The concepts that most powerbuilding programs try to achieve are why the term “power building,” is a relatively recent and trendy buzzword in strength training.
Powerbuilding programs combine bodybuilding and powerlifting training techniques. This means that while performing the squat, bench press, deadlift, and overhead press, athletes concurrently work on improving their strength while concentrating on their body composition using accessories designed to enhance the appearance of particular body parts.
The essence of these programs is, first, to gain strength through periodized compound motions and, secondly, to improve one’s appearance through chosen and targeted accessories.
In this copy, we have outlined the best 17 Power Building programs available in recent years. Your job is to choose the program that meets your goal.
What is Powerbuilding Programming?
Powerbuilding is a training method that combines bodybuilding and powerlifting techniques. A powerbuilding regimen will incorporate both high-intensity, low-rep strength work—used in powerlifting regimens—and low-intensity, high-rep body composition work—similar to what is done in traditional bodybuilding.
The idea of power building is by no means new; in fact, this type of training has been well-liked for a while in all strength circles. However, power building-style regimens are still becoming more and more popular for two key factors.
The first reason is that a sizable segment of the lifting community wants to pursue several objectives concurrently and may not be committed to following a particular training philosophy. Simultaneously achieving various objectives, including strength, body composition/fat loss, and power, makes power building regimens appealing.
The evolution of coaches and periodization is the second factor contributing to the popularity of powerbuilding programs. Because power building programs are becoming more and more popular, coaches are now devoting more time and resources to them than ever before. Coaches are also starting to truly invest more thought into creating intuitive programs.
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17 Powerbuilding Program in 2024
Below are 17 powerbuilding programs:
- Prime 4 Week Powerbuilding Program
- Extended Russian Power Routine
- Bill Starr Power Program
- Sheikburn Program
- Phatburn Powerbuilding Program
- Hepburn Method Powerbuilding Program
- Metallicadpa 6 Day Ppl Program
- Phat Program
- Power Hypertrophy Upper Lower (PHUL) Workout Routine
- Brograins Powerbuilding Program
- Layne Norton’s PH3
- The 5 x 5 Program
- German Volume Training
- The FST-7 Training Program
- Full-Body Program
- Starscream Hypertrophy Program
- Greyskull LP: Best Powerbuilding Routine for Beginners
#1. Prime 4 Week Powerbuilding Program
The four-week PRIME power-building program aims to increase muscle mass while also enhancing one-rep maxes in the squat, bench press, deadlift, and overhead press. It adheres to a 4-week plan with one compound lift every training session, or 5/3/1. Despite the name being identical, neither Brendan Tietz nor Prime Strength is associated with this program. It was planned and traded without cost at Destiny Formulations.
#2. Extended Russian Power Routine
You’ve found the ideal place if you’re seeking a complete training plan to improve your lifting performance in competition. This tutorial on Russian fitness covers the Extended Russian Power Routine.
This Russian powerlifting technique has been supported in its usefulness by professionals who vouch for its potential. With the help of this practice, you will be able to lift substantially heavier weights during competitions, making you stronger and enhancing your performance on the other side.
#3. Bill Starr Power Program
The most important elements of the game, whether you’re a powerlifter, bodybuilder, or weightlifter, are, without a doubt strength and power. In all of these sports, competitors will tell you that “champions are produced in the off-season,” which is also a saying in the weightlifting community.
Your individual lifting game will undoubtedly improve if you train to increase your power and strength. Your strength and power will increase thanks to the Bill Starr Power Program, which was developed for this purpose. It allows you to gain a significant amount of muscular mass in addition to giving you the fundamental underpinning strength.
#4. Sheikburn Program
The Sheikburn program, as its name suggests, is a hybrid of the Sheiko and Hepburn programs. The Hepburn software is particularly focused on boosting power. In contrast, the Sheiko program adopts a greater intensity approach, which makes the Sheiko exercise regimen more technique and hypertrophy-oriented.
The Sheikburn program is a workout routine enhancing strength while promoting hypertrophy. The Sheiko x Hepburn method combines the periodization of the Sheiko method with the set and rep formats from the Hepburn Method. Using this exercise as a power block is critically necessary.
