The Best Powerlifting Program for You In 2024 (For Beginners)

If getting strong as hell is your primary goal, knowing that size and symmetry will mostly come along for the ride anyway, then you need a strength training program that will emphasize that for you.

This is the Beginner Powerlifting Program taken from our Muscle and Strength Training Pyramid book. (We call it the “novice” program in the book.)

It is a three or four-day program built around developing skill and strength with the competition lifts, while also developing a base of muscularity to aid further strength development for a novice lifter.

If you’re unsure whether you should choose this or the Intermediate Powerlifting Program, consider reading: How to Choose The Right Training Program For You.

THE BEGINNER POWERLIFTING SAMPLE PROGRAM OVERVIEW

You will see a 3-day and 4-day options to choose from. The training volume is the same in both versions.

If you have no issue with cumulative fatigue and don’t mind dedicating more time to longer training sessions, go with the three-day version.

If you would prefer shorter workouts, or find that the fatigue of the main lifts is detrimental to your accessory work, choose the four-day option.

Spread your workouts out across the week and try to have no more than two sessions back to back as this is better for recovery.

HOW THE POWERLIFTING PROGRAM LOOKS (INCLUDES VIDEOS)

Take a look at the powerlifting program and then I’ll explain the meaning of the ‘%1RM’ and ‘1st Set RPE’ notation and how to use it.

*NA = not applicable for that exercise.

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HOW TO USE THE PROGRAM

WARMING-UP

Before every powerlifting workout, make sure you warm up so that your core temperature is raised. This way you’ll be ready to lift heavy, and less likely to cause yourself an injury. Here’s my guide to warming up.

EXERCISE SELECTION GUIDELINES

Skill development is more important to a powerlifter than a bodybuilder, so the variety of exercises used is fewer by comparison. Sometimes you will have options and in that case, I’ve included links to tutorials on the exercises where I thought this might be particularly useful.

Choose movements you enjoy, that you can feel the target muscles working during, and that you have equipment access to. Take this program and run it as is, or customize it to your needs. Here’s a further guide to exercise selection if you need it.

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FORM

Unlike what many people say, there isn’t “one correct way” to squat, bench, or deadlift. The key to getting strong, staying uninjured, and growing a ton of muscle is learning how to lift in a way that suits the mechanics of your body. Here are our three free mega-guides teaching you how to do that:

• 🏋🏻‍♂️ How To Low Bar Squat Properly
• 🏋🏽‍♂️ How To Bench Press Properly
• 🏋🏿‍♂️ How To Deadlift Properly

REST PERIODS

Rest for as long as is needed to be recovered and ready to perform the next set. This will typically be ~2–4 minutes. Two minutes may be plenty for a novice squatting, but a high-level lifter may need five minutes, which will extend the length of the workout.

(The more musculature the exercise uses and the stronger you get, the longer you’ll need.)

Why No Ab Training

With a well-balanced routine that includes deadlift and squat variants, overhead pressing, rowing, and other compound free weight exercises, you’re already training your abs, because you have to brace them.

Yes, you can train the abs directly, and it may make a difference in some cases, but it’s not the place to focus your efforts initially. And I can’t say I’ve seen any client make a noticeable difference to their physique by including them.

HOW TO PLAN PROGRESS WITH THE BEGINNER POWERLIFTING PROGRAM

In its simplest form, you just need to choose a weight you can lift for the number of sets and reps written, add a little weight each session, and avoid training to failure.

(Failure is the point where a lifter can no longer move the weight, or suffers any breakdown in their form.)

THE 1RM NOTATION TELLS YOU THE INITIAL WEIGHT TO LIFT WITH

The %1RM notation stands for percentage of 1-rep maximum. It is a guideline for how much you should load the bar the first time you start the program (only), and we will use this with our main compound barbell competition lifts.

So, where you see Squat 3*8 (70%), this means you should put 70% of the weight of your maximum single-rep squat on the bar, and then perform 3 sets of 8 reps.

If you don’t know your 1RM you can use this calculator I created for our book readers which will show you how to calculate your 1RM.

So, let’s say that your current 1RM in the squat is 180 lb (~80 kg). You’ll load the bar so that the total weight is 70% of that, 125 lb (57.5 kg), and then perform 3 sets of 8.

