Brian Simmons’ SuperTotal program is an 18-week plan with 4 training days per week. It trains all five SuperTotal lifts (squat, bench press, deadlift, snatch, and clean & jerk) through three blocks: base, structure, and peak. The last day of the program is a SuperTotal day, where you take three attempts at each lift.
A SuperTotal combines your powerlifting total with your weightlifting total, so the program has to build heavy strength and fast, technical pulls at the same time. It does that with block periodization. Conditioning and work capacity come first, then a long block of hypertrophy and technique volume, then heavy singles and a taper. If you want something shorter, the 12 Week Supertotal Basics Program follows a similar block layout in 12 weeks.
This one is for lifters who can already snatch and clean & jerk with decent technique and want to train them alongside the powerlifts. If the Olympic lifts are new to you, spend some time on one of these Olympic weightlifting programs first. Be warned: the base block has a ton of cardio and strict rest periods, and Brian says more advanced lifters tend to find it the hardest.
Program credit: the SuperTotal Program (he calls it Super Total Strength) was written by Brian Simmons, CSCS. The exercises, sets, reps, percentages, and training notes are his work, and the spreadsheet on this page is used with credit to Brian. He first shared the program in his original Reddit post, and he keeps the current version, one sheet per block, in his Google Drive folder.
Table of Contents
SuperTotal Training Video Overview
If you’re new to SuperTotal training, this video from Juggernaut Training Systems covers what it is and how people train for it.
18 Week SuperTotal Program Spreadsheet
This is Lift Vault’s formatted version of Brian’s current program. All 18 weeks are in one workbook, one tab per week. Enter your 1RMs on the Setup tab and every percentage-based lift fills in, rounded to whatever increment you choose.
- Enter 1RMs for the squat, bench press, deadlift, snatch, and clean & jerk. Clean, jerk, and front squat maxes are optional. Leave them blank and the sheet uses your clean & jerk max, or 85% of your squat max for the front squat.
- Variations use the max of their parent lift (muscle snatch and snatch pulls use your snatch, reverse grip bench uses your bench). Push press and push jerk use your jerk max.
- Log your reps in the Set cells. In week 8, the reps you log on the squat, bench, and deadlift AMRAPs adjust your max for weeks 9 to 12 automatically.
- The maxes you log in week 12 become your peak block maxes. You never have to re-enter a max mid-program.
- In the peak block, log the heavy single you hit and the back-off sets calculate from it. In the taper week, enter your openers and they carry over to SuperTotal day, where the sheet adds up your total.
Source. Lift Vault built this sheet from Brian’s current Block 1, 2, and 3 sheets and his About doc (last updated December 2023). We laid out every week and added the 1RM inputs and load calculations. The programming itself is Brian’s, and his original sheets are in his Google Drive folder.
SuperTotal Program Overview
Every week has 4 training days. Brian’s notes list the intensity ranges for each block.
| Block | Weeks | Focus | Intensity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base | 1-4 | Work capacity, conditioning, consistent technique at moderate weights | 60-75% on the powerlifts, 65-88% on the Olympic lifts |
| Structure | 5-12 | Muscle mass and technique, AMRAP test in week 8, max-out in week 12 | 70-85% for most work, 85-90% singles and doubles |
| Peak | 13-18 | Heavy singles, a SuperTotal ramp week, a taper, then the SuperTotal day | 85% and up for most work |
Base Block (Weeks 1-4)
The base block is about recovering between hard sets and between sessions. The movements are simple, there’s almost no isolation work, and the rest times are strict. Two days each week are built around the squat and bench press, and the other two around a snatch or clean & jerk complex followed by deadlifts.
The Olympic lift complexes and the accessory circuits are done as EMOMs (one set every minute), and week 1 sessions end with conditioning: 500m rowing intervals, 20 minutes on an assault bike, or prowler pushes. Brian’s goal is for 2-3 minutes of rest to be enough to bring your heart rate back to 120-130 bpm between hard sets. After week 4, he recommends a week off the barbell before the next block.
You can skip this block if your conditioning is already good. Brian’s test in the original Reddit post is 5 sets of 8 squats at 65% with 2 minutes of rest. If you need to lie down for 10 minutes afterward, run the base block.
Structure Block (Weeks 5-12)
Brian calls this block the meat and potatoes of the program. Volume and accessory work go up, cardio mostly goes away, and the rest times are no longer strict. The accessories are paired in supersets, there’s single-leg and single-arm work to fix imbalances, and there’s plenty of paused snatch and clean & jerk work to clean up positions.
Accessories are programmed by RIR (reps in reserve). On bench, you pause every rep at 85% and up and the first rep of anything lighter. Week 8 is a lighter week that ends with AMRAP sets at 85% on the squat, bench press, and deadlift. Every rep over 5 adds 3% to your max for the rest of the block, up to 9%.
Week 12 is a max-out week. You work up until three misses on the snatch and clean & jerk, then max the squat, bench press, and deadlift. Those numbers are your maxes for the peak block.
Peak Block (Weeks 13-18)
Volume drops and the weights get heavy. On the Olympic lifts, a prescription like 8 x 1 at 80% means eight singles after warm-ups, going up in weight after every make. On the powerlifts, you work up to a heavy single for the day, and the back-off sets are a percentage of that single. The top single climbs from 93% in week 13 to 103% in week 15. Bench reps are paused and deadlifts are reset between reps.
Week 16 is the SuperTotal ramp: heavy singles at 90%, 93%, and 95% on all five lifts. Week 17 is the taper. Day 1 is for picking your openers: a weight you can hit for a consistent heavy double on the Olympic lifts and a heavy triple on the powerlifts. Week 18 ends with the SuperTotal day, three attempts at each of the five lifts. Brian’s notes say not to run this block unless you’ve run the structure block first.
SuperTotal Program FAQs
A SuperTotal is the sum of your best snatch, clean & jerk, squat, bench press, and deadlift. It combines a weightlifting total and a powerlifting total into one number.
18 weeks: a 4-week base block, an 8-week structure block that ends with a max-out week, and a 6-week peak block that ends with the SuperTotal day.
Brian updated the program after this page first went up. His current version adds a heavy week to the start of the peak block and a SuperTotal ramp week before the taper, and it changes some of the exercises. The spreadsheet on this page matches his current version.
4 days a week. Brian wrote it as a 4-day program on purpose. If a week of sessions takes you 5 days to get through, you’ll still get all of the work in.
Yes. Brian says you can skip it if your conditioning is already good. His test is 5 sets of 8 squats at 65% with 2 minutes of rest between sets. If that wipes you out, run the base block.
Brian prefers high bar squats and sumo deadlifts on this program, because high bar carries over to the Olympic lifts, and practicing a conventional deadlift alongside a clean pull can blur the technique of both. If you already compete in powerlifting with low bar or conventional, he says to keep doing your thing.
It’s a better fit for lifters who already have decent snatch and clean & jerk technique. The base block already has you doing EMOM singles on the snatch and clean & jerk at up to 88% of your max. If you’re new to them, spend some time on one of these Olympic weightlifting programs before you start.
Updates
- September 2026: rebuilt the spreadsheet to match Brian’s current 18-week version (new peak week, SuperTotal ramp week, and his exercise changes), added clear credit and links to his original sheets, and rewrote the post with a program overview table and FAQs.
