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The Juggernaut Method
Chad Wesley Smith's sixteen weeks, run as four waves of descending reps with a fixed four-phase rhythm inside each. Earn the right to lift heavy. It is built into Ægir Iron and free to load.
What this program is
The Juggernaut Method runs four waves, named for the reps they are built on: 10s, then 8s, then 5s, then 3s. Every wave is four weeks and every wave runs the same four phases, one per week. Accumulation is straight sets at the wave's rep target: five in the 10s and 8s waves, six in the 5s wave (the book writes the sixth as a rep-out) and seven in the 3s wave. Intensification ramps twice and then works heavier sets: three in the 10s and 8s waves, four in the 5s wave and five in the 3s wave. Realization ramps to one all-out set at the wave's top percentage. Then a deload, three light sets, nothing to prove. One main lift a day across four days, so a lift is trained once a week and a wave is that lift's month.
Why the volume comes first
The wave order is the argument. The 10s wave at sixty percent feels light because it is light, and that is deliberate: you build a base of work you can recover from before you are allowed anywhere near a heavy single. Each wave then trades reps for load, so by the 3s wave you are pulling a hard triple at ninety percent of your training max on a foundation four months deep. Run out of order it is just a percentage grid; run in order it is the method.
At a glance
| Discipline | Powerlifting |
| Experience level | Intermediate |
| Length | 16 weeks: four waves of four weeks |
| Training days | 4 per week, one main lift each |
| Equipment | Barbell and a rack |
| Loading | Percentage of a training max, with the realization set driving the bump between waves. |
| Price | Free for individual lifters and rostered athletes |
Free for individual lifters and for athletes on a coach's roster. Coaches pay only for roster tools.
How it works in Ægir Iron
Each wave is its own cycle, so finishing one prompts you to advance your training max, sized by the reps you got on the realization set, and the next wave reprices itself against the new number. That is the method's own loop rather than anything bolted on. Only the realization set is flagged all out: the method also asks for a rep-out at the end of accumulation, and flagging both would give the app two competing readings of the same lift in one wave. Pick whether your saved number is a one-rep max, in which case the app takes ninety percent, or a training max you already track, then set squat, bench, deadlift and press on the PR page and every set across the sixteen weeks is priced and rounded to the plate.
Original source
Ægir Iron's template is built from this source. Under it is what the template takes from it.
- Smith CW (2012). The Juggernaut Method 2.0: Strength, Speed, and Power for Every Athlete. Juggernaut Training Systems (e-book).The Juggernaut Method: four waves of 10s, 8s, 5s and 3s, each run as accumulation, intensification, realization and deload, off a 90 percent training max
Start The Juggernaut Method
Open Ægir Iron, go to Program and choose New Program, then the Program Wizard. On the first screen pick Powerlifting, then choose The Juggernaut Method from the cards under WHAT DO YOU WANT TO RUN? It is free on iOS, Android, and the web, with your data synced across all three.