Pavel's 80/20 Powerlifting

[emez]

Pavel's 80/20 Powerlifting and How to Add 110+ Pounds to Your Lifts

I'm planning on giving this a go some time next year, post-Stronglifts. Personally I think it looks great. 5x5 heavy deadlifts sounds daunting, but I guess since it's only once a week & that's all you're doing that workout, one could get used to it. In the video near the bottom, Johnnie Jackson says he pyramids his 5x5 deadlifts, but it looks like the blog owner posted the videos, not Pavel, so I'd just stick with the program until the volume became an issue.

Thoughts? Comments?

[simmo]

hmmm I certainly would feel weird only doing one workout per day. I would miss barbell rows and pull ups . This is all hypothetical for me anyway I'm not so into Powerlifting as I am weightlifting, but I'm interested in what people have to say about this. I usually like Pavel's stuff like the Naked Warrior, and Power to the People.

[LiftingNerd]

It's a solid intermediate program. It's weekly increases with two active recovery days since the 5x5 days will be 75-85% of your 1RM and the two light days 65-75%. Perhaps I missed it but does he mention what to do if you spend more than a month on the same weight? Not that that should ever really happen if you compete often (which I would think to be 3 competitions per year). The funny thing is that 95% of the population will never need programming more complex than this (other good examples are a Texas Method program or Wendler's 5-3-1). Since I'm moving soon, and will most likely have to train alone for a while, this seems like a pretty good scheme, as it's hard to keep up heavy singles and doubles week in and week out without any support. I'll test the merit of this idea and take it one step further, see if i can get up to 600-400-600 (squat-bench-deadlift). Excellent link.

[Tintin]

Cool, its worth a read. And it again puts emphasis on doing 5x5 sets +warmup and focus on squats, bench and deadlifts.

I don't know about working out everyday, but it does energize me for squats and deadlifts.

[Sam277]

Similar to what i've been doing, but without the light squat/ bench days. And i still do the assistance exercises for a balenced development.

Seems to be working.

[emez]

It's a solid intermediate program. It's weekly increases with two active recovery days since the 5x5 days will be 75-85% of your 1RM and the two light days 65-75%. Perhaps I missed it but does he mention what to do if you spend more than a month on the same weight? Not that that should ever really happen if you compete often (which I would think to be 3 competitions per year). The funny thing is that 95% of the population will never need programming more complex than this (other good examples are a Texas Method program or Wendler's 5-3-1). Since I'm moving soon, and will most likely have to train alone for a while, this seems like a pretty good scheme, as it's hard to keep up heavy singles and doubles week in and week out without any support. I'll test the merit of this idea and take it one step further, see if i can get up to 600-400-600 (squat-bench-deadlift). Excellent link.

I didn't see anything talking about stalling, but he did say that it's not abnormal to spend 2-3 weeks on the same weight before moving up. I would say that more than 4 weeks at the same weight would deserve a deload if it were to happen, but Pavel doesn't mention anything about it.

Let me know how it works out for you, I'd love to see your results before I hit intermediate level & get started on this.

[LiftingNerd]

To be honest I'll be happy to get to 500-400-550 with this program, but you only get out of it what you put in so I'll just get after it and see.

[Jim Slade]

This was more or less the program I used to get to 500-400-500 back in the day, we did it at the Hull YPI (a tiny lifting club) I don't think anyone had heard of Pavel at the time in the UK (1990) but that was what we did. Most powerlifters seemed to train this way back then, before we'd heard of Westside, chains, bands etc...
@liftingnerd
I have every faith in you - 500-400-550 can't be far away looking at your numbers.

[Dada]

Great article. Could be a great routine for someone in a time crunch.

[randywv]

I did this program for about 5 months, and all of my lifts went up over 100 lbs. It's the first serious weight lifting I've ever done, though, so a bit of that was beginner's gains. I ended up maxxing at 245 bench, 295 squat, and 365 deadlift (all raw). I'm starting a high volume program now by pavel (modified delorme method) that's benching and dl's, and I've gained 6 lbs in the first 9 days (I took about 7 weeks off and did some kettlebell stuff before starting). It's from beyond bodybuilding, by pavel.

Randy

[Hunter]

Anyone tried the other program by Pavel where you bench and squat monday and friday, and deadlift on wednesday then the following week you deadlift and bench monday and friday and squat on wednesday? I usually just do Pavels PTTP (just deads and presses 2-5 times a week) but want to get some extra leg work in, so I was thinking about trying this out.

[AbsoluteTom]

Pavel's 80/20 Powerlifting and How to Add 110+ Pounds to Your Lifts

Thanks for posting this emez. I just completed the SL 5x5 and have been looking for something to move on to. The simplicity and schedule of this program suit me well. I started last week.

[simmo]

Pavel's 80/20 Powerlifting and How to Add 110+ Pounds to Your Lifts

Thanks for posting this emez. I just completed the SL 5x5 and have been looking for something to move on to. The simplicity and schedule of this program suit me well. I started last week.

you should report back here when you've been on it for some time and let us know how it went. I'm very curious to know how it goes.

[AbsoluteTom]

you should report back here when you've been on it for some time and let us know how it went. I'm very curious to know how it goes.

Will do simmo. I have started posting my log again. I am pretty excited about this program.