Want to start Stronglifts but keep working out 5x week

The program is written the way it is because when training using that format, rest is of extremely high importance.

It's important to note that Stronglifts was designed primarily for people seeking functional strength gains. And any program designed for people seeking such a goal will feature more rest days, because the workouts work your whole body.

If you want to train 5 days a week, then a "bro split" will be perfectly fine. However, just bear in mind you will not see the same kind of gains (in terms of functional fitness) that you would if you were training full body, fewer days a week.

The format of SL works really well though for people who are relatively new to lifting- the squats every workout are ok when you're not lifting THAT much weight- your legs can handle it. I think pretty much everyone serious will come to a point where they can't make forward progress anymore without splitting it up, but it's really good until you stall out. It's soooo much more simple than other splits. I was successful at it for probably a year (though I will always argue that chin ups or pull ups need to be in that program)

See I actually completely disagree with this, the structure of stronglifts 5x5 lends itself more to a moderate-advanced program, for the following reasons:

• Compound work is generally not for newbies, that's isolation work on machines. Compounds require nuances and an understanding of proper form.
• Heavy compound work requires even more advanced knowledge. Form has to be perfect to avoid injury. You have to have experience and confidence to know your limits. This reason alone makes it at least a moderately advanced workout.
• Simplicity of the routine does not equal newbie friendly, the simplicity is deceptively hard. It does require discipline to follow it exactly and an advanced understanding of the importance of rest/recovery to not modify it, as we've seen in this thread.
• I think a person can disagree with squat frequency but the program makes the argument this is the most important exercise and people can handle the frequency/progression. This may just be a philosophical difference but does not indicate the routine is less advanced.

Nonsense like this is what keeps so many new lifters away from barbell work. There's zero reason for a beginning lifter not to start off with barbell compound lifts. All it takes is half a brain to use the resources available to do it safely and effectively.

Recovery is part of the program, so I would not do accessory lifts on off days. That subverts that recovery portion.

Regarding the above post, I would actually not recommend doing HIIT on your off days. Running, yoga, Pilates, anything else, would be okay.

Why no hiit?

If you're truly doing HIIT correctly it taxes the muscles the same as lifting, and requires the same rest time afterwards- so doing it in between is almost the same as lifting again.

Most people don't really do HIIT when they say they're doing it though. Like if someone says they're doing 30 mins of HIIT, it's not HIIT.

Sooo what if you lift Monday/Wednesday/Friday, do something Tuesday let's say, then Hiit on Saturday, that works? i realize it's the day after lifting but you have more time to recover until monday.

If you wanted to do HIIT too, do HIIT on the same day as your lifting, and let the recovery day be a recovery day.
That's what I've seen recommended, but I do not do HIIT, so maybe someone can back me up or correct me.

Ive heard that too, but ive also seen: lift 3 days a week, hiit twice for the best results of fat loss. Though I don't do hiit on lift days because blaha's 5 x5, which is essentially stronglifts with accessory work, takes about 70-80 minutes to complete and i am pretty gassed afterwards. So usually i just leave it for the day after. But i do want to know too now.

And this is the key. If your goal is fat loss, not strength gain, do HIIT. If you want to see significant strength gains, take the rest days.

I used to do the StrongLifts program it was a godsend it ramped by Deadlift, Squat and Bench Press to over 300lbs each in a matter of months. But I didn't ONLY do StongLifts, cause i felt like I'd be short changing myself if j didn't go hard in the gym for the majority of the week (4 to 5 days). So if you want to go the gym more than the 3 days the program says you should go ahead, just make sure you give 100% everyday you hit the gym. I'd recommend doing exercises that compliment the stronglifts stuff on the other days: CrossFit WODs are good short workouts that make sure you don't burnout the next day.

