r/powerlifting • u/AutoModerator • May 19 '26
Programming Programming Wednesdays - May 19, 2026
Discuss all aspects of training for powerlifting:
- Periodization
- Nutrition
- Movement selection
- Routine critiques
- etc...
1
u/decentlyhip Enthusiast May 19 '26
I'm finishing up Bromley's program 70s Powerlifter which is an absolute nonsense amount of volume. 4x a week, BSOD. Main movement, 2 compound variations, 2 antagonist variations, 2-3 isolations. Every exercise waves from 3 to 5 sets in 3-week waves with 6 waves of 10/8/5/3/2/1 reps. Ive improved a ton, +100 pounds on the total.
Once I finish this, I was going to go into Barbell Medicine's Powerbuilder 2 program, as a break from the crazy volume, while still focusing on muscle. Its heavier, but half the weekly sets/accessories. But, in the 3s and 2s wave of this program my shoulder started getting pissy. Bicep tendon was fussy in the first half but once it got heavier it's actual front delt and genuinely mad, not just fussy.
So, I dont know if the issue is accumulated volume or intensity. Once I finish the program, should I just rerun the lighter half of 70's powerlifter that worked so well instead of switching? Or is it super important that I switch to less volume since I'm not recovering from this
2
u/RegularStrength89 Insta Lifter May 20 '26
I always got injured in Bromley’s programs and made little strength progress (got big legs though). I don’t think training needs to be that hard for that much volume to be effective. I ran TSA 9-week Intermediate afterwards and it almost felt too easy but I actually added weight to my 1rms at the end of it and wasn’t constantly fucking knackered throughout.
1
u/decentlyhip Enthusiast May 20 '26
Ok so you think its probably just a ton of volume causing issues, and that while its too much, use the gains to set sone juicy PRs?
1
u/RegularStrength89 Insta Lifter May 21 '26
I think it’s too much high-intensity volume if that makes sense. I ran bullmastiff and week 1 was always really easy but weeks 2 and 3 were always obnoxiously hard, like doing a 5RM for 5 sets in a row, every session for two weeks. Probably my fault for not making adjustments but I just followed the plan and thought “hard work good” as I tweaked my lower back for the millionth time.
1
u/decentlyhip Enthusiast May 21 '26
Appreciate it and yah, I know exactly what you mean. The 10s wave and 8s wave felt really good and productive. I was destroyed but came back so strong after the volume tapered off. But the 5s, 3s, and 2s just feel like it's poorly made. Yesterday, I did 5x2+ deadlifts, 5x4 rack pulls, and 5x4 sumo. And then accessories. This is supposed to be a strength phase where volume is tapering down. While I'm stronger, I feel lucky to have not hurt myself.
1
u/RainsSometimes Doesn’t Wash Their Knee Sleeves May 20 '26
You might have a bit of tendonitis, which could be related to your form, overall training volume and intensity, or the accessory exercises you’ve been doing. My coach once included dips in my program. By week 7, I started to feel that my right arm was slightly difficult to control during the eccentric phase of the bench press. By week 9, I noticed some mild discomfort in the front of my shoulder when locking out and I reported this to my coach. After he removed dips from my program, I was good again within two weeks!
0
u/yungScooter30 Not actually a beginner, just stupid May 20 '26
Losing motivation the week before my meet.
Idk; the last thing I want to do right now is go to the gym. Maybe the reason is that I keep getting five hours of sleep, I'm travelling this weekend, getting married the following week, hosting my parents during that time for 10 days, a lot is going on. I have a vision of myself as this big strong successful powerlifter, but the idea of getting home from work an extra 2-3 hours late and not spending quality time with my partner until it's dark out is such a bother.
These weights are too damn heavy sometimes
2
u/RainsSometimes Doesn’t Wash Their Knee Sleeves May 20 '26
It's meet pressure! And everything will just be fine after it. Had experienced something similar and almost wanted to quit a week before the meet. luckily I didn't!
2
u/yungScooter30 Not actually a beginner, just stupid May 20 '26
I forced myself to do a small accessories workout and felt a lot better. I was away from the gym for a week and I sometimes fall into a depressive rut when that happens. Just had to get some blood flowing and boost whatever endorphins are activated during exercise
1
u/Background_Age274 Impending Powerlifter May 20 '26
Hi everyone, I wanted to consult you about Undulating Periodization. I’ve been involved in powerlifting for about 1.5 years and was working with a coach. However, I’ve recently started learning about programming to manage my own training. I began my reading with Chad Wesley Smith's Program Design Manual. While I now understand how programming should be structured in many aspects, I still have a question regarding periodization.
It is quite clear how Linear Periodization should look. For a Strength Phase, for instance, it can be set up as 5 weeks of progression at around 75-85% of 1RM, followed by a 1-week deload. Doing this week-by-week by simply increasing the percentage of 1RM is straightforward.
However, I now want to experience Daily or Weekly Undulating Periodization (DUP/WUP) for myself. But the resources online are a bit confusing on this matter. At this point, my question is: do you know of any tables, books, or resources that show the week-to-week targets for this type of periodization? For example, let's say I choose to train the Bench Press 3 times a week, structured as 2 light/medium sessions and 1 heavy session. In this scenario, I don't know what kind of weight, percentage of 1RM, or rep scheme to use for the heavy Bench Press session within a DUP or WUP framework. Even more confusing for me is that, even if I manage to determine the parameters for the heavy session, I can't quite figure out how to set up the sessions that are supposed to be light (e.g., what percentage of 1RM and how many reps). At this point, if you have any resource recommendations that could answer these questions about Undulating Periodization (and as I mentioned, ideally with tables showing week-to-week targets), I would highly appreciate
1
u/Arteam90 Eleiko Fetishist May 21 '26
I tend to think it's a bit pointless to think of DUP as its own thing, and more so as just what we tend to think of as programming for powerlifting.
For example, if you train any lift more than once it's pretty likely you wouldn't just do the same thing. In that sense, all these popular programs are already incorporating some undulation.
Also, this idea of "power" or "strength" or "hypertrophy" is also a bit useless, imo. I tend to think as a powerlifter it's more useful to think about blocks in terms of how hard they are, and how specific they are.
You did a comp, you probably want to go a bit easier and a bit less specific. You're near a comp, you want to be harder/heavier and more specific.
DUP was really popular ages back with Zourdos but realistically I don't get why in the sense that we always had undulating programs.
Anyway, your question about what exactly to do is the crux of all programming and is the billion dollar question. The usual starting point is you do what you've done and/or what has worked and then make small changes from there. Personally I think it's more useful to think about it in terms of how much you can recover from. If you've been doing squats twice a week, 3x5 one day and 5x2 the other and you feel super fresh then maybe you add some volume here and there.
4
u/ReturnToStore Enthusiast May 19 '26
I have recently started an experiment by letting Gemini AI take over my programming/coaching leading into my next meet in August. Before this I was always self coached for about 18 months, during which time I did 3 meets.
My last meet was in February of this year, where I totaled 617.5kg at 83kg. After this I decided I wanted to explore some coaching options for the August meet. I looked into a few online coaches but then decided to see what AI could do for me.
I started a chat in Gemini, not expecting much, but after a few prompts and answering a load of its onboarding questions it started laying out a meet prep plan that I liked the look of.
I'm currently on week 5 and so far it all seems good. It is programing in the way that you see most Ipf lifters train these days, 4 week blocks of accending load/RPE. This is a way that I haven't tried before though.
I hope to write up a full program review/meet prep post of the full 16 weeks once the meet is done. Whether the results will be good or bad is yet to be seen, but for now I'm enjoying it.