Durata/Journeys/Madcow 5×5 in Durata: one number moves the whole week
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Madcow 5×5 in Durata: one number moves the whole week

Madcow 5×5 is the usual step up once novice linear progression stalls. You squat three times a week, but not at three different weights you choose: Monday, Wednesday and Friday are all percentages of one number, the training max. Monday ramps to a heavy top set at the full max, Wednesday is deliberately light, and Friday goes slightly over the max for a rep-out. Beat that rep-out and the training max moves, which moves every squat session that follows.

Every weight, rep and estimate below was computed by the real engine on a live drive: six weeks, eighteen sessions, one training max doing all the arithmetic. The squat opens off a 140 kg max.

Starting the program

The finder asks three questions, goal, experience and days per week, and Madcow 5×5 comes back for a lifter who has outgrown a beginner routine and wants the classic Heavy/Light/Intensity week.

Setup is where Madcow differs from a beginner program. The squat, bench press and bent over row are not given a starting weight at all. They are given a training max, and every set they ever prescribe is a percentage of it. The lifts that sit outside that system still get a plain working weight, which is why the deadlift is asked for separately and opens at 130 kg.

Madcow deliberately starts you under your current best, so the opening weeks feel easy on purpose. The climb is what the program is for.

Durata first-run onboarding sheet
The first-run funnel. We take the program route.
Durata program finder with goal, experience and days answered
Three answers: goal, experience, days a week.
Durata finder results with Madcow 5×5 as the top match
Madcow 5×5 comes back as the top pick for this profile.
Durata program page for Madcow 5×5 showing schedule and progression rule
The schedule, the progression rule and each session, all before committing.
Durata starting-weights sheet with the deadlift at 130 kg
The lifts that do not ride a training max still need a working weight. The deadlift opens at 130 kg.
Durata start-date picker with the block scheduled on the History calendar
A start date, and the block's session dates all flow from it.

Heavy, light, intensity

Monday is the heavy day: a ramp of five sets of five up to the full training max, so the first session's top set is 140 kg on a 140 kg max. Nothing about that number was typed in. It is the max, and the app resolved the ramp beneath it.

Wednesday is the same lift at 105 kg. That is not a bad session or a missed one. It is three quarters of the same training max, prescribed light on purpose so the week has a recovery day in the middle of it without dropping the squat frequency. The gap between Monday and Wednesday is the whole Heavy/Light idea, and it is visible in the logger rather than left to the lifter to remember.

Because the light day is a rounded percentage, it does not move every single week. It reads 110 kg in week three and 110 kg again in week four while the heavy day climbs from 145 kg to 147.5 kg underneath it. The ladder is still moving; the rounding just has not caught up on that one day.

Durata logger: Squat (Barbell) top set at 140 kg on the heavy day
Monday's top set: 140 kg, the full training max.
Durata session-complete screen with the session's sets, reps and volume
The session tallied before it saves: 7 sets, 35 reps, 3525 kg.
Durata History calendar with the first week's three sessions filled in
Week one on the calendar: Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

The set that moves the ladder

Friday is the only session in the week that changes anything. It ramps to a top set slightly above the training max and asks for a rep-out: three reps prescribed, more if you have them. This run logged five.

That is the entire progression rule. There is no weekly increment to apply and no decision to make at the end of the session. Clear the rep-out and the app raises the training max by a small percentage, and because every squat weight in the week is derived from that max, all three sessions move together. Monday's top set goes from 140 kg to 142.5 kg without anything else being touched.

It works the same way on the other lifts that carry a max. Bench press went from 100 kg to 115 kg over the block and the bent over row from 80 kg to 95 kg, each on its own Friday rep-out. The deadlift sits outside the training-max system entirely and climbs on plain linear progression, 130 kg to 145 kg.

