Is Stronglifts 5×5 a full body workout? That depends on which of the two training sessions you’re talking about.
Stronglifts 5×5 has a couple of different workouts – workout A and workout B, with a rest day or two in between.
In workout A, you do the squat, bench press and barbell row. In workout B, you do the squat, overhead press and deadlift.
Is Stronglifts 5×5 a Full Body Workout?
The first workout certainly counts as a full body workout. The bench press hits the chest, shoulders and triceps, the barbell row hits the back and biceps, while squats take care of the legs and glutes.
There’s nothing for the calves. And, contrary to popular belief, the abs don’t get a great deal of stimulation from squats either. But overall, workout A does constitute a whole body workout.
It’s a different story, however, with workout B, which does miss out large areas of the body.
The deadlift does hit the back, but it’s mainly working the spinal erectors, which run up both sides of your spine. The lats and biceps aren’t getting a great deal of growth stimulation from deadlifts.
There’s nothing much for the chest either, as the overhead press works mainly the shoulders and triceps.
How can you do a full body workout with the least amount of different exercises?
Most of the exercises you do can be put into one of these categories:
- Horizontal Push (e.g. bench press)
- Horizontal Pull (e.g. barbell row)
- Vertical Pull (e.g. lat pulldown)
- Vertical Push (e.g. overhead press)
- Quadricep Dominant Leg Exercise (e.g. squat)
- Hamstring Dominant Leg Exercise (e.g. leg curl)
An effective workout with the least number of different exercises would need to include an exercise from most (but not necessarily all) of these categories.
For example, you could alternate between these two different workouts, training 3 times a week on alternate days:
Workout A
- Bench Press (chest, shoulders and triceps)
- Barbell Row (back and biceps)
- Squat (quads, glutes, and spinal erectors)
- Leg Curl (hamstrings)
Workout B
- Bench Press (chest, shoulders and triceps)
- Lat Pulldown (back and biceps)
- Overhead Press (shoulders and triceps)
- Leg Press (quads and glutes)
- Romanian Deadlift (hamstrings, glutes and spinal erectors)
Even with just 4-5 exercises in each workout, you’re covering a surprisingly large number of muscles.
In summary, when taken as a whole, the Stronglifts 5×5 program does work most of the major muscle groups. But when you look at the individual workouts, only workout A counts as a full-body workout, as workout B does miss out several areas of the body.
