5x5 Programs Explained: StrongLifts, Madcow, and How to Run Them
The 5x5 is one of the most enduring ways to get stronger, and it is exactly what it sounds like, which is five sets of five reps on the big compound lifts. It is simple, it is proven, and it is a great on-ramp for newer lifters.
The basic 5x5 idea
You train a handful of barbell movements for five sets of five, you add a little weight each time you train them, and you let that small, steady progression do the work over weeks and months. Because the rep range sits in a sweet spot between pure strength and muscle growth, beginners and early intermediates tend to build both at once.
StrongLifts 5x5
The most popular version is StrongLifts 5x5, which uses two alternating workouts run three times per week on non-consecutive days.
Workout B: Squat 5x5, Overhead Press 5x5, Deadlift 1x5
You squat every session, you alternate A and B each time you train, and you add a small amount of weight to each lift every session, with deadlift usually jumping a little more. When you stall and miss reps on three sessions in a row, you reduce that lift by around ten percent and build back up. The whole system is built around linear progression, which works beautifully right up until it does not, at which point you move to something with slower progression.
Madcow 5x5 and other variants
Once daily progression stops working, Madcow 5x5 is a common next step, since it progresses weekly rather than every session and uses ramping sets that build to one heavier top set rather than five straight sets across. Bill Starr's original 5x5 follows a heavy, light, medium structure across the week. The shared thread is the same, which is compound lifts, sets of five, and steady overload, with the variants mainly differing in how quickly they progress.
Running a 5x5 in Ægir Iron
A 5x5 lives or dies on consistent progression, which means you need to remember exactly what you lifted last session and add to it. In Ægir Iron you can set up A and B workouts, let the app prefill each lift from your last session so the next jump is obvious, see your plate math, and watch your auto-awarded PRs climb as the weight goes up. When linear progression finally stalls, you can transition the same training history into a periodized block without starting over.