Powerlifting Program: Popular Programs Compared, Plus a Free 12-Week Plan

The short answer

The best powerlifting program is the one that fits how fast you can still add weight to the bar.

• You can still add weight every session: run a novice program like Starting Strength or StrongLifts 5×5 until that stops working.
• Session-to-session jumps have stalled, but you still hit a best every week or two: that's exactly what the Texas Method was written for.
• You want slow, steady progress you can run for years: 5/3/1 adds a little weight once a month.
• You've got a meet or a test day about 12 weeks out: use a plan that builds toward a peak, like the free 12-week program below.

Nobody has tested these programs against each other, so there's no winner on paper. What they have in common matters more than how they differ.

What a powerlifting program has to do

In a meet you get three attempts each at the squat, bench press and deadlift, and your best successful lift of each adds up to your total (IPF rules). A powerlifting program exists to make that total bigger, and every good one does four things:

• It lifts heavy. Weights above about 80% of your one-rep max (1RM) build more strength than light ones, even though both build muscle (a large review of 28 studies).
• It does enough work. More weekly sets means more strength, up to a point, and the returns shrink faster for strength than for size (a review of 67 studies).
• It practices the lifts often. Squatting or benching two or three times a week builds strength faster than once a week, mostly because it lets you fit in more work (a review on training frequency).
• It plans easier weeks. Competitive lifters take a lighter week about every five to six weeks (a survey of 246 strength athletes). Before a max test, what seems to work best is cutting the volume, keeping the weight heavy and resting for a few days right before (a review on tapering).

The programs below mostly differ in how they spread those four things across the weeks.

Popular powerlifting programs compared

Here's how the most popular programs stack up, based on how each one describes itself. The 12-week plan at the bottom is ours.

Starting Strength

Starting Strength is Mark Rippetoe's program for beginners: two full-body workouts you alternate three days a week, 3 sets of 5 squats every session, and more weight every time you lift. Power cleans and chin-ups come in later. The Starting Strength program guide walks through the phases, how much weight to add and when to move on.

StrongLifts 5×5

StrongLifts 5×5 also alternates two workouts three days a week. Workout A is squats, bench press and barbell rows for 5 sets of 5. Workout B is squats and overhead press for 5 sets of 5, plus one set of 5 deadlifts. You add 5 lb (about 2.5 kg) every workout (StrongLifts quick start guide). Fail a weight and you repeat it. Fail it three times and you drop about 10% and work back up (StrongLifts on failed reps). Compared with Starting Strength, it's more sets per lift and rows instead of power cleans.

Texas Method

The Texas Method is what a lot of lifters run after a beginner program. The week has a hard day, an easy day and a heavy day: 5 sets of 5 on Monday at about 10% below Friday's weight, a light squat day on Wednesday, and a shot at a new 5-rep max on Friday. Starting Strength's own write-up says new 5-rep bests usually keep coming for 4 to 8 weeks, and then Friday moves to triples, doubles and singles. It also calls it "a lifter's program" that's hard to recover from, and suggests recreational lifters over 35 or 40 pick something gentler.

5/3/1

Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 builds each training day around one lift: the squat, bench press, deadlift or overhead press. Every percentage comes from a "training max" of 90% of your real 1RM, and the last set each week is as many reps as you can get (Wendler's original article):

After each 4-week cycle, you add 5 lb to the training max for bench and overhead press and 10 lb for squat and deadlift. Chin-ups, dips, lunges and back extensions fill out the session. The top sets never get close to your real max, and progress is slow on purpose, so 5/3/1 suits lifters who want something to run for years rather than a meet peak. Wendler himself later called the 90% rule a starting point rather than a law.

Free 12-week powerlifting program

This 12-week powerlifting program is for lifters who've finished a beginner program: your squat, bench and deadlift technique is solid, and the weight no longer goes up every session. It's four days a week, every main set is a percentage of your 1RM, and it ends with a test of all three lifts in week 12. It's our own template, built on the four ideas above, not something that's been tested in a study.

