I am currently 17 and have been lifting for 3 years with bodybuilding style training and without a proper program in mind. I am 1.78m and weigh 71 kg @ 12.5% body fat. I am not very strong (Squat: 8 x 100 kg, Deadlift: 8 x 115 kg, Bench: 6 x 85 kg, Press: 6 x 45 kg) and have never done any powerlifting programs. I am currently planning on doing a slow bulk up to about 85 kg, and my goal is during this bulk to put on as much muscle as I can and as much strength as I can.
I wanted to know what training program I should follow to maximize both strength and muscle gains? I was thinking on doing SSNLP for a couple of months, moving on to the bridge, and after that I donāt really know what to do (My concern about this is that both programs have significantly less volume than my current routine, so maybe it wouldnāt be enough volume for me to build more muscle). Any help would be much appreciated.
Josh,
We would recommend running our beginner template first to prepare yourself for further training. After that, weād recommend the powerbuilding template for someone with your goals. We wouldnāt recommend SSNLP at this time.
-Jordan
Thank you for the help Jordan!
I just have one more question, is the powerbuilding template something which I could rerun and use for the whole time iām bulking (about a year), or after a certain amount of times should I graduate to a more advanced program?
what are the main differences between your beginner template and SSNLP?
I donāt think you could run it indefinitely, no. That said, if you respond well to it I think you could reasonably cycle it in a number of times over your training year or first few years.
Quite literally everything. Would be easier to read this: Landing Page: The Beginner Prescription | Barbell Medicine
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Beginner template
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Powerbuilding I x 2
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Powerbuilding II x 2/3
In that case, would it be reasonable to set up my training as I wrote here?
I think thatās reasonable, though I might sprinkle in a bit of pure strength work like Strength I in between your Powerbuilding I and II blocks.
Got it. Iāll run it:
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Beginner template
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Powerbuilding I x 2
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Strength I
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Powerbuilding II x 2
Thank you!
Jordan,
What is the specific rationale for the pure strength work if you have no long term interest in being a strength athlete and improving 1RM? Does it help improve the absolute load you can handle even at the other rep ranges allowing for a more productive round of hypertrophy due to higher absolute stress? Does the fact that most strength based programs have less volume help resensitize you to the volume levels of the hypertrophy programs? If it is volume related, how does that work with research youāve mentioned that large increases in volume on the beginning of a program tend to result in no immediate gains as the body tries to adjust to the significant increase?
Thank you for all your awesome info!
What do you mean by āpureā strength work? If you add weight to your sets of 10, isnāt that stronger?
If youāre asking why should you do sets of 1 or 5 in order to drive hypertrophy, the answer is you donāt need to.
You made that recommendation to the OP so Iām trying to understand what was driving the recommendation and what advantages you foresee from an outcome standpoint as a result of running that round of Strength I compared to the continuation of the Powerbuilding programs along with why you think those results would differ. Iām trying to get more insight around the underlying thoughts so I can improve my understanding of programming in general and be more prepared to make more adjustments to my own programming as time moves on and I become more advanced as a lifter.
I think if you are placing a high priority on strength, doing more pure strength work is a better option than doing it less