StrongLifts 5×5 Success Story: How Exodus Got Ripped

Jan 27th, 2010 by Mehdi Posted in StrongLifts 5x5 | Print

exodus-case-study
StrongLifts.com reader Exodus summer 2009 vs. December 2009.

Forum member JP1994 started a thread asking whether StrongLifts 5×5 was good for size gains. Member Exodus (real name Branimir) replied:

People who say that 5×5 is bad for size gains have conclusively proved that they have 0 knowledge about the matter and should stay quiet. Done a lot of good things for me. – Exodus.

Exodus then posted the top right picture which caught everyone’s attention. I asked Exodus to post more information on how he achieved his physique and which mistakes he made, since I figured this would inspire you.

Exodus agreed and posted his experience so far. Nothing ground-breaking, he just applied everything he read on this blog & forum. I summed up the info he posted in this article so you can learn from him. Exodus approved this post.


Exodus’ Story. Exodus started training 2 years ago. His goal was to get in the best shape of his life within 6 months. But he failed because of lack of planning, lack of discipline & lack of valid information.

After training for 1.5years Exodus was still on the verge of obesity and only lost 10lbs. His strength increased, but those were beginner gains. Exodus was still looking about the same as when he started.

Picture below. Left: Exodus when he started lifting 2y ago. Right: Exodus after 1,5years of training. He built muscle mass, but still carried excess fat.

exodus-case-study
Left: Exodus pre-training. Right: 1,5y training, pre-StrongLifts.com


Exodus’ Wake Up Call. Since he wasn’t getting the results he wanted, Exodus decided to buy supplements. But nothing really happened. So he quit them and changed the way he trained & ate: split routines & healthier food.

He lost fat quickly while maintaining muscle. But he was still wasting time with split routines that revolved around isolation exercises like biceps curls, triceps kickbacks, leg extensions, calves work and annoying long ab workouts (sic).

Exodus only did Squats when bored and with horrible technique. No Deadlifts since he thought they were useless and would hurt his back.

And his strength wasn’t impressive. Exodus was jealous some kids in the gym lifted more than him while being smaller. That’s when one guy said “I’ve got a website for you, I think you’ll like it”. Turned out that was StrongLifts.com.


Exodus & StrongLifts 5×5. Exodus read the free eBook in 1 day. Next he read all the articles he could find, watched the videos to learn proper form, read as much advice on the forum as he could and registered as a member.

Quotes from Exodus 6 months later:

I am stronger, faster, leaner, healthier, happier. My weight went from 220 lbs to 195 lbs, but that’s not so important. What’s important is that while my weight (FAT) was going away, I was getting stronger, and I am still getting stronger.

I can’t even keep up with how my body is progressing. Strength is going up, fat is going down. I feel amazing.

Here are pictures of Exodus once he applied everything he read on this site, including the StrongLifts 5×5 routine. You can find bigger ones here.

exodus-case-study
From left to right: Exodus in November 2009, December 2009 & January 2010.


Exodus’ Training. Exodus used StrongLifts 5×5 to build that physique and get stronger while losing fat. His stats in December 2009:

Strong Bench compared to his other lifts, which reflects his past training: Exodus didn’t do any Squats & Deadlifts (neither Press looking at his stats). Hence why his Bench is so strong. But overtime his other lifts will catch up.

Exodus does StrongLifts 5×5 3x/week followed by 30mins cardio. He also does 2h of basketball 2x/week on his rest days. He recommends, however, against this much activity since he wrote he’s half dead by Friday. I agree it’s a lot.

Exodus did HIIT sometimes which I advise against. You can burn more calories with steady state cardio, with less effort and without getting recovery issues. Read why HIIT is NOT better for fat loss for more info.


Exodus’ Diet. Quote: “Diet is crucial! Can’t stress how important is to eat healthy to maximize fat loss + recovery time + a lot of other health benefits. – Exodus”

Exodus wrote he focused on healthy foods, mostly the 20 super foods. He also does Intermittent Fasting for 24h from 9pm Saturday to 9pm Sunday. Here’s what his diet usually consists of:

  • Whole milk (post workout)
  • Tuna, Turkey
  • Cottage cheese, yogurt
  • Spinach, carrots
  • Peanut butter
  • Oranges, apples
  • Green tea, black tea
  • Pasta, potatoes, rice (post workout)
  • Occasionally: red meat, berries, eggs

Exodus posted this picture of one of his meals:

exodus-case-study
Example of what Exodus eats: spinach, salad, carrots, tomatoes, feta cheese.

