Novice Powerlifter

I talked to Eric Cressey about what I could do to change my routine to increase my strengths on my 3 lifts. He said to post in the Strength Sports Forum to get advice from season veterans in the sport. So here it goes:

Hello my name is and I was wanting advice how to change up my routine due to not increasing on my 1RM lately (about six months). I was doing a 5 by 5 progam and 5 by 3 program for approximately a year and half. I have been lifting weights for about 4 to 5 years and powerlifting for about 2 to 3 years (novice). I am 5’ 7 1/2" and weigh 240 pounds. My 1RM are as follows: bench 430lbs (touch and go) 405lbs (pause), squat 460lbs below parellel, and deadlift 525lbs.

A guy at my gym who was an old style powerlifter that has long since retired told me to reset my routine by starting with light weight all over again using 3 by 10 and increase the weight by 5lbs to 10lbs every week to build back some endurance in my training and give my muscles a break from being over trained with heavy weights. I have been doing that for two months and go four days a week, this is my routine:

Day One

BENCH PRESS
DECLINE PRESS
SQUAT
HIGH SQUAT
QUARTER SQUAT
E-Z TRICEPS (OUT)
E-Z CURLS (IN)
SITDOWN CURLS (OUT)
PULLDOWN BACK
PULLDOWN FRONT

Day Two

INCLINE PRESS
CLOSE BENCH
RACK DEADLIFT
STRAIGHT LEG DEADLIFT
GOOD MORNINGS
FOREARM CURLS (IN)
E-Z CURLS (OUT)
SHOULDER PRESS
BARBELL SHOULDER SHRUGS
MACHINE ROWS

Day Three

PAUSE BENCH
DUMBBELL PRESS
DEADLIFT
ROMANIAN DEADLIFT
CLEAN AND PRESS
FOREARM CURLS (OUT)
DUMBBELL STRAIGHT CURLS
OVERHEAD TRICEPS
PD BACK
PD FRONT

Day Four

RACK BENCH (MID)
RACK BENCH (TOP)
HIGH DEADLIFT
POWER CLEAN
SITDOWN CURLS (IN)
DUMBBELL FOREARM CURLS
DUMBBEL TRICEPS
DUMBBELL ROWS

Any advice would be helpful to make bigger gains in my three lifts.

Lawrence

dude, you remind me way, WAY to much of a young me. first of all, READ. this site has a ton of good powerlifting articles, and so does elitefts.com

Now I’ll give you some good general recomenations until you’ve read all that info. Divvy up your workouts into two bench days, three days apart, and two squat days three days apart, instead of four days of everything.

Example

mon squat
tue bench
wed off
thur squat
fri bench

if you are going light right now, get back into the shit. if you’ve been hitting it pretty hard lately (for three weeks or longer), back off for a week, then flop it out and stick it in. a good rule of thumb is 3-4 weeks balls-to-the-wall, one week off. this really helps to prevent injury and burnout. as to your training itself, I recommend going for a triple in one big exercise (squat, bench or deadlift) in your first squat and first bench workouts of the week. followed by 1-3x5 of a complementary exercise (goodmornings, close grip bench) (do only as many sets as you feel up to, listen to your body) then finish with 2-3x8-12 sets of supplemental work (glute-ham raises, pullthroughs, rows, tricep extensions, military press) for your other two workouts subsitute some fast lift for the triple, do high sets of low reps at a low weight and go full speed (but stay under control) this helps develop explosive power that’ll help you blast through your sticking points.

Example

mon squat- triple
Romainian deadlift 3x5
glute-ham raises 2x8
weighted crunches 3x8

tue bench - triple
Close grip bench 3x5
chest supported rows 3x8
Tricep extensions

wed off

thur box squats 8x2 65%
Good mornings 3x5
weighted crunches 3x8
Pullthroughs 3x8

fri bench press 8x3 65%
decline 3x5
Dumbell rows 3x8
Front raises 3x8

My standard advice: the best thing you can do for your training is to find a serious group of active powerlifters, and train with them.

