Hello coaches, some brief context - I organize my training using block periodization and after researching more stuff from you and RTS a concurrent approach is starting to make more sense to me for powerlifting. I wanted to start shifting my training towards something more concurrent and adding singles to my training is one of the adjustments to make.
- If I use hypertrophy, strength and peaking phases separately, would it make sense to do some singles during a more general training hypertrophy phase? Or should i just do em during more intense meet specific training?
- Considering that I’m new to them, should i just start doing singles on my comp lifts or comp lifts and assistance work like pin squats and feet up bench too?
Thank you for your time.
I probably wouldn’t do singles at all if you’re not signed up for a meet or aren’t planning on testing.
I wouldn’t put them in a hypertrophy phase either necessarily.
Our templates reflect how we program singles and you can put them anywhere you want, technically. I don’t think feet up bench would be one of my main bench variations and I probably wouldn’t do singles on that, but I have done and programmed singles on pin squats.
If you’ve never done them before, doing them on the comp lifts would be reasonable and is one way we do it in many of our templates.
Thanks Jordan. Only one thing that I’d ask you to clarify is about signing up for a meet
I plan to compete at a meet that will be scheduled for late 2021, october or something like that assuming covid situation permits it. So technically I will compete and test a 1RM but not any time soon. In this case, i have a lot of “off season” building to do before that.
Do i understand your recommendations right? Far out of comp like 7 months out or so, there’s no need for singles necessarily, but in a cycle leading up to it (2-3 months out or so) i could include them? (I also have the latest bridge template and a hypertrophy template but just trying to figure some programming tidbits out myself :p)
I probably wouldn’t do singles until ~ 3 months out or so in this case. I just don’t see a big benefit in this context.
Hi Jordan - I got a follow up question if you don’t mind.
I recently bought the strength 1 template - planning on running it after two runs of PB 1 pos-quarantine. My current goal is to increase the weights on my squat/deadlift/bench, but I dont plan to ever compete.
Seeing that this template has singles pretty much everyday (1 @ 8), now I am unsure if it is the best choice for me. Would you recommend something else for someone that doesn’t plan on competing?
Thanks! (and shout out to Claire for giving an amazing form check!)
I think our strength programs are geared towards people who want to improve their maximal strength in the squat, bench, and deadlift. Part of developing that involves improving the specific skills needed during circa maximal attempts.
I think if this jibes with your goals, just run the program as is. If not and you’re just wanting a change of pace, you could do it without singles OR swap the singles out for a repetition effort set @ RPE 8 using the rep scheme from the back off work.
Example:
1 @ 8, 75% e1RM x 5 x 5 >>>> Replace 1 @ 8 with 5 @ 8
Hope that makes sense.
-Jordan
Thanks, Jordan. I think I’ll just follow the program as is since I actually enjoy doing singles - both because I like loading the bar with a lot of weights and also because it gives me confidence for the sets with 5 reps at lower weights.