Exodus uses fish oil, multivitamins and Vitamin D (doctor’s advice). Like me, he doesn’t use whey but has a regular meal post workout with a glass whole milk. Milk is actually better than whey post workout for lean body mass gains.


Exodus’ Mindset. Exodus wrote he was lazy before he started lifting. He also wrote that lack of discipline was one of the reasons why after his first 1,5y of training he was still looking about the same as when he started.

From my experience, people who get some success – like Exodus – usually experienced some sort of failure before getting there. The lessons here:

  • Exodus failed but didn’t give up. He learned from it & persisted.
  • It took Exodus about 1,5y to realize what he needed to do.
  • Exodus applied everything he read on this site as laid out.
  • Then it took him less than 6 months to get ripped.

Quotes from Exodus:

How much will something work is up to you. Up to your discipline, your motivation, concentration, determination etc…

Be persistent, eat big, train hard, have a right mindset and results will come.

Again: Exodus applied everything he read as laid out. He didn’t make mistakes like thinking you’re different or needing something more complicate. He trusted the program. Here’s his advice if you plan to do StrongLifts 5×5:

Now remember to start with low weights, lower than what you think is low enough. Get the form right, stick with the right form at all costs. Do not give up when weights get really heavy. That’s when you get strong, when you grow and all other good things happen.

Not long time ago, some kid was impressed by my strength and body so he asked me what do I do and how I do it. I told him what I do, he said I am bullshiting him, no way I do 4-5 exercises per training sessions. So I said to him, lets try it one day. He is one of those kids who can bench press way more than he can squat (and does partial squat), and don’t know what deadlift is.

So he puts 90 lbs on a bar, does 5 funny squats, and says to me that’s easy. I told him: “do those squats right, all the way down”, and I even thought him hip drive, how to place a bar high without a pad… And I told him to lower that weight, cause it’s too much for a start. So he got the form almost right, but refused to lower the weight. He did 5×5 squats no problem, and rest of the workout he did without much problems. He was bench pressing funny as well, so had to show him to bench press properly, or at least what I think it’s proper.

I don’t see the kid in the gym for a week. I finally saw him and kid started complaining to me how he is soooo sore, couldn’t move his legs and arms for 3 days, and went back to his old workout, because he “can’t” do SL 5×5. “Bro I can’t.” I just said ok, and continued with my workout.

Never say you can’t do something, because you can. If you can’t do something, approach it with attitude: “I can’t do it yet”, or “I have problems doing it, please help me do it”, or just be honest say: “I don’t want to do it.”

More Success Stories. Check this forum thread for more success stories of people who did StrongLifts 5×5. Feel free to share your success story in the forum. I might use it for future blog content.

Congratulations to Exodus. He’s proof you don’t need to do isolation exercises 5x/week to hit every body part, neither do you need supplements. Eat healthy & get stronger and you’ll get ripped. Let his story inspire you.

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Why HIIT Is NOT Better For Fat Loss

Jan 21st, 2010 by Mehdi Posted in Lose Fat | Print

Why HIIT Is NOT Better For Fat Loss
Image credit: TatianaSapateiro.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) alternates low & high intensity activities. Example: alternate 30sec sprinting with 60sec jogging for 10-30mins. Spinning & Tabata are other popular forms of Interval Training.

But is HIIT really more efficient to lose fat than steady state cardio? In this post you’ll get a comparison between both in terms of fat loss.


How Cardio Helps Fat Loss. To lose fat you need a caloric deficit. Either by eating less calories or by burning more calories or both. Here’s how HIIT & steady state cardio help you create this caloric deficit:

  • Burn Calories. Your body uses the food you eat as fuel for cardio. The more & higher intensity cardio you do, the more calories you’ll burn.
  • Increase Metabolic Rate. Your body burns more calories at rest during the hours post cardio. This is the post-workout afterburn or EPOC.
  • Eat More. Cardio allows you eat more while having a caloric deficit. This can prevent starvation with lighter males/females.

