Laughter Yoga

Stronglifts 5×5 Workout Program

As I mentioned in my , I used to jump from routine to routine but wasn’t getting results. A big problem was I wasn’t consistent enough and I was also impatient. Some of the routines were too long that it would take me an hour or so to finish and I really don’t have any idea on what to do.

Now enter Stronglifts. I was looking for a simple workout routine that can bring results. I landed upon the stronglifts website and started reading (like I did to the previous routines). I browsed through the different posts and even that comes with it.

Stronglifts 5×5 Workout Routine

It was very simple. You are going to alternate on two workout days doing 5 sets of 5 repetitions each.

Day 1

• Squat 5×5
• Bench Press 5×5
• Bent Over Row 5×5

Day 2

• Squat 5×5
• Overhead Press 5×5
• Deadlift 1×5

On every workout (not every set), try to increase the load by 5 pounds (add 2.5pound plate on each side except for deadlifts that you should add 10 pounds). For example, Day 1 .. you squat 5 pounds; on Day 2, squat 10 pounds and keep on increasing till you can’t anymore.

As you can see, there’s only three exercises per workout and they are compound exercises. This means that in each of these exercises you are hitting multiple muscle groups (e.g. bench press hits your chest and triceps and a bit of your shoulders too). I believed that it was simple and easy to do right so I sent out to try it on the gym.

My first few attempts were trial runs because aside from the bench press, I had no prior knowledge on how each of these exercises work so it is a good thing that Stronglifts also provides instructions and even free videos where you can study the correct form.

Fast forward to a few months, I was still doing stronglifts and I was enjoying it! I was progressing in weight and in a way, it was giving me a sense of accomplishment in every workout. Although there were several workouts that I could barely finish the 5×5 so I couldn’t increase it on the next workout. Sometimes I get stuck especially on the overhead press and the dead lift (where my weak grip is the cause). But I just try again and again…

Allen