My second piece of boilerplate is: Enter a meet. Doesn’t matter what league, just get yourself signed up. Establish a total (doesn’t matter what it is), and start working for improvements on that…

You sound like you’ve been training long enough to know what works for you, and that is what you have to use. Just remember that what works for you may not work for anyone else.

What you have to ask yourself is “What is your training philosophy?” (Nods to Dave Tate) What do you respond well to? Are you going to compete equipped? A lot of this is more individual than most would like to admit, and you have to figure out what is right for you.

Try to think in terms of principles and build your program around the principles.

So the principles I use are:

  1. In order to lift big weights, you must lift big weights in training, often.

  2. Listen to your body. No matter what the plan is, push it on good days, and back off on bad

  3. Train as you compete: I wear my gear a lot.

  4. Train the appropriate strength-curve. (lifting in gear requires different assistance work than raw)

  5. Train movements, not muscles. I do boards and pin-presses, but not skull-crushers or Tate Presses.

  6. Low Reps, high intensity. I thrive on this, but many others don’t. 3x10 did nothing for me.

  7. Recovery is important.

  8. It has to be fun. If you aren’t looking forward to your workouts, you are doing something wrong.

Of course these are just my principles, you have to pick your own, and don’t be afraid to change them if they aren’t working.

Dude, I would love to be able to help you.

However, I don’t even know where to start with that routine. If you had not mentioned your stats for all three lifts, I would have thought you were training to be a bench specialist. I think this is a problem.

I would state that your path to progress would start with an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses.

Why don’t you go through a process of determining three muscle groups that need to come up. Then, select movements that you suspect will strengthen them.

Then look at your current routine, find the 4-5 compound movements you are strongest at (outside of the big three) and remove them from your routine. Quit doing them, and bring some focus to compound movements you suck at or hate to do because they kick your ass.

Those are my thoughts out of the gate.

Great advise given.

Great advice by W.E.C.

First off, have your lifts stalled? I would assume they have if you’re looking to change things up, but just to make sure, have your lifts not been going up recently?

I think that dude’s reasoning for 3x10 is pretty stupid. No reason to stick with that same, essentially arbitrary, rep scheme for more than 4-6 weeks tops, and likely for much less than that. I know of almost no one who worries about getting their sets of 10 up higher to get their 1RM higher. For some kind of recovery phase, okay, whatever, but just not for long.

Now onto some kind of advice. Most of it will mirror W.E.C.'s. First off, if at all possible, find a group of currently competitive powerlifters to train with. LOOK for this. Sometimes they are hard to find, but very often people are surprised at what they have access to in their own town. The advice from these people will be much more useful than that of some internet hacks like us.

Whether or not you can find a group to lift with, go find a meet in your area to attend. Watch it and figure out what’s expected at a meet. (This is also a GREAT way to find local powerlifters.) After you’ve done this, find a meet about 8-12 weeks away. If you would like to just test your numbers in the gym, that’s fine, but it’s not nearly as effective as getting them tested in a meet. But once you’ve selected a meet date, start working up some kind of training cycle to lead up to it.

This is probably where you want some advice, but unfortunately, this is where you really just need to start trying some things for yourself. Pick some kind of training philosophy to follow. For starters, there is what you’ve done in the past. If you don’t want to do that again, there are tons of articles here discussing strength training to choose from. Dave Tate’s site also has a lot of articles as well. Look into things like Sheiko routines, variations of 5x5 (especially Glenn Pendlay’s stuff - I would love to see T-Nation get him to start contributing articles, kind of a Tate/CT mix), etc.

Pick something that allows you to work up to a peak (the meet) and see how it works for you. Once you’ve done the meet, think back on what you did over the course of that training cycle and what you think worked and what didn’t. Change what didn’t work by modifying the program a bit. Then take a few weeks to just do some bodybuilding-type work. After that, pick a meet, plan another cycle with your changes, and repeat. You will slowly start learning what works for you and your numbers will go up.

W.E.C., darkbob, apwsearch, jlesk68, and rick james.

I liked to thank you all personally on the advice given and will take everything into consideration as it is imperative listen to people who have more experience in the sport than I do. THANK YOU!!

