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Powerlifting Technique

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6-Day Powerlifting Split: 12 Week Peaking Program

This is a 12 week peaking program aimed for anyone intending to test their 1RMs by the end of the program or enter a powerlifting competition. 

This 12 week program is constructed of 2 training blocks: a strength block and peaking/tapering block. The strength block intends to gradually build up your exposure to higher intensities and the peaking/tapering block intends to prepare you through reducing training stimulus so you can realise your strength potential.

This program is suitable for any intermediate powerlifter.  

Important to note:  prior to the last day of this program where you'll test your 1 rep maxes, please take 3-4 days off to ensure maximum recovery.  

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6-Day Powerlifting Split: 12 Week Peaking Program

This intensification block intends to prepare you for managing higher intensities.

Week 1-6:  Intensification Block

This taper block intends to reduce load in order to reduce fatigue in order for the athlete to maximize physical readiness to perform their best 1RMs.

Week 7-12:  Peak & Taper Block

8-Week Deadlift Grip Program: Hand & Forearm Strength For Bigger Pulls

This program is designed for individuals who struggle with their grip for deadlifts. If you seem to lose grip or losing grip is causing you to fail, then this is the program for you. It is suitable for any grip style whether it is regular grip, mixed grip, or hook grip.

This is an 8-week deadlift grip program that includes deadlift training and accessory exercises that help improve your deadlift grip. 

Hand and forearm strength will be improved with accessory exercises that involve horizontal pulls, vertical pulls, and isometric holds. 

This is a 2 day a week program where you can incorporate other upper and lower body movements, on other training days. 

The idea is that this is an "add on program", where you'll add it onto your existing program based on your broader training goals.  

There is no doubt that at the end of the 8-weeks that your grip strength will be stronger. 

8-Week Deadlift Grip Program: Hand & Forearm Strength For Bigger Pulls

Deadlift with bands and rack deadlifts will give you exposure to being able to deal with heavier  loads through accommodating resistance with bands or lifting heavier weights with shorter ranges of motion. Horizontal and vertical pulling accessories are included give your forearm grip more of a stimulus.  Unilateral variations of the pulling accessories are included so that forearm grip strength is balanced for both arms.  Isometric exercises such as the farmers walk and isometric deadlifts are included for grip strength endurance.

Week 1-8:  Hand, Forearm, & Grip Strength

This program is designed for anyone with technical issues with their squat, specifically a problem with forward-leaning during execution. 

It is suitable for beginners to intermediate. The nature of the program will be relatively low in intensity but will incorporate many different exercises that performed at a slow tempo to retrain new technique. 

People generally lean forward in the squat because they are a lot stronger in the hips/glutes than in the quads. This can be fixed by working through a phase of training dedicated to reducing the block's difficulty so that the effort and attention can be dedicated to the positioning.

The long tempo on the compound exercises is there to allow you to reinforce proper position during execution. The difficulty of the weights should be low enough for you to put yourself in a position that may not necessarily be easy for you.
 
You can implement any additional upper body training, but you should not implement any other lower body exercises as this program is designed specifically to elicit movement pattern change with those specific exercises. Adding any other lower body exercise may risk deviating from the objective.

You should test and retest your squat technique before and after recording from the side angle to judge your improvements.


Fix Leaning Forward When Squatting: 60 Days To A More Upright Posture

This is the technical block where the program incorporates very specific technique exercises to help you load the legs and train the right movement patterns. There are also isolation exercises to reinforce  specific muscle groups. The main squat movements are kept at a low intensity so the previous technique will not stay reinforced allow the other exercises to make changes to your technique.

Week 1-4:  Technical Block

This training block attempts to transfer the effects from the previous block's exercises to the main back squat.

