The One-Lift-A-Day Powerlifting Program(s)

   The One-Lift-A-Day Powerlifting Program

     I received quite a lot of positive feedback for my last essay on “One-Exercise-Per-Workout” programs for building a combination of strength, power, and muscle mass.  I also mentioned in that essay that my original intention was to write something longer that included a powerlifting-specific program, but since the essay was already at around 2K words, I thought it was long enough to stop where I did.  However, I’ve had a couple emails asking questions about what a powerlifting program would look like, so here’s my answer.

     Before you read, study, and consider applying these powerlifting-centric programs to your workouts, my first advice is to make sure you read Part One.  It lays out the benefits and the reasons why you would want to follow such a program in the first place.  I will probably touch upon some of the same things here that I did in that first essay, but I have no plan here to be thorough in that regard, except when it comes to ways to make your powerlifts soar.

     On occasion, when writing powerlifting-specific articles, essays, and posts, I get asked whether or not “non-powerlifters” should use such a program.  I usually answer, “it depends.”  First, it depends on whether you want or need to boost your three powerlifts.  Well, to begin with, if you enjoy training your squat, bench press, and deadlift, and you want to boost those three lifts at the expense of all others, then you’re a powerlifter whether or not you actually compete in powerlifting meets.  Powerlifters are those guys who love being strong on the three powerlifts, plus other similar exercises that bleed over from the three powerlifts.  When I was a competitive powerlifter, I often put it this way: I compete in powerlifting meets as a reason, and kind of an excuse, to train in powerlifting.  In other words, I absolutely loved powerlifting training over all other forms of lifting.  And to keep my focus on consistently getting stronger, I competed in powerlifting meets, which became the “fuel” for my training.

     If you’re a fighter who needs a good workout program, then focusing on the powerlifts can be a really good supplement to your training.  Making your squat and deadlift stronger will also make your stances, kicks, grappling, and your punches stronger - a strong punch requires the ability to get plenty of “torque” from your waist and hips, and squats and deadlifts can do just that.  The bench press is also a good aid to the fighter.  In fact, fighters are one of the few athletes who should bench press.  For many athletes, overhead presses or other pressing movements are better than the bench press, but this isn’t necessarily so when it comes to fighters - if I’m training an athlete, most of the time I view the bench press as an “assistance” movement that can be performed if the athlete wants to perform it, but it’s not a necessity.  In other sports, for instance, you don’t throw punches using such a similar plane of motion as the bench press, which means that you are probably better using overhead presses, but not so with fighters.  (For reasons martial artists and other fighters would want to powerlift but would not want to do any conventional bodybuilding training, read this older essay of mine entitled “Martial Arts and Bodybuilding: Can the Two Co-Exist?”)

     So, yeah, it depends, but if you want to get incredibly strong on three big lifts, and/or you compete in a sport that uses a lot of the muscles from the powerlifts (fighters, etc.) then powerlifting would be a pretty good idea even if you’re not a competitive powerlifter.  At least for the short term.  In fact, I believe that most lifters - even bodybuilders at times - would do well to do some powerlifting training for at least a couple of months out of the year.  Bodybuilders who do this, even if they don’t necessarily gain a lot of muscle from this training, return to their bodybuilding training with renewed “mind muscle connection” and “muscle control” due to the heightening of their central nervous system from a couple of months of powerlifting - not to mention that the fact that they are now stronger and can use more weight than previously on their “standard” bodybuilding exercises.

The “Starter” One-Lift-A-Day Powerlifting Program

     This first program is what the “average” lifter should use.  This program will be good for new powerlifters and athletes who want to focus on increasing their three powerlifts but haven’t been using a powerlifting program, or something very similar, up to this point.  It’s also good for “experienced” powerlifters and other lifters who need to get “back to the basics” because their training has become too convoluted.  In other words, this program is pretty much good for anyone, the only exception being if you’re an experienced powerlifter who is already doing something very similar.  If you look at this program, and say to yourself, “Well, that’s what I am doing,” then you can move on to the more advanced program after this one.

     Here, you are going to use a similar template to what was recommended in my “One-Exercise-Per-Workout” article but not entirely the same.  If you have been doing that program, however, you will quickly be able to tell the similarities.

