Determining Your Training Frequency: Finding the Sweet Spot

The first critical decision in creating your powerlifting program is determining how many days per week you can train consistently. This isn’t about what sounds impressive or what elite lifters are doing—it’s about honest self-assessment of what you can maintain week after week regardless of life’s inevitable complications. You don’t want to bite off more than you can chew by designing a six-day program when your schedule, energy levels, or lifestyle realistically only support four training sessions.

For most beginner to intermediate powerlifters, three to five days per week represents the ideal training frequency. This range provides sufficient stimulus for continued adaptation while allowing adequate recovery between sessions. The key consideration here is consistency over intensity. If you think you can make it to the gym four days per week no matter what happens—rain or shine, transportation issues, work conflicts, or family obligations—then designing a four-day program makes sense. However, if there’s any uncertainty about maintaining that frequency, it’s wiser to design your program around three days per week. You can always add a fourth session when your schedule allows, but building your program around an unsustainable frequency sets you up for missed workouts and inconsistent progress.

We’ll focus on a four-day training split since this represents the most common approach for beginner to intermediate powerlifters. This frequency allows you to hit each major movement pattern twice per week while providing enough recovery time between similar training stimuli.

Selecting Your Training Days: Recovery and Scheduling Considerations

Once you’ve committed to training four days per week, the next decision involves which specific days you’ll train. While I can’t dictate what works best for your individual circumstances, the guiding principle is ensuring adequate recovery between training sessions so you feel prepared to perform quality work each time you enter the gym. Most lifters find success with splits like Monday-Tuesday-Thursday-Friday or Monday-Wednesday-Friday-Saturday, which distribute training throughout the week while avoiding back-to-back heavy sessions on the same muscle groups.

Many people prefer to keep weekends free or at least minimize weekend training commitments, and that’s perfectly acceptable. The most important factor is consistency—choose days that align with your work schedule, family commitments, and energy patterns. Some lifters perform better training in the morning, while others need evening sessions. Honor your own physiology and lifestyle rather than forcing yourself into a schedule that works for someone else.

Structuring Your Four-Day Split: Upper and Lower Body Training Days

With four training days established, the most effective approach for most beginner to intermediate lifters involves splitting these sessions into two lower body days and two upper body days. This structure allows you to emphasize different aspects of each competition lift across the week while managing fatigue appropriately.

Your two lower body days will take on different characteristics. One day will be more squat-intensive, featuring the back squat as the primary movement with higher relative volume and intensity. The other lower body day will emphasize deadlift work, though the deadlift’s inherent recovery demands mean we’ll approach this day somewhat differently than the squat-focused session. Your upper body days will both revolve around bench press variations, but again with different emphases—one day prioritizing heavier loads and competition specificity, the other focusing on higher volume and developmental work.

A logical training week might look like this in terms of primary movements: Day 1 focuses on the squat, Day 2 emphasizes the bench press, Day 3 centers on the deadlift, and Day 4 returns to bench press work with a different approach. Alternatively, you might prefer benching earlier in the week, then deadlifting on your second day, followed by another bench session and a deadlift day. The specific order matters less than ensuring you’re not scheduling similar training stresses back-to-back without adequate recovery time.

Understanding Sets, Reps, and RPE: The Foundation of Progressive Overload

Before diving into specific exercise selection for each training day, we need to establish how you’ll determine training intensity and volume. For beginners and intermediates, I recommend starting with conservative volumes and intensities, then building up progressively over time. This approach, often called “starting light and working up,” prevents you from overshooting your recovery capacity while teaching you to execute quality repetitions under gradually increasing loads.

We’ll use Rate of Perceived Exertion, or RPE, as a tool for auto-regulating training intensity. RPE operates on a scale from one to ten, where ten represents absolute maximum effort with no reps left in the tank, nine means one rep remaining, eight means two reps remaining, and so forth. While you shouldn’t obsess over precise RPE assessments early in your training career, this framework provides a useful way to ensure you’re training hard enough to drive adaptation without consistently pushing to technical failure.

The general principle with RPE across a training block is starting at lower intensities early in the cycle (RPE 6-7), progressing to moderate intensities in the middle phase (RPE 7-8), and building toward higher intensities in the final weeks (RPE 8-10). This progressive intensification allows your body to adapt to increasing training demands while managing fatigue accumulation.

