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Most people I know nowadays seem to follow a 4 week block. I'm curious when this become the de facto "standard".
Always a lot of talk about "what will X hit on week 4" so it seems quite pervasive.
Can't say I recall a lot of that kind of talk even 5 years ago, say, so it feels more recent.
I’m not new to the gym (2-3yr in the gym), just new to powerlifting. I’m used to bodybuilding, but I recently decided I want to focus on strength. After a little bit of research I decided to make a simple program that I can run for a while (until I eventually plateau).
Day 1 – Heavy Bench 1. Barbell Bench Press 5 × 3 reps @ RPE 7–8 2. Weighted Pull-Ups 3 × 6–8 reps @ RPE 8 3. Incline Chest Press (Machine) 3 × 8–10 reps @ RPE 8 4. Bent-Over Row (Barbell) 3 × 6–8 reps
5A. Dumbbell Bicep Curl 3 × 10–12 reps
5B. Cable Tricep Pushdown 3 × 10–12 reps
⸻
Day 2 – Heavy Squat 1. Comp Squat (Barbell) 5 × 3 reps @ RPE 7–8 2. Romanian Deadlift (Dumbbell) 3 × 6 reps @ RPE 8 3. Walking Lunges (Dumbbell) 3 × 10–12 reps @ RPE 8–9 4. Lying Leg Curl 3 × 10–12 reps 5. Ab Crunch (Machine) 4 × 10–15 reps
⸻
Day 3 – Volume Bench 1. Paused Bench Press 4 × 6 reps @ RPE 7 2. Chest-Supported Row (Machine) 3 × 8–10 reps @ RPE 8 3. Incline Chest Press (Machine) 3 × 10–12 reps @ RPE 8 4. Cable Lateral Raises 4 × 15–20 reps
5A. EZ-Bar Bicep Curl 3 × 12–15 reps
5B. Barbell Skull Crushers 3 × 12–15 reps
⸻
Day 4 – Volume Squat 1. Comp Squat (Barbell) 4 × 6 reps @ RPE 7–8 2. Leg Press (45°) 4 × 8–10 reps 3. Hip Thrust (Machine) 4 × 8–12 reps @ RPE 8 4. Seated Hamstring Curl 3 × 12–15 reps 5. Hanging Leg Raise 4 × 12–15 reps
⸻
Day 5 – Deadlift + Shoulders / Arms 1. Conventional Deadlift (Barbell) 4 × 3 reps @ RPE 7–8 2. Overhead Press (Barbell) 4 × 5 reps @ RPE 8 3. Back Extension 2 × 8–10 reps @ RPE 8 4. Lat Pulldown 3 × 8–10 reps @ RPE 8 5. Cable Rear Delt Fly 4 × 15–20 reps
6A. EZ-Bar Preacher Curl 2 × 12–15 reps
6B. EZ-Bar Overhead Tricep Extension 2 × 12–15 reps
I will run this for 3 weeks, deload on the 4th, and then do it all over again, adding 5lb to my bench, 10lb to squat, and 10-15 on deadlift. I like this bc honestly I’m impatient and don’t like to wait 8-12 weeks to see improvement. My main concern is volume, which I’m sure is probably just something that will have to be trial and error. No plan for peaking, as I’m not planning on competing right now, but it is definitely something I’m open to in the future when I am stronger. I’m open to any thoughts/critiques.
Thoughts:
Boy do I have bad news for you about powerlifting. 😅 To be clear, you can absolutely experience improvements in 8-12 weeks, even an advanced lifter. But, that may not always manifest as a new 1RM.
Yeah, it was kinda supposed to be my own variation of a 5/3/1 type of thing, but I should probably just run a program lol
The general advice is to follow a tried and tested program as more of a beginner/intermediate until you have a better grasp of what works/doesn't work.
But, it's your own journey, nothing wrong with messing around with something you thought of and seeing if it works.
I'd only say that "I'm impatient and don’t like to wait 8-12 weeks to see improvement" is silly because you can't really rush progress. You can always add more weight, but you'll just be hitting at a higher RPE/intensity if your strength isn't catching up. Progressive overload can be seen as a cause and effect.
Yeah, in the past I always just did a double progression for every lift and tried to beat what I did the last week, but I should probably switch my mindset more to the long term.
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Anyone ever done STEM/PRP? Decided to try it. ARNP said it was probably fine to lift three days out but... yeah that was a bad idea. Limping round now.
If you've done it how long did you take off? Feeling my the ARNP was a little too optimistic
Hit a bench PR of 100kg weighing 63kg a few days ago. Wasn’t smooth going up but it was legal. Feels so surreal like I still can’t believe it happened. Wow.
Congrats girlypop 😍
Woot! \o/
Christ, the heights post on here is a hive of sexism and misogyny. People doing mental gymnastics to justify why it’s women’s fault that they’re offended by not being included is insane. Do better boys. Do better.
Mad that you’re being downvoted for this
Then make your own post for heights for women then. Why are you upset somebody else isn’t doing the legwork?
I’m “upset” by the sexist comments in the thread and people trying to justify those comments.
