Madcow 5X5: The Official Workout Guide

This workout might drive you mad, but it can come with some serious strength gains!

The Madcow 5X5 workout is a 3-day workout plan that you can add to your usual workout routine.

In this article, we’ll walk you through the full scope of the Madcow 5X5. We’ll give you the scoop on this workout’s evolution, see what the benefits of Madcow 5X5 are and help you use this strength program to work through your fitness plateaus.

What is Madcow 5X5?

Madcow 5x5 is a strength training program designed for intermediate lifters to help them build muscle and increase their strength. The name derives from an early 2000s internet user called “Madcow” who was active on the popular fitness site EliteFitness.com and bodybuilding.com.

This user was passionate about helping other fitness enthusiasts make the most of their workouts: Madcow wanted people to work on the most effective body part split possible.

Typically, at the time, it was trendy to follow single body part per day splits like the bro split. Madcow thought this fitness approach was a waste of time and wanted to demonstrate a better method to people.

Thus, Madcow decided to modify 1960s weightlifter Bill Starr’s famous 5X5 workout, removing power cleans and high pulls (the Olympic lifts that were specifically designed for event-based fitness) and swapping them for barbell rows and deadlifts.

After all was said and done, the program consisted of 5 major compound exercises (in other words, multi-joint exercises): squats, rows, deadlifts, overhead presses (aka “shoulder presses”) and bench presses.

If you’re still new to these basic lifts, we’d recommend getting familiar with the technique on each one before you start your Madcow 5X5 journeys. If you’re a newbie or would like a refresher, see these quick and simple guides to your major compound lifts:

• Squats
• Squat vs. Deadlift
• Military Press vs. Shoulder Press
• How to Bench More
• Chest Supported Dumbbell Row (this is a row variation, but typically, Madcow uses a standing barbell row).

Madcow 5X5 was modified to better fit lifters who have progressed beyond beginner stages but are not yet at an advanced level.

The program is quite popular for people in the “intermediate” category since it can feel like a grey area when you’re trying to move up to a more complicated training program.

What are the Principles and Key Features of Madcow 5X5?

Like any great workout program, Madcow 5X5 comes with a set of guidelines and governing rules. Let’s take a brief dive into what Madcow aimed to help followers achieve with this fitness program.

1. Progressive Overload

The program emphasizes progressive overload, gradually increasing the weights each week to continue stimulating muscle growth and strength gains.

2. Three Days a Week

Workouts are performed three times a week, typically on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Your workout days can vary based on your schedule and personal preferences, but typically this split is easiest and most logical to follow.

3. Compound Movements

Madcow 5X5 is focused on compound lifts like squats, bench presses, and deadlifts. A compound lift means any lift that works across multiple joints and muscle groups. Typically, these are your heavier priority lists that are most effective for building overall strength.

4. Weekly Progression

In terms of timeline, each week, your weights get incrementally heavier. This is to keep in line with the principles of progressive overload (point 1) that are tried and tested for muscle building. The program uses a combination of 5x5 (five sets of five reps) and lighter sets for some exercises to manage the overall volume and intensity.

5. Structure

Madcow 5X5 has you alternating between heavy, light and medium workouts (HLM). There are also optional moves called “assistance exercises” in each workout. We can think of these as what you’d traditionally call “accessory moves.” These can be things like:

• Face pulls
• Reverse lunges
• Kettlebell swings.

Anything supplementary to a fundamental lift like a squat or deadlift can be considered an accessory or auxiliary exercise. Usually, these exercises are:

• Lighter weight
• Higher rep
• Creative
• Fun!

Monday: Heavy Day - All exercises are performed to set a new 5RM (five-rep max).

Wednesday: Light Day - Here, you use lower intensity and lighter weights to let yourself recover while still providing muscular stimulation.

Friday: Medium Day - The intensity falls somewhere in between Monday and Wednesday. You’re still aiming set new personal records (PRs), but your muscles will be more fatigued than on Monday so you can use lighter weights.

Madcow 5X5— Sample Exercise Plan

Take a look at what a Madcow 5X5 weekly plan can look like. Remember, this is just a sample plan.