#5. Phatburn Powerbuilding Program
The originator of power building was the well-known Canadian strongman Doug Hepburn. His powerlifting approach combined heavy-weight exercises with a high-intensity style of bodybuilding that encouraged growth.
The PHATburn program replaced power-building regimen of Hepburn and combines the strongman/powerlifting approach of Doug Hepburn and Layne Norton’s PHAT technique. It was first made by Captain Spasmo, a well-known record holder for the Youth-Sarcasmo Press (YSP).
#6. Hepburn Method Powerbuilding Program
People who regularly use the gym are more likely to select exercises that promote both strength and hypertrophy.
The Hepburn process power building program was developed using Doug Hepburn as its model. He holds this record as the first natural lifter to bench press 500 pounds and squat 600 pounds at the age of 54.
With the help of this program, the participant may keep up a powerlifting routine and achieve full strength. Following that, the trainee engages in a pumping routine to aid in developing muscle mass and stamina.
#7. Metallicadpa 6 Day PPL Program
The Metallicadpa PPL program aims to provide novices with a systematic roadmap for strength development and muscle growth through a comprehensive 6-day PPL routine. This exercise regimen was developed by Reddit member u/Metallicadpa, who gathered ideas and suggestions from a number of efficient exercise regimens.
As a result, it is often referred to as the Reddit PPL program or the Metallicadpa PPL program. It focuses on two-week cycles of single-action sessions with three separate exercises. PPL stands for push, pull, and legs, the three different workouts that should be performed.
This sequential progression routine is high-frequency, high-volume, and suitable for beginners. The original Reddit PPL routine has been modified a lot to accommodate both inexperienced and seasoned lifters.
#8. Phat Program
Power Hypertrophy Adaptive Training, sometimes known as PHAT, is a type of exercise. Well-known bodybuilder and powerlifter Layne Norton created the PHAT training regimen. The PHAT fitness curriculum combines bodybuilding and powerlifting.
Bodybuilders employ greater repetitions of lighter weights, whereas powerlifters employ lower repetitions of heavier weights to induce muscular hypertrophy. These two different teaching philosophies were combined into one by Layne Norton. With PHAT, you can perform exercises in both powerlifting (lower rep ranges) and bodybuilding (higher rep ranges) during the same week as opposed to sticking to a rigorous training regimen (hypertrophy/strength) for weeks at a time.
#9. Power Hypertrophy Upper Lower (PHUL) Workout Routine
The PHUL fitness program is a great transformation workout that uses your knowledge of your own body to help you build more power and muscle than ever before. Power Hypertrophy Upper Lower is referred to by the acronym PHUL.
Exercise programs developed by PHUL are intended to maximize both strength and muscular hypertrophy. The PHUL exercise combines strength and size, to put it another way. It is a strength training program; you can touch more muscles than any other exercise regimen.
In other words, the primary emphasis of the PHUL training program is compound lifts. Four workout days make up the PHUL training regimen, with two days devoted to muscular hypertrophy and the other two to pure strength gain. The muscles can continue to be anabolic throughout the week since the Power Hypertrophy Upper Lower Program uses a high-frequency workout mode.
#10. Brograins Powerbuilding Program
Four days a week, Brograins works out with an upper/lower break and a heavy, dynamic spit as part of his power-building regimen. The Brogan Powerbuilding spreadsheet allows you to select the accessories you need to strengthen your body’s weak places (making it somewhat personalized). The three stages of the program are intensity, strength realization, and volume. Lifters also record their volume as they approach a new stage of their preparation.
#11. Layne Norton’s PH3
The PH3 program was created by Layne Norton for experienced lifters.
In order to aid high-level intermediate and advanced lifters in gaining even more bulk and strength, it uses the same framework and structure as the PHAT program but also includes even greater volume.
Remember that it should only be used after you have ceased progressing from the initial PHAT strategy.
#12. The 5 x 5 Program
Those who want to increase their strength and muscle mass quickly find the five-by-five regimen to be quite effective.