Week 5-8:  Specificity Block

This program is designed for anyone with technical issues with their deadlift, specifically a problem with not being able to keep back straight. It is suitable for beginners to intermediate. The nature of the program will be relatively low in intensity and include many different exercises. The program aims to improve deadlifting technique by improving how well you can move through your hips and low intensity deadlift variations that aim to reinforce new technique.
People generally struggle with keeping back straight in the deadlift mostly because they either have poor hip mobility so they end up compensating by rounding their backs or they do not know what it feels like to keep their back flat.
The difficulty of the weights should be low enough for you to put yourself in a position that may not necessarily be easy for you. The program will incorporate 3 training blocks that will progress towards performing a complete deadlift.
You can implement any additional upper body training, but you should not implement any other lower body exercises as this program is designed specifically to elicit movement pattern change with those specific exercises. Adding any other lower body exercise may risk deviating from the objective.
You should test and retest your deadlift technique before and after recording from the side angle to judge your improvements.


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Keep Your Back Straight Deadlifting: 60 Days To A More Neutral Spine

The movement phase involves no barbell deadlifting and has a low amount of squats to maintain strength. This block incorporates unilateral movements that aim to improve your ability to hinge through your hips on each side. This block also includes back exercises that help you improve your posture by improving your ability to extend. Squats are not progressed to prevent interference of the movement training.

Week 1-3:  Movement Block

This transition block introduces deadlifting movements back into training with partial ranges of movement and deadlifts with pauses and tempo execution. This is to integrate the improved movement quality from the previous block into your deadlifting technique. The movements from the previous block will be maintained but there will be a progression of the deadlift variations. Squats are slowly progressing from this block.

Week 4-6:  Transition Block

In this specificity block, the movement training is phased out and full conventional deadlifts are slowly reintroduced back into training.

Week 7-8:  Specificity Block

This program is designed for 50-year-olds who are newer to the sport of powerlifting but have plenty of experience in weight training. You should not have any pre-existing health issues or injuries that may impede your capacity to perform powerlifting or such exercise. You should ideally have some experience performing squatting and deadlifting type movements.
This is a 3 day a week program designed to give you exposure to higher intensity lifts but still incorporate some bodybuilding movements to condition you to lift heavier weights. The 15-week program will be broken down into 4 blocks of training. 
The first block of training is hypertrophy-focused and so the exercises and progression will prioritize increasing muscle mass around relevant muscle groups. The second block of training is volume-focused so there is progression around building more powerlifting specific movements to increase strength and technique. The third block of training is intensity focused so as to convert the work done to develop meaningful maximal strength. The fourth block of training is a tapering block so that we can reduce your fatigue and allow your true strength potential to actualize.  You'll text your squat, bench press, and deadlift at the end of the program.
It would be ideal to have an idea of what your 1RMs are, and if you do not, you can choose a conservative estimate.


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15-Week Powerlifting Program For 50 Year Olds (3 Days/Week)

This hypertrophy block is focused on maintain strength whilst developing relevant muscle groups that are important for performance of the 3 main powerlifts. The block is broken down into an SBD day where you perform all 3 powerlifts, a lower body day and upper body day. The  lower body and upper body day will be the hardest days as progression on these days will be the main priority for driving hypertrophy gains.

Week 1-4:  Hypertrophy Block

This accumulation block will be focusing on developing strength and workloads at higher intensities at exercises that are more relevant at improving the strength of the powerlift movements as opposed to targeting specific muscle groups. The SBD day of Workout 1 will incorporate higher intensities. Progression will take place on the lower body day and upper body day. There is more focus on compound exercises than isolation movements.

Week 5-8:  Accumulation Block

The intensification block focuses on increasing exposure to higher intensities and a gradual decrease in volume.

Week 9-12:  Intensification Block

This is a 3 week tapering block that can lead onto a competition or a day to test your 1RMs. The first workout of week 3 is the final training session before testing and should be performed 5 days before the test or competition day. The second workout of week 3 should be performed 3 days before the test or competition day. The final workout of week 3 is a test day or competition day.

week 13-15:  Taper and Test

This is a 12 week squat and deadlift program for tall lifters. 
This program is broken up into 2 blocks: a volume cycle where there is an accumulation of work, and an intensity cycle where there is a gradual exposure of higher percentages of your 1RM. This program is intended to be performed to a peak week where you test your 1RM or compete in powerlifting.

