MADCOW - Weight not increasing with each workout judging from my spreadsheet

[Tinosantana]

I have attached my excel worksheet, see the second tab for my planned numbers.

I've done one week of MADCOW thus far, pretty cool program after coming off of Stronglifts, I am loving the 'easy' weeks so far, although i'm keeping the intensity up.

My squat is going well, and I look forward to more PRs, but I really want to get Deadlift (currently Dead is near my squat weight) and bench more up there in the numbers.

The warm-up sets and work sets aren't really jumping up much, and for 12 weeks, other than the squat and dead, they're not that impressive. If you take a look at the spreadsheet, the workouts are pretty much the same as the last week.

Second week - Monday, 120kg on the squat. Friday I am meant to be doing this again for a heavy triple, why?! Then NEXT monday and I back to 120kg at 5x again, so that's 3 workouts on 120kg.

I understand the first 4 weeks are 'easier' but is this correct looking? Look at the Bench/Row numbers, at best I can only get around 20kg on my lifts. Am i expecting too much like a typical forum jerk?

Many thanks

[GinjaNinja85]

I have attached my excel worksheet, see the second tab for my planned numbers.

I've done one week of MADCOW thus far, pretty cool program after coming off of Stronglifts, I am loving the 'easy' weeks so far, although i'm keeping the intensity up.

My squat is going well, and I look forward to more PRs, but I really want to get Deadlift (currently Dead is near my squat weight) and bench more up there in the numbers.

The warm-up sets and work sets aren't really jumping up much, and for 12 weeks, other than the squat and dead, they're not that impressive. If you take a look at the spreadsheet, the workouts are pretty much the same as the last week.

Second week - Monday, 120kg on the squat. Friday I am meant to be doing this again for a heavy triple, why?! Then NEXT monday and I back to 120kg at 5x again, so that's 3 workouts on 120kg.

I understand the first 4 weeks are 'easier' but is this correct looking? Look at the Bench/Row numbers, at best I can only get around 20kg on my lifts. Am i expecting too much like a typical forum jerk?

Many thanks

I haven't looked at your spreadsheet as I'm on my phone, but my interpretation of it is that you make the heavy triple on Friday 2.5% higher than the Monday weight.

So you should be moving up to 122.5kg - 125kg provided you got all reps on Monday's volume day and also lifted the heavy triple at the higher weight. Make sense?

[Tinosantana]

I haven't looked at your spreadsheet as I'm on my phone, but my interpretation of it is that you make the heavy triple on Friday 2.5% higher than the Monday weight.

So you should be moving up to 122.5kg - 125kg provided you got all reps on Monday's volume day and also lifted the heavy triple at the higher weight. Make sense?

That would make sense, I DID wonder why ##2.5 and ##7.5 were absent from the spreadsheet!

At least i'm one week in!

[Adamspoon]

Looks like your spreadsheet is rounding down to nearest 5kg, which is not ideal.

Try the one at the bottom of this page

http://madcow.hostzi.com/5x5_Program/Linear_5x5.htm

[Tinosantana]

Nope, still doing it! Excel being dumb maybe?

[Lackeos]

-This is an intermediate program. If you're intermediate, then you shouldn't expect gains at beginner speed.
-I don't know what your body weight is, but judging by your lifts, you might not be intermediate yet, unless your body weight is quite low. In the case that you're not intermediate yet, a beginner program might offer gains at a speed more to your liking.
-You told it that your smallest plate was 2.5 kg. 2.5 kg on each side of a bar means that the smallest increment you could possibly make is 5 kg. That's why increasing the weight by 0 and 5 kg are pretty much the spreadsheet's only options. If you expect the lifts to increase by 5 kg every week, then... don't, because an intermediate lifter adding 60 kg to the bar in 12 weeks is a tad ridiculous. Do you not have 1.1 kg plates? Because if you did, and you entered 1.1 kg into the spreadsheet for smallest plates available, you would see the weight increases every week with no repeats.
-If you want your bench and row to go up more than 20 kg... stick to the program for more than 12 weeks. Because even those gains in bench and row at that speed for an intermediate lifter are quite fast.

[Tinosantana]

-This is an intermediate program. If you're intermediate, then you shouldn't expect gains at beginner speed.
-I don't know what your body weight is, but judging by your lifts, you might not be intermediate yet, unless your body weight is quite low. In the case that you're not intermediate yet, a beginner program might offer gains at a speed more to your liking.
-You told it that your smallest plate was 2.5 kg. 2.5 kg on each side of a bar means that the smallest increment you could possibly make is 5 kg. That's why increasing the weight by 0 and 5 kg are pretty much the spreadsheet's only options. If you expect the lifts to increase by 5 kg every week, then... don't, because an intermediate lifter adding 60 kg to the bar in 12 weeks is a tad ridiculous. Do you not have 1.1 kg plates? Because if you did, and you entered 1.1 kg into the spreadsheet for smallest plates available, you would see the weight increases every week with no repeats.
-If you want your bench and row to go up more than 20 kg... stick to the program for more than 12 weeks. Because even those gains in bench and row at that speed for an intermediate lifter are quite fast.

Thanks man. The 1.25 increment fixed it, can't believe I didn't spot that early, what a dolt.

I will keep pressing on!