I'd agree with that. I'm doing stronglifts, and I have been doing steady state cardio on some of my rest days with at least 2 true rest days a week. I'm getting tired of that, so I'm going to try barbell complexes for cardio on off days (and maybe one day the same day as lifting but different time because that's when I can make it to the gym). I'm going to try and see what happens. For a few months, I rowed on off days, and after 90 minutes in a boat, the next day lifts sucked. I was ok with that.

Your lifting might suffer, it might improve. See what happens and see if you like it. If your big lifts suffer and you don't like the results, go back to 3 days. If you're exhausted and can't recover, go back to 3 days only. If you can handle it just fine, keep doing it. I would still keep some true rest days to give your muscles time to rebuild.

The most you could reasonably dois break it up into upper/lower days.

Day 1: Squat (5x5), Deadlift (1x5), Abs
Day 2: OHP (5x5), Row (5x5), Bench (5x5)
Day 3: Squat (5x5), Deadlift Variant (light, 3x10), Abs
Day 4: OHP (5x5), Row (5x5), Bench (5x5)

The only thing you loose is Squating 3x week, in favor of twice. Which is fine actually, and you're getting more volume in week after week. You're hitting everything 4x per 2 week period, vs 3x with the standard SL5x5.

^ I like it.

Ya right? It was fun to think about but it's not perfect.

One thing I hadn't considered was the incrementation though. I guess keep it the same with an individual limit for the deadlift variant since it's assistance work and not meant to be a strength exercise.

It's also going to be more intensive since you're always hitting everything twice a week. Maybe OHP light 3x10 one day, and Bench light 3x10 the other to keep it a bit less intense? I'm really starting like the thought of this though...

I've been doing strong lift some weeks = newbie. My opinion: Keep it simple and just listen to your body. I started of training on rest days. No problem at all. However when the weight progressed i noticed the need for rest days. Still have som complementary stuff on workout days though. When they start to wear me down i dropp them or lower the reps.
Just go with the flow!

If you are doing 5x5 reps at a truly heavy weight for you, you'll need that day off.

I agree with this. Both the Stronglifts A and Stronglifts B workout contain squats. I see no way that you could follow the program as designed and recover fully between workouts when squatting 5x5 with heavy weights, five days each week.

If you are worried about your knees, focus on low impact forms of cardio such as swimming.

This is my main beef with Stronglifts, that it has squats every lifting day. I get that it keeps it simple with heavy compounds, but a traditional body part split makes soooo much more sense. If you do a 3, 4, or 5 day split where each day is a separate muscle group, then that muscle group has much more time to recover before it has to be worked out again meaning you can hit that muscle group as hard as possible and not have to worry about hitting it again in 2 days...

Stronglifts is intended for beginners. Beginners don't need long recovery times between sessions. It's when you get to the intermediate and advanced stages that you need longer recovery times, and that's when a split is effective. Basically, a beginner will be ready to go after 36 hours of recovery, so doing a split and extending that recovery time just makes for slower, less efficient progression.

Also bear in mind splits are structured for people whose goals are mainly aesthetic. People who are seeking more functional or athletic gains don't train in splits. Competing lifters, MMA fighters, etc... They don't do splits. There's a reason for that.

If you are doing 5x5 reps at a truly heavy weight for you, you'll need that day off.

I agree with this. Both the Stronglifts A and Stronglifts B workout contain squats. I see no way that you could follow the program as designed and recover fully between workouts when squatting 5x5 with heavy weights, five days each week.

If you are worried about your knees, focus on low impact forms of cardio such as swimming.

This is my main beef with Stronglifts, that it has squats every lifting day. I get that it keeps it simple with heavy compounds, but a traditional body part split makes soooo much more sense. If you do a 3, 4, or 5 day split where each day is a separate muscle group, then that muscle group has much more time to recover before it has to be worked out again meaning you can hit that muscle group as hard as possible and not have to worry about hitting it again in 2 days...

Stronglifts is intended for beginners. Beginners don't need long recovery times between sessions. It's when you get to the intermediate and advanced stages that you need longer recovery times, and that's when a split is effective. Basically, a beginner will be ready to go after 36 hours of recovery, so doing a split and extending that recovery time just makes for slower, less efficient progression.

