How powerlifting programming works.

How a program is structured

Almost every serious powerlifting plan nests the same four levels, whether it lives in a spreadsheet or an app:

• Program — the whole training cycle, usually everything leading up to a meet, or one focused phase if you're not competing.
• Block — a multi-week phase inside the program with a single purpose: accumulation, intensification, peaking, or deload. Each block has its own length.
• Day — one session inside the block. Most lifters run three or four. The day's structure repeats every week of that block.
• Lift — one exercise inside a day, and for each week of the block it carries sets, reps, a target intensity, and a bar weight.

The part worth internalising is that the day's structure belongs to the block, not to the week. Week 3 of an accumulation block has the same exercises as week 1 — what changes is sets, reps, and intensity. When the structure itself needs to change, that's a new block, and it's why deload and peaking phases are normally their own block rather than a special case bolted onto an existing one.

Training max: where the bar weights come from

A training max (TM) is the number your planned weights are calculated from. It is deliberately not your true one-rep max — conventionally it sits around 85–92% of it. The point is that a TM should be a weight you could hit on an average day, not a weight you hit once fully rested and psyched up.

That conservatism is what makes percentage-based programming survive contact with real life. If your percentages are computed off a maximum you can only reach on a perfect day, then every session assumes a perfect day, and the plan falls apart the first time you sleep badly. Anchoring to a repeatable number keeps prescribed weights honest.

A TM is also the single point of leverage over a whole block. Change it and every planned weight downstream — including backdown sets derived from top sets — moves with it. That's the mechanism behind "my training max went up 2.5 kg and the whole block re-solved".

RPE and RIR: describing intensity by feel

RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) in powerlifting is a 6–10 scale where each point corresponds to roughly one rep left in the tank. @10 means you could not have done another rep. @9 means one more was there. @8 means two. Below about @6 the scale stops being useful because people can't judge that many reps in reserve accurately.

RIR (Reps in Reserve) is the same information stated the other way round: RIR = 10 − RPE. RIR 2 and @8 are identical prescriptions. Some athletes find "two reps left" easier to judge in the moment than a number on a 6–10 scale, which is the only reason both notations exist.

The reason RPE matters for programming is autoregulation. A percentage tells you what to load regardless of how you feel; an RPE target tells you how hard the set should be and lets the weight follow. On a good day @8 is heavier than planned, on a bad day it's lighter, and either way the training stress lands where it was supposed to. Percentages and RPE aren't rivals — most well-built programs use percentages where precision matters and RPE where flexibility does.

The four ways to prescribe load

In practice there are four distinct ways to say how heavy a set should be, and they behave differently enough that mixing them up is a common source of confusion:

1. RPE — you name a target RPE and the weight is solved from it, via a reps-and-RPE table. The target can be flat across the block, or walk from easier to harder, e.g. @7 in week 1 rising to @9 by week 4. This is the flexible option.
2. Percentage of training max — the weight is a fixed share of your TM, e.g. a ramp from 70% up to 85% across the block. Predictable and easy to plan, and the standard for classic percentage-based templates.
3. Percentage of e1RM — the same idea, but the reference is your estimated one-rep max rather than your training max. Since an e1RM is higher than a TM, the same percentage means a heavier bar, so the two are not interchangeable.
4. Fixed weekly increase — start at a weight and add a set number of kilos each week. Crude, but genuinely useful for novices whose strength is moving faster than any estimate can track.

The practical warning: a percentage only means something once you know percentage of what. 80% of a training max, 80% of an estimated 1RM, and 80% of a true competition max are three different bar weights, and the gap between them is easily 10%. Whenever you copy a program off the internet, that's the first thing to pin down.

Sets, reps, ranges and AMRAP

Most sets are prescribed as a plain number of reps, but two variations show up constantly and both need a rule for what weight to put on the bar.

A rep range like 6–8 leaves the exact count to the day. For load purposes the sensible convention is to plan against the lower bound, because that's the heavier prescription — if you plan for 8 and only get 6, the weight was too light for the intent.

AMRAP ("as many reps as possible") sets have no rep target at all, so the weight has to come from somewhere else — usually a percentage or an RPE cap. AMRAP is most useful as a test: an AMRAP at a known percentage tells you a lot about whether your training max is still accurate.

Top sets and backdowns

A single exercise slot often holds more than one set scheme. The top set is the anchor: it carries the primary sets, reps and intensity, and its weight is the reference everything else hangs off. Sets attached underneath follow a rule relative to it:

• Percentage drop — the classic backdown, e.g. −10% off the top set, for extra volume at a manageable intensity.
• Percentage gain — heavier than the top set, for ascending or pyramid work.
• Percentage of e1RM — derived from the top set's estimated one-rep max rather than its bar weight. Because e1RM is the higher number, a percentage that looks low can still land above the top set; this is the one that surprises people.
• Fixed weight — no rule at all, just a number you choose.

