High-Frequency Training: Powerlifting

 

The High-Frequency Training Manifesto
Part 3:

Some Powerlifting Specialization Programs

     If you haven’t done so, please read Part One and Part Two first.  Each part in this series piggybacks off the previous one.  With that out of the way, on with Part Three…

     Once you have trained utilizing high-frequency “easy strength” methods for several months, or if you’re already well-versed in HFT, you may want to specialize on a certain lift, a few lifts (such as the 3 powerlifts or the 2 Olympic lifts), or on a certain bodypart.  What follows are some specialization programs for powerlifting, although they will give you an idea of how you should train even if you want to specialize on something else.  Originally, my plan was to include some additional specialization programs in this one article, but after writing out the powerlifting programs, it was plenty long as it currently is.  In upcoming parts of this series, however, we will look at some more and varied forms of specialization.

Powerlifting with HFT

     A lot of powerlifters want to use easy strength or HFT methods for their sport.  While I think this is a good idea, there are some caveats that powerlifters need to understand.

     The sort of HFT that I recommend in these essays—and most HFT in general—evolved from the training of East European lifters, primarily Olympic lifters.  The Olympic lifts, and their associated assistance exercises, are all ideal for really frequent training.  The snatch, the clean and jerk, the squat, the overhead press, and the “power” versions of the snatch and clean all work really well when trained frequently.  The so-called Bulgarian method, for instance, where you max out on the same lift 5 or 6 days-per-week, is great for all the aforementioned lifts.  But the bench press and/or the deadlift?  Not so much.

     I think most lifters should not bench press more than two-days-per-week, three at the absolute max.  Deadlifting should be performed even less frequently.  Although I have used high-frequency deadlift training a few times in my career, I always got the best results from fairly infrequent deadlift training, and I think this goes for the majority of powerlifters, casual or world-class, doesn’t matter.  I know that some writers and lifters—especially the ones that popularized some of the methods I’m presenting in this series, such as Pavel and Dan John—have recommended programs with multiple-days-per-week deadlifting, but I think that once-per-week is plenty.  Now, you can and should train the muscles that you use in the deadlift frequently, but that’s different from actually deadlifting with a high frequency.  The programs below take this latter approach.

     The first program here is ideal for almost any powerlifter, from straight newbie to seasoned lifting veteran.  The reason is that the amount of weight that you can utilize will determine the total workload of each training day, meaning that it fits into almost any lifter’s training arsenal no matter the strength level they are at.  This first program is, in many ways, similar to the “ramps” workout from our previous essay.

     For this program, you will utilize only 3-days-per-week of training, which means that it also works well even if you haven’t yet conditioned your body to the more frequent sessions that I have been recommending so far.  Train on 3 non-consecutive days each week.  The most popular days would be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday—a lot of lifters like to take their weekends off.  Personally, I always preferred doing 3-days-per-week programs on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, but whatever floats your powerlifting boat will be perfectly fine.

Program One

Day One

• Squats: Perform progressively heavier “ramp” sets of 5 reps until you reach one hard, but not all-out, set of 5 reps.  If you squat 405 pounds for 5 reps, you will obviously do more sets than if you can only squat 225 for 5 reps.

• Bench Presses: Perform progressively heavier ramps of 5 reps the same as the squats.

• Deadlifts: Perform progressively heavier sets of doubles on this exercise.  The same way that I believe the deadlift is best trained less frequently than your other lifts, I also believe it’s best to train this movement with lower reps.  If you want to get your workload up, then simply take lower jumps in weights from one set to the next, or do double ramps where you stick with the same weight at each jump for two sets before moving on.

Day Two

• Squats: Perform progressively heavier ramps of 5 reps once again.  And, yes, I understand that you may be sore on this day when you start.  That’s fine.  Just go as heavy as you can.  It’s okay to train some days when you’re still sore—sometimes even quite sore—from the previous session.  You, of course, won’t be able to train as heavy as you could on Day One, and that’s fine.  This is, in many ways, very similar to the Bulgarian method, except you are only doing 5 rep sets instead of working up to a max single.

• Barbell Overhead Presses: Once again, perform progressively heavier 5s until you reach a hard, but not max, set of 5 reps.  Of course—and this is one of the reasons that I want you to use this exercise on this day—you won’t be able to do as many sets as you progress in weight because this exercise simply won’t allow it.  This means you can still train as “heavy” as you can, but it will keep your workload down.

• Power Snatches: Perform progressively heavier sets of doubles the same as the deadlifts from Day One.  Since you won’t be able to use as much weight on this exercise, either, make sure that you start with nothing more than the empty Olympic bar to begin your sets.