You’re free to mix things up as you like, but this type of structure resonates with most intermediate-level lifters who are following Madcow.

Monday (Heavy Day)

• Squat: 5x5 (increasing weight)
• Bench Press: 5x5 (increasing weight)
• Barbell Row: 5x5 (increasing weight)

Wednesday (Light Day)

• Squat: 4x5 (lighter weight)
• Overhead Press: 4x5 (steady weight)
• Deadlift: 4x5 (increasing weight)

Friday (Medium Day)

• Squat: 4x5, 1x3, 1x8 (medium to heavy weight)
• Bench Press: 4x5, 1x3, 1x8 (medium to heavy weight)
• Barbell Row: 4x5, 1x3, 1x8 (medium to heavy weight)

You can also use the official Madcow 5X5 spreadsheet to log your workouts.

Tips and Techniques to Optimize Your Madcow 5x5 Program

Although this is technically a tailored workout for intermediate lifters, there’s no reason you can’t use the Madcow program as a beginner.

You’ll just need to get a little creative and ensure you’re lifting safely and following a few basic rules. Here are our tips for beginners who want to try Madcow 5X5:

1. Form First

Ensure proper form and technique for all compound lifts (squat, bench press, deadlift, overhead press, barbell row) before increasing weight. Consider working with a coach or experienced lifter to check your form.

2. Start Light

Begin with weights that are manageable to ensure you can complete all sets with good form.

It's better to start too light and increase gradually than to start too heavy and risk injury.

3. Proper Warm-Up

Perform a thorough warm-up to prepare your muscles and joints for lifting heavy weights. Include dynamic stretches and light sets of your working exercises.

How do I Work Around Plateaus?

A key reason people like Madcow 5X5 is to overcome plateaus or roadblocks on their fitness journeys. Here are some simple ways you can use Madcow to overcome any fitness obstacles in your path.

1. Follow the Program's Weight Increments

Stick to the listed weight increases for each week (typically around 2.5-5 lbs for upper body lifts and 5-10 lbs for lower body lifts). Don’t jump up a weight too quickly. Although it’s tempting, this can lead you to plateaus or injuries.

2. Microloading

If you find you’re stalling in your progression, use microloading. This means very small weight increases, such as 1 lb only, so you can continue progressing without overloading your muscles.

3. Deload When Necessary

Don't be scared to use a deload week on this program, where you reduce your weight by 10-20%. Although limited research has been done on the subject, coaches have found that integrating deloading into strength training may help break up the monotony of your workouts and reduce injury risk.

This is handy if you feel fatigued or are plateauing. Additionally, this lets your body recover and adapt to the muscular stress of this program without burning yourself out too early.

4. Track Your Progress

Finally, keep a detailed log of your workouts. This includes your weights, sets, reps, and how you felt during each workout. This will help you identify patterns or bad habits so you can adjust accordingly.

An easy-to-use workout tracker, like the Flex app can be one of your biggest assets on a strict program like Madcow.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Here, we’ve got some simple tips for you to follow to improve your Madcow workouts, as well as some common mistakes you may be making that have a negative impact.

1. Overtraining

Too much of a good thing can be dangerous. Don’t add extra exercises or increase your workout frequency beyond the scope of the program. Madcow 5X5 is designed with specific volume and intensity to help balance out your progress and recovery. Listen to your body and give yourself enough time to rest between sessions.

2. Improper Recovery

Make your sleep, nutrition, and hydration just as important as your gym time. Recovery is essential for muscle growth and strength gains, so don’t skip it. Try to get in light cardio and stretching on your off days to help you recover.

You can also take a nap after a workout to let your muscles recover.

3. No Warm-Up

Always do a light and easy warm-up set before your working sets. This will prepare your muscles and joints, help you avoid injuries and improve your performance.

4. Impatience

Finally, muscle building takes time, so be patient with yourself! Strength training is like a long-term relationship. Progress might be slow, but staying consistent is key. If you’re in it for the long haul, don’t make drastic changes to the program if you don't see immediate results.

You’ll end up feeling discouraged and sabotaging yourself before you can even really start!

What Are the Benefits of the Madcow 5X5 Program?