The program takes into consideration that tall lifters may generally have longer legs and a longer range of motion, and may potentially benefit from a lower frequency  and lower difficulty of squats and deadlift , but compensated with more accessory exercises.

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13-Week Squat & Deadlift Program For Tall Lifters

In this volume block, squats and deadlifts are performed once a week with a pyramid of intensities.  Most of the work is driven through pushing some of the back off sets for the squats and deadlifts and the accessory exercises.

Week 1-6:  Volume Block

The first week of this block will deload to recover from the previous accumulation block.  The focus will be on bringing up the squats and the deadlifts through doing more exercises that are relevant to squatting and deadlifting and gain more exposure to higher intensities.

Week 7-12:  Intensity Block

This will be the final week where you test your 1RMs at the end of the week or to compete in a powerlifting competition. Leave 2 rest days between Workout 1 and Workout 2. Leave 3 rest days between Workout 2 and the test/competition day.

Week 13 - Peak Week

Deadlift Week Off The Floor: 12 Week Bottom End Deadlift Program

This program is designed for intermediate lifters who have plateaued with their deadlifts and have a sticking point near the bottom end of the deadlift range of motion. This program is suitable for both who pull conventional or sumo deadlift.

The program is split into 2 training blocks where; the first training block aims to address the variety of reasons why someone may struggle with the bottom end range of deadlift motion. The second block aims to transition and transfer the gains made in the first block onto the full deadlift range of motion.

You may struggle with the bottom end range of deadlifting because you lack the capacity to hold a good position, weak legs or hips, you may have practiced deadlifting with touch and go only, or you have not previously spent enough time under tension on bottom end range.

The program will incorporate some squatting and other leg exercises and you should not incorporate your own lower body training. It will seek to prioritize deadlifts. However, you can add your own upper body training on top of this program.

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Deadlift Week Off The Floor: 12 Week Bottom End Deadlift Program

In this technique block, there are specific exercises that target the bottom end of the deadlift range of motion. These exercises will be progressed over the course of 6 weeks. Hypertrophy work will be included to target all relevant muscle groups that are needed  for the bottom end. The difficulty for the hypertrophy work is constant but autoregulated with an RPE, so if a previous weight feels easier, then increase accordingly so it matches with prescribed RPE difficulty. Squats are included but are not prioritized. There is a constant exposure of regular deadlifts with a fixed prescription and progress will be driven through the other deadlift variations.

Week 1-6:  Technique Block

This strength block will translate the work done with the deadlift variations onto your deadlift style whether it is conventional or sumo. The work on the deadlift variations will gradually go down as your regular deadlifts will gradually go up. Average intensity for the squats and deadlifts will slowly go up.

Week 7-12: Strength Block

12-Week Glute Development Program: Muscle Growth & Strength

This is a 12 week glute development program that is broken down into two 6-week blocks. 
The first block focuses on developing muscle growth and progression is through volume. The second block focuses on developing strength through pushing the effort on each set, while using decreasing rep ranges.

The exercises chosen incorporate both bilateral and unilateral exercises meaning that there are exercises that target both sides of your body but also include single legged exercises. This is important as bilateral exercises can allow you to use high loads in training, which is important for strength. The unilateral exercises allow you to develop muscle symmetrically too.

Exercises include saggital and lateral plane movements meaning there are forward/backward and sideways moving exercises to engage the glutes in different ways as the glutes have different functions.

By the end of this training program, you will have greater glute musculature, as well as strength that will carry over to other exercises and activities.  

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12-Week Glute Development Program: Muscle Growth & Strength

This block is focused on building muscle hypertrophy around the glutes. 

