Powerlifting Part 1 - The Short Cycle

Powerlifting Hardgainer Style I - A Six Week Intro 

Cycle And Assistance Exercises

    Bodybuilders can learn a lot from powerlifting. If you want to get big and strong, my advice is to concentrate on routines that are centered around the three powerlifts the bench press, deadlift, and squat. This style of lifting also fits well into the hardgainer scheme of training; short, infrequent and productive.

    A good way of determining starting poundages for a routine is to have a short cycle 6 weeks prior to your pre contest/self test day cycle. If your are not competing it is a good idea to set a day to give yourself a self test in the three powerlifts. Nine weeks will give you a good 8 week routine followed by a week layoff prior to your competition or self test.
   
The short cycle will last six weeks as stated before. You will have to do some experimentation in the gym to determine what are good starting poundages for your three lifts. The best way to do this is chart the six weeks of your cycle on a piece of paper. Find a weight that you can lift in good form for one set of five reps in each of the lifts. This will be the weights that you will be lifting on your fifth week. Working backwards write down poundage decrements of ten pounds for each week for the remaining 4 weeks. For week six add ten pounds to the fifth weeks poundages. Your cycle should look something like the one below adjusted for your own strength level.

 

    Your number one concern during the short cycle is to perfect your lifting technique, increase your endurance and strengthen the muscles that assist in the three powerlifts. You should also be preparing yourself mentally for the end of your nine week cycle and your self test day.

    Your first workouts will be have you doing moderately high sets and reps. As you progress through this phase of your training you will decrease the reps and sets toward the end of your short cycle.

    Your goal for the three powerlifts by the end of the cycle is to be able to get multiple set where you previously were only able to get only one set. Using our example as a guide, you should try to achieve 3 sets of 5 reps with a weight of 235 pounds in the squat and deadlift where before you maxed out at one set of five with 235 pounds and 2 sets of 5 in the bench press with 185 pounds where before you maxed out at 1 set of 5 with 185 pounds. There is no need to reduce the sets and reps for the assistance exercises during this short cycle. In the next cycle you will be cutting out the assistance exercises as the routine progresses.

    The assistance exercises should be basic and kept to a minimum. You should incorporate the same exercises in the short cycle that you will use in your new PR cycle. They should be ones that will strengthen the muscles used in the three powerlifts.

    For example, the primary muscles that assist the quads in the deadlift are the traps, lower back, lats and leg biceps. Therefore, you may want to include low rows or bent rows, shrugs and leg curls as your assistance exercises for the deadlift.

     The next step after choosing the assistance exercises is to chart out your set/rep scheme for those exercises just as you did for the three powerlifts previously.

Your whole short cycle at this time may look like this.
  

Assistance Exercises For The Squat
   1. Hack Squat off the floor.
   2. Standing Heel Raises.
   3. Standing barbell curls.

 

   Assistance Exercises For The Bench Press
   1. Incline press.
   2. Military press
   3. Weighted dips

   Assistance Exercises For The Deadlift
   1. Wide grip pulldowns.
   2. Seated low pulley rows.
   3. Legs curls

   Train the three powerlifts and their assistance exercises three times per      week. For example train the the deadlift and assistance exercises on       Monday, the bench press and assistance exercises on Wednesday and the squat and assistance exercises on Friday. Leave two days between the squat and the deadlift to provide for full recuperation of the back and leg structures.

    The importance of rest between workouts can't be emphasized     enough. With out proper rest in the absence of strength enhancing drugs    your muscles will not get bigger and stronger. If you need, take more    days off between workouts. There is no need to push yourself in the gym    and then cut yourself short in the rest and recuperation end of training.

    Next we will look at the New PR cycle.