What Are Your Thoughts on This Program?

I’ve been doing this undulating periodization program for a while now and I really like it because it allows me to adjust based on how I feel that day. This program is specifically for my squats (low bar) and bench (paused), session 1 is on Monday and session 2 is on Friday.

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There is an intentional difference of 2 or more reps between each session, so the body doesn’t adjust to one rep scheme. I almost never go above an RPE of 9 and rarely go above 7 or 8, that means I get to pick the weight that day based on how I feel. I have one top set and then back offs with the same reps, but lighter weight. I have deadlifts on Wednesday. I’ve noticed I’m a little weaker on Mondays and my strength really shows on Fridays, so I was thinking if I could switch it up a little and do my higher reps (6+) on Monday and do them high bar and Friday do my heavy sets (5 or less and low bar). Same thing for bench. I would always try to continue to keep at least a 2 rep difference. I could also finally incorporate very heavy sets of 1, 2 or 3 more frequently on Fridays and rest or take a break so to speak on Monday with my higher reps.

So is this the program you’ve been doing? Are your lifts going up? If they are then it’s working.

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It’s not that they aren’t, I’m thinking If I could maximize my strength gains on this program by not doing heavy work on Monday (the day I usually don’t perform as well), but instead doing higher rep work, high bar and by that giving myself a little bit of a break and saving it for Friday, where I’m almost always stronger. I’m thinking this could be because of the longer rest from squats I get

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Give that a try then. Won’t know until you try it. Obviously you’re strong like an ox so you’ll have to just give it a run.

Do you do any conditioning or recovery on Sunday? I use to have the same issue of Monday being the worst day of the week for me, but once I started conditioning and doing some active recovery on Sundays, Mondays turned back into my best days performance wise. You could even go in on Sunday and do some basic 3x10 light (like 225) squats to get loose for Monday.

I’m not a powerlifter, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

What’s your current split like? Do you lift only 3x a week?

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@isdatnutty

Monday:
-Squats
-Paused bench press
-Incline bench press
-Shoulder press/lateral raises
-Rear delt raises
-Triceps extension/Skullcrushers

Wednesday:
-Deadlifts
-2 Lat exercises
-2 Mid back exercises (rhomboids, traps,…)
-Bicep curls
-Grip exercise

Friday:
-Squats
-Paused bench press
-Incline bench press
-Shoulder press/lateral raises
-Rear delt raises
-Triceps extension/Skullcrushers

Saturday:
-2 Lat exercises
-2 Mid back exercises (rhomboids, traps,…)
-Bicep curls
-Grip exercise

Also, no, I don’t do any conditioning work, I should try that.

Well that explains why Monday your performance isn’t as great haha. You deadlift on Saturday. So based on this it makes sense to do higher reps high bar on Monday. Get you ready for the rest of the week.

But please do some conditioning. Other powerlifters will have to chime in to give you a good idea how and when based on your goals, but don’t neglect conditioning! You’ll find you’ll be able to lift better, recovery better, and it’s good for your heart and lungs!

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Oh shit, sorry. I only deadlift on Wednesday. I just copied Wed workout and forgot to delete Deadlifts.

The program itself looks okay, I don’t really like the idea of varying rep ranges so much but if it’s working then it’s fine.

If you aren’t recovering properly then I could give you a few suggestions. First of all, you could reduce volume on your Friday session so that you are less fatigued by Monday, either reduce the number of down sets or just skip them altogether.

Another option would be to make it a light squat session, more for technique work than anything. There are different ways to do this but intensity would be low (like around 60%) and stay far from failure. What I have done myself (copied from Josh Bryant) is 60%x2x6 sets with 45 sec. rest.

The third option, which has been my normal setup for some time, is the 60%x2x6 right before deadlifting, which has the added bonus of giving you more time between lower body sessions. It isn’t enough to cause any real fatigue, which was my initial concern when I started doing that, and it actually seems like a good warmup for deadlifts and I don’t need so many warmup sets for deadlifts after.

In my case, I was doing something similar to you, two squat days a week and deadlift in the middle and I found I often wasn’t properly recovered for the first squat day of the week so I tried this. Despite only squatting heavy once a week I started making better progress.

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Yeah man that’s what I was worried about, not having enough. But I’m sure one heavy squat day will be enough. I’ll play around with which one will be my light day, maybe even try the option to do them before deadlifts. Thank you!

No problem.

There are a lot of different ways to do things, the only way to know what is going to work best is to try.

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That’s the key right there @monickinmatko. You won’t know how your body responds until you try things out. Make minor changes (one change at a time) and see how it responds and go from there.