Squat-Focused Lower Body Day: Building Your Foundation

Your primary squat day begins with the competition back squat performed for three to five sets of three to five repetitions. This combination of moderate volume with moderate-to-low rep ranges allows you to accumulate quality technical practice with the barbell while gradually building strength. Early in a training block, these sets might be performed at RPE 7-8, meaning you’re finishing each set feeling like you could complete two to three more reps if necessary. As the training block progresses, this RPE will climb toward 9-10, particularly in the final weeks as you peak for a meet or test your maxes.

Following your main squat work, you’ll perform a squat variation that addresses specific technical weaknesses or builds qualities that transfer to your competition squat. For beginners and intermediates, the more similar your variation stays to the actual competition lift, the better. This is not the time to get overly creative with exotic exercises. Instead, consider tempo squats, pause squats, or box squats as your primary variation options.

Tempo squats involve controlling the descent and ascent phases according to specific timing—for example, taking three seconds to descend, pausing one second in the bottom, then standing as explosively as possible. This variation builds positional awareness, improves technique under fatigue, and develops the muscle control necessary for handling heavier loads. Pause squats require you to stop in the bottom position for two to three seconds before standing, which eliminates the stretch reflex and demands greater starting strength from the most difficult portion of the lift. Box squats teach you to sit back properly into your squat pattern while providing a consistent depth reference point.

Your squat variation will typically be performed for two to three sets of three to eight repetitions at RPE 6-8. The goal here is technical proficiency and specific strength development, not maximum intensity. You’re teaching your body movement patterns and building the positional strength necessary to execute your competition squat more effectively.

Deadlift-Focused Lower Body Day: Managing Recovery Demands

The deadlift day requires special consideration because the deadlift is significantly harder to recover from than the squat or bench press. The total-body neural demand, spinal loading, and grip requirements mean you don’t need to perform as many total repetitions to elicit a strong training response. This is actually good news—it means you can get stronger at deadlifting while managing fatigue more effectively than if you approached deadlift volume the same way you approach squat volume.

Your primary deadlift work will consist of three to five sets of one to five repetitions, with RPE following the same 7-8 early building to 9-10 pattern we’ve discussed. Notice the rep range extends down to singles. This isn’t because you should only ever pull singles, but rather because even performing sets of three or five quality deadlifts creates significant systemic fatigue. Many intermediate lifters find that working with doubles and triples provides an excellent balance between technical practice and intensity.

The second exercise on your deadlift day presents an interesting programming decision. You have two primary options: performing a squat variation or performing a deadlift variation. The determining factor should be the relative strength and technical proficiency of your squat versus your deadlift. For most beginners, the deadlift is naturally stronger than the squat, often by a significant margin. If this describes you, using your second exercise slot to perform an additional squat variation gives you extra technical practice with a movement that needs more attention. This might be front squats, safety squat bar variations, or any of the tempo and pause squats we discussed earlier.

However, if your squat is developing well and your deadlift needs focused attention, then using a deadlift variation as your second exercise makes more sense. Effective deadlift variations include Romanian deadlifts, which emphasize the hip hinge pattern and hamstring development through controlled eccentric lowering. You might also consider pulling from a deficit, which increases the range of motion and demands greater starting strength from the floor. Block pulls reduce the range of motion, allowing you to overload the lockout portion of the lift and build confidence with heavier weights. Switching to the opposite pulling stance—conventional if you normally pull sumo, or sumo if you normally pull conventional—provides a novel stimulus while still building relevant strength qualities.

The volume and intensity for your second deadlift day exercise depends on what you’ve selected. Romanian deadlifts work well with higher repetitions, typically eight to ten reps per set, because the controlled eccentric provides valuable time under tension for your hamstrings and glutes. Deficit and block pulls should be treated more like your competition deadlift in terms of rep ranges—two to five reps per set keeps intensity manageable while still building the specific strength quality you’re targeting. If you’ve chosen to perform additional squat work here, follow the same volume guidelines we discussed for your primary squat variation.

