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How to Build a Powerlifting Program
A powerlifting program has one job: make your squat, bench press, and deadlift stronger on the day it counts. Everything in it, from lift frequency to accessory choices, should serve that. Here is how the pieces fit together, whether you write the plan yourself or have a tool draft it for you.
Start with the three lifts, then support them
Specificity is the first rule. The competition lifts, or close variations of them, anchor every training day. A proven weekly shape at three days is a squat day, a bench day, and a deadlift day, where each day opens with its main lift, follows with a secondary lift that supports it (a paused variation, a close-grip press, a stiff-leg pull), and finishes with accessories for the muscles that do the work: quads and core on squat day, triceps and upper back on bench day, hamstrings and back on deadlift day. Four or five days per week add dedicated volume days for the bench and the lower body rather than new exercises.
Choose your loading: RPE or percentage of 1RM
There are two honest ways to assign weight. RPE (rating of perceived exertion) lets you pick the load by how hard the set should feel, which self-adjusts on good and bad days and requires no numbers up front. Percentages of your one-rep max prescribe an exact weight for every set, which gives structure and repeatability but is only as good as the training max behind it. Neither is superior; percentage programs suit lifters who want the plan decided in advance, RPE suits lifters who can rate effort honestly. If you run percentages, base them on a conservative training max rather than your best-ever gym lift, and if a max is stale or missing, estimate it from a recent hard set rather than guessing high. RPE and estimated 1RM are two views of the same math, so a well-built program reads the same intensity either way.
Wave the intensity, then back off
Week to week, effort should climb: the same lifts get a little heavier or a little harder for two to three weeks, then a lighter deload week lets fatigue drain before the next block climbs higher. Across blocks, volume trends down while intensity trends up, which is the classic accumulation, intensification, realization arc. If that vocabulary is new, the periodization guide covers the cycle, block, week, day structure this all hangs on.
Attack your weak lift on purpose
Most lifters have one lift that lags the other two. The fix is rarely complicated: add one extra secondary slot of volume for that lift, on the day that already trains it, and keep it there for a full block. A useful sanity check is proportion. Most intermediate lifters bench around two-thirds of their squat and pull a bit over their squat; if one of your lifts sits well outside those ranges, that is your emphasis until it catches up.
Peak for the meet, then get out of the way
The last block before a competition changes character: accessories shrink, main-lift volume drops, and the top sets ramp from triples to doubles to heavy singles so you practice straining against near-maximal weight. The final week is a taper: openers only, fast and crisp, saving everything for the platform. If you have a meet on the calendar, choosing your attempts is the other half of that final week.
Doing it in Ægir Iron
The Program Wizard builds all of the above from a few questions. Powerlifting gets its own step: pick RPE or percentage loading, a low-bar or high-bar competition squat, a weak-lift emphasis, and an optional meet peak, and the generator writes the full cycle with blocks labeled Accumulation through Peak. It also reads the training maxes you already have on your PR page: if they cover the main lifts, percentage loading comes pre-selected; if one of your lifts is clearly behind what the others predict, that lift's emphasis is suggested, with the reasoning shown and every choice still yours to change. Log your AMRAP sets and auto-progression proposes training-max bumps each cycle, so the percentages keep pace with you. Prefer a proven template? Powerlifting Foundations through a 12-week meet peak are ready to load.