StrongLifts 5×5: The Complete Guide

How StrongLifts 5×5 works

The whole program is two workouts you alternate three times a week. Squat is on both days, so you squat every session. The other slots cover the two presses, a row, and the deadlift. Every lift is 5 sets of 5 reps — except the deadlift, which is a single hard set of 5 because five sets of heavy pulls will bury your recovery.

A typical week looks like A / B / A, and the next week is B / A / B, with a rest day between each session (Monday–Wednesday–Friday is the classic). You never do two workouts back to back.

The two workouts

Workout A: Squat 5×5, Bench Press 5×5, Barbell Row 5×5.
Workout B: Squat 5×5, Overhead Press 5×5, Deadlift 1×5.

That's it. Five lifts, learned properly and loaded progressively, cover the whole body. If your form on any of them is shaky, fix it early — read the squat, bench press, and deadlift guides before the weight gets heavy.

Progression: add weight every session

This is the engine of the program. Every time you complete all 5 sets of 5 on a lift, add 5 lb next session (2.5 lb per side). Deadlift goes up 10 lb because it starts heavier and you only do one set. As a beginner you can add weight literally every workout for weeks or months — that's the whole point of running a linear program while you still can.

Start light so this runway lasts. If you start at your true 5-rep max, you'll stall in two weeks. Start at roughly half of it and enjoy a month of easy sessions while your technique locks in.

When to deload

Eventually a weight stops you — you get 5, 5, 4, 3, 3 instead of a clean 5×5. Repeat the weight next session. If you fail to complete all reps three sessions in a row on a lift, deload that lift by 10% and build back up. The re-run usually breaks the plateau because you're stronger than you were the first time you hit that weight.

Common mistakes

Starting too heavy

The single most common mistake. Ego says start where you left off; the program works because you start below that and ride the easy progress. Swallow your pride the first month.

Cutting squat depth as it gets heavy

Squatting three times a week magnifies any depth problem. Film a set from the side every week — hip crease below the top of the knee, or it doesn't count. Half-reps at a heavy weight teach you nothing but how to grind a half-rep.

Skipping the deload

When you stall, repeating a weight you can't complete just digs the hole deeper. Deload on schedule. The 10% back-off is not a setback; it's how the program keeps moving.

Never eating enough

You cannot add 15 lb a week to your total and stay in a big calorie deficit. If the bar stalls everywhere at once and you're recovering fine, the fix is usually food.

When to move on from 5×5

Linear progression has an expiry date. When you've deloaded the same lift twice and still can't push past the same weight, adding 5 lb every 48 hours is no longer realistic — you need a program that progresses across weeks instead of sessions. That's the moment to graduate to something like 5/3/1 Boring But Big, which trades session-to-session jumps for a slower, more sustainable climb. Set your starting numbers with the training max calculator.

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