Primary Bench Press Day: Competition Specificity

Your first bench press day emphasizes competition specificity and progressive overload with the actual competition movement. You’ll perform three to five sets of three to five repetitions at RPE 7-8 early in the block, building toward RPE 9-10 in the final weeks. This mirrors the approach we’ve taken with the squat—accumulating quality technical practice while gradually increasing intensity over time.

Following your main bench press work, select a bench press variation that addresses your specific weaknesses or reinforces good technical habits. Common options include tempo bench pressing, long pause work where you hold the barbell on your chest for three to five seconds, close-grip bench press to emphasize tricep involvement, Spoto press where you stop the bar just above your chest without touching, or floor press to build lockout strength. Again, the closer your variation stays to the competition movement, especially as a beginner, the more transfer you’ll see to your actual bench press.

Your bench press variation typically consists of two to three sets in the six to eight rep range, performed at RPE 6-8. You’re not trying to maximize weight here—you’re building specific technical proficiency and addressing positional weaknesses that will ultimately make your competition bench press stronger.

Secondary Bench Press Day: Volume and Hypertrophy

Your second bench press day takes a distinctly different approach, emphasizing higher volume work with the competition movement. While your first bench day focuses on heavier weights for lower reps, this second session provides the volume stimulus necessary for driving hypertrophy and building work capacity. You’ll still perform the competition bench press as your primary movement, but with three to five sets of five to ten repetitions.

The RPE on this volume day starts lower—perhaps RPE 6-7 in the first weeks of a block—and builds to approximately RPE 9 at its heaviest. Notice we’re not pushing quite as hard relative to maximum intensity compared to your primary bench day, but the total volume of work (sets multiplied by reps) is significantly higher. This combination of moderate intensity with higher volume creates a different training stimulus that’s essential for long-term bench press development.

After your main volume bench work, transition to dumbbell pressing variations. For beginners and intermediates, I don’t recommend pushing the barbell too hard on your second bench day. The bilateral barbell movement creates significant neural and muscular fatigue, and asking your body to recover from high-intensity barbell work twice per week often exceeds recovery capacity. Dumbbell variations provide an effective training stimulus while managing fatigue more effectively.

Your dumbbell work might include flat dumbbell bench press, incline dumbbell press, decline dumbbell press, or even dumbbell floor press variations. Select the variation that feels most productive for building your pressing strength and chest development. Perform two to three sets of eight to twelve repetitions, treating this work as hypertrophy-focused rather than maximum strength development.

Accessory Work for the Squat: Building the Foundation

Now that we’ve established your main compound movements for each training day, we need to discuss accessory exercise selection. The purpose of accessory work is addressing weak links in your kinetic chain, building muscle mass in key areas, and preventing injury through balanced development. For the squat, most beginners need overall leg volume combined with specific emphasis on quad, hamstring, and glute development.

I know the hamstrings and glutes aren’t primary movers in the squat from a pure biomechanical perspective—the quadriceps handle the lion’s share of knee extension work. However, when the posterior chain is underdeveloped, it severely limits your ability to sit back properly into your squat, maintain an upright torso position, and produce force effectively from the bottom position. This posterior chain weakness is incredibly common in people who haven’t been training to proper squat depth since a young age, where the shortened range of motion means the glutes and hamstrings receive minimal training stimulus for years.

Effective quad-focused accessories include goblet squats, leg extensions, and leg press variations. These movements allow you to accumulate volume without the same neural and spinal loading as your competition squat. For posterior chain development, consider pull-throughs using a cable station, back extensions with emphasis on hip extension rather than spinal extension, dumbbell Romanian deadlifts, and various lunge and split squat variations that challenge hip stability while building single-leg strength.

Your squat accessories should generally consist of two to four sets of eight to fifteen repetitions. This rep range builds muscle effectively while teaching you to maintain tension and control through extended sets. You can occasionally venture up to twenty reps or down to six depending on the specific exercise and your training phase, but the eight to fifteen range represents a reliable default that balances muscle building with technical quality.

Accessory Work for the Bench Press: Triceps and Upper Back

Bench press accessory selection revolves primarily around two areas: tricep development and upper back strength. I’ve consistently found that most beginners and intermediates lack adequate tricep work and upper back volume, which creates weak links in their pressing strength and sets them up for potential shoulder issues down the road.

