PHAT

Advanced 5 days/week 4-week wave Powerbuilding

PHAT is Dr. Layne Norton's five-day powerbuilding split. Two power days train the compounds heavy, three hypertrophy days train the same muscles again for volume, and each hypertrophy day opens with explosive speed sets of the movement it is about to bury. It is built into Ægir Iron and free to load.

What this program is

Five training days and two rest days. The power days run a compound at 3 to 5 reps against a percentage of your real one-rep max. The three hypertrophy days each start with speed work, six sets of three moved fast at a sub-maximal load, and then accumulate volume from 8 to 12 reps down to 15 to 20 on the isolation work.

Day 1 Upper Body Power Bench 3x3-5, pull ups, rows, dips, press, arms Day 2 Lower Body Power Squat 3x3-5, hack squat, SLDL, curls, calves Day 3 Rest Day 4 Back & Shoulders Hypertrophy Speed rows, four rowing movements, three shoulder Day 5 Lower Body Hypertrophy Speed squats, then quads, hamstrings, calves Day 6 Chest & Arms Hypertrophy Speed dumbbell press, chest, then biceps and triceps Day 7 Rest

The four-week wave

The power sets climb across four weeks: 70, 72.5, 77.5 and 80 percent, with the speed sets following their own lighter table. After week 4 you retest or re-estimate your maxes and run the four weeks again. That retest is the progression between cycles, and it is why the grid itself never changes.

It is a lot of volume, and Norton says to treat the lighter opening weeks as a built-in deload if you are run down rather than forcing the heavy work.

At a glance

Discipline	Powerbuilding
Experience level	Advanced
Length	4 weeks per cycle, repeated
Training days	5 per week
Equipment	Full gym with machines and cables
Loading	Percentage of a real one-rep max on the power sets, climbing 70 to 80 percent across the wave. Rep ranges elsewhere.
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

PHAT prices off a real one-rep max rather than a training max, which is what the original asks for, so if the number you saved is already a reduced working max the app scales the percentages back up so the program still lands where Norton intended. It needs squat and bench only: the deadlift is a reference max in the original, trained through Romanian and stiff-legged work rather than prescribed against.

Two rows are left for you to load. The original prices its back-day speed sets off the weight you rowed earlier in the week, and its chest-day speed sets off a lift with no max at all. Rather than invent a percentage for either, both carry the intent in the row note and you pick something you can move fast.

Everything stays editable after you load it: swap a movement, change a set count, or reorder the day, and the change applies across the whole program.

Start PHAT

Open Ægir Iron, go to Program and choose New Program, then the Program Wizard. On the first screen pick Powerbuilding, then choose PHAT 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.

Load PHAT free →