4 Weeks to Bigger Lifts is a short Olympic weightlifting program from Chad Vaughn, a two-time Olympic weightlifter. It runs five days a week for a month and works the snatch, the clean and jerk, and supporting squat and pull work.
Don’t read the name as a peaking cycle. This is a technique and position primer, not a block to add 20 pounds to your total in four weeks. The reps stay low and the point is cleaning up how the lifts feel, not chasing a number on the bar.
It’s a good fit if you can already do the lifts and want a month to fix your positions and make them feel automatic. Vaughn first shared it as a free Breaking Muscle program. If you’re after a peaking block or a way to push your total, this isn’t it, so come in expecting cleaner lifts rather than bigger numbers.
Chad Vaughn 4 Weeks to Bigger Lifts Spreadsheet
Spreadsheet via Chad Vaughn on Breaking Muscle
Enter your maxes on the Setup tab first. The snatch-family lifts compute off your snatch, the clean and jerk family computes off your clean and jerk, and the squats run off their own maxes. A lot of the work is by feel on purpose, so you’ll see notes like “go by feel, 5-7 sets” or “work up to no more than X%” instead of a fixed load every time.
How the Program Works
You train five days a week for four weeks. Each day mixes the classic lifts with squats and pulls, but the weights stay light enough that you can focus on the cue for the day instead of grinding.
The Four Ideas It’s Built On
Vaughn coaches the whole month around four things: overhead stability, bar path, full extension, and how your head moves through the lift. Every session is really a chance to drill one or more of those. If you treat the percentages as the goal, you’re missing the point. The cue matters more than the load.
Why So Much Is By Feel
A lot of the lifts tell you to go by feel rather than hit a number. You’ll work up to a top set that feels clean, or do 5-7 sets at a weight that lets you keep good positions. That’s deliberate. Vaughn wants you stopping when the technique slips, not pushing into ugly reps to chase a percentage.
Which Max Drives Which Lift
Where the sheet does give you a percentage, it pulls the load off the right max. Snatch-family lifts come off your snatch, clean and jerk-family lifts come off your clean and jerk, and the squats use their own maxes. Enter all of them on the Setup tab and the loaded cells fill in for you.
FAQ
Who is 4 Weeks to Bigger Lifts for?
Weightlifters who can already snatch and clean and jerk and want a month to clean up their positions. It isn’t a peaking block and it isn’t where you learn the lifts from zero. It’s for making the lifts you already have feel automatic.
Will this add to my total in four weeks?
Maybe a little, but that’s not what it’s for. Better positions and a cleaner bar path can make your current strength show up more on the platform. If you want a cycle built purely to push your numbers up, this isn’t it.
How many days a week is it?
Five. That’s a lot of touches on the lifts, which is the point when you’re trying to groove technique. Keep the loads honest and the volume is manageable because most of it stays light.
What do I do when a lift says “go by feel”?
Work up to a weight where the positions still look good and stop there. The set or rep target tells you roughly how much to do, and your technique tells you how heavy to go. If a rep gets ugly, you’ve gone far enough for the day.
Is it really free?
Yes. Vaughn published the program for free on Breaking Muscle, and OWLsheets built the spreadsheet from it. Our copy is free to use. Open the sheet, then choose File then Make a Copy to save your own version.