This program is designed to be completed in five sets of five repetitions, focusing on three basic movements that target the body’s major muscle groups (both lower and upper body in the same session). A few sets of individual exercises can be added at the end of each workout, although it is not necessary for the program.
#13. German Volume Training
German Volume Training is the following greater volume program for growing muscle. This one is pretty similar to the 5 x 5 program in that it will also require more sets, but it is different in that it raises the rep ranges considerably higher to ten reps for each set.
This program’s layout calls for concentrating on two major muscle groups every day, switching between them every three days.
#14. The FST-7 Training Program
The FST-7 Training Program is the third kind of volume training program that is growing in popularity very quickly. This training program gives you instructions for what to do on the final exercise for each body part worked that session rather than specifying the exercises you must perform or the order in which you must divide the body (for example, upper body and lower body or chest/back, legs, and shoulders).
Fascial Stretch Training also called FST-7, is the name given to the program that aims to stretch the fascia tissue, the soft connective tissue that surrounds your muscles and is located throughout the rest of your body.
Its major functions of it are to support and protect the body’s structural integrity, to act as a shock absorber throughout the daily activity, both in and outside of the gym, and to assist in maintaining the body’s structural integrity.
Your muscles will grow more as a result of stretching this tissue. The delivery of oxygen, amino acids, and minerals to the tissues will increase.
Perform the final exercise you execute for each muscle group with this set-up in seven sets of 15 repetitions. You should keep the rest intervals between these sets at a minimum, at most 30 seconds.
#15. Full-Body Program
Quads, hamstrings, chest, back, and shoulders are just a few of the muscle groups that will receive one specific exercise in a full-body program (arms are worked when doing chest and back).
If you want to target the smaller muscles separately, you might add a few isolated workouts in addition to those lifts.
#16. Starscream Hypertrophy Program
The 12-week hypertrophy program Starscream involves five days of workout per week. It is designed as a five-day body part split, training the day’s assigned muscle parts as follows:
- Monday: triceps and chest (bench)
- Tuesday: hamstrings/glutes (deadlift)
- Wednesday: triceps and shoulders (incline bench press)
- Friday: quads, core, and abs (squat)
- Friday: triceps and chest (bench press)
#17. Greyskull LP: Best Powerbuilding Routine for Beginners
John Shaeffer’s Greyskull LP takes it one step farther than ICF by including AMRAP sets, making it arguably the most complex of the starting routines. This is an acronym for “as many repeats as possible” and a method for delivering high overload in a regulated way. Beginners can enhance their performance every single week by including AMRAP sets.
It also has many exercise “plugins” that let you adjust the program to meet your individual requirements. The increased volume also enhances hypertrophy, making it a superb program for powerbuilding.
Advanced Powerbuilding Program
This is an advanced program for seasoned lifters who want to increase their strength without losing muscle growth. This program was created to improve your performance in the Big 3 Lifts—the Barbell Squat, the Conventional Deadlift, and the Bench Press—while maintaining enough volume and intensity in accessory movements to maintain joint health and stimulate muscle growth.
The program comprises three separate stages employing a hybrid Upper/Lower/Strength Split, each of which is meant to build on the previous one in order to overcome any strength plateaus and keep you moving forward.
6 Day Powerbuilding Program
1: Max effort bench
- Warm-up
- Bench press: six sets of two at 85% of your maximum
- Bench press with pauses: 5 sets of 3 at 78% of maximum
- 4 sets of 12 on a close-grip bench
- 12 skull crushers in four sets
2: Max effort squat
- Warm-up
- Squat: 5 sets of 2 reps at 87% of your maximum
- 5 sets of 3 repetitions at 80% of one’s maximum for SSB box squats
- 4 sets of 10 repetitions on the leg press
- Lunges while walking, four sets of 12 reps
3: Dynamic effort bench
- Warm-up
- Bench press with light bands: 8 sets of 3 at 55% of maximum
- Floor press with DB: 4 sets of 10
- 4 sets of 10 pushdowns on the triceps
- 12 rope pulldowns in 4 sets
4: Max effort deadlift
- Warm-up
- Deadlifting: 5 sets of 2 at 85% of your maximum
- 5 sets of 3 at 72% of maximum for the paused deadlift (below knee).