This might feel relatively easy but resist the temptation to do more. Some people can get substantially more than 8 reps at this percentage, but our goal is to be submaximal as you’ll be making linear increases in load every time you repeat this session. Your second and third sets you will more than likely find to be harder than the first due to cumulative fatigue.

Move onto the next exercise, the bench press.

Now, let’s say your 1RM for the bench press is actually a little higher than the squat, 200 lb (~90 kg). It is not an uncommon situation for many, typically male, lifters to be more proficient and stronger at bench pressing than squatting when they first get serious about powerlifting.

Have no fear if this is your situation, it will be corrected quickly. Load the bar so that the total weight is 70% of that, 140 lb (~62.5 kg) and then perform 3 sets of 8.

If you don’t have a lot of experience with the lift, you are new to it, or you are coming back after time off, just warm up adding weight to the point where you can comfortably squat 3 sets of 8. Then for each successive session add a little weight each time while maintaining good form.

THE 1ST SET RPE NOTATION TELLS YOU HOW TO LOAD THE BAR FROM THE FIRST SESSION ONWARDS

‘RPE’ stands for Rating Perceived Exertion based on Reps in Reserve. It is a means of managing fatigue which can help recovery and growth, telling you how many reps, ideally, you will stay short of failure.

While you will aim to add load each session, on a scale of 1–10, a 8 means to stop the set when you could perform 2 more reps.

This is the method that powerlifting legend Mike Tuchscherer uses to consistently put his clients on the podium at the IPF world championships. My co-author Eric Helms, recently got his PhD. studying this. So, even if this seems new right now, it’s worth learning a little about as you will find it useful.

You’ll notice the RPE values for this powerlifting program are “1st set RPE 8”. This means you should load the bar with a weight where you could two more than the number of prescribed reps for your first set.

If you do this right, though your subsequent sets will be harder, you should be able to use the same load for all your sets.

If you “miss reps” on subsequent sets at the same load (the RPE climbs past 10), you either started too heavy, didn’t rest long enough, or perhaps made a technical fault; all of which are learning experiences for your next session.

Try this first, then come back to read our detailed guidelines for training progression, which will give you more examples.

WHY WE BUILT The Novice Program This WAY

Programming is different for novice, intermediate and advanced lifters. However, the primary differences are simply the rate of progression that is attempted, the total volume of work that is performed, and the structure of the powerlifting program related to organizing these differences in volume. Most of the other aspects of programming remain the same.

As a novice, complex approaches are not necessary to maximize the adaptive response. Thus, unlike the intermediate powerlifting program and advanced programs, you won’t see the same elements of block or linear periodization. Rather, a simple single progression model where increases in load occur session to session is used.

However, that doesn’t mean training should completely lack variety and be highly monotonous. You will see that the program is built on the framework of a daily undulating model where hypertrophy, “power” (essentially heavy technique work), and strength are trained.

Additionally, training with a lack of variation in load or volume is not only psychologically monotonous but also has been shown to increase the chance of overtraining, degrade performance, increase the frequency of illness; and when training that is highly monotonous (little variation in load and volume) is made less monotonous, increases in performance occur.

For these reasons, different rep and load combinations are used on different days.

If you use the three-day version, Day 1 is dedicated to higher-rep, moderate-load work to accumulate a relatively high volume (hypertrophy). Day 2 is dedicated to low-rep, moderately-heavy work at a low volume (power). Day 3 is dedicated to low-rep, heavy work at a moderate volume (strength).

If you use the four-day version, the structure is the same, except only the main lifts are trained on days 1–3, while day 4 is dedicated to accessory work.

BEGINNER POWERLIFTING PROGRAM FAQ

POWERLIFTING PROGRAMS — AN IMPORTANT CONCLUDING NOTE

This is just one example of many that will work for a novice powerlifter. Individuality is key to long-term success, and just like it’s not a good idea to use someone else’s diet regardless of whether your maintenance calorie intake or initial body-fat percentage is similar to theirs or not, it’s also not a good idea to jump into a program regardless of how the volume, intensity, or frequency of the program compares to what you are currently adapted to.

If you have found this helpful, you might be pleased to know it is just a small section taken from our Muscle and Strength Pyramid books.

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Thank you for reading. Questions welcomed in the comments.