Week 1-6:  Hypertrophy Block

In this strength block, some of the exercises have progressed from the previous block. Also, the volume trends downwards through decreasing rep ranges as you become more exposed to higher intensities.

Week 7-12:  Strength Block

9-Week Squat Everyday Program
Aimed at increasing a squat that is lagging in terms of strength standards.
There will be some deadlifting in the program to maintain the deadlifting technique BUT there is no deadlift progression as the priority is the back squat. Do not implement any other lower body exercise to this program. You can implement your own upper body training but avoid back exercises that target the lower back.

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9-Week Squat Every Day Program

This block is focused on building volume and building on variations that improve technique. The slow squat and pause squats are intended to improve strength at different ranges of motion during the back squat. The box squat, high bar squat and front squat are intended to train the squatting movement in different ways so as to reduce weaknesses. The 5th week is a deload.

Week 1-5: Accumulation Block

This block is focused on building intensity and the back squat specific variation. There are no other back squat variation so you can prioritize in developing the back squat and transfer the gains from the Accumulation Block.

Week 6-9:  Intensity Block

Fix Your Uneven Bench Press: 60 Days To A More Symmetrical Bench

This program will help anyone with a bench press with prominent asymmetries, whether you lock out your bench press asymmetrically or hold the bar with asymmetrical arms.

The reason why you may have asymmetries are likely because you have a tendency to favor using one side of your body for many different activities. You may have also experienced injuries in the past that may have influence your posture and cause asymmetry. 

Human beings are naturally asymmetrical and the goal of this program should be to reduce some of the asymmetry if it is causing discomfort or bad technique.  By the end of this program you should see an improvement in your movement patterns by being more symmetrical than when you started.

This program is broken down into two training blocks: a technique block and a strength block. 

The technique block will incorporate unilateral exercises that help you move away from your biased side. The strength block will gradually phase out the technique and unilateral movements and phase in bench press so that you can reap the rewards from the exercises in the technique block.

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Fix Your Uneven Bench Press: 60 Days To A More Symmetrical Bench

This technique block will include the dead bench press and the slow bench press so that you can control the bar path more and control the end points of the range of motion with light percentages. It will also unilateral exercises that incorporate movements that alternate between the left and the right as we are often biased towards one side of our body. Day 1 will be focused on bottom end range strength and balancing out pulling muscles. Day 2 is focused on top end range strength and balancing out the pressing muscles, and Day 3 is focused on active recovery and mobility exercises that help balance out and stabilise the shoulder complex.

Week 1-4:  Technique Block

In this transmutation block, bench press variations from the technique block will be slowly phased out and regular bench pressing will be phased in to realise the technique improvements done from the those bench press variations. Day 1 will be focused on bottom end range strength and balancing out pulling muscles. Day 2 is focused on top end range strength and balancing out the pressing muscles, and Day 3 is focused on active recovery and mobility exercises that help balance out and stabilise the shoulder complex.

Week 5-8: Strength Block

Level 1 Powerlifting Peaking Program: 4 Day Split

This is an early intermediate 12-week program designed for you to peak towards a day to test your 1RM or compete in powerlifting by the end of the 12th week.

The program is broken down into three blocks: an accumulation block, an intensification block, and a peak and taper block.

Over the 12 weeks, the squat, bench, and deadlift will progress alongside paused variations of the squat and deadlift, alongside long pause bench press variations. These variations are designed to help you engrain good technique, particularly at the hardest point of the lift for most people. 

Accessories will include unilateral exercises to help maintain muscle mass throughout the block whilst minimizing chances of asymmetry.

You should have good technique and no injuries to perform this program.


Level 1 Powerlifting Peaking Program: 4 Day Split

In this accumulation block, the focus is to build up volume over 4 weeks and should be the most fatiguing of the 4 blocks. Day 1 and Day 3 are your main days and should feel hardest. Day 2 and Day 4 are your variation days and should feel somewhat easier. You should have 1 rest day between Day 2 and Day 3, and again between Day 3 and Day 4. You also want a rest day between each week.

