Tweet
Hawk's SOP Powerlifting Routine
S.O.P. Powerlifting Routine
This routine was born out of necessity from a 40+ bodybuilder turned power lifter. I make no claims about it besides the fact that it meets my specific needs. What are those needs? Well, the first is that it needs to produce results. The second was that it needed to allow my old ass to recover. Third, I needed a routine that I could do at my gym with no access to chains etc…And finally, but maybe most importantly it has to be a routine that I wanted to do, a system that made me look forward to going to the gym.
Before I get into the nitty gritty I will give you a bit more back ground and touch on other routines that I have tried. I think the biggest benefit of a bodybuilding background was that I was not sold on any one philosophy or system. Someone else who I gleaned some knowledge from, also an out of the box thinker was Paul Carter over at Lift-run-bang. While I have never talked to him, his blog is an excellent source of info in my opinion. So, basically this program takes the parts of other programs that I liked and combined them. In reality SOP resembles the Cube method (which I had no idea existed when I created SOP)in some aspects, but that only validates some of my own philosophies.
Ok, so what does S.O.P. stand for? Sum Of (the) Parts is a philosophy that recognizes that the bench press is more than just benching. Rather the bench press is a combination of form/technique, mental determination, pec major, pec minor, lats, anterior deltoid, biceps, triceps etc… And if it is a combination of many parts, why not focus on those parts individually instead of working on them as a whole at every opportunity. I liken it to building a high performance engine with pistons, cams and cylinder heads all making a whole. One last note before moving on, a sticking point will always be a sticking point when the weight is more than you can handle. Does that mean we shouldn’t focus on our weaknesses? No, rather we need not over emphasize them. A sticking point is a sticking point cuz the weight is more than you can lift.
Now, long before I made the decision to compete I was becoming burnt out mentally with body building. Which is when my brother whose true passion is Olympic lifting suggested we try some power lifting…I was hooked. So, along the way I tried a variety of routines which all are effective, but in some way did not meet my specific demands. 5x5, just plain boring and too repetitive although the concept of hitting 25 reps with 90% or greater of your max(force) is supported with solid research and experience. A concept that West Side subscribes to as well. My main issue with West Side, besides not having access to bands, chains and a hover craft it the challenge to hit new PR’s all the time. Which is the same with 5-3-1. If I add 10lbs to my max with Wendler’s sytem I am forced to hit a new PR every week except for deload. Plus, Wendler’s system is redundant as well, which many may like due to it’s simplicity, but my old ass needs to do something different from time to time.
Ok, so the nuts and bolts of SOP is basically the rotating weekly template which not only allows for variety, but also permits one month between PR’s. So, take a guy whose max squat is 400#, in many systems he has to hit new PR with that weight of a percentage of his max every week. With SOP, you recover while getting stronger.
Now, imagine doing that in all your lifts while at the same time enjoying what you’re doing. Not being burnt out from weeks and weeks of ball busting sessions and unachievable PR’s. And by the way, if claim you can go 110% every week without burning out, you don’t know what 110% is!
Now, the weekly template allows for your own personalization depending on what you have access to, what gear you use and what you like. I will give you the outline of my routine so you can see it in practice along with some notes to help clarify SOP philosophy and from there just customize it to yourself.
The Split:
You will be training four days a week, Monday focuses on Squat, Tuesday on Press , Thursday on Deads/Posterior, Friday on Bench. These are not set in stone, just guidelines so do what works best for you.
SOP is further broken down into weekly cycles each focusing on developing strength using a different method. Week one is just old school heavy lifting, week two uses pause work to eliminate inertia, week three uses reps and volume and week four uses speed. The combination of these may not be the fastest way to the top, but they will allow you to keep hiking long after others have fallen out of the race.
Again the philosophy is to if you make all the parts stronger than the whole will be stronger. You can only bore an engine block so much, then you need to tune the intake and exhaust. The same concept applies here, build strength and muscle from a variety of tactics and then put them altogether and watch the results.
Accessory work:
Accessory work is a critical aspect of SOP. It brings continuity as you will perform the same exercises throughout the four weeks. Whichever lifts you choose use good form and a full range of motion. Keep it to the basics and exercise that will benefit your lift. Make sure to target all muscles involved in that main lift. So on squat day include some hammy and quad work, but emphasize your weakness. For example, if your quads are lacking than do two quad exercises and just one hammy exercise and call it a day. Use 2-3 sets of 2-4 exercises using 10+ reps.
