Atlas Rising is an advanced 7 week powerlifting program with 3 training days per week. It is formed from a combination of the Russian Squat Routine for squats, MagOrt for deadlifts, and Hepburn Method A for bench press and overhead press. I would expect this program to improve the squat and deadlift, but not the bench press or overhead press, which simply would be maintained.
This “frankenprogram” was created by /u/PaulTheMediocre, who used it to achieve the following results:
- Squat: 260 kg –> 272.5 kg / 575 lb –> 600 lb
- Deadlift: 200 kg –> 220 kg (2RM) / 441 lb –> 485 lb
- Bench: maintained at 120 kg / 265 lb
- OHP: maintained at 70 kg / 154 lb
They did this at a body weight around 100 kg / 220 lb. I recommend reading the full program review on /r/weightroom for further details on their experience running the program.
Spreadsheet
via /u/PaulTheMediocre’s program review
Program Tips
These tips appear in the “Instructions” tab of the spreadsheet and were written by /u/PaulTheMediocre. I’m reproducing them here to make them easier to share with folks who may be interested in running this program.
- On day 3 of week 7 (test day), make sure you prepare for the day with 2 full days of quality food and enter the session with purpose/conviction.
- This program is intended to improve the squat and maintain the other lifts. It might not be for you if that isn’t your goal.
- Prioritize recovery. Don’t hurt yourself.
- Increase weight in back extensions as able.
- Increase ROM/difficulty of ab wheels as able.
- Change pull ups to lat pulldowns if shoulders are too beat up.
- Prioritize recovery. Recovery is your biggest asset for making this program work.
- Go for walks. Walk on sand if possible. This helps get blood moving in the low back.
Program Overview
Alright, so essentially you’re doing three different programs, with a different program for each lift. The Hepburn Method will be guiding the programming for two lifts: the bench press and overhead press. The other programs, Mag Ort and Russian Squat Routine, will be guiding the program for one lift each.
- Squat: 3x weekly
- Deadlift: 1x weekly
- Bench Press: 1x weekly
- Overhead Press: 1x weekly
This is essentially a peaking program for the deadlift and squat, with it being more of a volume program for bench press and overhead press. As such, this is mostly a peaking program, but I wouldn’t run this program as it’s laid out in preparation for a powerlifting meet. The bench press would not be peaked, nor does it make sense to train the bench press and overhead press with equal frequency for a powerlifting meet. I shouldn’t need to point this out for 95% of the folks reading this, but I figured it was worth mentioning.
Mag Ort for Deadlifts
Mag Ort is a well known deadlift peaking program that is pretty brutal. The meat of the program is based on 4 sets of 4 reps followed by heavy doubles, finishing with a high rep AMRAP set.
The sets of 4 start at 70% for weeks 1 and 2, then add 10 pounds per week for the remaining weeks.
The heavy doubles start at 80% for week 1, 80% and 90% for week 2, then add 10 pounds each subsequent week.
The 8+ rep AMRAP set starts at 70% for weeks 1 and 2, then also adds 10 pounds each subsequent week.
Having run Mag Ort myself, I can tell you that the AMRAP sets are not fun.
Russian Squat Routine for Squats
The Russian Squat Routine notably doesn’t program any squats below 80% for the entirety of the program. This is a peaking program through and through.
Weeks 3 and 4 call for overreaching, programming 6×6 squats @ 80% on day 2 of week 3 and 5×5 squats @ 85% and 4×4 @ 90% on days 1 and 3 of week 4, respectively.
Fortunately, week 3 and 4 are separated by a rest week.
Week 7 calls for 2×2 @ 100% on day 1, 6 sets of doubles @ 80% on day 2, followed by a 1RM test around 105% of your initial 1RM.
Hepburn Method A for Bench Press + Overhead Press
As I stated above, the Hepburn Method is primarily a high volume program, with the bulk of the volume occurring between 75% and 80%. As each lift is trained just once per week, I would only recommend incorporating this part of the program for advanced trainees that need large amounts of recovery time between training sessions or those who are not necessarily looking to peak their presses and are looking to get some rep work in.
Alternatively, you could adjust the program yourself and program a separate bench program if you’d like to peak the bench. This is already a “frankenprogram,” after all.