Lawrence

This is the program I am going with, the program is a 3by 3 program from Stephan Korte.

www.deepsquatter.com/strength/archives/

You will see the program on your upper right side of the website. This program is 8 weeks and is simple and to the point. It is as follows:

PHASE 1 SQUAT 5 TO 8 SETS X 5 REPS
WEEK 1 58% 1 RM 460LBS
DAY 1 280LBS PROJECTED 485LBS
DAY 2 280LBS
DAY 3 280LBS

WEEK 2 60%
DAY 1 290LBS
DAY 2 290LBS
DAY 3 290LBS

WEEK 3 62%
DAY 1 300LBS
DAY 2 300LBS
DAY 3 300LBS

WEEK 4 64%
DAY 1 310LBS
DAY 2 310LBS
DAY 3 310LBS

BENCH PRESS 6 TO 8 SETS X 6 REPS
WEEK 1 58% 1 RM 430LBS
DAY 1 255LBS PROJECTED 440LBS
DAY 2 255LBS
DAY 3 255LBS

WEEK 2 60%
DAY 1 265LBS
DAY 2 265LBS
DAY 3 265LBS

WEEK 3 62%
DAY 1 275LBS
DAY 2 275LBS
DAY 3 275LBS

WEEK 4 64%
DAY 1 285LBS
DAY 2 285LBS
DAY 3 285LBS

DEADLIFT 5 TO 8 SETS X 5 REPS
WEEK 1 58% 1RM 525LBS
DAY 1 315LBS PROJECTED 540LBS
DAY 2 315LBS
DAY 3 315LBS

WEEK 2 60%
DAY 1 325LBS
DAY 2 325LBS
DAY 3 325LBS

WEEK 3 62%
DAY 1 335LBS
DAY 2 335LBS
DAY 3 335LBS

WEEK 4 64%
DAY 1 345LBS
DAY 2 345LBS
DAY 3 345LBS

PHASE 2 SQUAT
WEEK 5
DAY 1 3 SETS X 3 REPS AT 60%
290LBS
DAY 2 3 SETS X 3 REPS AT 60%
290LBS
DAY 3 1 TO 2 SETS X I REP AT 80%
390LBS
WEEK 6
DAY 1 3 SETS X 3 REPS AT 60%
290LBS
DAY 2 3 SETS X 3 REPS AT 60%
290LBS
DAY 3 1 TO 2 SETS X 1 REP AT 85%
415LBS
WEEK 7
DAY 1 3 SETS X 3 REPS AT 60%
290LBS
DAY 2 3 SETS X 3 REPS AT 60%
290LBS
DAY 3 1 SET X 1 REP AT 90%
435LBS
WEEK 8
DAY 1 3 SETS X 3 REPS AT 60%
290LBS
DAY 2 3 SETS X 3 REPS AT 60%
290LBS
DAY 3 1 SET X 1 REP AT 95%
460LBS

BENCH PRESS
WEEK 5
DAY 1 5 SETS X 4 REPS AT 60%
265LBS
DAY 2 1 TO 2 SETS X 1 REP AT 80%
355LBS
DAY 3 5 SETS X 4 REPS AT 60%
265LBS
WEEK 6
DAY 1 5 SETS X 4 REPS AT 60%
265LBS
DAY 2 1 TO 2 SETS X I REP AT 85%
375LBS
DAY 3 5 SETS X 4 REPS AT 60%
265LBS
WEEK 7
DAY 1 5 SETS X 4 REPS AT 60%
265LBS
DAY 2 1 SET X 1 REP AT 90%
395LBS
DAY 3 5 SETS X 4 REPS AT 60%
265LBS
WEEK 8
DAY 1 5 SETS X 4 REPS AT 60%
265LBS
DAY 2 1 SET X 1 REP AT 95%
420LBS
DAY 3 5 SETS X 4 REPS AT 60%
265LBS