Durata logger: Squat (Barbell) rep-out set at 142.5 kg
Friday's rep-out at 142.5 kg. Beat the prescribed three and the training max moves.
Durata logger: Squat (Barbell) heavy day now at 142.5 kg
The next Monday, on the bumped max: the same prescription, now 142.5 kg.
Durata logger: Squat (Barbell) top set at 147.5 kg mid-block
Halfway through the block, the top set is 147.5 kg.

Six weeks of it

Repeated for six weeks, the rep-out fires every Friday and the max climbs each time. The squat's training max finishes at 160 kg, having started at 140 kg, and the top set on the final Friday is 160 kg.

The estimated one-rep max chart shows the shape this produces: a step rather than a smooth curve. It holds flat across Monday and Wednesday, then moves again after each Friday, because that is genuinely when the number changed.

None of the twenty kilos was decided by hand. The lifter's only input was the rep count on one set a week.

Squat (Barbell): top set, every session

  1. 140S1 Session 1 — wk 1 heavy
  2. 105S2 Session 2 — light
  3. 142.5S3 Session 3 — rep-out
  4. 142.5S4 Session 4 — wk 2 heavy
  5. 107.5S5 Session 5
  6. 145S6 Session 6 — rep-out
  7. 145S7 Session 7 — wk 3 heavy
  8. 110S8 Session 8
  9. 147.5S9 Session 9 — rep-out
  10. 147.5S10 Session 10 — wk 4 heavy
  11. 110S11 Session 11 — same as wk 3, rounding
  12. 150S12 Session 12 — rep-out
  13. 150S13 Session 13 — wk 5 heavy
  14. 112.5S14 Session 14
  15. 155S15 Session 15 — rep-out
  16. 155S16 Session 16 — wk 6 heavy
  17. 117.5S17 Session 17
  18. 160S18 Session 18 — last rep-out
Eighteen sessions in order. The sawtooth is the program working as intended: heavy on Monday at the full training max, light on Wednesday at three quarters of it, then slightly over the max on Friday for the rep-out that raises it. Every Friday in this run cleared its target, so the whole pattern shifts up a step each week.
Durata History calendar with all eighteen sessions of the block
Eighteen sessions on the calendar, three a week for six weeks.
Durata analytics: strength index per lift across the block
Strength index per lift, and weekly volume across the whole run.
Durata exercise chart: the squat's estimated one-rep max across six weeks
The squat's estimated one-rep max, stepping up each time the training max moves.
Session 1 Durata logger: Squat (Barbell) at 140 kg
140 kg → 160 kg
+20 kg

Six weeks of Heavy/Light/Intensity: 140 kg to 160 kg, every jump driven by one rep-out a week.

Session 18 Durata logger: Squat (Barbell) at 160 kg
FAQ

Common questions

What is Madcow 5×5?

The popular intermediate adaptation of Bill Starr's 5×5. Squat, bench and bent over row are trained three days a week as percentages of a training max, in a Heavy/Light/Intensity pattern, and Friday's set is built to beat the week before for a small automatic bump. It is the usual next step once novice linear progression on those lifts stalls.

What is a training max, and why doesn't Madcow just ask for a weight?

A training max is one number per lift that every prescribed weight is a percentage of. Madcow squats three times a week at three different intensities, so asking for three separate weights would mean keeping three ladders in step by hand. One max keeps them in step automatically: raise it once and Monday, Wednesday and Friday all move together.

Why is Wednesday so much lighter than Monday?

By design. Wednesday is three quarters of the same training max, so it opens at 105 kg against Monday's 140 kg. It keeps the squat frequency at three days a week without three heavy days, which is what makes the weekly climb sustainable.

What happens if I miss the Friday rep-out?

The training max holds rather than climbing, and the following week runs at the same weights. Madcow starts you under your current best precisely so that the early rep-outs are comfortable and the climb has room to run before that happens.

Is Durata free?

Yes. Durata is free to use, with the full program catalogue, automatic progression maths, rest timers and PR tracking. Everything in this walkthrough is in the app.

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