So now you’ve hopefully got a good understanding of how to create a Madcow 5X5 workout routine that works for your fitness goals and weekly schedule. But it’s important to fully understand what you’ll get out of this program with a little discipline.

Here are the main benefits you can expect from Madcow 5X5:

1. Strength Gains

The program emphasizes progressive overload and consistent strength increases. As you increase your weights over time, you'll notice yourself getting stronger in exercises such as squats, bench presses, and deadlifts.

2. Muscle Hypertrophy

Using multiple sets of five reps, the program helps you to grow muscle along with your strength. This muscle growth is also called “hypertrophy.”

Maximizing muscle hypertrophy increases the overall size of your muscles, which is particularly helpful for body aesthetics and composition. You’ll likely have more muscle density too.

3. Scheduled Progression

A weekly progression where you know how your weight increases will work before you add them in is a highly systematic approach to strength training. For an intermediate lifter, this can help you to keep making gains without plateauing.

4. Compound Moves for Functional Strength

The emphasis on compound movements enhances functional strength. This can help you see better performance in sports, or even daily activities like walking, running, or biking on your commute to work.

You can experience better physical coordination and may feel more stable in your body. It’s also a strategy for injury prevention and especially as we age, this is an important one!

5. Mental Discipline

Sticking with any workout program is a major accomplishment that you should be proud of! Madcow 5x5 is no exception. This program fosters discipline and consistency: key attributes for long-term fitness success. Continuing with a weight training program can help you build up mental toughness and confidence.

This is useful in future, too, if you’re interested in other fitness programs like PHUL (Power Hypertrophy Upper Lower) workouts, 75 Hard, PHAT workouts or any other dedicated fitness regimen.

6. Customizable

Finally, Madcow is a great workout to adapt to whatever your goals and training schedule are. You can expect the core structure to stay the same, but the program allows for minor adjustments based on your own progress and recovery needs. This flexibility helps lifters adapt the program to their specific goals.

Is there a Madcow 5X5 Diet?

Unlike other workout plans like the Body Beast workout which suggest a meal plan, Madcow does not specify what you have to eat.

Even so, you should always ensure that your diet is healthy and complementary to your workout goals.

Principles of Healthy Eating for Fitness

• Protein Goals: Recent perspectives on the role of dietary protein indicate that you should try to eat 1.6 to 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily. This can vary depending on your activity level, fitness goals, and whether you hope to lose or gain weight.
• Hydration: Though there's no set water amount to drink (it depends on your thirst level) it’s a good idea to have at least 8-10 cups (2-2.5 liters) of water per day.
• Proper Recovery: Getting in 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night is recommended for most adults. This helps you with muscle recovery and growth.

Big Picture— Does Madcow 5X5 Work?

At the end of the day, we all start our fitness journeys with different genetics, health concerns and previous fitness experiences.

Not every workout program will work for you, just the same way that your perfect workout could spell disaster for someone else. Madcow 5X5 like any workout program isn’t a fix-all solution for everyone, but there are certainly some great results to be found from this workout.

References

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Krzysztofik, M., Wilk, M., Wojdała, G., & Gołaś, A. (2019). Maximizing Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review of Advanced Resistance Training Techniques and Methods. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(24), 4897. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16244897

Paoli, A., Gentil, P., Moro, T., Marcolin, G., & Bianco, A. (2017). Resistance Training with Single vs. Multi-joint Exercises at Equal Total Load Volume: Effects on Body Composition, Cardiorespiratory Fitness, and Muscle Strength. Frontiers in physiology, 8, 1105. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2017.01105

Plotkin, D., Coleman, M., Van Every, D., Maldonado, J., Oberlin, D., Israetel, M., Feather, J., Alto, A., Vigotsky, A. D., & Schoenfeld, B. J. (2022). Progressive overload without progressing load? The effects of load or repetition progression on muscular adaptations. PeerJ, 10, e14142. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14142

Stokes, T., Hector, A. J., Morton, R. W., McGlory, C., & Phillips, S. M. (2018). Recent Perspectives Regarding the Role of Dietary Protein for the Promotion of Muscle Hypertrophy with Resistance Exercise Training. Nutrients, 10(2), 180. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10020180