Madcow 5×5Workout guide.

Make the next week stronger

Madcow 5×5 is worth understanding when you like a small menu of barbell lifts but a heavier squat every session has become difficult to sustain. Its appeal is a visible sequence: practice the lifts with changing loads, introduce a heavier target for fewer reps, and work toward performing that load for more reps in a later session.

Start the Madcow companion planner with a recent completed top set, a realistic weekly increment and the plates you can actually load. The tool provides a configurable weekly ramp example. Verify its assumptions against the version you intend to follow before using the output in the gym.

This distinction matters because Madcow is a historical program with several spreadsheet and app interpretations. Our practical reference is the current StrongLifts Madcow guide, a publisher’s adaptation of the older routine. It should not be presented as a newly verified copy of the anonymous author’s original spreadsheet.

Identify the version before entering numbers

The current StrongLifts implementation uses editable fixed weekly increments, with smaller jumps suggested for upper-body lifts. Its spreadsheet documentation describes a default four-week on-ramp and editable intervals between ramp sets. The FAQ contrasts that approach with older percentage-based progression.

Write the implementation name at the top of your log. If your spreadsheet multiplies each top set by a percentage while an app adds a fixed number of pounds, they will diverge. That discrepancy is not necessarily a calculation error; they may be following different rules.

Check the difference with simple arithmetic before importing a file. A fixed 2.5 kg increase changes 100 kg to 102.5 kg and 200 kg to 202.5 kg. A 2.5% increase changes those references to 102.5 kg and 205 kg instead. The first example happens to agree at one load, which can hide the mismatch until later. Inspect the formula or the stated setting rather than assuming two matching first rows prove that the entire progression is identical.

Likewise, a twelve-week worksheet is a display window, not proof that everyone must stop after twelve weeks. StrongLifts explicitly explains that progress can continue beyond the displayed period. See the duration discussion. Decide when to review the program, but avoid converting a spreadsheet’s last row into an invented training law.

Who it suits and what you need

Consider Madcow when you can execute the main lifts consistently, want three scheduled sessions, and prefer strength targets over a large exercise rotation. It can be a practical bridge from StrongLifts 5×5 once that program’s session-by-session progression becomes inappropriate for your current response.

Before changing programs, check whether your previous difficulties came from attendance, rushed rest periods or oversized increments. A new worksheet cannot correct a gym that only permits jumps larger than you can manage. Fractional plates can make a small planned increase physically possible; they do not guarantee that the increase will be appropriate.

The typical setup requires a rack, barbell, bench and plates, plus whatever equipment your selected variations use. A different incline bench, row setup or bar can alter the comparison. Record those details before the first session so later improvements refer to the same task.

Read the weekly pattern correctly

In the current StrongLifts guide, the repeating sessions are A, B and C. A uses ramped sets of five. B contains a lighter squat exposure alongside its other lifts. C includes ramped work, a heavier triple and a back-off set of eight on the relevant lifts. This is not five equally heavy sets across, and it is not an alternating A/B/A beginner schedule.

Some descriptions call the first session heavy because it ends with a demanding five, while the current publisher calls A medium and C heavy. Session letters plus exact sets are less ambiguous than those adjectives. Keep that distinction visible when comparing two articles or importing an old log.

Ramp sets are part of the plan

A ramp means that the load rises across successive sets. It does not mean that every preparatory set is disposable. The earlier work establishes the context in which the top set was performed. A top five after four prescribed ramp sets is a different performance from an isolated fresh five.

For an independent arithmetic example, choose a 100 kg top set and equally spaced percentages of 50%, 62.5%, 75%, 87.5% and 100%. The unrounded series is 50, 62.5, 75, 87.5 and 100 kg. Those values illustrate one transparent ramp convention; they are not a claim that every historical Madcow version uses the same intervals.

Use the warm-up calculator for additional preparation when needed, and label it separately. The plate calculator helps confirm whether each planned total can be loaded with your bar and plates.

Set the on-ramp deliberately

An on-ramp gives the early weeks a purpose other than chasing immediate records. In the StrongLifts spreadsheet explanation, the default is to reach the previous best in week four. Your reference must be recent and comparable, rather than your all-time strongest isolated attempt.

Here is a separate fixed-increment example. Assume your comparable top five is 100 kg, your weekly increase is 2.5 kg, and you intend to match that result in week four. Week one becomes 92.5 kg, week two 95 kg, week three 97.5 kg and week four 100 kg. There are three increases between four listed weeks, so subtracting four increments would place the starting row incorrectly.

Do the same calculation independently for each lift. A manageable squat increment is not automatically a manageable press increment. If you only have larger plates, edit the plan instead of silently rounding every increase upward. The on-ramp should create a sequence you can execute and review.

Understand the triple-to-five handoff

The heavier triple is useful to track because it introduces the next top-set load for fewer reps. In the current publisher’s description, the later five uses that heavier load as the progression continues. Read the A/C progression explanation.