- Barbell row while bent over: 4 sets of 10
- 4 sets of 12 for the seated v-grip row.
- Lie-down hamstring curls: four sets of ten
5: Dynamic effort squat
- Warm-up
- 8 sets of two squats with light bands at 50% of the maximum reps
- Four sets of ten front squats
- Do four sets of 12 goblet squats.
- 12 leg extensions in 4 sets
6: Dynamic effort deadlift
- Warm-up
- 10–12 sets of one reps at 50% of your maximum for the deadlift with light bands
- Deadlifts in an alternate stance, 4 sets of 6–8
- Deadlifts with stiff legs: 4 sets of 8–10
- Good mornings: 4 sets of 8–10
- 4 sets of pull-ups till failure
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5 Day Powerbuilding Program
Chest and triceps
- Power 2-4 × 3-5 repetitions on the bench press
- Incline Bench Press: 2-3 sets of 6–12 repetitions
- Bench press with dumbbells: 2-3 sets of 6–12 repetitions
- Burn one set of 40 dumbbell fly repetitions.
- Power 2 x 3-5 repetitions of the close-grip bench press
- Muscle 2 x 6–12 repetitions of the seated French press.
- Burn one set of 40 reps of the cable tricep extension
Back and traps
- Power barbell rows: 2-4 x 3-5 reps
- Dumbbell rows: 2-3 sets of 6–12 repetitions
- Lat Pulldown: 2-3 sets of 6–12 repetitions
- Burn one set of 40 repetitions of seated cable rowing
- Power 2 x 3-5 repetitions of barbell shrugs
- Dumbbell shrugs: 2 sets of 6–12 repetitions
- Burn 1 set of 40 reps of the power barbell shrugs
Quads and calves
- Power 2-4 × 3-5 reps of the squat
- Leg Press Exercises 2-3 x 6-12 reps
- Front squat: 2-3 sets of 6–12 repetitions
- One set of 40 reps of the leg press
- Muscle 2 × 10-15 reps of the seated calf raise
- 45-degree calf raise – 2 x 40 reps at a burn
4: OFF
5: Shoulders and biceps
- 2-4 × 3-5 repetitions of seated barbell press with power
- Seated Arnold presses: 2-3 x 6-12 repetitions
- Barbell Front Raise: 2 x 6-12 repetitions
- Burn 1 x 40 reps of dumbbell lateral raises
- Power pinwheel curls, 2 x 3-5 repetitions
- Standing Barbell Curl: 2-3 x 6-12 reps
- Burn 1-2 x 40 reps of the cable preacher curl
6: Deadlift and hamstrings
- Power Deadlift: 2-4 x 3-5 reps
- Muscle 3-4 x 6-12 repetitions of the Romanian deadlift
- Leg Extension – Muscle 3-4 x 6-12 reps
- Burn Leg Curl 1 x 40 reps
7: OFF
4 Day Powerbuilding Program
You can get all the strength, size, and power you need with this training plan. With the use of powerlifting techniques, this program aims to increase strength before using bodybuilding workouts to get maximum growth and definition.
This program’s objective is similar to that of our Strength and Hypertrophy program, but instead of having separate days for the back, chest, and shoulders, opposing muscle groups are integrated into two workouts: one for horizontal push/pull exercises and another for vertical push/pull activities.
Every day starts off with five or more sets of three to five repetitions with high weights (around 85% of the maximum one rep capacity). Since the goal is to increase total strength, compound exercises like squats and deadlifts are used, which engage plenty of different muscle groups.
When performing these low rep sets, warm up with lighter weights first and only begin keeping track of the sets once you have reached at least 70% of your 1-rep maximum. Additionally, you need to take lengthier breaks—between three and five minutes.
Following the strength portion of the workout, the emphasis is solely on hypertrophy, which calls for high repetitions, little rest, supersets, and drop sets. The key should be to move gently, with proper form, and to contract at the top of each movement fully. Given that the first part of the workout concentrated on strength development, the weight is less significant.
