Welcome to Workout of the Week, number 70. This time we look at a three-day-a-week modified 5×5 StrongLifts beginner workout.
So what’s the training goal? It’s to build strength.
The training variables: We work with 67.5% to 77.5% of the one-rep max. The rep range is 5. It’s a 5×5 training program. Training exertion: moderate to hard. It’s a beginner program. The effort is a maximum or repeated effort—it’s probably more a repeated effort rather than a maximum effort.
The exercises: As the original StrongLifts 5×5 suggests, it’s a squat, a bench press, deadlift, overhead press, and barbell row. Please have a look at the introductory series where I go a bit more in detail. The exercise order goes from squat to push and pull to deadlift, and then assistance exercises if it applies.
More training variables: So there’s a small mistake here. It’s a three-day-a-week program, not two days, but it has only two sessions. So there—excuse my confusion. That’s probably the reason. It’s a station training, including some complexes.
And how does it look? Here we are, and we’ll jump right into it.
Here we are inside our modified StrongLifts 5×5 beginner workout. You get an overview. You can see the table of contents, and then you see how it’s structured. So you have Workout One and Workout Two. So basically two workouts, and they alternate. Yeah. So in week one and three, you have Workout One twice and Workout Two once. And in week two and four, it’s reversed. Yeah, so you have alternating workouts.
And then if we have a look at Workout Number One, we looked at it. So classic StrongLifts 5×5 setup: back squat, bench press, bench row. What I did is the 2A-2B. So I grouped this as a complex. So the first exercise, the back squat, is a standalone exercise. Again, five sets of five at 67.5%, which equates to an RPE of 5. That stays the same for all exercises. The back squat: five minutes inter-set rest. And for our bench press, barbell row: after the bench press, two minutes; after the barbell row, five minutes. And that concludes Workout Number One.
And then if we go to Workout Number Two, you can see same setup here. As I mentioned, I modified the squats. So we don’t do back squats twice a week. We do back squat in Workout One and front squat in Workout Two. Then the overhead press and the deadlift. Yeah. And here we have five sets of five at 67.5%. And for the deadlift, in the original program it’s one set of five. Again, my modified approach here: I have done three sets of five. Yeah. Inter-set rest: five minutes between each set. Yeah, that is basically the beginner workout.
Download the PDF. You get the glossary. You can read about myself. You can read about what other people have to say about me. And last but certainly not least, you can join the membership, where you can download the full four-week periodized program.
Let’s move back and finish that presentation. So what are the next steps?
You download the PDF. You join the membership there. Inside the membership, you get the four-week periodized program. So that was just the first two sessions. You like and subscribe. You can grab all workouts here. You can watch the previous workouts. And if you haven’t already, subscribe.
I see you next week. We do the three-day-a-week modified 5×5 workout for intermediate. Long name. I’m pretty happy I didn’t butcher it. I’ll see you next week.
