Daily Undulating Periodization Help

Hi guys!

I have been trying to find information about DUP style strength training and especially for powerlifting. Now, I have a problem because information I have found isn’t the same. Some resources say that you do lower percentages on power workout than strength workout.

Example 1
Power - Squat: 6x3 @70%
Strength - Deadlift: 5x5 @85%
Hypertrophy - Bench: 4x8 @75%

Example 2
Power - Squat: 6x3 @85%
Strength - Deadlift: 5x5 @80%
Hypertrophy - Bench: 4x8 @75%

Additionally, power stands for speed/technique work but it’s really hard to push it at higher percentages. What do you think, which one would be more beneficial for powerlifting?

It seems that you have it all backwards. First of all, DUP involves doing each lift (or variations) multiple times per week. “Power” is kind of like speed work, moderate weight and low reps. You can look up Mike Zourdos for more information, his phd thesis was on DUP and he found that hypertrophy-power-strength was a better setup than hypertrophy-strength-power, presumably because you will be less fatigued on the strength day and strength is the primary objective in powerlifting. From what I have heard, he does not program DUP in that format these days (he coaches powerlifters), it is linear and DUP at the same time. Basically you train each lift 3x/week going 8-6-4, 7-5-3 the next week, 6-4-2 the following. Look up some posts by StormTheBeach AKA Mike Hedlesky, he used to work with Zourdos and he laid out a basic DUP setup.

And just to let you know, the Texas Method and Westside are two common DUP “programs” (I wouldn’t really call Westside a program), the recovery day in TM or the DE days in Westside are the equivalent of the power day, Westside trains hypertrophy every day.

Shouldn’t need to be said, but this is really the kind of thing you’re going to have to play around with and figure out on your own. Is it realistic to think there would be one right answer to this question, or even that the question makes sense as asked?

There are no magic percentages, set/rep schemes, frequencies, periodization models, etc… The “resources” you’ve likely consulted should just be used to get you in the right ballpark to start. From there you need to adjust; that applies irrespective of training philosophy.

I don’t know if you’re read the 3DMJ Pyramid books, but that’s a good resource to get a handle on training for powerlifting using DUP principles. You will see there that there are many ways to set up a training cycle using these principles.

Just to give you something of substance, my wife’s training is set up using DUP principles, and her power work is very close percentage-wise to her strength work. The reps are lower. That same setup has not been sustainable for me, though, hence the need to try different things.

Remember, I just listed five completely different programs that use daily undulating periodization.

Power has to do with acceleration, not absolute strength. H-S-P probably works better for other sports like shotput or maybe sprinting or something similar, not powerlifting.

Power in the context of sports is the combination of speed and strength.

Speed is velocity.

Strength is force applied to an object (including one’s own body).

Now there is a spectrum.

<--------speed-strength--------------------------strength speed-------->

Maximum power is achieved in the 70% to 85% range and/or 0.8m/s. These are the percentages that Fred Hatfield used for his ‘Compensatory Acceleration’ work, the same velocities that Soviets discovered, and the same percentages of the variation being used for Westside BB.

That is to say, this is more than coincidence.

You’ll want to stay with higher sets and lower reps.