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Old Forum Powerlifting beginnings

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Siemen

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Hi all,

After lots of stress in my daily life (very difficult home situation, my mother's sickness etc.) I have lost a lot of my strength, have grown weak, lost weight and some muscle too. All my clothes are getting too big, so I'm getting a wreck.

Now, my girlfriend asked me to please start training again. That was some good advice wich I will listen to. But I need some help from you here for programming etc.

I have never touched a barbell. So I would finally want to start using barbell training. I was thinking about using the three powerlifting movements (squat, bench, deadlift) as my main concern in training. I have a gym where I can go to for barbell training and who can teach me the basics of the movement. Since I'm a student with little time, I want to go only once to the gym and supplement with kettlebell or dumbbell (assistance) training at home. I work on saturdays, wich is heavy work with constant lifting and dragging. I want to be recovered by then and I feel like I recover slowly due to overload of stress, maybe an important item. I do no sports and I want to train just for the sake of getting strong and all it supplements (confidence, good feeling, good health etc.).

My goals are to get a good introduction into powerlifting movements and good strength, with some hopefully attainable numbers:

Deadlift: 2x bodyweight (around 140-145 kg);

Bench: bodweight (70-72kg);

Squat: ? ( I was thinking doing these for reps, to get some meat on the bones, I have no idea what would be attainable for now).

Since I never did barbell training, I have no idea what my 1RM on the lifts is. But starting light would be a great idea.

If anyone can help me, I would be very thankfull.
 
Don't worry about the 1RM. If you are not competing, there is no reason to even try for one.

First, powerlifting is a sport, a specific sport. There is no reason to do it if you do not want to. The bench press is very important for that sport, but it is a somewhat specialized "cherry on the top" for most other strength training if it is done at all.

I would recommend getting instruction on the deadlift and clean and press. All you need is a barbell and a body for those, and they are very productive lifts. You can do them at home with no spotters provided you have the floor (or ground) and weights for it too.

But, with your goal of apparently one day a week with a barbell, I would recommend high volume squatting if you want to gain weight. I prefer single arm lifting, so the dumbbell at home is not necessarily assistance. If you did high volume squatting one day a week, you could probably get some significant weight gain. But for strength, one day a week is not really that good. You will be pressured to make the most of it, and possibly not do things which are that productive (although, they will be tiring).

Maybe a focus on calisthenics at home could work. Or maybe something new like strand pulling. I bet you never did that before, and the equipment is very light and not that expensive. Plus, it will make shoulders and arms grow even if you do not particularly want them to.

I hope your situation improves and I will pray for your mother.
 
If I was in your situation I would hit the powerlifts on Mondays, working up to top sets of 3-5 reps once your technique is down, and on Thursdays I would focus on double kettlebell clean and press ladders and double front squats. The work you do on Saturdays will complement your barbell and kettlebell work.
 
Siemen, in a month Dr. Hartle and I are teaching a barbell cert in Italy.  I hope you can make it.
 
Thanks for the help everyone.

Pavel, I won't make it to Italy, I have examinations coming up by then.

I was thinking about PTTP, but I don't have a barbell at home, nor is it fit to use it at home, and my gym is too expensive for 5 days a week. Is there another routine around for maybe 2 days a week? I really want to start training my deadlift and bench press, especially the deadlift. The squat may be left out for later if I have no other choice.
 
Deadlift one day, bench another.

Start out with a moderate weight for 5x5. Add 10lb a week for bench, 20 for deadlift. When you cannot do 5x5, drop down to 4x5. When you cannot complete 4x5, do 3x5... and so on down to 1x5. Then, keep adding weight but decrease reps on that one top set. From 1x5, 1x4, 1x3... down to 1x1 and then if you feel that that is not your max, test your all-out max the next week. Do whatever upper body you want after bench (pullups, rows, dips, etc.) and whatever lower body work (hyperextensions, calves, abs) after deadlifts.

If you want to squat and/or have more time, you could do squat and press on, say tuesday; and deadlift/bench on, say, friday. The 5x5>1x1 is a good autoregulatory program for linear gains if you only have time to train a lift once weekly, no need for percentages yet!

This should take you a few months, and then you can move on to something more complex especially if your situation has changed and you can train more frequently.

Just my .02.
 
Journeyman

i too, am going to start out in a powerlifting cycle soon as the gym ill be going to (away from home) has no kettlebells. Do you think that the best way to start out is use the 5-5 to 5-1 routine would be best to introduceand then follow a pttp cycle? my goals are to get a 2x bodyweight deadlift a 1.5x bench which i have both acheived before and a 1.5x squat which i have gotten close too but that was nearly 7 years ago now.?
 
I'd say use pttp for bench and deadlift first to get your groove and old PRs back, and then after that use either the 5x5>5x1 or some other linear cycle as an opportunity to work squats in (Squat-bench-deadlift-press or 2nd bench all on different days of the week) and also include more accessory/assistance work.
 
Yes. Example--squat monday, bench tuesday, deadlift thursday, press (or close grip bench/bench assistance) saturday.
 
Pavel, Journeyman, thank you very much for helping me out!

Should I do some assistance exercises if I do 5x5 each once a week? So yes, wich ones?
 
Thank you, Pavel!

I'll post my progress here on the forum and comment on my progress. Thanks to everyone who has helped me, this is a great forum! Hope Strongfirst will come to Belgium once.
 
Something I forgot to ask:

Should I maintain the same weight trough my sets or up the weight when I progress through my sets? And always work up to 5x5 (like 4x5 and 1x3 if I can't make that last lift and work up to 5x5) or do like Journeyman said?
 
Should I maintain the same weight trough my sets or up the weight when I progress through my sets? And always work up to 5×5 (like 4×5 and 1×3 if I can’t make that last lift and work up to 5×5) or do like Journeyman said?
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You can do either, but I would keep the same weight and work up to it.
 
It depends on how you want to treat the program. If you want to follow it for an extended period of time, work up to 5x5 whenever you can and when you just can't, start the 'countdown' to 1x1 as I described.

If you only want to follow the program as a sort of 'intro', start dropping sets/reps as soon as you can't make them instead of trying to stay at 5x5 for as long as possible. It should take you 2-3 months to get from 5x5 to 1x1 if you don't bother to work up to 5x5 when you can't make it right away....
 
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