Choosing your weights:
For weeks one and two you go heavy. Nothing builds power like heavy weight, but nothing is more taxing on your CNS or your psyche than heavy weights. If you’re a geared lifter I recommend this week be unequipped and no bands chains etc…The goal is to hit a minimum of 20-25 total reps with 65-90% or just a bit more. This doesn’t mean failure on any set, rather pyramid up in weight using fives and triples until you reach heavy triple and then a back off set .Your weights should be heavy, but not ball busters, but challenging allowing you to accelerate through the movement. Here are my suggested guidelines, 75%x5,80%x5,85%x3,87%x3,90%x2,95%x1,85%x3. These are percentages based off your gym max.
For week three you will substitute four sets of 10+ reps for your big lifts except for deads as week three you will be using your ME weights. Now, for week three and your accessory work choose weights that are challenging, but do not use forced reps to get them done. Try to start with a weight that barely allows you to do 15 reps on your first set and stick with it until you can perform 15 reps for all three sets.
Progression:
In all reality you could repeat the four week cycle over and over and still make gains. The key would be that you continue to raise the weight faster with each cycle thereby creating more force each cycle. The same principle as speed week. Force is the result of weight X speed and is a key to developing muscle power. The more force you generate the more muscle fibers you recruit as you lift a weight. It is actually possible and likely that you will generate more force with weights that are lighter than your PR for that rep range. Example, if your 5 rep max is 350lbs and you grind out each rep at ¾ of a foot per second you generate 36 Newtons per rep. Now if you take 320lbs and lift it at a rate of 1 foot per second you generate 44 Newtons. That’s 20% more force per rep. Now, there are limits to how fast you can move as well as how many muscle fibers you will recruit if the weight is too light. Yet, that being said, the key of SOP is to focus on force as much as weight, which is why weeks one and two use weights below your maxes for those rep ranges.
Given the above I recommend small jumps of just 2.5lbs on presses and 5lbs on squats/deads each cycle. If you have to buy your own 1.25lb. plates. These small jumps will allow you to keep force high and you can always add more if you experience an big jump in strength.
Let me add this, performing multiple sets with high amounts of force will bring you faster results than grinding out with heavier weights. You will also recover faster between sets and work outs.
This routine was born out of necessity from a 40+ bodybuilder turned power lifter. I make no claims about it besides the fact that it meets my specific needs. What are those needs? Well, the first is that it needs to produce results. The second was that it needed to allow my old ass to recover. Third, I needed a routine that I could do at my gym with no access to chains etc…And finally, but maybe most importantly it has to be a routine that I wanted to do, a system that made me look forward to going to the gym.
Before I get into the nitty gritty I will give you a bit more back ground and touch on other routines that I have tried. I think the biggest benefit of a bodybuilding background was that I was not sold on any one philosophy or system. Someone else who I gleaned some knowledge from, also an out of the box thinker was Paul Carter over at Lift-run-bang. While I have never talked to him, his blog is an excellent source of info in my opinion. So, basically this program takes the parts of other programs that I liked and combined them. In reality SOP resembles the Cube method (which I had no idea existed when I created SOP)in some aspects, but that only validates some of my own philosophies.
Ok, so what does S.O.P. stand for? Sum Of (the) Parts is a philosophy that recognizes that the bench press is more than just benching. Rather the bench press is a combination of form/technique, mental determination, pec major, pec minor, lats, anterior deltoid, biceps, triceps etc… And if it is a combination of many parts, why not focus on those parts individually instead of working on them as a whole at every opportunity. I liken it to building a high performance engine with pistons, cams and cylinder heads all making a whole. One last note before moving on, a sticking point will always be a sticking point when the weight is more than you can handle. Does that mean we shouldn’t focus on our weaknesses? No, rather we need not over emphasize them. A sticking point is a sticking point cuz the weight is more than you can lift.
Now, long before I made the decision to compete I was becoming burnt out mentally with body building. Which is when my brother whose true passion is Olympic lifting suggested we try some power lifting…I was hooked. So, along the way I tried a variety of routines which all are effective, but in some way did not meet my specific demands. 5x5, just plain boring and too repetitive although the concept of hitting 25 reps with 90% or greater of your max(force) is supported with solid research and experience. A concept that West Side subscribes to as well. My main issue with West Side, besides not having access to bands, chains and a hover craft it the challenge to hit new PR’s all the time. Which is the same with 5-3-1. If I add 10lbs to my max with Wendler’s sytem I am forced to hit a new PR every week except for deload. Plus, Wendler’s system is redundant as well, which many may like due to it’s simplicity, but my old ass needs to do something different from time to time.
