The 2×5 Squats on Wednesday is lighter than on Monday for recovery. Here’s the template that I recommend you to follow… Monday Remember 1×5 stand for ramped up sets – 4 sets of 5 reps with the weight increasing until you reach your last heavy set of 5. If that doesn’t sound much, realize that it’s still 120lb in 1 year. 10lb per month on your Squat is more realistic. Forget about boosting your Squat by 120lb in only 8 weeks with Madcow. You’ll always gain strength faster on StrongLifts 5×5 because there the weight increases by 5lb 3x/week. Realize that none of the above modifications will benefit you unless you are an intermediate lifter. This light day provides you extra physical and mental recovery for Friday’s workout. Wednesday is a light Squat day where you’ll be Squatting less weight than on Monday and Friday. Instead you’ll increase the weight on a weekly basis – every week you’ll lift 5lb more than the previous week. You’ll no longer add weight 3x/week because your body doesn’t recover that fast anymore once at the intermediate level. Ramped up sets are easier than 5×5 across, especially since you should now be Squatting around 300lb. Instead you’ll do ramped up sets: increase your weight every set like when you warm-up and finish with a heavy set of 5 reps (1×5). No more 5 sets of 5 with the same weight.But because you are now an intermediate lifter moving bigger weights, the program introduces 3 modifications to optimize recovery from the increasingly stressful workouts (recovery is vital for strength gains)… With Madcow you’ll still do all exercises of StrongLifts 5×5 incl the 3x/week Squats. The program is similar to the Texas Method since Madcow spent a lot of time on the phone with the creator of the Texas Method – coach Glenn Pendlay MS himself. It’s his intermediate training program that is now commonly known as Madcow 5×5. The 2 most important works of Madcow were his Intermediate and Advanced training programs. Nobody knows who he was, he seemed to have disappeared from all the forums he visited around mid 2007. In 2005 he began publishing everything he learned on the defunct Geocities (backup of the website here).
Origins of Madcow. Several years ago “Madcow” was a user at who spent many afternoons on the phone with Olympic coach Glenn Pendlay MS. A 30y old guy weighing around 200lb will usually have to switch after reaching the 300lb Squat. The lighter/heavier you are, the sooner/later the switch to Madcow. When to switch from StrongLifts 5×5 to Madcow 5×5 depends on your body-weight and age. Madcow 5×5 is the training program which I recommend you to do once you’re no longer making progress on your Squats with StrongLifts 5×5.