     Train just 3-days-a-week on this first program.  Your workout “split” is going to be as simple and as basic as they come, but don’t let that fool you.  And don’t try to do more than this until you’re truly ready.  Here’s your basic split:

Monday: Squat Workout

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday: Bench Press Workout

Thursday: Off

Friday: Deadlift Workout

Saturday: Off

Sunday: Off

     As with my previous one-lift-a-day program, you will use a four-week “block” of training.  Using the above split, use the following set/rep combinations for the 4 weeks of training:

Week One: 8 sets of 5 reps

Week Two: 10 sets of 3 reps

Week Three: 10 sets of 1-3 reps for SPEED

Week Four: 10 to 12 singles

     Now let me explain each week in a little bit of detail.  For Week One, on the 8 sets of 5 reps, these are 8 “straight” sets that don’t include warming up.  How many warm-up sets you do will depend on your personal strength level.  Obviously, the stronger you are, the more warm-up sets will be needed.  Also, on your “bigger” lifts, you will need more warm-ups than your lighter ones.  Most people find that they are strongest on either squats or deadlifts.  You’ll need the most warm-ups on the one thing that you’re strongest at.  (If you happen to be stronger on the bench press than either the squat or the deadlift - yes, I have seen such a thing before - then you have a serious muscle imbalance(s) that needs to be addressed.  Work your deadlifts and squats hard so that they are soon stronger than any of your upper body lifts.)  Once you are finished with your warm-up sets (ramps are what I recommend for the “warming up” phase), select a weight where you know you would fail on about the 7th or 8th repetition.  Begin your 8 sets of 5 reps with that weight.  If you find that you can use the same weight on all sets, then do so, but you may find that you have to reduce your poundage a little after the 4th or 5th set.  That’s fine.  Reduce the weight, and continue with sets of 5.  Whenever you do manage to get 8 sets of 5 reps with the same weight, then increase your poundage at your next week of 8x5.

     Week Two is the same as Week Two from our previous One-Exercise-Per-Workout Program.  After proper warm-ups, select a weight where you would probably fail on the 5th or 6th repetition.  Attempt 10 sets of 3 reps with that weight.  If you manage to get all 10 sets of 3 reps, add weight at the next 10x3 workout for that lift.

     Week Three is your deload week but this doesn’t mean that you won’t be working hard on all of your sets this week.  This week is made for dynamic effort training.  Select a weight somewhere between, on average, 50-70% of your one-rep max, and do 10 speed reps between 1 and 3 reps.  For bench press, I believe 10 sets of 3 reps at 65-70% is ideal.  For squats, I think 10 sets of 2 or 3 reps with around 60% is best.  The deadlifts are a little more “personal.”  Some lifters will find they really don’t need any more than 50% of their max for improving deadlifts.  Others may find 70% better.  On the deadlifts, no matter what percentage you personally decide to use, I think 10 sets of just 1 rep to be the most ideal.  (For more on speed training and the dynamic effort method, read my last essay on just this subject.)

     On Week Four, utilize a weight where you know you can get 5 or 6 singles, but you’re unsure after that.  Now attempt to get between 10 and 12 singles with that weight.  If you manage at least 10 singles, then add weight at the next singles workout for that lift.

     After you complete the four-week training block, either take a “down” week where you treat each workout as an “active recovery” session or simply repeat weeks 1-4 for a second training block.  I would, at the very least, take an active recovery week after 8 weeks of training.

     Don’t be so quick to make changes to this program.  I would stick with it for at least three 4-week training blocks (that’s 12 weeks) before changing to another program.  What you might want to do at that point is add a couple of days of training, and repeat for another couple 4-week blocks.  Here is what a good split might look like at this point:

Monday: Squat Workout

Tuesday: Power Clean Workout

Wednesday: Bench Press Workout

Thursday: Off

Friday: Deadlift Workout

Saturday: Barbell (or Dumbbell) Overhead Press Workout

Sunday: Off

     Power cleans and barbell overheads are just suggestions.  But I find that the cleans help a lot of lifters’ “pull” strength, and translate well to deadlifts, and the barbell overhead presses are excellent for most lifters who sometimes don’t bench press as much poundage as they should be able to due to weak shoulder joints.  Other good exercises that you might want to include on one of these two “extra” days are barbell curls, power snatches, weighted dips, or even a dragging or carrying movement such as farmer’s walks, sled drags, or sandbag carries.  In fact, the Saturday workout is an excellent day for doing just such loaded movements when following this split.