Ok, so the nuts and bolts of SOP is basically the rotating weekly template which not only allows for variety, but also permits one month between PR’s. So, take a guy whose max squat is 400#, in many systems he has to hit new PR with that weight of a percentage of his max every week. With SOP, you recover while getting stronger.
Now, imagine doing that in all your lifts while at the same time enjoying what you’re doing. Not being burnt out from weeks and weeks of ball busting sessions and unachievable PR’s. And by the way, if claim you can go 110% every week without burning out, you don’t know what 110% is!
Now, the weekly template allows for your own personalization depending on what you have access to, what gear you use and what you like. I will give you the outline of my routine so you can see it in practice along with some notes to help clarify SOP philosophy and from there just customize it to yourself.
The Split:
You will be training four days a week, Monday focuses on Squat, Tuesday on Press , Thursday on Deads/Posterior, Friday on Bench. These are not set in stone, just guidelines so do what works best for you.
SOP is further broken down into weekly cycles each focusing on developing strength using a different method. Week one is just old school heavy lifting, week two uses pause work to eliminate inertia, week three uses reps and volume and week four uses speed. The combination of these may not be the fastest way to the top, but they will allow you to keep hiking long after others have fallen out of the race.
Again the philosophy is to if you make all the parts stronger than the whole will be stronger. You can only bore an engine block so much, then you need to tune the intake and exhaust. The same concept applies here, build strength and muscle from a variety of tactics and then put them altogether and watch the results.
Accessory work:
Accessory work is a critical aspect of SOP. It brings continuity as you will perform the same exercises throughout the four weeks. Whichever lifts you choose use good form and a full range of motion. Keep it to the basics and exercise that will benefit your lift. Make sure to target all muscles involved in that main lift. So on squat day include some hammy and quad work, but emphasize your weakness. For example, if your quads are lacking than do two quad exercises and just one hammy exercise and call it a day. Use 2-3 sets of 2-4 exercises using 10+ reps.
Choosing your weights:
For weeks one and two you go heavy. Nothing builds power like heavy weight, but nothing is more taxing on your CNS or your psyche than heavy weights. If you’re a geared lifter I recommend this week be unequipped and no bands chains etc…The goal is to hit a minimum of 20-25 total reps with 65-90% or just a bit more. This doesn’t mean failure on any set, rather pyramid up in weight using fives and triples until you reach heavy triple and then a back off set .Your weights should be heavy, but not ball busters, but challenging allowing you to accelerate through the movement. Here are my suggested guidelines, 75%x5,80%x5,85%x3,87%x3,90%x2,95%x1,85%x3. These are percentages based off your gym max.
For week three you will substitute four sets of 10+ reps for your big lifts except for deads as week three you will be using your ME weights. Now, for week three and your accessory work choose weights that are challenging, but do not use forced reps to get them done. Try to start with a weight that barely allows you to do 15 reps on your first set and stick with it until you can perform 15 reps for all three sets.
Progression:
In all reality you could repeat the four week cycle over and over and still make gains. The key would be that you continue to raise the weight faster with each cycle thereby creating more force each cycle. The same principle as speed week. Force is the result of weight X speed and is a key to developing muscle power. The more force you generate the more muscle fibers you recruit as you lift a weight. It is actually possible and likely that you will generate more force with weights that are lighter than your PR for that rep range. Example, if your 5 rep max is 350lbs and you grind out each rep at ¾ of a foot per second you generate 36 Newtons per rep. Now if you take 320lbs and lift it at a rate of 1 foot per second you generate 44 Newtons. That’s 20% more force per rep. Now, there are limits to how fast you can move as well as how many muscle fibers you will recruit if the weight is too light. Yet, that being said, the key of SOP is to focus on force as much as weight, which is why weeks one and two use weights below your maxes for those rep ranges.
Given the above I recommend small jumps of just 2.5lbs on presses and 5lbs on squats/deads each cycle. If you have to buy your own 1.25lb. plates. These small jumps will allow you to keep force high and you can always add more if you experience an big jump in strength.
Let me add this, performing multiple sets with high amounts of force will bring you faster results than grinding out with heavier weights. You will also recover faster between sets and work outs.
Comment