For tricep development, prioritize exercises that allow you to accumulate high-quality volume without excessive joint stress. Dips—whether performed on parallel bars or using a bench for support—provide an excellent compound movement that builds tricep mass while teaching you to control your body through space. Skull crushers (lying tricep extensions) allow direct tricep loading with relatively heavy weights, though proper elbow positioning is critical for avoiding strain. Press-downs using cable attachments offer versatile options for high-rep tricep work that pumps blood into the muscle while minimizing joint stress.

Upper back development serves multiple purposes for bench press strength. Stronger scapular retractors help you maintain a stable shelf on the bench, creating a solid foundation for pressing. Thicker upper back muscles literally increase the arch height in your setup, reducing the range of motion you need to press through. Additionally, balanced pulling work prevents the anterior shoulder dominance that often develops from heavy pressing, reducing injury risk over time.

Effective upper back exercises include face pulls for rear deltoid and rotator cuff health, dumbbell rows in all their variations from supported single-arm rows to chest-supported variations, chin-ups and pull-ups for vertical pulling strength, and any other lat pulldown variations you find effective. You might also incorporate general row variations including barbell rows, cable rows, and machine-based rowing movements.

Your bench press accessories should follow the same two to four sets of eight to fifteen reps framework we’ve established for other assistance work. If you’re newer to powerlifting and need to prioritize your limited recovery resources, focus more heavily on tricep work and basic row and lat pulldown variations. The face pulls and more specialized shoulder health exercises can be added as you develop greater work capacity.

An important implementation detail: you should perform both tricep and back work on both of your bench press days, though with different emphases. On your heavier bench day when you’re performing lower-rep competition work at higher intensities, your pressing muscles are more fatigued, so emphasizing direct tricep work makes sense—you’ve already taxed the triceps through the bench press, so finishing them off with isolation work is efficient. On your volume bench day with lighter weights and higher reps, you have more residual energy for quality back work, so this day should emphasize rows, pulldowns, and upper back volume. However, you should still include some of both categories on both days to ensure you’re hitting each muscle group twice per week.

Accessory Work for the Deadlift: Posterior Chain Development

Deadlift accessory selection centers almost exclusively on posterior chain development. If you’ve programmed your deadlift day to include Romanian deadlifts as your second exercise, you’ve already checked one important box for hamstring and glute development. However, you’ll want additional movements that target these areas from different angles and challenge the posterior chain in ways that transfer to your competition deadlift.

Glute-ham raises represent one of the most effective posterior chain exercises available, directly training the hamstrings through both knee flexion and hip extension while teaching your body to coordinate these actions. If you have access to a glute-ham raise machine, include this movement regularly. Reverse hypers or standard back extensions also build posterior chain strength, though pay attention to executing these as hip-dominant movements rather than lower back exercises—you want to feel these in your glutes and hamstrings, not your spinal erectors.

Various lunge and split squat patterns challenge your hips to stabilize under load while building single-leg strength that transfers to more stable bilateral pulling. Pull-throughs using a cable or band create a hip hinge pattern very similar to the deadlift setup while allowing you to feel the glute and hamstring engagement without the same spinal loading as actual deadlifting.

Beyond posterior chain work, I don’t mind seeing some additional back work programmed on your deadlift day. Strong lats help you maintain proper bar path during the pull, while thick spinal erectors provide the rigid torso necessary for efficient force transfer from your legs to the barbell. Consider including chins, rows, or even shrugs as part of your deadlift day programming. This back work might total two to four sets across the entire session—you’re not trying to match the volume you’d perform on a dedicated back day, just maintaining stimulus for these important muscles.

Your deadlift accessories follow the same two to four sets of eight to fifteen reps pattern we’ve established throughout this program, with the exception of glute-ham raises, which many people find taxing enough that sets of six to ten reps provide adequate stimulus. Select one back exercise that you genuinely enjoy or feel particularly helps your deadlift—this might be weighted pull-ups, heavy barbell rows, or any other pulling variation that feels productive.

Periodization and Progression: The 12-Week Training Block

Now that we’ve established exercise selection, training frequency, and volume parameters for each session, we need to discuss how these elements progress over time. For beginners and intermediates, I recommend organizing your training into 12-week blocks, essentially three-month training cycles. This timeframe is long enough to drive significant adaptations while being short enough that you maintain focus and can see clear progress markers.