The “Advanced” One-Lift-A-Day Powerlifting Program

     Before we get started on this 2nd program let it be noted that the “starter” program can be done by “advanced” lifters, as well.  In fact, even incredibly strong, highly advanced powerlifters would do well to return to a “basic” 3-days-per-week powerlifting regimen such as the one above, but there are also times when more advanced lifters should do more.  This is a program for such times as those.

     This one’s different in that you’re going to train 6-days-per-week, and train each movement 2x weekly.  Let’s look at the training split first, then I’ll explain some appropriate set/rep combinations.

Monday: Squat

Tuesday: Bench Press

Wednesday: Deadlift

Thursday: Squat Variation

Friday: Bench Press Variation

Saturday: Deadlift Variation

     For the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday workouts, I recommend doing ramps.  You can do ramps of 5, 3, or 1 repetition(s).  Or you can do a ramp workout using all of these repetition ranges.  I think this latter choice is the best.  Begin by doing ramps with 5 reps.  Once you can no longer get 5 reps, then start doing triples.  Do triples until you hit a max or a near max with them.  At this point, switch over to singles.  For the singles, try your best to work up to a “near max” - you get the single, but you doubt you would be able to put any more weight on without going for a “true” max rep.  Stop there.

     If you have more energy on certain days, and want to do more, then you can also add some “back-off” sets on any of the M, T, W workout sessions.  5x5, 4x8, or 3x10 are all “good” ideas for these back-off sets.

     On the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday sessions you have some options.  The first is to do another ramp workout, but with an “alternate” to the selected lift.  For squat variations, try bottom-position squats, front squats, Zercher squats, or loaded belt squats.  For the bench press, substitute bottom-position bench presses, incline bench presses, bench press lockouts, heavy dumbbell benches, or weighted dips.  And for the deadlifts, you can try sumo deadlifts (or conventional deadlifts if your “typical” deadlift is sumo), deficit deadlifts, deficit sumo deadlifts, power cleans, high pulls, or power snatches - you can also do dumbbell versions of the cleans, high pulls, or snatches.

     You can also - on Th, Fr, and Sat - occasionally do some “speed” work.  Maybe every three weeks, for instance, it would be best to do a dynamic effort session on these three days.

     The primary point is to stick with the same three powerlifts Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and to rotate exercises each week on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, with dynamic effort work thrown in on occasion to keep you from getting slower.  (The one problem with most “traditional” powerlifting methods is that you get stronger, but you also get slower.)

     After a few weeks of doing ramps on the M-T-W workouts, feel free to change up the set/rep ranges, but DON’T change the exercises.  You can select any of the set/rep combos from the first workout program - all of those would be good selections here, as well.

     If you feel “beat” on some weeks, or feel as if you need some extra recovery time, then cut out the Wednesday deadlift session.  Deadlifts not only take a lot out of you, but it’s the one lift that can often get stronger without frequent direct training.  If there are weeks when you feel really beat, then you can also eliminate the Saturday deadlift session.  Just don’t make a habit out of it.

     Take an active recovery week after every 4th to 6th week of training.  Some lifters will do well to wait until they’ve trained hard for 6 straight weeks, while others would do well to take an active recovery week after every 4 weeks of training.  This is something that is individual, but be honest with yourself.  Are you truly tired or just being lazy?  Conversely, are you trying to convince yourself that you’re just being lazy when in fact you really need that off week?  Be honest with your assessment and do the appropriate thing.

In Conclusion

     What I haven’t included here are tips on diet, rest, and recovery for the powerlifter, nor have I included ways to improve some of your “weak” spots.  And when you improve one weak area on a lift, another one pops up, so we’ll save those tips for another post.

     As always, if there are any questions or comments - or other topics you would like to see in a post - please leave your suggestions in the “comments” section below, or email me if you want a more “personal” reply.  Until next time, good luck and good training.