uses protein to build new muscle. It also uses protein to repair damaged muscle tissue after your workouts. You need about 0. Use your lean body mass instead without the fat. If you have a normal weight there will be little difference between your body-weight and lean body mass.

Just use 0. Protein shakes can be tempting. They take less time to prepare, and are cheap. And real food contains tons of micro-nutrients on top of just the protein. You need the minerals and vitamins to help recovery, as well as fiber to improve digestion. Most of your protein should therefore come from real food. If you eat like an omnivore this is easy.

Eat some meat, chicken, fish or eggs with every meal. Your body uses water to cool you down through sweat during workouts. It also uses water for muscle recovery from your workouts. Your body uses it for every process. Dehydration causes strength loss, joint pain, stiff muscles, tiredness and constipation. Headaches are a common symptom. Think of hangovers the day after drinking alcohol — it dehydrates.

Drinking more water often fixes that. The usual advice is to drink 8x8oz or 3 liters of water a day. But this is aimed at the average sedentary joe. You lift weights and sweat. You need to drink more to replace the water lost during workouts.

And the warmer the season or place where you lift, the more water you need to drink. You want to optimize for maximum strength and muscle gains. Your body has more critical uses for water than your muscles. An abundant intake of water ensures that you recover well between workouts and function effectively. Better is to pay attention to the color of your urine. It should be clear through the day unless you take vitamin B. Plus going to the toilet will stop you from sitting for hours non-stop.

I start my days by drinking two glasses of water. I always take a bottle of water with me to the gym, and sip on it during my workout. Stick with it to get used to it. You can add pieces of lemon to give the water taste if you want. Your body releases muscle building hormones like testosterone and growth hormone when you sleep. They help you recover from your workouts.

Sleep eight hours a night to maximize recovery. Many people only sleep six hours a night. But this makes it harder to train hard. You feel more tired and less motivated. The weight feels heavier and more challenging. Getting through your workouts takes more out of you. You fail reps more which slows or stops your progress. Lack of sleep also hurts your recovery. You go through five stages when you sleep. Each cycle lasts about 90 minutes. Your body releases growth hormone during stage three and four.

You get less cycles if you sleep six hours than eight. More cycles is more hormones is more recovery. Lack of sleep weakens your immune system. It also causes hunger and sugar cravings that make you fat. And people who sleep less are more likely to be obese — one simple reason is less time sleeping is more time you can spend eating.

You can get away with sleeping less than eight hours some nights. Keeping a sleep diary helps. I use the iPhone health app and bedtime alarm. Set your wake and bedtime so you have your eight hours of sleep. Then track your average sleeping time in the health app.

If you can take a nap before doing your workouts, do it. And relax. Psychological stress adds on top of the physical stress you get from lifting weights.

Take several deep breaths before you do your set to calm yourself down. Assistance exercises target small muscles which grow more slowly like your arms, abs and calves. Your arm muscles work to pull the weight on rows and push it on presses. They hold the bar on every exercise. Meanwhile your abs support your spine. And your calves stabilize you. These lifts work a lot of muscles with heavy weights. They therefore trigger overall muscle growth.

They try to make up for a lack of intensity with quantity. Thing is, the only way you can do assistance exercises after the main ones is if you lift light. Besides, the more assistance exercises you do, the longer your workout takes.

This makes it tempting to take shorter rest times between sets. But that makes it harder to lift heavy as already discussed. It ends up hurting your progress on the main exercises that trigger most growth.

Focus on increasing your strength on the main exercises. Consider this…. Your arm muscles also contract isometrically during Squats and Deadlifts. This is similar to how your lower back muscles contract during these lifts to keep your spine neutral.

This makes them stronger and more muscular. His muscles had to become stronger and bigger to lift the heavier weights.

And since his arms hold and press the bar, they had to get stronger and bigger too. You can also find guys with man boobs and girls who are flat-chested.

But most women have bigger boobs than men. And most strong people have bigger muscles than weak people. Even if direct arm work was better, curling lb works your biceps muscles harder than 50lb. That allows you to work your biceps harder than before. The best assistance exercise for your biceps is the Chinup. It works them more than Rows because you grip the bar with your palms facing up.

Your elbows start straight and bend like on biceps curls. But you also bend at the shoulder to pull your arm down — this engages your back. Chinups work more muscles than curls. Every rep forces you to lift your own body-weight. Chinups trigger more arm growth because they uses more muscle with more weight.

Dips are the best assistance exercise for your triceps. Your arms straighten to lift the weight, like on skullcrushers. But you can engage your chest muscles. More muscles working is more weight you can lift. Dips trigger your triceps muscle to grow more than skullcrushers do.

If you want extra arm work, add Dips to workout A and Chinups to workout B. Three sets is enough since the main exercises already work your arms. Your program will look like this…. My app will show you how to progress when you upgrade to StrongLifts Pro. Use it to save yourself having to think about all this. Give your body time to get used to the extra arm work before adding more. This way you can also see the impact adding Chinups and Dips has on your arm development.

After that you can add direct arm work if needed. The best isolation exercises for your biceps and triceps are Barbell Curls and Skullcrushers. Barbell Curl with the same Olympic bar you use for the Squat and Deadlift. You can use the EZ bar for Skullcrushers but not for curls. Two sets is enough with all the work your arms already get. Just focus on doing the exercise correctly, with proper form, moving your muscles over the full range of motion.

Straight arms at the bottom of curls, touch your nose with the bar at the top. Feel the muscle. DO NOT train your arms on rest days! They need to recover from your last workout so you can press and pull heavier next workout. This gives your arms Sunday to recover and get stronger for your workout on Monday. Isolation at the end. Your legs are large muscles.

The main function of your abdominal muscles is to support your spine. They contract to keep your spine neutral when you stand, move, Squat , Deadlift , etc. The heavier the weight you lift, the harder your abs must work to keep your spine neutral.

This triggers your ab muscles to grow. Your abs may not be visible if a layer of fat covers them. Endless situps and crunches does not burn fat locally.

You have to lower your overall body-fat to see your abs. You do this mostly by improving your nutrition. You have to build your ab muscles first. Better, lifting heavy can make your abs so strong and muscular, that they stick out more. Keep in mind that there is no such thing as lower abs. Your lower and upper abs contract as a whole.

Learn to stand properly. But if you want to add some, do hanging knee raises and prone bridges. Add one to each workout. Two sets of eight on the former. Sets of sec for the latter. Upgrade to StrongLifts Pro in my app and it will show you how to progress. Squats and Deadlifts work your calves — the muscles contract to straighten your ankles when you lift the weight. The range of motion is limited though compared to doing standing or seated calf raises.

So it can make sense to add these exercises to give your calf muscles extra work. But it can be a waste of time if you have high calf muscle insertions. My calves muscles hang high in the top third of my lower leg. The bottom two thirds is all tendons and bones.

The muscle bellies are strong and muscular. But nothing can make them hang lower. This creates a skinny look. Your calves are used to a lot of stress from walking every day. Make sure you go heavy with the weights. And be realistic.