Also bear in mind splits are structured for people whose goals are mainly aesthetic. People who are seeking more functional or athletic gains don't train in splits. Competing lifters, MMA fighters, etc... They don't do splits. There's a reason for that.

Competing lifters don't do splits? Since when?

Not a complete split. Push/pull/legs or something of the like isn't uncommon, but something like chest-mon, back-tues, abs & cardio wed, and stuff along those lines is more bodybuilding/aesthetics-specific. It's still a compound-based lifting based program which doesn't allow for full on splits.

In any case, the point was that SS/SL are based on strength-building programs first and foremost, and the intermediate to advanced programs you progress to after completing them (should you choose to) are more of the same in many ways, and are not even remotely similar to a bodybuilding split. Saying one is better than the other is untrue as they are for different goals.

If you are doing 5x5 reps at a truly heavy weight for you, you'll need that day off.

I agree with this. Both the Stronglifts A and Stronglifts B workout contain squats. I see no way that you could follow the program as designed and recover fully between workouts when squatting 5x5 with heavy weights, five days each week.

If you are worried about your knees, focus on low impact forms of cardio such as swimming.

This is my main beef with Stronglifts, that it has squats every lifting day. I get that it keeps it simple with heavy compounds, but a traditional body part split makes soooo much more sense. If you do a 3, 4, or 5 day split where each day is a separate muscle group, then that muscle group has much more time to recover before it has to be worked out again meaning you can hit that muscle group as hard as possible and not have to worry about hitting it again in 2 days...

Stronglifts is intended for beginners. Beginners don't need long recovery times between sessions. It's when you get to the intermediate and advanced stages that you need longer recovery times, and that's when a split is effective. Basically, a beginner will be ready to go after 36 hours of recovery, so doing a split and extending that recovery time just makes for slower, less efficient progression.

Also bear in mind splits are structured for people whose goals are mainly aesthetic. People who are seeking more functional or athletic gains don't train in splits. Competing lifters, MMA fighters, etc... They don't do splits. There's a reason for that.

Competing lifters don't do splits? Since when?

Not a complete split. Push/pull/legs or something of the like isn't uncommon, but something like chest-mon, back-tues, abs & cardio wed, and stuff along those lines is more bodybuilding/aesthetics-specific. It's still a compound-based lifting based program which doesn't allow for full on splits. They have things like snatch day, clean & jerk day (+ accessory lifts and such)

IDK, by my definition push-pull-legs is a split....anything that's not full-body is a split but I guess that's just semantics. I agree that a competitive lifter won't have a triceps and traps day as part of their main program.

Push-Pull-Legs is a split, yes. I see it as more of a hybrid personally, someone who wants the best of both worlds.

Squats 5x per week and Deads 2-3x per week?

No way. Nuh uh. Would not do.


Just the thought makes me quiver in fear.

I'm loving stronglift too, and appreciate you wanting to spend more time in the gym than the recommended 3 times. I''ve been on the program 2 months and was in the gym 5 days a week over the christmas break. must admit my knees got a bit sore with all the squats i was doing.

I squat and press each to daily max singles 5-7 days a week, and then do some backoff work and then work my mid/upper back. You'd be amazed what you are capable of IF you program to work that way.

But you're doing a programme designed for this kind of frequency. Probably with reduced (or waved) volume (or else you're genetically-gifted in the recovery department).

Stronglifts isn't designed for everyday use, so the OP should either a) do Stronglifts and do something non-lifting related on the other two days; or b) do a programme designed for 5 (or 6) days a week lifting there are many examples (from PHAT to bro-split to Perryman-esque Everyday Squatting) that would fit this bill. Whether they would be suitable for a beginner is another matter entirely

It makes no less sense than a bro split. Particularly for a beginner, there's no reason to spend so much time between hitting muscle groups. Hell, bulgarian/oly style programs squat daily. Then there's Sheiko and Smolov in between. People are capable of way more than they give themselves credit for.

