Steve Grosso, B.S., NSCA-CPT, CSCS
I train for and compete in powerlifting in the 132lb and 148lb classes with my most notable lift being a 3.2x bodyweight deadlift (407lbs weighing about 127lbs). You read that right, and, believe it or not, there are classes
under 275+, and people compete in them and train just as as the big dogs. The weights aren’t as heavy and
the lights aren’t that bright, but it’s my bread and butter. Like you, I’ve tried
just about every program out there: 5/3/1, Juggernaut, Westside, RTS, Sheiko,
the Ed Coan Bench and Deadlift programs,Smolov Jr, and Mike Boyle’s Functional
Training. I’ve liked each of these programs, but none of them seemed like the
perfect program for me. After nearly eight years of consistent training and a
whole lot of thinking, I finally realized why—they’re all created for the typical
lifter. Considering I compete at a weight that is acceptable for most high
school females, I’d say I’m not your typical lifter.
While
being lighter means I won’t be bending any bars,
it does have its advantages. The most important one is the fact that smaller
lifters have a lower absolute amount of muscle mass. This allows them to have a
much higher recovery ability than our larger, beefier counterparts.
For
example, a 150lb lifter with 10% body fat will have 135lbs of lean mass, whereas
a 200lb lifter with 10% body fat will carry 180lbs of lean mass (lean mass
includes skeleton/organs/etc but it is still representative of the individuals
overall muscle amount). The 200lb lifter’s 180lbs of lean mass will take
significantly longer to recover than the 150lb lifter’s 135lbs of lean mass.
Knowing
this, I’ve created a high volume/high intensity training for myself that I feel
could be advantageous for other small lifters.
The
Program:
The
program outlined below consists of 6 days per week of training. 2 Hip Dominant days,
2 Knee Dominant days, and 2 Press days. For the purpose of my own training, I
consider squatting a hip dominant exercise because I am a low bar squatter, but
squatting could easily be put into the knee dominant day. The program is in 4
week blocks with a deload every 4th week. For my main workouts on my big 3
lifts I work up to heavy singles weekly with Week 1 being 97.5% of my previous
training max, Week 2 being 100% of my previous training max, and Week 3
shooting for a 5-10lb PR.
The
daily workouts look as such:
Monday
(hip dominant) - Main
squat, bilateral hip dominant assistance such as GM’s, GHR’s, rack pulls, etc,
lower body conditioning
Tuesday
(knee dominant) - Unilateral
knee dominant assistance (mainly Bulgarian Split Squats) and core work.
Wednesday
(press): Main bench,
unilateral push and pull variations such as single arm military presses and
rows, upper body conditioning.
Thursday
(hip dominant): Main
deadlift, unilateral hip dominant assistance such as single leg hip lifts and single
leg RDLs, lower body conditioning
Friday
(knee dominant): Bilateral
knee dominant assistance such as front squats, core
Saturday
(press): Bilateral
pushing and pulling variations such as incline bench, inverted rows, etc, upper
body conditioning.
Sunday:
rest
The
beauty of this is that it gives you a huge amount of options to plug in
movements that you enjoy/want to work on so long as they fall into the
categories of movements listed. For my main lifts, I generally cycle though a
month of 8-10 rep sets, followed by a month of 4-6 rep sets, followed by 1-3
rep sets.
Some
things to note: I keep all of
these workouts reasonably short. I pick 3 or 4 movements and hammer them and
then leave the gym. These workouts should take 60 to 75 minutes max including
conditioning. I also do not train if I don’t feel like I’m going to have a good
lift, especially if its on a day where I’m doing a heavy single. Because of the
high volume and high intensity of this program it is important to listen to
your body and take the day off if you feel like you aren’t going to have your
best lift. It’s better to live to train another day in those situations rather
than get injured or burn out.
Also
note that this program is probably only appropriate for lifters who are 165lbs
and below or those who have an extraordinary work capacity.