Can’t find a single comment mentioning gender
To be fair that is the issue. I was being subjected to a misogynist in the comments and the mods removed their comment for being a dick. OP is right in so far as people were being dismissive of women lifters despite 7 of the top 10 lifters in the ipf being women and the number one ranked lifter being Agata Sitko. FWIW I don’t think the original poster was intending to upset anyone but there is still very much an attitude against women in sport and also in general. Especially when we voice an opinion.
Unrelated but when you say 7 of the 10 are women you're referring to what exactly, DOTS/IPF points? I thought you couldn't compare across sex.
DOTS / IPF Points. Yes, they’re comparable across sex the formulas are designed to normalise for that. Separate awards are a competition policy choice.
I've been considering the comparability question and now I think you're right that even though they're separate regressions fitted to separate datasets, they are comparable with the interpretation, "this female powerlifter's strength relative to the average female powerlifter at her weight, is [greater than/less than] this male powerlifter's strength relative to the average male powerlifter at his weight."
It's a tricky one to ever make these kinds of comparisons, ultimately. But I guess we do what we can.
Take Carola Garra. Is she really the third best ever lifter? I like Carola. Obviously amazingly strong. Do I believe she's that much better than, say, Jesus at #23? Jesus has done something someone has never done before.
Carola hit 588.5 @ 69. You've got Agata doing that almost a weight class lower with 612.5 @ 63.4. And then you've got Lya and Scanlon at 580+.
It doesn't feel like Carola's 588.5 is the third best ever raw total. Just based on vibes if nothing else.
I think that reaction is totally reasonable and it is kind of the point. These rankings are not saying “third best total ever” in an absolute sense. They are saying “one of the strongest performances relative to bodyweight and sex on the model we’re using.”
When you line up lifters like Carola, Agata, Lya, Scanlon, or Jesus, you are really bumping into the limits of any single-number metric. DOTS collapses a lot of context, depth of field, competitive impact, novelty, era, into one score, and some of that inevitably clashes with “vibes.”
That does not mean Carola is objectively better than Jesús, or vice versa. It just means her 588.5 at 69 sits very high on that particular normalization curve. The moment you start asking “greatest ever,” you are already beyond what DOTS alone can answer.
When comparing across weight classes, I think there's an inherent and possibly unavoidable bias in who even shows up to compete. Like Jesus is strong for a 400 pound man. But not very many 400 pound men even show up at tested powerlifting meets, so there's a sparsity of data, which means the 4th degree polynomial function used to model the bodyweight/strength curve might not be that great of a fit at the extreme ends. And among the few 400 pound men who do compete, most are already quite strong, which is why they're competing.
Ah, you learn something new.
Whenever sexism gets brought up it tends to be from people on the outside of r/powerlifting - people on here are typically very inclusive and the mods do a great job of shutting down anything too close to the bone.
The only disagreements tend to be over which knee sleeve is best!
I've seen some pretty intense arguing over "Sumo is cheating" that still blows my mind
Those sort of arguments do still show up, but it's much less common since the user flair requirements. Random dorks who had this sub show up on their feed have to actually put forth 0.5 seconds of effort to make their dumb comments seen.
The amount of this bullshit we used to deal with before implementing mandatory user flair was honestly insane.
Anyone ever run the SBS reps to failure program? I wanna do this starting in a couple weeks while cutting…not sure if it’ll be feasible but I feel like with the autoregulation it’ll work out well. I’ll also do it 4x a week instead of the prescribed 5x.
I ran it to give myself a mental deload from specific powerlifting training. It's a fine strength training program that is mostly fun, but I wouldn't consider it powerlifting training. If you're looking to become a better powerlifter, I'd run literally any of the many actual powerlifting templates.
4 or 5 days doesn't make a difference really, and if you feel like shit from the cut, it'll adapt.
Thanks. I think I’ll give it a go anyways.
It's been a couple years since I ran it but it's a really good programme. I've used it while cutting before but the biggest issue I found was if I pushed the AMRAPs I'd really struggle to recover. However it's worth noting I was ~40 years old when I did it and so I probably didnt/don't recover as fast as someone younger. If I was to use it again while cutting; I'd put a max limit on the number of reps per AMRAP
I've had a lot of success recently with the last set RiR programme - same progression scheme etc just no AMRAPs and calculating the RiR at the end.
Yes - I would recommend that you set an RPE cap on your AMRAP set for squats and deadlifts, especially while cutting. You'll get incredibly fatigued over time and might not recover by the next week.
Yes, it was the last program I ran as a beginner-intermediate before hiring my coach. I really enjoyed it. I don't think it will be that bad to run on a cut because it is auto-regulated based on how your performance relates to the rep prescriptions. Your TM will shrink if you consistently miss the minimum reps.
Also, should the maxes I enter on the Google sheet be a TM like in 5/3/1? Or my true 1RM. I’m testing them all this week before getting on the program in the new year.
It doesn't matter that much, it's just to get you a starting place in the right ballpark. The autoregulation will take it from there.
Thanks.
Thanks. Did you run it 5 day/week?