StrongLifts 5x5 in Badger

Badger runs StrongLifts 5x5 for free and imports your StrongLifts history. It proposes each session's weight from the program's own rules, and you have the final say. This page covers the built-in template, what you still decide, and what the import brings across.

What Badger brings to a 5x5

• The template ships with the app. Under More → Routines, in the Beginner Programs folder, the StrongLifts 5x5 routine has two alternating days. Workout A is squat, bench press and barbell row, five sets of five each. Workout B is squat and overhead press, five sets of five, plus one set of five deadlifts. Set it active and it is ready.
• It alternates for you. The days are not pinned to weekdays, so the Today screen leads with whichever comes next.
• You supply the weights. The template carries the rep scheme only. In your first session you enter what you lift; after that the rules propose each weight from the last session.
• The program's rules come with it. Each lift carries the StrongLifts rule as a sentence: After 3 misses, drop 10%. When all working sets hit the plan, add 2.5 kg. The deadlift adds 5 kg. If you log in pounds, the steps read 5 lbs and 10 lbs.
• The stall ladder is built in. Three misses in a row on a lift also move it from 5x5 to 3x5, then to 1x5. The deadlift is already 1x5 and stays there.
• A rest timer that starts itself when you complete a working set: two minutes by default, and each exercise can have its own.
• A plate calculator that works from the plates your gym owns, in barbell, machine or single-lever mode, and shows what goes on each side.
• A warmup generator that builds the ramp to your work weight, rounding every rung down to a load your plates can make.
• PRs and graphs on every lift, with no cap on routines or history.

What you still decide yourself

• Every weight is a proposal. When you start a session, the preview shows the weight the rule chose and the line that fired, for example Rule met: all sets hit the plan last session. Type your own weight and the rule stays on. The rule never edits the routine itself. See progression rules.
• Every number in the rule. Tap the increment, the percentage or the number of misses and type a new value.
• Installed Badger before 1.1.12? Your copy of the template has no rules. Import stronglifts-5x5.badger to get the rules and the stall ladder, or use Set up progression on your routine, which adds the rules without the ladder.
• Whether to take a deload week. The app-wide deload is a separate feature, off by default. It schedules a light week at half the weight with two fewer working sets, and you confirm or decline it when you start that session. Both defaults are adjustable.

Two things Badger does not have: a watch app on either platform, and sync between devices. Your log lives on the phone you train with; an optional backup to your own Google Drive, or a database file you move yourself, carries it to a new one. See moving to a new phone.

Bringing your StrongLifts history over

In StrongLifts, go to Settings → Export workout data to get a CSV, move it to the phone you train with, then open Settings → Your data → Import from Stronglifts in Badger. Import each file once. The full steps are in importing from another app.

What comes across:

• Every set, with its date, exercise, weight and reps.
• Kilograms or pounds, read from the file's headers and kept in the unit you logged, with no rounding.
• The workout name, as a note on that session, and each row's note, on its first set.
• When each session started and how long it ran.
• Your PRs, worked out from the imported history. New exercises land in an "Imported" category for you to sort.

What does not come across:

• Warmups. The StrongLifts export does not mark them, so every set arrives as a working set.
• Failed sets, as failures. A missed set of five comes in as the reps you did.
• Which program a session belonged to. The import brings history; you set the 5x5 template active separately.

The template as a file you can read

The same 5x5 routine is a download on the programs page: stronglifts-5x5.badger, exported from the app. Open it on your phone and Badger imports it. Open it in a text editor to read or edit it first; the file format is documented.

When 5x5 runs out

Linear progression stalls for everyone, usually within months. Here is where to go next in Badger.

• Stretch it first. The stall ladder does part of this for you. Smaller jumps, a light week and longer rests buy more time.
• Madcow 5x5 is the usual next step once 1x5 stalls. It ships in the Intermediate Programs folder with weekly progression written in.
• GZCLP, 5/3/1 BBB and nSuns 531LP ship too, with their rules. 5/3/1 and nSuns work from a training max that Badger keeps per lift and turns into loads your plates can make. All of them download from the programs page.

What it costs

Nothing. Badger is free on Google Play and the App Store, with no account, no subscription, no ads and no cap on routines or history. The no-subscription guide compares what free means across the trackers people usually weigh up.

About the name

StrongLifts is a trademark of its owner. Badger is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or connected to StrongLifts in any way. This page describes compatibility only: Badger reads the CSV file that the StrongLifts app exports, and the 5x5 routine inside Badger was written for Badger from the publicly known shape of the program.