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The Powerlifting Program Design Manual
Do you want to understand how to design more effective powerlifting programs? The Powerlifting Program Design Manual by Chad Wesley Smith has been created to help you better understand how to:
-Assess an athlete’s qualifications and needs
-Determine Minimum Effective and Maximum Recoverable Volume
-Find an athlete’s Optimal Frequency
-Distribute volume over the course of the training week
-Create a Phase Potentiation strategy to maximize meet performance and long term results
-Select exercises that are optimal for a specific phase and to address an athlete’s unique weak points.
-Periodize training to manage fatigue and maximize overloading opportunities.
Chad Wesley Smith is regarded as one of, if not the best raw powerlifting coach in the World. Having helped hundreds of athletes add hundreds of pounds to their totals. Male or Female, Juniors to Masters, Lightweights to Superheavies, across all major federations and in the biggest meets in the World, his results are unparalleled. No other coach in the World has coached lifters at all the current biggest meets in the World, including Big Dogs, IPF Worlds, US Open, Pro Raw, USAPL Nationals, The Arnold Grand Prix/Pro American and Record Breakers. Learn the principles that guide Chad’s program design and how to practically apply them for yourself to your and your athletes training.
Checking in at over 200 information packed pages, The Powerlifting Program Design Manual, will equip you with the knowledge you need to not only create an effective program but to keep adjusting and developing programs for all types of lifters for a lifetime of training. Also included with The Powerlifting Program Design Manual is video of Chad’s 90 minute presentation, Individualizing Powerlifting Training, from the 2018 Juggernaut Performance Summit in Long Island, NY.
-Assess an athlete’s qualifications and needs
-Determine Minimum Effective and Maximum Recoverable Volume
-Find an athlete’s Optimal Frequency
-Distribute volume over the course of the training week
-Create a Phase Potentiation strategy to maximize meet performance and long term results
-Select exercises that are optimal for a specific phase and to address an athlete’s unique weak points.
-Periodize training to manage fatigue and maximize overloading opportunities.
Chad Wesley Smith is regarded as one of, if not the best raw powerlifting coach in the World. Having helped hundreds of athletes add hundreds of pounds to their totals. Male or Female, Juniors to Masters, Lightweights to Superheavies, across all major federations and in the biggest meets in the World, his results are unparalleled. No other coach in the World has coached lifters at all the current biggest meets in the World, including Big Dogs, IPF Worlds, US Open, Pro Raw, USAPL Nationals, The Arnold Grand Prix/Pro American and Record Breakers. Learn the principles that guide Chad’s program design and how to practically apply them for yourself to your and your athletes training.
Checking in at over 200 information packed pages, The Powerlifting Program Design Manual, will equip you with the knowledge you need to not only create an effective program but to keep adjusting and developing programs for all types of lifters for a lifetime of training. Also included with The Powerlifting Program Design Manual is video of Chad’s 90 minute presentation, Individualizing Powerlifting Training, from the 2018 Juggernaut Performance Summit in Long Island, NY.
- GenresFitness
218 pages, ebook
Published November 25, 2018
6 people are currently reading
97 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 29, 2025
A lot of overlap with "Scientific Principles of Strength Training" also by Chad Wesley Smith, but a lot of practical information program design written in an easy to understand way.
December 22, 2020
Pretty good book going over all the details of how to design a program for powerlifting. It starts by explaining the benefits of different phases (hypertrophy, strength, peaking), and volume guidelines. Then moves on to some more technical details such as SRA curves and how that affects overloading and frequency, and ends with exercise selection and training organization. I like Chad's methods and they're well explained. Perhaps the biggest positive is how many sample programs there are. Not in the sense of templates to be run, but examples of how the programming principles are applied.
However, there are a couple of things to note. First, if you have read Scientific Principles of Strength Training, there is a huge overlap between these two books. It does have a bit more info and it's more practical in nature, but it's not a huge difference. And some of that difference could have been better done. For example, the accessory work could have been explained in much more depth, especially regarding technique issues rather than muscular weaknesses. Lastly, the book is poorly edited. There are many mistakes and things that could have been done a lot better with just a bit extra effort.
Nevertheless, it is a good resource and if you're new to Chad's way of programming and you want something practical you will get a lot out of it. If you're already familiar with it and you're short on money, it's probably not worth it.
However, there are a couple of things to note. First, if you have read Scientific Principles of Strength Training, there is a huge overlap between these two books. It does have a bit more info and it's more practical in nature, but it's not a huge difference. And some of that difference could have been better done. For example, the accessory work could have been explained in much more depth, especially regarding technique issues rather than muscular weaknesses. Lastly, the book is poorly edited. There are many mistakes and things that could have been done a lot better with just a bit extra effort.
Nevertheless, it is a good resource and if you're new to Chad's way of programming and you want something practical you will get a lot out of it. If you're already familiar with it and you're short on money, it's probably not worth it.
July 26, 2019
If you've read Scientific Principles, you owe it to yourself to get this book. It takes all of the principles from that book and teaches you how to apply them and then tailor them to yourself or a trainee.
The only thing - it was a struggle for me to actually give this 5 stars because of all of the editing issues. There's actually a part in the book where he says there's 2 reasons for something and gives you 1 and then says "secondly" and then it's as if the rest of the sentence was deleted. One time a page repeated itself word for word. A few paragraphs did that as well.
A good editing really would make this book a lot more professional and easier to recommend to people.
The only thing - it was a struggle for me to actually give this 5 stars because of all of the editing issues. There's actually a part in the book where he says there's 2 reasons for something and gives you 1 and then says "secondly" and then it's as if the rest of the sentence was deleted. One time a page repeated itself word for word. A few paragraphs did that as well.
A good editing really would make this book a lot more professional and easier to recommend to people.
May 2, 2022
If 'Scientific principles' was the theoretical framework, then 'the Powerlifting program design manual' is the practice. It presents clear-cut, easy-to-follow formulae to calculate MEV, MRV, optimum frequency etc, an invaluable tool for every coach/ lifter's arsenal. Also guides the reader through the entire coaching framework of a lifter, from initial assessments, volume calculation, periodization structure, frequency determination, exercise selection, training variable manipulation to the final program designation. Will definitely be a handy manual that I will refer to many times, for my own training and for others.
December 6, 2021
This information is exactly what I was searching for as a coach navigating programming for different clients.
May 27, 2024
3.5 Stars
If you haven't read: Scientific Principles of Strength Training, read it first
If after reading it you want to get a taste of a practical application, it's pretty good
If you haven't read: Scientific Principles of Strength Training, read it first
If after reading it you want to get a taste of a practical application, it's pretty good
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews