Madcow (Bill Star) 5x5

cajuntank

This is more of a statement than a question as I got my but kicked tonight. Monday's are usually my strongest day due to the 2 day weekend I use as recovery. I have been doing squats as my second exercise for the past few weeks, but decided last week that I needed to make them the priority, so I started them back as first exercise. Tonight was my maximum effort of 350lbs x 5 which I barely got, but I was toast for the rest of the workout. Could not even do my set of 5 on OHP that I've done before (could only get 4) and there was no way I could even come close to starting maximum weight for my set of 5 on deadlifts, so I went to about 60% and did a couple of sets of 5, Sumo style just because they felt good.

Going to definitely start Madcow for my deadlifts so that they coincide with the light squat on the second workout of the week. Probably should have done that to begin with anyway. Oh well.

Anyone else doing Madcow or maybe Wendler 5/3/1 Full Body template yet?

MrGonzo05

Nope. But I'm fishing for an intermediate program so interested to see the responses.

cajuntank

Unless something changes my mind, I'll probably stick with Madcow (Bill Star's version) 5x5 for a few months as I progress the rest of my exercises over to it from the 1x5 I'm currently on for deadlifts, OHP, bench, and rows. I am reading Wendler's 531 and Beyond 531 books and his Simple Strength or Full Body template looks really interesting to me at the moment. I'm kinda at a loss on what is the best program while on a caloric deficit as I want to get stronger, but I know trying to lose weight is not helping things along with strength and recovery, and I know I have to be careful of volume work in the programs.

tsimblist

Nope. But I'm fishing for an intermediate program so interested to see the responses.

I am more or less following Mark Rippetoe's Texas Method.

Here is a good article about it: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_texas_method