Every day, the abs and calves are alternated, just like in our Strength and Hypertrophy workout. There are three different ab exercises and three different calf exercises to choose from. To make sure the muscles are worked in a different way each session, mix these up.
1: Vertical push/pull
- 5 x 5 reps of the overhead press
- 5 x 5 reps of deadlifting
- 3 x10 reps of the seated shoulder press while facing the seat
- Pull-ups with a parallel grip: 4 x 8–10 reps
- 4 x 15 reps on the rear delt fly
- 4 x 15-20 reps of the cable crunch
2: Arms
- Weighted dips—4 sets of 10 repetitions
- 4 x 10 repetitions of a single-arm bicep curl
- Sitting overhead tricep extensions: 4 x 10
- 4 x 10 reps of the preacher curl
- Dips (without weights): 4 sets till failure
- 4 sets of raised-leg crunch till failure
3: Rest day
You should rest at this stage. Keep in mind that rest is just as crucial as rigorous training.
4: Legs
- Box jump with weights: 3 x 5 reps
- Squats: 6-7 x 3 reps
- 3 x 10 reps of the leg press/lunge
- 3 x 10–12 reps of hip thrusts
- Calf extension on the leg press machine: 4 x 10-15 reps
5: Horizontal push/pull
- 4 x 6–8 reps of the bent-over row.
- 4 x 8 repetitions of the flat dumbell press
- 4 x 10 reps of the bent-over row.
- 3 x 10 repetitions on an inclined bench press
- Calf raise on a Smith machine: 4 x 10 reps
6: Rest
By this point, you will have earned another day of rest. Use these days to rest, eat well, and be ready to work out hard again.
7: Rest/cardio/martial arts
If your body feels like it needs a day of relaxation, take advantage of it. If you want to work out outside of the gym, today is the perfect day to do it.
Best Powerbuilding Program
Best powerbuilding programs include:
- Kizen 16 Week Powerbuilding Program
- PHUL Workout Program Spreadsheet
- Kaizen 4 Week Powerbuilding Spreadsheet
- PhatBurn Program Spreadsheet
- Bargains Powerbuilding Program
- Upper/Lower Split Program Collection
- Reddit PPL
Conclusion
It is not enough to simply combine the names of its two antecedent fields to describe powerbuilding. You are now prepared to respond to the inquiry, “What is powerbuilding?” in light of the information provided.
It’s a profound, all-encompassing methodology that combines two seemingly unrelated but ultimately complementary objectives: becoming incredibly strong and looking amazing at the same time. This methodology aims to bring harmony to the strength training universe, which has become increasingly chaotic.
Lifters need to move past the stale strength-size dichotomy and realize the benefits both training can provide. You can achieve more than just increased size and strength with powerbuilding. In addition to being feasible, achieving both objectives may be the pinnacle of strength training.
FAQs on Power Building Program
Finding your favourite strength sport can be made easier with the help of powerbuilding programs. Most of the time, amateur weightlifters aim to increase their strength and lean muscle mass. The urge to compete in bodybuilding or powerlifting, however, might not be as strong. You experience both training philosophies together in powerbuilding programs.
- 4-5 days per week are dedicated to exercise.
- Exercises that require strength include squats, deadlifts, bench presses, rows, and pull-ups (Weighted if necessary) (5 rounds of 3–5 reps)
- 4-5 accessory movements and isolations (4 sets 8-12 reps)
- One more day — Isolation and auxiliary motions (Fullbody)
Free powerbuilding programs are available. A good example is Kizen 16 Week Powerbuilding Program.
References
- https://barbend.com – what is powerbuilding programming
- https://www.helptostudy.com – 17 powerbuilding program in 2024
- https://ganbarumethod.com – advanced powerbuilding program
- https://powerliftingtechnique.com – 6 day powerbuilding program
- https://www.muscleandstrength.com – 5 day powerbuilding program
- https://traineatgain.com – 4 day powerbuilding program
- https://liftvault.com – best powerbuilding program
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