Download the 12-week plan as a spreadsheet (.xlsx). Enter your three maxes and every weight fills in. It also has a training log and a test-day sheet that adds up your total.

Setting your 1RM

If you've tested your max in the last month, use that. If not, estimate it from a hard set of 3 to 5 reps with the 1RM calculator and go with the Brzycki number, the most conservative of the three. Every weight in the plan is a percentage of that number, rounded to the nearest 2.5 kg or 5 lb.

Weekly layout

That puts the squat in two sessions a week, the bench press in three and the deadlift in one, plus Romanian deadlifts for the hips and hamstrings. Leave at least one day between Day 1 and Day 3 so the two squat sessions don't run back to back. Stop accessories 1 to 3 reps short of failure, and rest 3 to 5 minutes between main-lift sets.

Main and secondary sets, week by week

The main lift is the first exercise of the day. The secondary lift uses the lighter prescription in the last column. Weeks 4 and 8 are planned lighter weeks, and week 12 is the test.

The sets get heavier and shorter from block to block, the classic pattern explained in periodization training. None of the main sets are meant to be close to failure: in a normal week you should finish each one with somewhere between 2 and 6 reps left in the tank. That buffer is what lets you train each lift two or three times a week for 12 weeks without grinding.

Worked example

For a lifter with a 140 kg squat, a 100 kg bench press and a 180 kg deadlift:

Test week

Week 12 is light on volume but keeps the weight heavy, then gives you three days off before the test.

1. Day 1: work up to 2 singles at 90% on the squat and bench press and 1 single at 90% on the deadlift. Nothing else.
2. Days 2 to 4: rest. Walk, stretch, sleep.
3. Test day: squat, then bench press, then deadlift, three attempts each. Open with the weight you lifted for doubles in week 10 (90%). Take a second attempt between your week 11 single and your old max. Take a third attempt at or slightly above your old max only if the second moved well.

Add your best successful lift from each of the three to get your total. Those new maxes are the numbers for your next block.

Adjusting the plan

• A week felt way too hard. If the last main set of a lift leaves you with nothing in the tank, repeat that week's weight instead of moving up. If it happens two weeks running, lower that lift's 1RM by 5% and recalculate. Autoregulation covers adjusting to the day in more detail.
• A week felt easy. Keep going. The percentages climb every week, and guessing your max too low costs you less than guessing it too high.
• You missed sessions. Repeat the week you were on instead of skipping ahead.
• Something hurts. Stop the lift and get it checked by a qualified professional. A program isn't a reason to train through pain.

Powerlifting, powerbuilding and Olympic weightlifting

These three share a barbell and not much else.

• Powerlifting trains the squat, bench press and deadlift for a heavier single, as above.
• Powerbuilding keeps heavy work on the same three lifts and adds bodybuilding-style volume for muscle size. The powerbuilding program is an 8-week plan built that way.
• Olympic weightlifting is a different sport with two lifts, the snatch and the clean and jerk, where speed and technique limit the weight more than raw strength. The Olympic weightlifting program covers how beginners usually train for it.

Neither sport is especially risky. A review of injury studies found injury rates in both similar to other non-contact sports and well below contact sports. Still, use safeties or a spotter on the squat and bench press for any heavy set.

Running the program in GymEvo

A percentage program is only as good as the 1RM behind it and the record of what you actually lifted. In GymEvo you can set each main lift up as a multi-week periodization cycle with the sets, reps and percentage for every week. The app works out each set's weight from your 1RM, and it has a calculator for estimating that 1RM from a hard set if you haven't tested one. Periodization is free, and so is the estimated 1RM chart for each lift, which is the fastest way to see whether your total is actually going up. Premium adds the max-weight and rep-range charts, the full personal-record history and weekly and monthly progress reviews. See how the GymEvo workout planner handles periodization.