Divide your 12-week block into three equal phases of four weeks each. We can label these phases accumulation (or adaptation), transmutation, and peaking, though the specific terminology matters less than understanding what each phase accomplishes. The accumulation phase emphasizes higher volume at lower relative intensities, teaching your body to handle increased training stress while building work capacity. The transmutation phase shifts toward moderate volume at moderate-to-high intensities, converting the base you’ve built into more specific strength gains. The peaking phase features lower volume at the highest intensities, allowing fatigue to dissipate while expressing the strength you’ve developed over the previous eight weeks.

These three phases align directly with the RPE and volume parameters we’ve discussed throughout this guide. Your RPE starts low (6-7) in the accumulation phase, builds to moderate (7-8) in the transmutation phase, and reaches its highest levels (8-10) in the peaking phase. Conversely, your total volume per session follows the opposite pattern—high in accumulation, moderate in transmutation, and low in peaking.

From a practical standpoint, this means you’ll accumulate approximately 20-25 total lifts of your main movement during accumulation weeks. An example might be five sets of five repetitions at RPE 7—that’s 25 total reps, and while RPE 7 feels challenging, you’re finishing each set knowing you could complete two to three more reps if necessary. During your transmutation weeks, you’ll perform approximately 15-20 total lifts. This might look like four sets of four at RPE 8, totaling 16 reps at a somewhat higher intensity. In your peaking weeks, volume drops to approximately 5-10 total lifts per session. Four sets of two at RPE 9 gives you only eight total reps, but each set feels significantly heavier and more demanding than anything you performed in earlier phases.

This undulating pattern of volume and intensity is sometimes called Western periodization, and while you can certainly manipulate these variables more dynamically if you prefer, this basic framework provides a reliable template for continued progress. The key insight is that you can’t maintain maximum volume and maximum intensity simultaneously—you must emphasize one while moderating the other, then shift that emphasis over time to continue driving adaptations.

Training Max vs True Max: A Safer Approach to Programming

A critical concept for self-programming is understanding the difference between your training max and your true one-rep max. Your true max represents the absolute most weight you can lift for a single repetition under ideal conditions—fully rested, perfectly peaked, with maximum motivation and optimal technique. Your training max, by contrast, represents a weight you could confidently triple on any reasonable training day, even when somewhat fatigued.

For beginners and intermediates, I strongly recommend using a training max rather than your true max when calculating training loads, particularly if you’re following percentage-based programming. The reason is simple: your true max fluctuates significantly based on recovery status, and testing it frequently increases injury risk while potentially setting you back in training. Additionally, beginners and intermediates gain strength much more rapidly than percentage calculators anticipate, meaning programming off your true max often either undershoots your capabilities early in a block or overshoots them if you tested when fatigued.

Here’s how to establish and use a training max effectively. Let’s say you recently hit 255 pounds for two reps on the squat, and those reps felt like RPE 9—you probably had one more rep available but definitely not two. A conservative training max would be 250 pounds, roughly what you could confidently triple. All your percentage-based calculations now run off this 250-pound training max rather than attempting to calculate your true max and working from that number.

If you had instead decided to test your true max and attempted 275 pounds, you might have missed that weight. Even if you made it, you then might have tried 265 on your second attempt and missed again due to fatigue, ultimately only managing 255 for a single when you could have hit it for two reps fresh. Now you’re running your percentages off 255, but you’ve accumulated significant neural fatigue from those near-maximal attempts. If you’re working at 80% of your training max—80% of 250 equals 200 pounds—you can comfortably perform five sets of three repetitions, accumulating quality training volume. But if you’re working at 80% of a tested true max of 275—which equals 220 pounds—those sets of three become significantly more challenging, recovery demands increase, and you may not be able to maintain that intensity across all five sets.

The beautiful thing about using a training max is that it increases naturally as you progress through your training block. When those 200-pound triples that felt like RPE 7 early in your block start feeling like RPE 6, you know you’ve gotten stronger. When you’re hitting 220 pounds for triples at the same RPE you were originally hitting 200, you’ve clearly made progress. Your training max can then increase to reflect this new strength level, and your percentages shift upward accordingly without ever requiring you to perform grinding max-effort singles that increase injury risk.