Week 1-4:  Accumulation Block

In this intensification block, the focus is to build up average intensity of the training repetitions over 4 weeks to increase your exposure to more relevant intensities of testing your 1RM or competition weights. Gradually volume will simultaneously go downwards over the next 4 weeks as week.

Week 5-8:  Intensification Block

In this block, the aim is to reduce the volume and average intensity, so we can reduce fatigue to actualize the gains made from the first two blocks. You should cease training for 3 to 4 days before testing your 1RM or competing depending on how you are feeling.

Week 9-12: Peak & Taper Block

Level 1 Powerlifting Peaking Program: 5 Day Split

This is an early intermediate 12-week program designed for you to peak towards a day to test your 1RM or compete in powerlifting by the end of the 12th week.

The program is broken down into three blocks: an accumulation block, an intensification block, and a peak and taper block.

Over the 12 weeks, the squat, bench, and deadlift will progress alongside paused variations of the squat and deadlift, alongside long pause bench press variations. These variations are designed to help you engrain good technique, particularly at the hardest point of the lift for most people.
 
Accessories will include unilateral exercises to help maintain muscle mass throughout the block whilst minimizing chances of asymmetry.

You should have good technique and no injuries to perform this program.


Level 1 Powerlifting Peaking Program: 5 Day Split

In this accumulation block, the focus is to build up volume over 4 weeks and should be the most fatiguing of the 4 blocks. Day 1, Day 3 and Day 4 are your main variations days, whereas Day 2 and Day 5 are your variation days to help engrain technique. You should have 1 rest day between Day 2 and Day 3, and a rest day between each week.

In this intensification block, the focus is to build up average intensity of the training repetitions over 4 weeks to increase your exposure to more relevant intensities of testing your 1RM or competition weights. 

Week 9-12:  Peak & Taper Block

Level 2 Powerlifting Peaking Program: 4 Day Split

This is an intermediate to advanced 12-week program designed for you to peak towards a day for you to test your 1RM or compete in powerlifting by the end of the 12th week. If you haven't previously done a powerlifting-specific program, I highly recommend starting with the Level 1 Powerlifting Peaking Program.  If you've just completed the Level 1 Powerlifting Peaking Program, then the Level 2 is a natural transition for you.  

The program is broken down into three blocks: an accumulation block, an intensification block, and a peak and taper block.

Over the 12 weeks, the squat, bench, and deadlift will progress alongside paused variations of the squat and deadlift, alongside long pause bench press variations. These variations are designed to help you engrain good technique particularly at the hardest point of the lift for most people. 

Accessories will include unilateral exercises to help maintain muscle mass throughout the block whilst minimizing chances of asymmetry.

You should have good technique and no injuries to perform this program.



Level 2 Powerlifting Peaking Program: 4 Day Split

Level 2 Powerlifting Peaking Program: 5 Day Split

This is an intermediate to advanced 12-week program designed for you to peak towards a day for you to test your 1RM or compete in powerlifting by the end of the 12th week.  If you haven't previously done a powerlifting-specific program, I highly recommend starting with the Level 1 Powerlifting Peaking Program.  If you've just completed the Level 1 Powerlifting Peaking Program, then the Level 2 is a natural transition for you.  

The program is broken down into three blocks: an accumulation block, an intensification block, and a peak and taper block.

Over the 12 weeks, the squat, bench, and deadlift will progress alongside paused variations of the squat and deadlift, alongside long pause bench press variations. These variations are designed to help you engrain good technique particularly at the hardest point of the lift for most people. 

Accessories will include unilateral exercises to help maintain muscle mass throughout the block whilst minimizing chances of asymmetry.

You should have good technique and no injuries to perform this program.