There are more ways that cardio can help fat loss, but they don’t matter within the context of this post. What matters is that you need a caloric deficit to lose fat (and you can do this without cardio, through dieting & lifting alone).


How Much Calories Does Cardio Burn? Everything depends on the intensity at which you do cardio, and how long you do it. Here are some estimates:

  • Low Intensity. Less than 65% of your max heart rate. Walking burns only 5kcal/min. That’s why it’s not efficient for fat loss.
  • Moderate Intensity. 65-85% of your max heart rate. Steady state cardio at moderate intensity on the elliptical trainer burns about 10kcal/min.
  • High Intensity. +85% of your max heart rate. Sprints burn 15kcal/min. But most people can’t sustain this kind of intensity for long.

These are estimates. The best way to find out how much you burn is using the bodybugg. And people who’ve used it, found that HIIT burns about the same or less calories than steady state cardio. 2 reasons:

  • Average intensity is the same since HIIT alternates between high & low intensities (sprints then jogging). So you end up burning 10kcal/min.
  • Most people never get the most out of HIIT because they aren’t pushing themselves hard enough. Meaning: never until their muscles burn.


EPOC. Then there’s HIIT’s biggest selling point: EPOC. According to this study HIIT has an EPOC of 14% vs 7% with steady state cardio. So if 30mins of HIIT burns as much as 30mins steady state cardio, that’s 342kcal vs 321kcal.

Do 30mins HIIT 3x/week (which is a lot) and you’ll burn 252kcal per month extra from EPOC. Since you need to burn 3500kcal to lose 1lb fat this is insignificant. But again, these numbers are estimates. Use the bodybugg for proof.

So in theory HIIT will burn more than steady state cardio through EPOC, but not as much as people usually think. As I posted before: people often overestimate how much calories they burn. That’s one reason why you can’t lose fat.


Cardio Duration. The longer you do cardio, the more total calories you’ll burn. You must be in really good shape to handle 30mins HIIT while anyone can do 45mins moderate intensity steady state cardio. Compare calories burned:

  • 30mins HIIT: burns 324kcal (incl 14% EPOC)
  • 45mins steady state cardio: burns 481kcal (incl 7% EPOC)

So you’ll burn 628kcal/month more if you do 3×45mins steady state cardio than if you’d do 3×30mins HIIT. But people usually do 20mins HIIT. This would burn 228kcal incl EPOC or 3036kcal/month less. Which is almost 1lb of fat.


Cardio Frequency. 20mins of HIIT 3x/week is hard to recover from because it’s high intensity. You’ll stall if you do StrongLifts 5×5 + HIIT 3x/week. But you can easily do steady state cardio 4x/week without issues.

4×45mins steady state cardio per week burns 7696kcal/month or +2lbs of fat. 3×20mins of HIIT only burns 2736kcal/month. So HIIT burns less total calories, is harder physically & mentally and causes stalling by messing with recovery.

Again: don’t believe me. Get the bodybugg and do the test. Compare how many calories you burn with HIIT vs steady state cardio. Then decide what is most efficient knowing that burning more calories matters most to lose fat.


Should You Never Do HIIT? No. HIIT has benefits: it takes less time, is more fun and more things I won’t get into here. Did I write that you won’t lose fat if you do HIIT? No, you will. But less than you might think.

My point is that for fat loss burning calories matters. Steady state cardio burns more calories and with less effort. Here are 5 quick cardio tips to lose fat:

  1. Don’t do HIIT if you do StrongLifts 5×5. Your legs will never get enough recovery. Do steady state cardio only. Up to 4×45mins/week.
  2. Don’t do HIIT if you’re a beginner with zero fitness levels. This would be like starting with 220lbs on Squats. Build base fitness levels first.
  3. If you lack time to do 4×45mins/week steady state cardio, do 3×30mins. This burns about as many as calories as 3×30mins HIIT does.
  4. If you lack time to do 3×30mins/week steady state cardio, focus on diet & strength. You’ll lose fat, but slower. Accept it.
  5. If you get bored of the steady state cardio: get over it. It’s meant to be effective, not fun. Really. Once you’ve got body fat down you can quit it.

Again: I’m NOT against HIIT. I do it. I’m against people wasting their time. You have to train hard, but you also have to train smart. Steady state cardio burns more calories with less effort. That’s training smart.

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