The Brogains powerbuilding program is a strength and hypertrophy program written by Brogan Pratt. It has the option to be run as a peaking program for a meet.
Table of Contents
Brogains Powerbuilding Program Overview
- 4 workouts per week
- Workouts are split as upper/lower, heavy/dynamic (similar to PHUL)
- Spreadsheet allows for athlete to choose accessories to develop weak points
- Program is split into three phases: volume, building (i.e. strength realization), and intensity
- AMRAP sets are used to test and adjust 1RM when moving to a new phase
- Can be run as a 10 week program if not peaking OR a 12 week program if peaking for a meet (last 2 weeks of program are peaking weeks)
- If you’re new to powerbuilding, I recommend checking out our post on what powerbuilding is.
Brogains Powerbuilding Program Spreadsheet
via Brogan Pratt
January 2021 update: The spreadsheet now supports lb and kg rounding. The training 1RM calculations should work now as well.
Brogains Powerbuilding | LiftVault.com
How to Calculate Your Training One Rep Max (1RM)
At the end of each week, there is a dropdown menu for selecting the rep range you achieved for each lift’s AMRAP set. The number of reps you achieved will determine the new training max used for the next week.
Here’s an example to illustrate how this works for the bench press, but the process is the same for the squat and deadlift as well.
In Week 1, Day 1 there is an AMRAP set at 75% of your starting 1RM for the bench press.
Let’s say you get 9 reps. You’ll enter this via the dropdown menu at the end of Week 1.
Your training max for the bench press has now been adjusted from 100 units to 105 units (kg or lb, doesn’t matter for the sake of this example).
Now, let’s say you had only achieved 5 reps for your bench press AMRAP set.
You’ll see that the training max for the bench remains at 100, which is where it started for Week 1. It has not been adjusted, as the number of reps achieved in the AMRAP set suggest you are not ready for an increased training max yet.
Repeat this process at the end of every week for each lift to keep your training max updated.