When and How to Test Your Strength

A common question at the end of a 12-week training block is whether you should test your maxes or continue into another training cycle. My recommendation above all else is if your weights are increasing and you’re hitting PRs during the training block itself, there’s no compelling reason to perform formal max testing. If you started the block squatting 225 pounds for five reps as your best-ever performance, then by week eight you’re hitting 235 pounds for five reps, you’re unquestionably stronger. If by week twelve you’re hitting 255 for two reps, you’ve made significant progress regardless of what your calculated one-rep max might be.

The temptation to test and find that one-rep max number is understandable, particularly for competitive individuals. However, formal testing creates several potential problems. You might overshoot your attempts, taking too large of jumps and missing weights, which leaves you feeling defeated despite actually being stronger. You might grind through a maximum single, but the neural fatigue from that effort takes several days to resolve, potentially interfering with the start of your next training block. Most importantly, you risk injury when handling true maximum loads, particularly if your technique breaks down under maximum strain.

The exception to this guideline is if you genuinely need to know your current one-rep max for programming purposes, perhaps because you’re following a specific percentage-based system that requires this information. In that case, be conservative with your attempts. Take appropriate jumps that build confidence rather than immediately pursuing your heaviest possible lift. If you miss a weight, don’t continue pushing to find your absolute limit—accept that missed attempt, take a conservative working max from your last successful attempt, and move forward into your next training block.

Remember that strength testing is inherently a skill distinct from strength building. You can be significantly stronger than your previous tested max without ever formally testing again, simply because you’ve accumulated more training time under progressively heavier loads. The iron doesn’t lie—if you’re lifting heavier weights for more reps than you could previously, you’re stronger, regardless of what a single-rep test might reveal.

Implementing Your Program: Starting Smart and Adjusting Intelligently

The final piece of creating your own powerlifting program is understanding that all programming guidelines are starting points, not immutable laws. You want to slow-cook your progress early in each training block, building volume and work capacity before emphasizing intensity. This conservative approach prevents you from overshooting your recovery capacity while establishing a foundation for the heavier work to come.

Over the course of your 12-week training blocks, your weights should generally trend upward with some natural fluctuation. You might hit a PR one week, back off slightly the next week, then push forward again to a new PR. This zigzag pattern is normal and healthy—linear progression only works for so long before you need strategic deloads and variations in training stress to continue adapting. When each training block ends, you should be able to look back at your training log and see clear markers of progress, with your top-end weights considerably heavier than where you started.

The skill of auto-regulation—making intelligent in-the-moment decisions about training based on how you feel—develops over time and represents perhaps the most valuable outcome of learning to write your own programs. When you understand the rationale behind your programming decisions, you can intelligently adjust on the fly. If you’re scheduled for five sets of three at RPE 8 but feel phenomenal and the weights are moving effortlessly, you might bump that to RPE 8.5 and add slightly more weight. If you’re dragging and the planned weights feel impossibly heavy, you might reduce the load slightly to hit the intended RPE, acknowledging that pushing harder today would compromise recovery for subsequent sessions.

This is why I believe learning to write your own programming makes you a better lifter even if you eventually hire a coach. You understand yourself better than any coach can, particularly in terms of how different life stressors affect your training, how quickly you recover from various training stimuli, and which variations and assistance exercises feel most productive for your individual weaknesses. This self-knowledge allows you to make intelligent modifications to any program rather than blindly following percentages regardless of how you feel.

Start with the framework outlined in this guide—four days per week, upper-lower split, main movements followed by variations and accessories, 12-week blocks divided into three phases with progressive intensification and reducing volume. Track your training honestly and consistently, noting not just the weights and reps you completed but how they felt in terms of RPE and technical quality. After several training blocks following this structure, you’ll develop the experience necessary to make more sophisticated modifications based on your individual response patterns.

The journey of learning to program for yourself is challenging precisely because it requires you to think critically about training rather than outsourcing those decisions to someone else. However, this challenge is also the source of tremendous growth—you become a student of your own training, learning to interpret feedback from your body and make evidence-based decisions about progression. These skills will serve you throughout your lifting career, whether you remain self-coached or eventually work with programming mentors who can refine your approach. The foundation of understanding how and why training programs work makes you a more thoughtful, resilient, and ultimately stronger lifter.