Moving on From Stronglifts 5x5

Bigger Stronger Leaner
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I’ve been lifting for 4 months following the Stronglifts 5x5 program. Doing it 3, sometimes 4 times per week.

Male, 17y/o, 71kg at 178cm

My current lifts (haven’t tested 1RM)
Squat: 5x5 at 107.5kg
Bench press: 5x5 at 55kg
Barbell row: 5x5 at 60kg (I’m a bit unsure on the form but at 50-55kg ish it should be with good form)
Deadlift: 1x5 at 115kg
Overhead press: 5x5 at 37.5kg (I have a hard time making progress on this)

I’ve also been a bit back and forth doing dips, pull-ups, push-ups, farmers walk and tried out behind the neck press to help improve my overhead press but have quit that because of its potential to cause injury.

I’ve been thinking about making a new program, working out 4-5 times per week, 60-90min per workout but I’ve yet to decide on Push/Pull/Legs, Push/Pull or continue with a full body. I also have P.E. on Fridays (morning) and it varies form volley ball to heavy conditioning work to strength training.
My primary goal is to get stronger and more explosive, but considering my age and experience also add some muscle.

Lifts/exercises I have thought about having in the program are as follows:
Squats, high-bar, front and maybe Bulgarian split
Deadlift, conventional and trap bar, don’t know exactly how sumo works but maybe that too/instead
Bench press
Overhead press

Power clean
Push press
Dips
Pull-ups or chin-ups
Some form of row

I’m also considering:
Jumps, for example box jumps
Sprints
Loaded carries or prowler pushes
Kettle bell swing, either light/medium weight for conditioning/hip hinge or “heavy ass kettle bell swings” as an assistant exercise to the deadlift

My problem is that I’m not sure how to set it up/structure my workouts and I don’t want to “major in the minors” either. I’ve had a look at 5/3/1 but I didn’t see a way to incorporate dips, power cleans and push presses or rows which i would like to have in my program (haven’t bought the book but looked at some t-nation articles about it).

So I’m looking for suggestions on what I should do next.

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You didn’t mention calories or sleep. Make sure you are eating enough for your goals and you’re sleeping eight hours.

Your lifts are really good for 4 months. I think staying on the 5x5 program for another 4-6 months might be wise. You want to milk these noobie gains for all they’re worth on the beginner program. When your lifts get heavier you won’t recover from 5x5 three times per week.

If you’ve stalled on a lift take 15kg off it and get back into the rotation.

3 Likes
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When it comes to sleep and calorie intake, I would honestly assume that I don’t get enough of either. Because I live almost 2 hours away form my school i get somewhere around 6-7 maybe 7,5 every now and then. I don’t keep track of my calories, but I try to eat “a lot”(if i had to guess, around 2500kcal, which probably isn’t enough) and also that what i eat is good/quality food most of the time.

Thanks for the advise, I’ll probably stick to the program for a few more months. And also try to get a bit more sleep.

Any idea of how to implement power cleans into it? At the moment the program doesn’t contain any explosive movements so i would like to add it to the program.

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I try to keep lifts I don’t know how to do yet on the weekend by themselves like an event day for strongmen. If you want to do extra lifts or isolation stuff in addition to 5x5 I’d recommend putting it on Saturday. You caneed do your power cleans and other things that day to actually practice the lift and get better at it.

As for tracking calories. Download myfitnesspal and log your calories. At the beginning it takes 10 minutes per day, later on it takes 5.

There’s a lot in this hobby you can’t control: your muscle fiber types, leverages, tendon size and strength, muscle belly shape etc…

You absolutely can control your food intake, training and sleep. Estimating is no good. All of the skinny guys say the eat “about” 2,500 calories (like you) are really barely eating 1,750. Conversely all the fat guys (like me) are really eating 3,500 calories.

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Dips and rows are two of the most common assistance exercises in 5/3/1. I’m not sure about push presses but there are also several templates with power cleans.

I’d recommend you get the books or at least one and see what you think.

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your joking , those items can easily be worked into the 5/3/1 Template. Is there a reason you havent purchased the book itself?

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Once you “get” 5/3/1 after say 3-4 cycles you can add and subtract pretty much any sensible asisstance moves as long as your main lifts are still going up.
Sooo basically do something like triumvirate exactly for 3 months…

Jim has templates to add powercleans and push presses in his books also

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After reading the responses, i’ll buy the Beyond 5/3/1 and read it.

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I haven’t read or purchased the book, but i’ve decided to do so.

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Thanks for the response, I’ll buy Beyond 5/3/1 and give it a read.

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If you liked the workouts of 5 x 5 then Texas Method is worth a look at but otherwise do 5/3/1 it definitely works.
Your lifts are very good for your age and your squat is better than mine and you’ve only been training one third of the time I have.
My Overhead press went from what yours is now to a single at 60kgs in around 6 months on 5/3/1. I’m the same age as you btw.