Is 5×5 a Good Way to Put on Muscle?

he 5×5 Workout: What is it?

The 5×5 workout is very simple: five sets of five reps for no more than a handful of compound movements, three times per week. Although there are numerous variations of the program, one of the most popular is Strong-lifts 5×5. With StrongLifts, you perform just five compound exercises each week: the dead-lift, squat, bench press, overhead press, and barbell row. There are two different workouts alternated throughout the week. In workout A, you do the squat, bench press, and barbell row. The lifts in workout B are the squat, overhead press, and dead-lift.

Workout A: Squat, Bench Press, Barbell Row

Workout B: Squat, Overhead Press, Deadlift

For each exercise, you do 5 sets of 5 reps. The exception is the deadlift, which you do for 1 set of 5 reps. You take a day of rest between each training day.

Week one looks like this:

Monday: Workout A

Squat 5×5

Bench Press 5×5

Barbell Row 5×5

Wednesday: Workout B

Squat 5×5

Overhead Press 5×5

Deadlift 1×5

Friday: Workout A

Squat 5×5

Bench Press 5×5

Barbell Row 5×5

Week two starts with workout B, and looks like this:

Monday: Workout B

Squat 5×5

Overhead Press 5×5

Deadlift 1×5

Wednesday: Workout A

Squat 5×5

Bench Press 5×5

Barbell Row 5×5

Friday: Workout B

Squat 5×5

Overhead Press 5×5

Deadlift 1×5