Suppose an illustrative A top set is 100 kg for five and the selected increment is 2.5 kg. The C target might be 102.5 kg for three, with the next A targeting 102.5 kg for five. The added load and added reps happen at different points. Completing the triple does not prove that the five has already been earned.

Keep separate fields for planned load, planned reps, actual load and actual reps. If C ends at two reps, leave it at two. A spreadsheet that advances because the date changed must not overwrite the result you actually performed. Before copying its next row, apply your chosen version’s response to an incomplete session.

What to do after a missed target

First identify the failed component. An incomplete top five, a slow triple, an interrupted session and a missed back-off set are not identical events. Note whether the load was correct and whether the earlier ramps matched the plan. A loading mistake should not trigger the same conclusion as a repeated performance problem.

The StrongLifts guide explicitly describes repeating an A top-set load when five reps were not completed. Its FAQ also discusses handling a stalled lift separately from lifts that continue to progress. Those are version-specific instructions, not a reason to invent one reset percentage for every Madcow spreadsheet.

For your editorial review, compare at least the recent attempts and their conditions before choosing a larger change. If the bench stalls while squat progresses, inspect bench increments and setup first. Resetting every lift would discard information about the parts of the plan that are still working.

Keep the light squat light

A lighter session is easy to misunderstand because the workout still contains other demanding lifts. Judge each lift by its role rather than giving the whole day one effort label. A lighter squat session does not automatically imply that the deadlift should feel easy, or that you should add extra squat work to make the visit count.

Use the middle session to repeat a clear technique standard. In the squat guide, review setup, depth and the control you intend to keep consistent. Write a short observation rather than turning every set into a test: same depth, balanced stance, no unexpected change in execution.

If that lighter squat consistently becomes difficult, look back at the reference load, rounding and recent workload. Do not increase it simply because the spreadsheet contains another week. Holding an appropriate relationship between the sessions matters more than making every cell larger.

Missed days, travel and returning

Track session order as well as dates. If work moves your usual Wednesday session to Thursday, write the new date and inspect the interval before the next session. Avoid squeezing all missed work into one visit just to retain a neat weekly calendar.

After a single missed day, continuing the sequence with sensible spacing can be easier to interpret than skipping directly to the next week’s heavier targets. After a longer interruption, reassess what is currently repeatable and consider a new on-ramp. This is editorial scheduling advice; the appropriate return loads depend on the absence and your actual response.

For travel without your usual gym, maintain a separate record of replacement work. A hotel dumbbell workout is a completed workout, but it does not complete the barbell targets in a Madcow row. Preserving that distinction makes the return decision clearer and avoids inflated progression records.

Substitutions and assistance

Choose the lift variations before judging the block. If you opt for overhead press rather than incline bench in an allowed variation, track it independently and use its own reference. The overhead press guide can support a consistent setup. Do not transfer a flat-bench working load to a new press by habit.

Assistance should have an explicit role and a time limit. Adding several exercises every time the early weeks feel manageable can create a different workload just as the main lifts become heavier. Record assistance sets so a later plateau does not appear to have arrived without any change in training.

If a replacement becomes permanent, start a new baseline for that movement. A chest-supported row and a free-standing row use different constraints. Keeping their records separate is more informative than celebrating a load increase produced by changing the exercise.

Evaluate a before-and-after record

This is an illustrative training record, created to demonstrate review rather than report a real person’s results. It is not a transformation, endorsement or forecast.

The example does not establish that Madcow caused a particular strength gain. Real evaluation needs comparable technique, attendance and the complete record. It does show why tracking only the heaviest number loses much of the program’s structure.

Know when to keep going or switch

Continue while your chosen progression is productive, the sessions fit your week, and the loads remain interpretable. A repeated target may be useful practice. Repeating the same stalled pattern indefinitely without changing the underlying decision is a different matter.

Texas Method organizes a distinct relationship between volume and intensity. 5/3/1 offers a training-max framework and different progression timing. PHUL provides four upper/lower sessions when exercise variety and bodybuilding work matter more. Pick the next structure by the problem it solves rather than by its reputation as more advanced.

Keep the last successful, comparable sets from this block. They are more useful starting evidence than a single optimistic estimated maximum. The one-rep-max calculator can supply context, but an estimate should not replace actual completed-set data when your planner asks for a recent performance.

Export a plan you can audit

Use the Madcow companion planner to inspect the top load, increment, ramp assumptions, units and rounding. Export its actual calculated output to CSV for Excel or Google Sheets, or print it. Keep blank actual-result fields until the training happens; future rows are proposals.

For the publisher’s complete implementation and spreadsheet, visit StrongLifts’ workout guide and spreadsheet page. Sources were checked on 15 October 2026. The numerical examples and review workflow here are independent editorial explanations, with every assumption stated so you can change it deliberately.