DEADLIFT
WEEK 5
DAY 1 1 TO 2 SETS X 1 REP AT 80%
420LBS
DAY 2 3 SETS X 3 REPS AT 60%
325LBS
DAY 3 3 SETS X 3 REPS AT 60%
325LBS
WEEK 6
DAY 1 1 TO 2 SETS X 1 REP AT 85%
450LBS
DAY 2 3 SETS X 3 REPS AT 60%
325LBS
DAY 3 3 SETS X 3 REPS AT 60%
325LBS
WEEK 7
DAY 1 1 SET X 1 REP AT 90%
475LBS
DAY 2 3 SETS X 3 REPS AT 60%
325LBS
DAY 3 3 SETS X 3 REPS AT 60%
325LBS
WEEK 8
DAY 1 1 SET X 1 REP AT 95%
500LBS
DAY 2 3 SETS X 3 REPS AT 60%
325LBS
DAY 3 3 SETS X 3 REPS AT 60%
325LBS

My goals are to do all 8 sets in phase 1. Then after I am done with bench, squat, and deadlift each day, I have some other exercises that I put in.

DAY 1
POWER CLEAN
PD FRONT
E-Z CURLS (IN)
SIT DOWN CURLS (OUT)
E-Z TRICEPS

DAY 2
SHOULDER PRESS
PD BACK
E-Z CURLS (OUT)
DB FOREARM CURLS
OVERHEAD TRICEPS

DAY 3
CLEAN AND PRESS
MACHINE ROWS
SIT DOWN CURLS (OUT)
DB STRAIGHT CURLS
DB TRICEPS

I start this program on Sunday and my regimen will be sunday, tuesday, and thursday. This is an eight week program and at the end of the eight week program I will update you on my progress and hopefully my stale mate of not increasing my 1 RM will long be forgotten. Thanks for everyones help.

Lawrence

[quote]A7979 wrote:
I talked to Eric Cressey about what I could do to change my routine to increase my strengths on my 3 lifts. He said to post in the Strength Sports Forum to get advice from season veterans in the sport. So here it goes:

Hello my name is and I was wanting advice how to change up my routine due to not increasing on my 1RM lately (about six months). I was doing a 5 by 5 progam and 5 by 3 program for approximately a year and half. I have been lifting weights for about 4 to 5 years and powerlifting for about 2 to 3 years (novice). I am 5’ 7 1/2" and weigh 240 pounds. My 1RM are as follows: bench 430lbs (touch and go) 405lbs (pause), squat 460lbs below parellel, and deadlift 525lbs.

A guy at my gym who was an old style powerlifter that has long since retired told me to reset my routine by starting with light weight all over again using 3 by 10 and increase the weight by 5lbs to 10lbs every week to build back some endurance in my training and give my muscles a break from being over trained with heavy weights. I have been doing that for two months and go four days a week, this is my routine:

Day One

BENCH PRESS
DECLINE PRESS
SQUAT
HIGH SQUAT
QUARTER SQUAT
E-Z TRICEPS (OUT)
E-Z CURLS (IN)
SITDOWN CURLS (OUT)
PULLDOWN BACK
PULLDOWN FRONT

Day Two

INCLINE PRESS
CLOSE BENCH
RACK DEADLIFT
STRAIGHT LEG DEADLIFT
GOOD MORNINGS
FOREARM CURLS (IN)
E-Z CURLS (OUT)
SHOULDER PRESS
BARBELL SHOULDER SHRUGS
MACHINE ROWS

Day Three

PAUSE BENCH
DUMBBELL PRESS
DEADLIFT
ROMANIAN DEADLIFT
CLEAN AND PRESS
FOREARM CURLS (OUT)
DUMBBELL STRAIGHT CURLS
OVERHEAD TRICEPS
PD BACK
PD FRONT

Day Four

RACK BENCH (MID)
RACK BENCH (TOP)
HIGH DEADLIFT
POWER CLEAN
SITDOWN CURLS (IN)
DUMBBELL FOREARM CURLS
DUMBBEL TRICEPS
DUMBBELL ROWS

Any advice would be helpful to make bigger gains in my three lifts.

Lawrence[/quote]

Whoa, thats some extreme volume and WAY too many lifts for a PLer. Try westside style stuff.