Whilst I don't disagree with the premise of what you say, you can't compare strong lifts and Bulgarian programs. Especially as (I hope) most newbies aren't taking anywhere near as much (or any at all) gear as Bulgarian weightlifters.

There's no need to be on the juice to do a high volume program like Sheiko, or even a daily lifting program like "bulgarian-style" training. You just have to check your ego at the door and be intelligent about it.

I squat and press each to daily max singles 5-7 days a week, and then do some backoff work and then work my mid/upper back. You'd be amazed what you are capable of IF you program to work that way.

But you're doing a programme designed for this kind of frequency. Probably with reduced (or waved) volume (or else you're genetically-gifted in the recovery department).

Stronglifts isn't designed for everyday use, so the OP should either a) do Stronglifts and do something non-lifting related on the other two days; or b) do a programme designed for 5 (or 6) days a week lifting there are many examples (from PHAT to bro-split to Perryman-esque Everyday Squatting) that would fit this bill. Whether they would be suitable for a beginner is another matter entirely

You and I are actually in total agreement here. Notice I specified that it works IF you are programming that type of frequency.

To clarify: I am NOT in support of the OP doing SL+ anything. Maybe some LISS on off days. IMO, the program, much like SS, only works if done the way it was designed, particularly after about the first month when the weight starts really getting challenging (well, it may take longer with SL since he designs it to start with the bar so he can claim huge gains :eyeroll:).

Yeah, I think we've touched on this somewhere else? Well put together lift-everyday programmes are legitimate. There's something to the whole "greasing the groove" as far as cns adaption goes. After all, it's like a skill, right? Dodgy injections are not needed if the programme's set up correctly!

Plus, if you like training a lot, you're going to be miserable doing PTTP or something like that where you only have to show up twice a week.

Totally agree on the programme (SL or SS): if you're going to do a programme that's intrinsically designed in terms of volume/frequency a certain way - do it that way. Or else: don't! Find a different routine that fits your training preferences/recovery abilities.

It makes no less sense than a bro split. Particularly for a beginner, there's no reason to spend so much time between hitting muscle groups. Hell, bulgarian/oly style programs squat daily. Then there's Sheiko and Smolov in between. People are capable of way more than they give themselves credit for.

Whilst I don't disagree with the premise of what you say, you can't compare strong lifts and Bulgarian programs. Especially as (I hope) most newbies aren't taking anywhere near as much (or any at all) gear as Bulgarian weightlifters.

Sheiko and Smolov also work at submaximal weight in order to be able to keep up that volume. It's an advanced routine for someone who already has a base of strength. They progressively overload and reduce volume as the routine gets into the later stages, like a lot of other progressive overload programs do.

As far as compound movements go- this is definitely what a beginner wants to do. Learning proper form and technique on these lifts builds a base of ability that will last a lifetime and transfer to other routines once you are more advanced. 5x5 isn't something an advanced lifter will do long term, but like someone posted, for an advanced lifter coming back from injury or layoff, it's a good way to build your base back up. When I returned to lifting from a 3 year layoff, I picked up 5x5 to get me jump started again.

I was never a fan of the body part split, but my goals were different. I did a split based on working the lifts themselves. Squat based day would be heavy squats and 2 squat assistance lifts like box squats with chains on the bar to overload the lockout, and pause squats, bench based day- a heavy bench movement (not always flat bench, but often, board presses with different height boards) and then 2 bench assistance lifts which would usually be more board presses with different height boards. Deadlift based day, deadlifts and 2 assist lifts, like deadlifts standing on plates to increase rom, deadlifts with the plates sitting on blocks to reduce rom and overload the lockout, rack pulls, good mornings, etc. Bench assistance day with things like decline bench, rows, DB work, bench with chains on the bar to overload the lockout, etc. Mon/Tues/Thurs/Fri.