Deriving backdowns from the top set matters most when the top set is RPE-driven, because then the backdown tracks what actually happened rather than what was planned. If your top single came in 10 kg under projection because you slept badly, a −10% backdown computed off the real weight keeps the rest of the session proportionate.

e1RM and why logging matters

An estimated one-rep max is a maximum back-calculated from a set you actually completed, using the reps and how hard it felt. 150 kg for 5 reps @8 implies roughly a 183 kg single. The estimate comes from a reps-and-RPE table — the widely used one is Mike Tuchscherer's.

e1RM is the most useful progress metric in powerlifting precisely because you don't have to test a max to get it. Every hard set is a data point, so you can watch strength trend week to week through a block instead of finding out at the end whether it worked. Its weakness is the other side of the same coin: an e1RM is only as good as the RPE you assigned, and newer lifters systematically under-rate how hard their sets were, which inflates the estimate.

This is why logging actual weights and actual RPE — not just ticking a session off — is what makes the whole system work. Logged sets are what a personal reps-and-RPE table is built from, and a table built on your own data beats a generic chart, because the relationship between reps and percentage genuinely varies between lifters and between lifts. Most people can do far more reps at a given percentage of their squat than their deadlift.

Accessories without a training max

Competition lifts have training maxes. A new accessory usually doesn't — you've no idea what your Bulgarian split squat max is, and testing one is a waste of a session.

The clean way to handle this is to leave the first week's weight blank, pick something sensible when you get to the gym, and log what you did. Once there's one logged set with reps and an RPE, an e1RM can be back-calculated from it and used as the effective training max for that movement — so the rest of the block fills itself in. It's the same machinery as the competition lifts, just bootstrapped from your first session instead of from a number you had to know in advance.

The coach–athlete loop

Coaching a roster remotely comes down to closing one loop: the coach prescribes, the athlete executes and reports back, the coach adjusts. What makes it work or fail is almost entirely about where that information lives.

Three things matter more than they sound. First, per-athlete training maxes on a shared program — one template assigned to fifteen lifters should produce fifteen different sets of bar weights, or you're back to maintaining fifteen spreadsheets. Second, logged data that stays separate per athlete, so two lifters on the same assigned program never overwrite each other. Third, feedback that resurfaces at the moment it's useful — a note about bracing is worth far more attached to next Tuesday's squat than buried in a chat thread from three weeks ago.

Video is the substitute for standing in the room. A logged set with a video attached lets a coach see the actual bar path and give a cue that lands, which is the part that pure numbers can't carry.

Meet day

Competition day runs on different logic to training. You get three attempts per lift and the goal is the highest total, not the highest single, so attempt selection is a risk-management problem.

The conventional shape is: an opener you are certain of, around 90–93% of your best, chosen so that a bad warmup room or a strict judge can't put you on a zero. A second attempt near a personal best, usually about 5% up. A third that's genuinely ambitious, another 3–5% on top. Openers exist to bank a total; thirds exist to add to it.

Warmups are worth planning rather than improvising, because platform timing is unforgiving. A workable ramp climbs from roughly 40% to 90% of your opener across however many sets you have time for, with the jumps getting smaller as the weight gets heavier.

Finally, your total on its own doesn't tell you how you placed relative to lifters in other weight classes — that's what bodyweight-adjusted scoring is for. You can work that out with the free DOTS calculator, including the total you'd need to hit a target score.

Glossary

TM — Training Max

The number every planned weight is computed from. Typically 85–92% of a true one-rep max: low enough that you can hit it on a bad day.

RPE — Rate of Perceived Exertion

A 6–10 scale describing how hard a set felt, where each point is roughly one rep left in the tank. @8 means about two reps left, @10 means nothing left.

RIR — Reps in Reserve

The same idea as RPE, inverted. RIR = 10 − RPE, so RIR 2 is the same prescription as @8.

e1RM — Estimated one-rep max

A one-rep max back-calculated from a set you actually did, using the reps and the RPE. 150 kg for 5 reps @8 works out to roughly a 183 kg e1RM.

Intensity %

Planned weight divided by training max, as a percentage. The usual shorthand for how heavy a session is.

Block / mesocycle

A multi-week training phase with one purpose — accumulation, intensification, peaking, or deload.

Top set

The anchor set in a slot. It carries the working sets, reps, and RPE, and its weight is what any secondary sets are derived from.

Backdown set

A secondary set done at a percentage below the top set, e.g. −10%. The opposite — heavier than the top set — is an ascending set.

Opener

Your first attempt on the platform. Chosen to be a near-certain make, conventionally around 90–93% of your best.

DOTS

A bodyweight-adjusted score that lets totals be compared across weight classes and sexes. Replaced Wilks as the community default.