Day Three

• Squats: If you guessed progressively heavier ramps of 5 reps, then you are correct!  At first, you may find that this is your weakest squatting day of the week, but as you advance, this will, most likely, become a natural “medium” day in between the first and second day or you may find that this is your heaviest day of the week.  Most lifters fit into one of those two camps.  It’s sort of the reason, I believe, that a lot of lifters favored a heavy, light, medium system, while others would favor a medium, light, heavy system of training.  It all comes down to what you feel is the most “natural” for you.  And, even though I have hammered this home maybe too much over the first two parts, natural is the key word.  Whether this ends up being your heaviest day, your lightest day, or something in between, it all comes down to how you feel on this day.  Remember: go heavy naturally.  You should never “force” yourself to do more on this day than the other days (or less).  Just do what feels the most natural.

• Bench Presses: Once again, ramps of 5s the same as the other days.

• Power Cleans: Perform ramps of doubles here the same as the deadlifts and the power snatches from your other two days.  You should naturally use more weight than on the snatches, but still considerably less than the weight used on deadlifts for Day One.

Program Two

     Our 2nd program is a bit more advanced—it utilizes more exercises per workout, and adds in sets of triples and singles into the equation—but it’s still to be performed just 3-days-per-week.  If you spend 6 to 8 weeks on the first program, then this would be the ideal program to follow it.  Conversely, if you’ve been using a full-body workout done two or three times-per-week already, then you could just start with this program.

Day One

• Squats: Ramps of 5s, 3s, and singles.  For this program, as with the first one, you are going to once again utilize ramps.  This time, however, you are not going to stop at 5s.  Once you reach a hard set of 5, start doing ramps of 3s.  Once the triples get hard, begin doing ramps of singles.  Stop when you reach a near-max.

• Bench Presses: Ramps of 5s, 3s, and singles, same as the squats.

• Deadlifts: Ramps of 3s then singles.  For the deadlift, start with doing ramps of 3 reps until you reach your near max for a set of 3.  At that point, switch over to singles, and do ramps of singles until you reach your near max single, same as the squats and bench presses.

• Chins: 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps.  If you can handle the extra weight, these can be progressively heavier sets, or they can be straight sets done with the same weight.  Your total amount of chinning will depend on how you feel for the day.  Some days, it may be nothing more than 3 sets of 3 reps for a total of 9 reps.  Other days, it might be 5 sets of 5 reps for a total of 25 reps.  Or it could be anything in between.  Stop once you feel fatigued, but keep going if you feel strong.  Once again, the amount of work should be natural to you for the day.

• Power Cleans: 3 to 5 sets of 2 to 3 reps.  Use the same methodology as the chins, but limit your total number of reps to 3 for each set.

Day Two

• Squats: Ramps of 5s, 3s, and singles.  Perform ramps here the same as on Day One.  As with our first program, yes, you will probably be sore when you do these, and that’s perfectly okay.  At first, you may find yourself using half the workload from Day One.  Eventually, however, you will probably reach a point where you’re utilizing around 80% of the Day One squat workload.

• Barbell Overhead Presses: Ramps of 5s, 3s, and singles.  Do these the same as the other exercises.  Go as heavy as you can, but don’t rush your sets.  In fact, it’s probably good to take smaller jumps in weight than you probably think, just so you can get more sets in and get your workload up.

• Power Snatches: Ramps of 3s then singles.  Use the same set/rep method of ramps as the deadlifts from Day One.

Day Three

• Squats: Ramps of 5s, 3s, and singles.  Yep, once again perform ramps on squats the same as the other days.  My advice from Program One for this day applies here, as well.

• Bottom-Position Bench Presses: Ramps of 5s, 3s, and singles.  Utilize the same ramp methodology as the other exercises.  This is a good exercise for Day Three, as the weight that you can handle will be less—sometimes significantly so, if you’re not accustomed to this movement—than the regular bench presses on Day One, but greater than the overheads from Day Two.

• Chins: 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps.  Perform these the same as the chins from Day One.

• Deficit Sumo Deadlifts: 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps.  I have long touted deficit sumo deadlifts as the best exercise that no one does!  This exercise will work all of the muscles that you both squat and deadlift with, making it an ideal accessory movement for any powerlifter.  Perform it in the same manner as the chins.

Program Three

     As you get stronger and your work capacity increases, at some point it’s a good idea to switch over to a 4-days-per-week program.  This is very similar to how, primarily, East European lifters design their powerlifting programs.  The following program takes a cue from them by having you squat twice-per-week, do heavy pulls twice-per-week in a separate session, and press 4-times-per-week at each workout.  The one change I’ve made here is that you only deadlift conventionally once, and then you do other pulls at the second “deadlift” session.

