Hiya,
I have made such amazing progress with the knee rehab program which finishes in 3 weeks, and I’m planning to return back to power lifting. I have been lifting for 3 years and my first competition is next year in July, which is 33 weeks from when I have finished the knee rehab program. I would love to create a 33 week macro cycle plan with the Barbell Medicine programs and I’d like some help in picking the programs in the right order. Thanks so much for your amazing work and advise!
Howdy!
Thanks for joining the forum. I’m happy to hear you’re doing well after the knee rehab program. So…what now?
33 weeks is a lot of runway, and having that sort of time is a good thing when it comes to getting stronger. Planning ahead of time for that length of time outside of broad strokes (e.g. specific strength focus vs developmental) or time constraints (e.g. vacation) is not really feasible because we don’t really know what you need 16 weeks from now until we get there. In this view, good programming should be iterative and dynamic, always changing in response to the individual.
Instead, I’ll give you a starting point and some guidance for what to do later on based on your training response.
You’re currently fine to train normally, but coming off the rehab template you’re still rebuilding tolerance. So I wouldn’t throw heavy singles or a ton of comp-specific training load at you right away. Given your previous experience level, I’d start you on the non-comp version of Powerbuilding II. That’s 16 weeks and three blocks to develop work capacity and strength and prepare for a training program that’s more sports specific.
From there, I’d favor Strength III, which is another 16-week program. This assumes you’re feeling well and responding well to training. If you were feeling a bit overrun by Powerbuilding II, I’d probably have you do Strength I instead. If you LOVED Powerbuilding II, I’d run one of the comp programs that’s included to prepare you for your meet. So, it all depends how you respond.
-Jordan
Further reading
This is super helpful, thank you Jordan! I was looking at Powerbuilding II, so that’s perfect. I will have a read through the links as well, thanks for sharing!