     As far as schedule, train on either a 2-on, 1-off, 2-on, 2-off split OR on a 2-on, 1-off, 1-on, 1-off split.  This means, for instance, you could train Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday with Wednesdays and the weekends as your off day—this is probably the split the majority of lifters prefer so they have their weekends free—or you could train Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, or something similar.  If you enjoy training on the weekends, as I always did and still do, then I think Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday are the best training days.

Day One

• Squats: Ramps of 5s and 3s, followed by 3 to 5 “straight” sets of 3 reps.  Okay, for your first session of squatting on our more advanced program, you are going do ramps of 5s and then 3s the same as Program Two, with a caveat: When you get to your last “heavy” set of 3 reps, stick with this same weight for 3 to 5 sets.  Make sure that the weight is heavy but not too heavy for these final sets.  They can be “tough” but you still want to use a weight where you know you can get all of your reps on each set.

• Bench Presses: Ramps of 5s and 3s, followed by 3 to 5 “straight” sets of 3 reps.  Follow the same format as the squats.

• Squats: 3 to 5 sets of 5 reps.  When you are finished with the bench presses, return to the squats.  Select a weight where you know you can easily get 3 to 5 sets of 5 reps.  Probably the easiest way to select this poundage is to pick a weight where you know you would get at least 8 to 10 reps on one set before reaching failure.  Use that weight on all sets.

Day Two

• Deadlifts: Ramps of 5s and 3s, followed by 3 to 5 “straight” sets of 3 reps.  Use the same format as the squats and bench presses from Day One.

• Barbell Overhead Presses: Ramps of 5s and 3s, followed by 3 to 5 “straight” sets of 3 reps.

• Deficit Deadlifts (sumo or conventional): 3 to 5 sets of 3 reps.  Perform these the same as the 2nd bout of squats from Day One.  The difference here is that you will do your 3 to 5 sets with 3 reps instead of 5.

Day Three

• Bench Presses: Ramps of 5s, 3s, and singles.  Perform these the same as your bench presses from Program Two.  The premise for this approach on Day Three is that, although you might actually train heavier than on Day One, your workload will be less.  For example, if your final set of this day is 295 for one rep and your final sets for Day One were 275 for 3 to 5 sets of 3 reps, your workload will be quite higher on Day One.

• Squats: Ramps of 5s, 3s, and singles.  Follow the same approach here as on the bench presses.

• Pause Bench Presses: 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps.  For your second bout of bench pressing, pause each rep on your chest for 2 ro 3 seconds.  Use the same weight on all sets.

Day Four

• Power Cleans: Ramps of 5s, 3s, and singles.  Work up to a weight that’s relatively heavy, but leave plenty “in the tank” so that this day ends up being as much of an “active recovery” workout as anything else.

• Barbell Overhead Presses: Ramps of 5s, 3s, and singles.

• Power Snatches: Ramps of 5s, 3s, and singles.  When you first attempt this program, you can omit these snatches if you feel too fatigued.  After a couple of weeks, however, make sure that you add them in.  Make sure that you’re utilizing weights that are not too heavy.  Your reps should have plenty of “snap” left in them, even at the end of the session.

Some Final Thoughts

• These programs are, overall, more voluminous than the ones in our first two parts of this series.  This is intentional.  If you were to follow these programs in the order that I have written them from part one until this part, then by the time you were to do these workouts, you would need a bit more volume and intensity than what came before (intensity being your % of one-rep maximum, not training to momentary muscular failure).  Conversely, if you’re a powerlifter that simply starts by following these programs, and not parts one and two, that will be fine since these are specialization programs, and when you’re specializing, it’s good to UP the volume and intensity on what it is that you’re specializing on.

• You may notice that all of these programs sort of “take their cues” from Bill Starr’s heavy-light-medium system and the training of East European powerlifters.  Where they diverge is that these are more natural—there’s that word again—as opposed to the strictly percentage-based training of the Russians and other East European lifters.  You don’t force yourself to conform to certain percentages but simply do what you can at each session.  As the workload increases over the weeks, and you find yourself able to handle more and more weight, your strength, power, and potentially your muscle mass, will all “naturally” increase.

• Even though I recommended that you take your ramps to a “hard but not all-out” set, you may not even have to—or want to—do this at first.  For the first couple weeks of each program, as you start to slowly build up your work capacity, feel free to stop all of your ramps at a weight considerably lighter than what you are actually capable of.  You can slowly increase the weight as you adapt to the sessions.

• You may notice something missing here from most workouts I recommend: no loaded carries.  If you are simply trying to stay in a weight class, or focus on strength alone, loaded carries may not be necessary.  If you do need to gain some muscle mass, or simply want to use these programs as part of a mass-building regimen, then you most certainly should add in some loaded carries of one sort of another, some tire flips, some sled drags, or something else of a similar bent.

     In the next installment, I plan on presenting some different “easy strength” method of HFT aimed solely at hypertrophy.  Until then, good luck, good training, and lift big!